Why do you like Fantasy RPGs?

[Tinker Gnome]

Or should I say playing in Fantasy settings? Whether it is a homebrew setting or a published setting. What makes you like a Fantasy setting for roleplaying games?

 

[RainOfSteel]

My brain is hardwired to accept sorcery, elves, dwarves, faux medieval European settings and mythologies, and the maps of new lands as cool and awesome. In fact, if there is no sorcery (magic) at all, I generally regard such settings as dead and dusty. If there are no maps, I generally won't pay much attention to a setting.

I also like settings based on other cultures, but only to a certain degree (the one where my personal limitations in recognizing and remembering the names involved begins and ends).

That's pretty much it. Nothing complicated.

 

[was]

i just enjoy fantasy settings over others..they seem to be more creative.

 

[scourger]

When I dream about playing a fantasy game, I imagine I'm going to be like Frodo in The Lord of the Rings: willing to go to great lengths to destroy evil and helped in that endeavor by heroic allies.

When I actually play such a game, I usually wind up feeling like Bilbo in The Hobbit: helping the party of greedy do-nothings and winding up with a lot of grief over trying to do right.

But, I always imagine it's going to be a fun, heroic, story game and not a repetitive kill-loot-rinse-repeat cycle of vigilantism, cowardice, tactics & strategy. Hope springs eternal.

 

[Aurumvorax]

They're what I know and I like playing what I know. I enjoy any setting that's interesting but traditional fantasy is what I return to.

 

[Ahnehnois]

To a great extent, genre fiction (regardless of medium) exists because fiction in contemporary settings hits too close to home. For rpgs, especially people feel better about making a clear distinction between the game and reality. Contrary to some esoteric criticisms, D&D players don't have much trouble telling game from reality.

Fantasy also has desirable connotations for many people. Heroism-the opportunity to be a literal knight in shining armor-is a great feature for people looking to escape the moral gray areas of reality.

There's also simple tradition, familiarity, and habit.

(Oh, you meant why do *I* use fantasy settings?)

Beyond the above, I like having control as a DM. If I created a 100% fictional world with arbitrary magical rules, the players can't tell me that what I am saying is wrong.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Or should I say playing in Fantasy settings? Whether it is a homebrew setting or a published setting. What makes you like a Fantasy setting for roleplaying games?

Ease of use.

I find the further you go in the future, the harder it gets. Modern is hard, sci-fi is even harder.

Modern has advanced communication technologies, police forces, intelligence agencies and other things that make adventuring impractical. Plus, you generally need a job in modern life, which is a little hard to do when you keep vanishing to go kick some butt or recuperate.

Sci-fi is even worse: as above, plus technology tends to play a role in the plot. Like artifacts, but ubiquitous.

 

[GSHamster]

"And for adults, the world of fantasy books returns to us the great words of power which, in order to be tamed, we have excised from our adult vocabularies. These words are the pornography of innocence, words which adults no longer use with other adults, and so we laugh at them and consign them to the nursery, fear masking as cynicism. These are the words that were forged in the earth, air, fire, and water of human existence, and the words are:

Love. Hate. Good. Evil. Courage. Honor. Truth."

— Jane Yolen, Touch Magic: Fantasy, Faerie & Folklore in the Literature of Childhood

 

[IronWolf]

I always seem to default to fantasy settings, it is where I started way back when. It started in fantasy fiction, I always gravitated towards books about fantasy. I read sci-fi books, but my favorites were always fantasy books. So when RPGs came up on my radar I immediately tended towards fantasy setting (i.e. D&D). Given limited funds as a kid, I could really only invest in one genre and fantasy won, further cementing it as my default I suppose.

As for the why - hhhmmm, I've had a hard time putting my finger on it. I like the idea of spells, wizards, dwarves and elves and fantastical creatures to do battle against. And who can't like a mighty red dragon? Travel was something interesting and not something that was easy, I liked that. I liked the "simpler" times. Fantasy settings just seem to be the genre that scratches the itch for me.

 

[saskganesh]

When I started 35 years ago I was enamoured of the entire fantasy genre. Right now, while I still read some fantasy lit, I think a lot of the genre is "played out" so to speak. Or my tastes have just changed. I still enjoy Fantasy RPG's the most though... I think it's a great genre for gaming.

I'll have to think about why I have drifted away from broader fantasy culture but have apparently drifted back into fantasy gaming.