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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DreadPirateMurphy" data-source="post: 2919601" data-attributes="member: 20715">The keys to good fantasy:1)  Most of the setting works the way that the real world works.  If it doesn't, it gets harder and harder for the reader/watcher/gamer to relate.  It is possible to get really weird in the context of a short story or one-shot game.  It becomes harder the longer the work.  Think of Lord of the Rings.  Physics was largely the same.  Geography at a local level was plausible.  People (and even elves, and hobbits, and orcs) behaved in clearly understandable ways for clearly understandable purposes.  The consumer of the story has a limited store of suspension of disbelief, so they should only have to use it for things that matter to the story.2)  Things are consistent.  If things are inconsistent, then they should be consistently inconsistent.  A novel, for example, should not have magic be incredibly difficult to use for the first half of the story, then describe how every village has a few wizards and witches who can cast spells.  An example of consistent inconsistency would by the presence of a realm of dreams where things constantly shift.  If, later in the story, somebody visits the world of dreams and it looks just like the real world, then that is inconsistent.  Consistency is important, because without it, there is no way to predict whether or not the actions of the characters have the expected consequences.3)  The details of the setting should be easy for the reader/watcher/gamer to grasp.  Tolkein used lots of invented languages, but he never expressed key dialog or plot points in elvish.  That would have made it impossible for the reader to follow.  Similarly, the D&D rules describe spells based on their effects...not based on how the caster actually forms the magic of the spell.  Sure, there are flaver details like spell components, but even those are dropped by many gamers.Going back to the point of overthinking...overthinking in gaming is when you go beyond where it is necessary to follow the 3 rules above (familiarity, consistency, and simplicity).  The city feeds itself by importing food and hunting/fishing.  That eliminates the need for fields (assuming you don't want fields).  There are cities that survive that way in the real world, so it is familiar.  As long as every other city doesn't survive on mana from heaven, it is probably consistent.  It is easy to understand, so it is simple.Overthinking would be figuring out the exact volume of food needed for X people, identifying how it is imported, defining what % is of what crop, etc.  Explaining how the city feeds itself is not overthinking, since having a population with no food supply is neither familiar, nor is it probably consistent.  The only reason to do that is if it is an important plot point, e.g., the city doesn't need food because a large percentage of the population are secretly undead.</blockquote>

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