Why Fantasy?

[Umbran]

So, apparently, even a soupçon of research is beyond you, it seems. Isn't that positively revelatory.

Mod note:

Hey. Are you actively seeking removal from the discussion? If not, cut the personal jabs.

If you aren't of a mind to be respectful and kind, maybe go do something else for a while. Thanks.

 

[Maxperson]

Historically, this isn't true at all. Even a soupçon of research would reveal this to be the case. So, apparently, even a soupçon of research is beyond you, it seems. Isn't that positively revelatory.

Look. I'm talking about now, not historically, which is why I liked @Reynard's clarification that you were talking historically. But it seems you'd rather insult than try to understand.

 

[Maxperson]

Yeah, you keep telling yourself that.

By all means. Show me your research and authorities show that Tolkien was not heavily influenced by mythology and that Dunsany was not heavily influenced by fairy tales.

 

[zarionofarabel]

Lord of the Rings is similarly known by normies. When I'm talking to one and they ask about D&D is, they have blank looks until I tell them it's like Lord of the Rings, but the players are playing characters who have various roles, like the Fellowship did. Then the look of understanding comes over their faces.

See, and I have never had much for recognition amongst the normies for LotR other than the fact that at some point many have seen the movies at least. As for actual knowledge of LotR, it's non-existent beyond what little they remember from the movies. Honestly, I think it might be more of a tangential to knowing a nerd, rather than actual cultural zeitgeist. Impossible to tell really, though most normies have at least heard of LotR, that alone does give it some zeitgeist recognition.

 

[Desdichado]

I think everyone (mostly) knows the Lord of the Rings after the phenomenal success of the movies. I can usually make off-hand references to Gollum or taters or something like that and normies know what I'm talking about.

Also, I like the word soupçon. Even if it's a pain to use the c-cedilla, so I usually skip it.

 

[Minion X]

The lack of firearms makes it easier to balance the wargaming part of the rules.

 

[Desdichado]

The lack of firearms makes it easier to balance the wargaming part of the rules.

I used to be virulently anti-firearm in my fantasy, but anymore I'm OK with early firearms giving me a pirates feel, or a Darkest Dungeon feel. I'd be inclined to make their inclusion a default, even if most people still don't have them and their numbers are small.

Ironically, wargames started mostly in Napoleanic stuff, so firearms are original to wargaming too.

 

[Reynard]

In a vain attempt to drag this thread back on its actual topic(s):

Who prefers a genre other than fantasy for TTRPGs? What games do you prefer? What would it take for that preferred genre, do you think, to better compete with fantasy in the TTRPG mindspace?

 

[Minion X]

Ironically, wargames started mostly in Napoleanic stuff, so firearms are original to wargaming too.

Wargaming started in Prussia around the time of the Napoleonic Wars, so firearms and cannon were a given. but in a 1:1 wargaming adventure game, it makes every encounter the sword vs. gun scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

To give an example: A friend of mine once used GURPS supplements and research to build a campaign around modern day characters investigating weird mystic happenings in and around Afghanistan, that built on real world mythology and archaeology. Unfortunately, he finished putting things together during the summer of 2001, and as you may remember events unfurled in September of that year that led to Afghanistan going from a somewhat obscure region of the world to front-page news. With the US invasion of Afghanistan the tone of any adventures in the region would change, and if he set the game in a different year or alt history it would still have had an extremely different feeling since it would be 'look for mystical happenings in the Taliban Zone' to Americans rather than 'look for mystical happenings in this unfamiliar place with a rich and complicated history'.

The real world events wouldn't affect a fantasy campaign based around history from the region the same way, since the locations, names, and personalities would be be based on the real world but not directly copied, and obviously current events wouldn't be taking place.