What traditional fantasy conventions are you tired of?

[GlassJaw]

Great thread so far. I'm getting a lot of ideas for an upcoming Grim Tales campaign I'm working on.

Anyway, here are a few things I thought of while reading this thread:

1. Deities. I'm tired of 'em. Whatever happened to religion based on faith alone rather than knowing some divine power is out there? So in my campaign there are no deities. End of story. There is still religion though. There are also pseudo-mystical demagogs that people may believe have divine powers.

2. Too many races. In my campaign there will be three playable races: humans, orcs, and half-orcs. Other races exist but aren't suitable for PC's. To increase options though, each race will have regional subsets that can be chosen. These represent various tribes, groups, etc. Dwarves are around but they are very different from the dwarves we all know and love. There are no gnomes, no halflings, and no elves. Good riddance.

3. Picturesque locales. I'm tired of quint little towns and mystical forests and rolling hills, etc. I want to put my players in a cold, rocky, barren, and harsh landscape where survival must be earned. Something like Mongolia or Tibet. Yeah, that sounds good.

It's that damn "Golden Age of Magic and Heroes." You know, how years and years ago magic was everywhere and all-powerful and there were flying cities and life was SO MUCH BETTER until the catastrophe came and all the cities crashed and the powerful old magic was lost and the best thing anyone can do is to rediscover that old knowledge, blah blah blah.

I've really tried to avoid this but I find myself falling into this trap. Essentially in the world I'm creating, something uber-bad happened a reeeeaaallly long time ago that forced humans and orcs to "put aside their differences" in order to survive. Over the years, they have intermixed and now are equal in population and social standing.

 

[mythusmage]

Half Anything: The various species can't interbreed.

Elves: Control freaks with a collective messiah complex. Convinced reality would fall apart if they didn't keep it together.

Dragons: The Secret Masters of Fandom.

Balance: Banished to the outer realms of existence, where it's now driving Melkor to distraction

Alignment: A guide to behavior. Yes, demons can do good deeds, it's just that those good deeds are ultimately to their benefit, not yours.

Interspecies Rivalries: Dumped them. There are intercultural rivalries, but you're as apt to find orcs and gnomes cooperating as competing. Sometimes simultaneously.

"Once I hired the Grey Water Pack as guides my caravans had no trouble getting through."
---Malcolm of Brightsky (gnome) on hiring an orc pack.

Adventures: Sometimes winning the climatic battle means you've failed.

 

[Desdichado]

Actually, I'm beginning to wonder why at the Sword and Sorcery trappings of D&D when D&D itself isn't Sword and Sorcery.

Errr... what was that again?

 

[VirgilCaine]

Interspecies Rivalries: Dumped them. There are intercultural rivalries, but you're as apt to find orcs and gnomes cooperating as competing. Sometimes simultaneously.

"Once I hired the Grey Water Pack as guides my caravans had no trouble getting through."
---Malcolm of Brightsky (gnome) on hiring an orc pack.

Yeah, one thing that Tolkien put in that we should have tempered with Lewis. Which is why most anything humanoid (except bogbears and hobgoblins) are tolerated in "human civilization" as long as they behave themselves...

 

[Prince of Happiness]

4) I Holy Smite The Mob Boss: Alignment-based magics only work on supernatural manifestations of that alignment, eg creatures with an alignment subtype, hallowed/unhallowed areas, and so on . A Paladin can't tell if the guy with the crazy eyes at the bar is a serial killer, but he can easily tell if he's possessed by a demon. Clerics/Paladins/Blackguards, etc do not have an alignment aura, except classes and PrCs that turn you into an outsider. Once you're an outsider, you gain the appropriate alignment subtype - so while you can't Chaos Hammer the captain of the guard, you can do it that 20th level Monk.

I so love this idea!

I guess my "traditional" fantasy convention nit I like to pick is the post-Tolkien "save the world" plot that so many DMs like to bear on their campaigns. Most of the stories I've read and enjoyed tend to have a more personal focus on the protagonist's life. Conan needs to escape someone, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser need food to eat, Ramon Alonzo needs to get his shadow back from the wizard he foolishly sold it to.

 

[mythusmage]

Yeah, one thing that Tolkien put in that we should have tempered with Lewis. Which is why most anything humanoid (except bogbears and hobgoblins) are tolerated in "human civilization" as long as they behave themselves...

