What Is It About the Fantasy Genre Anyway?

[MonkeyKing]

Right after LotR geeks.

You know I'm right.

Sooo true....

 

[Corinth]

Fantasy: I can do it cold (i.e. no preparation) and stupid (i.e. knowing nothing about either the rules or the setting), and I will function just fine. This is not true of other settings, and the closer you get to reality the more preparation you need to do and the more you need to know to make it work properly.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

With people saying they prefer fantasy because it's easier to do/needs less prep I have to ask: Is this really a factor of what's in fantasy vs. anything else? I mean by what you people have said you could have fantasy massively different from the clichéd "kinda like Medieval Europe" and have to do all the preparation. By contrast why couldn't you run a modern game like some TV shows that have made up fictional places and other stuff and just wing the whole thing?

 

[ArmoredSaint]

But I still have a strong dislike for modern or sci-fi rpgs. They're just too close to reality for my taste.

What he said. Modern/Sci-Fi RPG settings are too close to the modern reality that I live every day. Plus, I am a medievalist.

 

[Toben the Many]

I was refuting your point, actually. It doesn't matter whether or not hand-to-hand weapons are more deadly than firearms in real life (which is arguable and depends on circumstances anyway); in the present-day/sci-fi action genre characters can take hits from lead pipes and keep going, but gunshots (or lasershots, etc.) are almost always serious business. And it's that genre that most people are looking to emulate in games. Or at least, that's what most games seem to be trying to emulate.

Ah, I see. We were talking past each other. You're saying that most Sci-Fi games have deadly firearms combat - therefore you stay away.

Personally, that has not been my experience. It's seems to me that firearms combat, across various systems, can be deadly or just like any other damage. Certainly, in my experience, most Sci-Fi games do not feature super-deadly firearms.

Deadly: Cyberpunk 2020, RIFTS
Moderate: ShadowRun, Deadlands, d20 Modern
Not Deadly at All: WEG Star Wars, Feng Shui

No, that was exactly the topic of this particular side-track.

I'd be happy to discuss the pros and cons of hit-point systems used in firearms in a forked thread. But only if you'd like.

 

[The Shaman]

Modern/Sci-Fi RPG settings are too close to the modern reality that I live every day.

I have never been a police detective attempting to bust up a crime ring, a gang leader looking to expand my turf, a spy smuggling secrets out of Hong Kong, a UN peacekeeper or crusading journalist in a war zone, a competitor on the Raid Gauloises or Paris-Dakar, a treasure hunter seeking lost Spanish gold, or a wilderness search-and-rescue team leader.*

But I can play all of those in a modern roleplaying game. In fact, I'd rather play any of those than an elf with a magic wand.

Differences of opinion, horse races, et cetera.



* Okay, that last one isn't true - I have been a wilderness search-and-rescue team leader. But you get the idea.

 

[The Green Adam]

On off topic, I find it interesting that so many people lump modern and scifi together. Regardless of TSR and WoTC beliefs about the two genres, the two are very different. Unless I'm playing superheroes or something in which modern people have high tech gear and/or special powers, modern settings bore me to.

AD

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

<edited for dumb question>

 

[Aeolius]

I don't have the book in front of me, but I think he said that Fantasy allowed for more setting options, such as different kingdoms, different environmental realms (underground, underwater, flying, the other planes of existence, even side-treks to the SF and modern). Plus, there are more player options--magic, psychic powers, different races, all allow more options.

Works for me. It's easier to put a little SciFi in my Fantasy game (psionics, Spelljamming, Steampunk/Clockwork, Barrier Peaks, etc) than it is to throw Fantasy elements into a SciFi setting.

 

[Spatula]

With people saying they prefer fantasy because it's easier to do/needs less prep I have to ask: Is this really a factor of what's in fantasy vs. anything else? I mean by what you people have said you could have fantasy massively different from the clichéd "kinda like Medieval Europe" and have to do all the preparation. By contrast why couldn't you run a modern game like some TV shows that have made up fictional places and other stuff and just wing the whole thing?

Probably - that's a pretty good idea for modern games. Although I think some of the attraction in playing in such games is that it's the world you know (only more exciting) and you'd be losing out on that element of familiarity.