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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 4980807" data-attributes="member: 80487">A lot of DMs pretty naturally turn to heroic-fantasy fiction for inspiration. As someone observed earlier, "gritty" or even "low powered" has a different bar in D&D (which quickly shoots through "mythic" to "Silver Age Marvel Comics"). Middle Earth is positively grim by that standard, and although the rogues of Nehwon and the Hyborian Age have their jollity they are usually awfully impoverished by D&D standards. The Young Kingdoms are doomed in short order, and the Dying Earth has been doing so for ages in self-conscious cynicism.Outside of game-based fiction, I don't think a big helping of earthiness and darkness is something that has become outmoded. Even Marvel Comics seem pretty "dark" these days.Players, though, might be more likely (when reflecting in a game context) to focus on the heroes of novels and not take in the background so much. It might even be that when players think of inspirations for their characters they think of stories that don't have much well-developed background.Just speculating! What would be current examples of "the opposite" (non-dark, non-gritty) in fiction popular among D&Ders?</blockquote>