EricNoah said:
I sorta think I understand what you're saying, though -- there are many flavors of "fantasy" that could taste good in an RPG like D&D. Clerics-and-wizards-and-breastplates-and-swords-and-magic missle-and-fireball is just one of many ways to play. A diet of mac and cheese (or pizza or whatever your staple food is) is fine, but sometimes you just want something different. Psionics can be one avenue to achieving that, without sacrificing playability or "balance."
Or maybe I missed the point of the rant.
That's why it is a rant. A rant isn't inherently logical to follow. It's a way for someone to blow off steam, or in my case, "head off the Fortinbrases of Enworld at the pass" before they say psionics in D&D suck. Psion, Joe Kushner, and Dragonlancer knows who I'm talking about, although the Fortinbrases don't know what they are talking about.
Eric, the point is this. Every time I turn around, I get the feeling that most everyone is following the same formula with Dungeons and Dragons. Medieval City, fairies, GURPS Tech Level 3, etc. Hardly any world has been built differently. There's Barsoomcore's version of Barsoom, Judge's Guild's The Wilderlands of High Fantasy, and Athas. Possibly even Shadow World/Kulthea. But most everyone follows the same paths forged by Ed Greenwood, E. Gary Gygax, Michael Moorcock, Tad Williams, Robert Jordan, and Weis and Hickman. These herald back to the fairy tales of yester year.
Tradition says that these old formulae work, and they work well. Even I designed fantasy worlds that were medieval/Celtic in nature. However, looking at the world's scope and history, I figure that the faerie tale, high fantasy, and sword and sorcery models for fantasy is just a scratch on the surface. There is a lot people can explore and take inspiration from.
Here are a few:
* the Greek myths
* Ancient Egypt
* The Bible
* Plato's fantasy allegories (Atlantis, for one)
* Chinese mythology.
* Indian mythology (the Ramayana would be a grand inspiration!)
* Gilgamesh
* Amerindian mythos
* the Mythos of the South Pacific.
Not only that, but published fantasy is chock full of those who went off the "beaten path." Anne McCaffrey and Pern, Darkover,
Wild Seed by Octavia Butler, the Seventh Son series by Orson Scott Card, the Deryni novels. A few of Piers Anthony's works . . . Chaos Mode for one. The two Starshield novels.
It's just that the majority just does the same thing over and over again. There is really no widespread innovation in campaign worlds. Sure, everyone's campaign world is wildly different--as no campaign is ever alike. However, most DMs won't venture beyond that certain Genre. So, what do we get as a result? Dungeon modules which are "boring" and uninnovative which explore the same setting over and over again for easy integration. It's a waste, really.
I'd love to see more variation in published modules, in Dungeon or anywhere else. As far as I know, since Athas, nobody has ever broke new ground as far as doing something really different.
edit: Alright, I forgot about Iron Kingdoms.
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