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Where's the American Fantasy RPG?
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<blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 8074715" data-attributes="member: 87792"><p>[Note: Some emphasis mine]</p><p></p><p>American Fantasy as described in "The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature" would appear to me to be significantly more dead than the Western as a genre - and that's why you don't see it much in modern RPGs. I can think of a lot of good modern fantasy novels by Americans but I'm struggling to think of anything significant in the last half-century that qualifies as American Fantasy ("The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature" was written in 1980 so the death of the genre might not have been so obvious).</p><p></p><p>If I'm looking for modern specifically American fantasy settings I don't look for what self-aggrandizingly calls itself "The heartland" (and in response gets given the only slightly less inaccurate nickname of "Flyover country"). I look at where the majority of Americans actually live and work, and it turns out htat Americans are not actually children of the corn. Instead the majority of Americans live in cities, and that is where fantasy coming out of America is in general set - and roughly two thirds of Americans live in 100 miles of one of America's borders. Urban Fantasy is the American fantasy genre, and in the 90s the World of Darkness was about as popular as D&D.</p><p></p><p>And Urban Fantasy has the contrast between real world struggles and fantasy land, technology frequently being dangerous and normally ubiqutious. But instead of "pastoral qualities" and "American agrarianism" it has complexities, different cultures, diversity, struggles with immigration - and is more equitable, more companionable, and because it is magic, more wonderful. It's just written for Americans about something based on America as experienced by far more Americans than ever got to experience the largely propagandist America of Little House on the Prarie. </p><p></p><p>So where's the American Fantasy RPG? They exist - but they are every bit as niche as the so-called American Fantasy genre is in 2020.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Neonchameleon, post: 8074715, member: 87792"] [Note: Some emphasis mine] American Fantasy as described in "The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature" would appear to me to be significantly more dead than the Western as a genre - and that's why you don't see it much in modern RPGs. I can think of a lot of good modern fantasy novels by Americans but I'm struggling to think of anything significant in the last half-century that qualifies as American Fantasy ("The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature" was written in 1980 so the death of the genre might not have been so obvious). If I'm looking for modern specifically American fantasy settings I don't look for what self-aggrandizingly calls itself "The heartland" (and in response gets given the only slightly less inaccurate nickname of "Flyover country"). I look at where the majority of Americans actually live and work, and it turns out htat Americans are not actually children of the corn. Instead the majority of Americans live in cities, and that is where fantasy coming out of America is in general set - and roughly two thirds of Americans live in 100 miles of one of America's borders. Urban Fantasy is the American fantasy genre, and in the 90s the World of Darkness was about as popular as D&D. And Urban Fantasy has the contrast between real world struggles and fantasy land, technology frequently being dangerous and normally ubiqutious. But instead of "pastoral qualities" and "American agrarianism" it has complexities, different cultures, diversity, struggles with immigration - and is more equitable, more companionable, and because it is magic, more wonderful. It's just written for Americans about something based on America as experienced by far more Americans than ever got to experience the largely propagandist America of Little House on the Prarie. So where's the American Fantasy RPG? They exist - but they are every bit as niche as the so-called American Fantasy genre is in 2020. [/QUOTE]
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