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What Is It About the Fantasy Genre Anyway?
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<blockquote data-quote="JohnRTroy" data-source="post: 4609248" data-attributes="member: 2732"><p>Gary Gygax in one of his two books on RPGs (released in the late 1980s), once commented that Fantasy had the most options for creativity, Science-Fantasy the second, Science Fiction (including Hard, Soft, and Superheroes) third, Modern-Day, Espionage or Pulp-style adventures around 4th and then more limited historical period RPGs 5th.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Now, the good thing about Fantasy is that you can also get into the esoteric, but then delve back into high adventure and S&S style troupes. (Gygax settings were fantastic but also realistic, he dealt with things like social classes and economic stuff). </p><p></p><p>When you start getting into the "hard SF" territories, modern, or historical fiction, you get limited to the more mundane differences. For instance, a historical Wild West RPG has limited roles--how different can the characters be from each other--even if you have fleshed out personalities and have cinematic tropes, after say 1 dozen adventures how many times can you say fight bandits or rob trains without it becoming too similar. Even if you added non-magical cinematic moves akin to how 4e combat is handled for fighters, there is still a limit. The existence of high-tech gizmos, psychic powers, magic powers and artifacts, sci-fantasy mutations and comic book superpowers all have an undeniable appeal. At least with Science-Fiction you can have alien races, and in Fantasy games you can have whole "monster manuals" so your dealing with a wide variety of opponents.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="JohnRTroy, post: 4609248, member: 2732"] Gary Gygax in one of his two books on RPGs (released in the late 1980s), once commented that Fantasy had the most options for creativity, Science-Fantasy the second, Science Fiction (including Hard, Soft, and Superheroes) third, Modern-Day, Espionage or Pulp-style adventures around 4th and then more limited historical period RPGs 5th. 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. Now, the good thing about Fantasy is that you can also get into the esoteric, but then delve back into high adventure and S&S style troupes. (Gygax settings were fantastic but also realistic, he dealt with things like social classes and economic stuff). When you start getting into the "hard SF" territories, modern, or historical fiction, you get limited to the more mundane differences. For instance, a historical Wild West RPG has limited roles--how different can the characters be from each other--even if you have fleshed out personalities and have cinematic tropes, after say 1 dozen adventures how many times can you say fight bandits or rob trains without it becoming too similar. Even if you added non-magical cinematic moves akin to how 4e combat is handled for fighters, there is still a limit. The existence of high-tech gizmos, psychic powers, magic powers and artifacts, sci-fantasy mutations and comic book superpowers all have an undeniable appeal. At least with Science-Fiction you can have alien races, and in Fantasy games you can have whole "monster manuals" so your dealing with a wide variety of opponents. [/QUOTE]
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