Why is fantasy the dominant RPG genre?

[Chainsaw Mage]

I've been wondering about this for a long time. Why is D&D and its fantasy genre such a dominant force in the RPG marketplace? If you think about it it's rather odd that D&D gamers (such as myself) are usually fanatics for horror films, science-fiction novels, and super-hero comics...but when time comes to play an RPG, we seldom seem to embrace these genres. Instead, we switch to D&D and high fantasy. Of course, I know that *some* of us play horror and sci-fi and superhero RPGs, but we are a tiny minority. Just a glance at the "Talking the Talk" and "Playing the Game" boards shows a huge flood of D&D games, and a trickle of other genres...a Modern here, a Cthulhu there...

One reason I *don't* accept is the commonly suggested "D&D is so dominant because it was the first role-playing game." That may have been true in the 80's, but by now there have been SOOOO many other RPGs (including many by TSR itself and later WotC) representing the other genres (Traveller, Boot Hill, Gamma World, Top Secret, Shadowrun, Vampire, etc. etc.) that it's hard to believe D&D's popularity continues to be due simply to its head-start. There has to be something about the game itself and the fantasy genre it portrays.

Again, it's not even D&D itself that I'm asking about so much as the fantasy genre in general (which is, of course, dominated by D&D ).

Perhaps Marshall McLuhan was right when he said, "The medium is the message"; perhaps some genres simply work better in the medium that is the role-playing game. Perhaps fantasy is simply a better genre for RPGs. Perhaps a fantasy RPG "works" better than a modern or a superhero or a horror or a sci-fi RPG.

In closing, let me add that I love D&D and have played it since 1980 (when I was a wee lad of 9). But I also love d20 Modern and Call of Cthulhu and I am depressed (quite frankly) at how few people seem to play those games. D20 Future is coming out in August, but should I even bother? Maybe I should just sell off my non-D&D stuff and just focus on D&D for good. Perhaps the medium is the message; and the message just happens to be fantasy.

Discuss.

 

[EricNoah]

I think there are two related things going on here...

1) Science fiction and any genre that is modern-day, or futuristic, or even "realistically historical" is inherently harder to run as a game master. It's harder to come up with plot ideas, it's harder to come up with an interesting variety of challenges, and the GM has to know a lot about how the real world works (science, history, etc.). With fantasy, you can make stuff up or explain away impossibilities with "magic" but you don't usually have that luxury with most other genres. There are probably many players willing to play in these generes, but fewer GMs with the skills necessary than with D&D. (Also maybe related -- there doesn't seem to be a lot of adventure material for even WotC's non-fantasy games. We suffer from a glut of fantasy adventures, but a shortage of good modern/futuristic adventures.)

2) Magic itself is a draw for many players. It's one thing to be a gun-toting private eye or whatever, but I think a lot of people play because they like to imagine using magic.

 

[MerakSpielman]

I think RPGing is basically a form of escapism, and escapism works better the more distant from real life it is. Science fiction usually places itself in our own universe, just in the distant (or not so) future. Horror is usually set in the real world, too. All "modern" games are just too close to what we see and do in the real world to help us escape from it with any degree of efficiency.

Fantasy lets us take on the role of people in a totally alien world - no Earth, no modern technology, even the fundamental laws of reality are different. We can really get out of our own heads (and their accompanying worries) when there is really nothing to remind ourselves of our own, daily life.

 

[Flyspeck23]

In closing, let me add that I love D&D and have played it since 1980 (when I was a wee lad of 9). But I also love d20 Modern and Call of Cthulhu and I am depressed (quite frankly) at how few people seem to play those games. D20 Future is coming out in August, but should I even bother? Maybe I should just sell off my non-D&D stuff and just focus on D&D for good. Perhaps the medium is the message; and the message just happens to be fantasy.

Of course you should bother - if you and your friends enjoy different genres, have a go!
OTOH, if you're the only one in your group who isn't satisfied by high fantasy, maybe you're perceiving other genres differently than the other players?

Anyway, I think fantasy is so popular because most people know what the game is all about (fairy tales, to some degree... no, please, don't shoot me...). SciFi has to be highly specific to work (that's the reason very few generic SciFi settings sell at all), and the same could be said about CoC (that's very specific to begin with).

In my experience, if the players have to bring a lot to the table (do their research, in a way), the game will be less popular - if people play it at all. Fantasy, in comparison, is so easy.

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, I think some genres just don't have as many fans.

Go into a bookstore, and see how many sci-fi novels there are to fantasy, and how they sell. Fantasy sells the best. Same compared to comic books.

Horror probably beats it, but I'm not sure that's well suited for role-playing, because there are very few survivors, and most people don't like making new characters all the time. (There's something of an emotional investment in your characters). That's why Vampire:TM is quite popular, it's sort of a horror game, but the PCs don't die very much, being sort of on the other side.

 

[EricNoah]

In my experience, if the players have to bring a lot to the table (do their research, in a way), the game will be less popular - if people play it at all. Fantasy, in comparison, is so easy.

Yes, there you go -- another good way to put it.

I'm a decent fantasy game master. I am not, nor do I think I could ever be, a good game master for modern or futuristic games. I know my limits! And yet I would LOVE to be a player in a game like this.

I think companies hear people say "I would love to play a Sci Fi RPG" but what they are not hearing is perhaps an unspoken "I wouldn't feel up to the task of GMing a Sci Fi RPG".

Maybe we need to be educated -- shown good examples of sci fi adventures, look "behind the curtain" at modern/future adventure design. Stuff like that.

 

[WayneLigon]

I do think that the main reason that Fantasy so popular is because D&D was The First. Also, D&D as a game has the greatest market penetration of any system, hands down. It's carried in all major and minor book chains that I know of (without a knowledgable store owner or employee, often it's the only RPG they will carry, though in the last three years or so that's been changing). That kind of edge is very hard to overcome. Plus, there are a ton of D&D novels, compared to a handful for other systems (most of which have gone out of print).