In my homebrew I have three kingdoms. Two are allied against the third in a long running war. The allies are elves and goblins. The bad guys are dwarfs. The dwarfs want people to live THE RIGHT WAY. The goblins and the elves are willing to let the other fellow be, as long as he lets them be. Or, as the elves express it, "Goblins are not elves; to expect them to behave like elves is rather ludicrous.

The goblins put it this way, "Yes, elves are a bunch of control freaks, but at least they aint overt about it.

 

[Wraith Form]

Uh, speak for yourself. The use of Vancian magic, elves and clerics may the equivalent of using the form of a sonnet, but sometimes we'd rather have haiku, or free-form prose. I don't come back to D&D because I like metaphorical sonnets; in fact, I'm distancing myself more and more from D&D in general, whilst embracing a broader definition of d20.

Yet not particularly interesting either. Just weird for weird's sake. That's the problem with your approach; it's both pretentious and at the same time it really doesn't work. "Oh, our elves are different; they're called Æl’ffynn, and they live in the tundra, not the forest!" No thanks.

Or just use something else that you like better, or which makes more sense. The conventions of typical D&D-esque fantasy aren't sacred, they're just what they are. In general, if the fantasy races are little more than one-trick ponies (Dark Sun halflings) or men in rubber suits (your own Hunnic centaurs) than I'd rather them simply be a culture of humans instead.

Hmm. Were you, by chance, on the Debate Team in high school?

And, sadly, no I'm not near Detroit...although I'd love to evesdrop on a gaming session or two that you run.

 

[Celtavian]

re

Some D&D conventions I'm tired of, not necessarily fantasy:

1. "We all speak the same language": I've made languages a little harder to learn, especially elvish and draconic. I've implemented a language requirement for Spellcraft. You now must speak a similar language to understand what the other person is casting. There is still a common trade language, but people don't learn magic in the trade langage. Languages grant bonuses and give penalties to Diplomacy and social interaction checks depending on your fluency.

2. "Rote Casting": I've switched to spontaneous casting. I like it alot better. I feel it fits better my idea of how a person would learn magic. Magic would be at their fingertips waiting to be unleashed when necessary. I've implemented no limits on how often you can cast except your own health. You can cast yourself into an early grave if you like. It is your option.

3. "Demihumans everywhere": I've tightened up the number of races and subraces and made sure they have a cleaner creation mythology. I never liked all the different subraces. The world is biologically diverse, but the subraces add a level of biological diversity that seems absurd. Especially considering humans don't seem to exhibit the same level of biological diversity save in appearance.

6. "Can't we all just get along": I like to push the idea of prejudice. Sentient beings are prejudice. It should be played up. I don't mind the cosmopolitan atmosphere of most cities. Rome was very cosmopolitan and was one of the most successful empires in history. Most successful empires are cosmopolitan, willing and able to absord other cultures. I don't mind that. All the cultures shouldn't get along perfectly. Strife should exist and be played up.

7. "Common Technology": I don't like the lack of differing technology. There seems to be available in most worlds everything in the PHB. I think each area should have different focus on armor and weapons. I like to try to encourage my players to think about what style of armor and weapons would be preferred in their particular are of the world.

These are mostly D&Dism's. Fantasy books I've read often employ very different conventions from each other. I rarely read a fantasy book that seems like another fantasy book. I don't think fantasy conventions permeate literature too much save for maybe the classic idea of "good vs. evil", which permeates almost all fiction.

I also play alot of Forgotten Realms. I tend to do with it what I can to make it unique and enjoyable. I also believe that almost any fantasy world is created with nearly limitless options out of the box to sell product. The DM must take his fantasy world and give it uniqueness. Which you can do with any product, even a conventional fantasy world like the Forgotten Realms.

 

[Numion]

Hi diaglo!

This message is hidden because diaglo is on your ignore list.

Bye diaglo!

 

[Psion]

Oooh... forgot this one:

Young gods (or, the Legion of Super Heroes Effect): Because the DM and players don't track time with the fastidiousness of levels and/or because you only get XP for adventures which often take a short time, the characters tend to be 10th level by the time they are 20, towering like elite skilled titans among geezerly 1st level commoners.

(And before anyone chalks this up to 3e experience system, the first house rule I made to correct this was in 2e when a high priest PC's player informed me his character was 16.)