No, I didn't mean in the characters, I meant in the setting aesthetic as a whole. The general tapestry. Especially, as somebody noted above, Forgotten Realms.
D&D 5E What’s So Great About Medieval Europe?
- Thread starter doctorbadwolf
- Start date
The great unexplored parts of the FR and the role that plays in how the setting works feels very American West to me. Head west young man and find your fortune and all that.
It's not even that (people explored the world long before the US was formed). It's a really hard thing to describe. It just feels so different to European fantasy. I wish I could work out how to put that into words, but I can't.
It's not a criticism at all, just an observation.
I wasn't hating. FR is my go-to setting. I just feel like a lot of continental fantasy has heroes travelling outside their country in ways that feel a little different than how the FR goes about it, which feel a little more like exploring the unexplored parts of your country in a lot of cases. Something about the scale maybe? I'm having some trouble putting my finger on exactly what the difference is I guess, but it does feel different.
FR gives off a big 1800s USA vibe.
Greyhawk feels more like Medieval Europe.
It's more how FR feels like a bunch of newly formed city states than European-style Fantasy and its longer known social and power structure.
Last edited:
Nellisir
Hero
No, I agree. I think - and I say this as an observation, not a judgement - that it has to do with the proliferation of non-traditional character options. But it's also a reflection of the FR setting's authors, and specifically Ed Greenwood's, approach and cultural predilections. I just read the Border Kingdoms setting book. One hundred nearly unadulterated pages of Ed Greenwood's setting development, and it reeks of Americana dressed up for Ren Faire.
That said, I'm not sure this critique would hold up so well in the OSR side of things. That niche starts at Dunsany and Vance...and then gets weird. Forget knights on horseback; what about bird-headed cockroach centaurs who battle with beat poetry as a weapon?
I think there's a 'cleanliness' to it, maybe. An American ren-faire-ness? Dunno. But it certainly has its own feel.
Nellisir
Hero
There's a uniformity to FR culture that persists through the editions - in fact, it might even get worse despite the designers trying to draw more irl cultural inspiration in.
And, frankly, the lack of trees. I sometimes wonder if people realize how MUCH of the world was forested just five hundred years ago.
Having had coffee in the US, Italy, Costa Rica... all coffee is liquid spite.
We claim the caffeine wakes us up, but really, it is the understanding that the world and our fellow humans despise existence so much as to make this a traditional drink, the first flavor when you roll out of bed, and the implications and threat to our own well being that poses, that really perks up your step in the morning.
That sounds right. Sort of in the way that Waterdeep is very much not London (of any time period), even though it would possibly be a more compelling setting with a little more grit baked in.
Similar Threads
- Locked