The Familiarity idea is compelling, but... until just the last few years, there have been virtually no widespread fantasy movies to give people that familiarity. Arguably, Familiarity should make Star Trek and Star Wars the most popular RPGs, followed by Call of Cthulhu (who hasn't seen a horror movie?) and then any Western RPG.

Superhero gaming, while my favorite, is a small niche. In my experiences, at least, comics fans and gamers don't mix much at all. Of all the gamers I've known, only four have been comics fans or would even touch a superhero game. (The number one drawback cited to me: 'you have to be Good all the time'. Usually that was a good signal not to bother trying to recruit that player for anything at all).

I do agree that Fantasy is the easiest of the genres to run, yes. Familiarity acts against me as a GM for modern and futuristic settings, mainly because several players know a lot more about modern tech than I do. It makes me feel uncomfortable and stupid.

Fantasy:

Leader: We need to find out what's going on inside that house. Anyone know how to Clairvoyance?

Team Mage: Hell, no. It'll be a couple of years before I can even attempt that spell.

Leader: OK, I guess then one of us will have to sneak up there.

Modern.

Leader: We need to find out what's going on inside that house. Anyone know how?

Team Snoop: I go online to www.spygear.org, use my credit card to buy a shotgun mic and some gear to snoop on the spillage from their cell phone or web cam, pay for next day delivery. We go back the next night.

 

[EricNoah]

Exactly. D&D GMs haven't been trained for this sort of thing! I think we would like to learn, but it's hard work!

 

[Trainz]

Recently, I played Star Wars, d20 Modern, and D&D. I always come back to D&D. The reason is quite simple.

When a GM prepares a game for, say, Star Wars, what are his tools: Laser Fights, Light Saber duels, and Starship battles. After a dozen or so of these, the game becomes repetitive. Of course, you battle different species, but during combat, that makes little difference. That's very few building blocks for a GM to work with, and the writer's block strikes sooner or later.

With D&D, your building blocks are... quasi infinite. Monstrous humanoids aside, every critter will give a different battle experience. One is non-corporeal, one can throw fireballs, one can change his shape, one can turn you to stone with but a gaze, one is a diabolic scion of hell, one is a chaotic aberation from the plane of chaos... it is easier for the GM to come up with something new EVERY GAME SESSION than any other RPG, simply because it is the most varied. Hundreads of spells, dozens of dimensions, hundreads of critters...

I say this from experience. I've been preparing game sessions almost non-stop for the past 18 years every week. When I switch to a different game system, I hit my writer's block between 3 to 9 months...

...after 18 years, I have yet to reach my D&D writer's block.

 

[d4]

i think you guys just aren't trying hard enough!

i've GMed a lot more modern, sci fi, and supers campaigns than fantasy over the years. so perhaps that gives me a different perspective than the rest of you.

but i find these genres much easier to work with than fantasy.

...perhaps some genres simply work better in the medium that is the role-playing game. Perhaps fantasy is simply a better genre for RPGs. Perhaps a fantasy RPG "works" better than a modern or a superhero or a horror or a sci-fi RPG.

i do think some genres fit role-playing better than others. however, at least for my style of role-playing, i'd say that comic book superheroes are the closest match! the players get to be powerful heroes with amazing abilities (that can be pretty much anything they can possibly imagine) and get to save the world! supers is pretty much the only genre where literally anything goes -- archmages, alien cyborgs, gamma-radiated mutants, immortal gunslingers, gods and mythological monsters, hard-nosed detectives, mystic martial artists, whatever you want.

Science fiction and any genre that is modern-day, or futuristic, or even "realistically historical" is inherently harder to run as a game master. It's harder to come up with plot ideas, it's harder to come up with an interesting variety of challenges, and the GM has to know a lot about how the real world works (science, history, etc.).

i find modern-day games much easier to run than fantasy. it's the world right outside your door! you already know tons of stuff about it! if you're having a hard time coming up with plot ideas, read through a newspaper. there's interesting, weird, cool things happening all the time.

and with your last sentence, i can't believe you are saying you know how fantasy worlds work better than the one you live in every day??

In my experience, if the players have to bring a lot to the table (do their research, in a way), the game will be less popular - if people play it at all. Fantasy, in comparison, is so easy.

in order for fantasy to be easy, the player has to do his research.

try teaching D&D to someone who's never seen LOTR, never read a fantasy novel, basically has no conception of the fantasy genre. you have to explain the difference between elves and dwarves, what a paladin is, why divine and arcane magic are separated, what an elemental is, etc. if you're already steeped in the fantasy genre, this will all be second-nature and thus easy. it isn't easy for everyone.

on the other hand, how much explaining do you need to do for a modern-day campaign? it's the world outside your door. your players already know about it. it's much easier to bring in newbies than with fantasy.

When a GM prepares a game for, say, Star Wars, what are his tools: Laser Fights, Light Saber duels, and Starship battles. After a dozen or so of these, the game becomes repetitive. Of course, you battle different species, but during combat, that makes little difference. That's very few building blocks for a GM to work with, and the writer's block strikes sooner or later.

if that's all you see in Star Wars, then it's no wonder you're getting writer's block so soon! but Star Wars can be a lot more than that... strange new Force traditions, politics on a galactic scale, strange creatures with weird abilities, a whole new planet every session (sometimes more than one per session!)... there's so much potential you're overlooking!

similarly, i could characterize a D&D campaign as melees, some spells thrown around, and grabbing the monsters' loot. sounds like a yawner if you describe it that way... my point is there can be just as much variety and excitement in other genres as in fantasy.