D&D General Why Fantasy? Goin' Medieval in D&D

[Snarf Zagyg]

It should be noted that even in the Middle Ages, their artists wouldn’t depict ancient Romans and others in the correct fashions or armor a lot of times as well. Not being able to seperate one’s self from “modern” sensibilities is not a recent thing.

Weak? Really?!

Conan, John Carter, Tarzan are weak?

I mean ....

 

[Paul Farquhar]

John Carter and Tarzan aren't fantasy.

Of course they are. You think the dinosaur people living in the Earth's core are real?

Aragorn is not the protagonist of LotR

No, because the novel chooses to focus on the ordinary people, not the heroes. It's D&D when the PCs are commoners.

I meant high fantasy

So you choose to redefine fantasy so as to rule out any source that does not support your belief system.

 

[deganawida]

Of course they are. You think the dinosaur people living in the Earth's core are real?

No, because the novel chooses to focus on the ordinary people, not the heroes. It's D&D when the PCs are commoners.

So you choose to redefine fantasy so as to rule out any source that does not support your belief system.

Thank you, but your reply suggests that there will be no good faith debate. I leave this thread to you.

 

[Oofta]

I think sort-of-medieval works because it doesn't hit the uncanny valley issue. Have you ever seen The Polar Express? It was a okay movie that would have been better with either better fidelity or worse. As it was it was just strange to watch this animated movie that kind of looked real but not really. Kind of like how some people are fascinated with the Kardashians*. We know they aren't real, but they're so close it's spooky.

In any case, fantasy is close enough to myth and legends that have been around for a long time that it works for people without getting too caught up in the whole "it doesn't work that way" trap. Set something in the modern era and you'd have to continuously update it to keep current along with our knowledge of how things really work. That, and if set in the modern day some guy with a software development background is going to start going on about how you can't hack into a computer system by randomly mashing on a keyboard.

D&D doesn't do a very good job at simulation. Then again, our ideas of what it's trying to simulate are so vague and mushy that it doesn't need to. If it were trying to simulate the real world we'd be hitting all sorts of "but it doesn't work that way". As it is? We can have longbows that use dex alone and survive being eaten by a purple worm and it's okay because it's just fantasy and nobody expects it to be too realistic.

*I'm not one of them, I only have a vague idea of who they are because it's impossible to not have a vague idea of who they are.

 

[Crimson Longinus]

*I'm not one of them, I only have a vague idea of who they are because it's impossible to not have a vague idea of who they are.

These guys, right?

 

[Tonguez]

John Carter and Tarzan aren't fantasy. Aragorn is not the protagonist of LotR and he's no where near the same power level as even Glorfindel, Saruman, Gandalf, Elrond, etc . Compare Rand al'Thor or Richard Rahl to Taran Wanderer or Frodo Baggins and you see a vast gulf.

Also, I should have clarified (and nearly did) that I meant high fantasy, rather than the heroic fantasy of Howard and Moorcock (when he's doing fantasy and not something like DatEoT).

Sparrowhawk, Simon Tregarth of Witchworld, Fafhdr and Greymouser?

 

[Micah Sweet]

These guys, right?

Haven't heard that joke in a while.

 

[payn]

Haven't heard that joke in a while.

Rule of acquisition #288 Time, like latinum, is a highly limited commodity.

 

[overgeeked]

Most superheroes don't get markedly more powerful over time, so IMO it's a bit different. Some superhero video games do have PCs "level up".

It depends on what limited snapshot of time you’re looking at and what characters you’re examining when making that assessment. A few years recently…unless it’s a reboot continuity year? Not much power creep. The span of the genre or character’s publication history, if more than a decade old, absolutely. Compare the original Superman (who couldn’t fly and was only strong and tough) to the universe punching semi-modern version (pre-Crisis). Or Batman as he started out compared to the current Bat-god style character.

 

[TerraDave]

Its about tapping into pre-modern archetypes that have shaped thousands of years of human history, and human storytelling.

All airbrushed and turned into a game.