WotC Why WotC SHOULD Make A New Setting

[Corinnguard]

This is a spinoff of the 2017 Bright movie:

Bright: Samurai Soul - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Reynard]

This is a spinoff of the 2017 Bright movie:

Bright: Samurai Soul - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Interesting. Thanks.

 

[Corinnguard]

Interesting. Thanks.

You're welcome. Here's its' trailer on YouTube:

 

[Remathilis]

Rsvnica, as a city, is full of modern amenities and structures (physical and social).

Where are the cars? The guns? The televisions? The airplanes? The electric lightbulbs? The blue jeans and sneakers? There are at least seven full sets of MTG cards set in Ravnica and each card has it's own unique artwork. I'm sure you can find me examples of modern 20th century technology, fashion and architecture in them.

Magic: The Gathering | Official MTG Card Search Database

Search the official Magic: The Gathering card database for card text, rulings, Oracle updates, and more.

gatherer.wizards.com

Go wild and report back when your done.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Chicago itself might not be, but the hallmarks of a major 20th century city are.

And those vampire stories set in the American Deep South? That’s more alien to me than Tokyo! I even feel like an alien in London sometimes, and I’ve been here for 25 years (you familiar with Wallace and Grommit or Last of the Summer Wine? That’s my “familiar”).

Personally, I think that your hypothesis that the appeal of urban fantasy is based on “familiarity” is complete nonsense.

 

[Brendan Byrd]

If it ain’t centered on Ancient Rome, it ain’t no Urban Fantasy.
So there.

 

[Corinnguard]

And those vampire stories set in the American Deep South? That’s more alien to me than Tokyo! I even feel like an alien in London sometimes, and I’ve been here for 25 years (you familiar with Wallace and Grommit or Last of the Summer Wine? That’s my “familiar”).

Personally, I think that your hypothesis that the appeal of urban fantasy is based on “familiarity” is complete nonsense.

You being a citizen of London for the last 25 years means that you are a lot more familiar with that city than those of us have been there for only a short while.

Imagine reading an Urban Fantasy that takes place in London and mentions all of the things that you are familiar with and then throws in some strangeness (magic, the Fey, etc.). Wouldn't that strangeness in a place you find familiar make the story more appealing to you?

 

[Remathilis]

And those vampire stories set in the American Deep South? That’s more alien to me than Tokyo! I even feel like an alien in London sometimes, and I’ve been here for 25 years (you familiar with Wallace and Grommit or Last of the Summer Wine? That’s my “familiar”).

Personally, I think that your hypothesis that the appeal of urban fantasy is based on “familiarity” is complete nonsense.

Oh come on. "I've never been to Tokyo so it's equivalent to Narnia." is the biggest stretch I've seen in my life!

 

[Corinnguard]

Oh come on. "I've never been to Tokyo so it's equivalent to Narnia." is the biggest stretch I've seen in my life!

I have never been to Tokyo either, but it contains things we're still familiar with. And if there is something I don't know about it, I can look it up somewhere to gain some familiarity of it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I mean, I think there's a pretty clear difference between

• HYPER HYPER magical setting, where nothing more than vaguely like IRL urban environments exist, and
• HYPER HYPER modern-urban setting, where nothing more than vaguely like magical things or events exist

I would not classify Ravnica as "urban fantasy", even though it is literally a city-plane. I would classify it as high magic in an urban context/location. It's sort of like the difference between "Romantasy" and "Romantic Fantasy". The latter is a subgenre of fantasy where romance elements are included, but they are NOT the primary focus; the romance elements are distinctly secondary. The former is a subgenre of romance where fantasy elements are included, but they are NOT the primary focus; the fantasy elements are distinctly secondary.

Some might see this as "you got your chocolate in my peanut butter" or the like, but it really is a distinction that regular, everyday folks have shown they care about. It's why you get responses to books where one person is bitterly disappointed and the other is elated, and the latter says to the former...
"But I thought you said you LIKE fantasy books."
"I do, I just WANTED a romance!"
"It is a romance!"
"No, it's NOT a romance, it's a fantasy story that has a romantic subplot!"
"They're the same thing!"
"NO THEY ARE NOT."

In my personal, likely-uninformed opinion, Ravnica is a High Fantasy setting with an urban focus. Shadowrun has a (dystopian) urban-fantasy setting: it is very very much the urban environment we're used to, plus or minus some extra dystopian grunge and the like, but it also has magic and orks and spirits. That is what most self-professed "fan of urban fantasy" folks would want, other than the dystopian element (many do want that, but not all). They would not want "Lord of the Rings, except it's a fantasy megacity"...by and large. I'm absolutely certain SOME people who call themselves "fans of urban fantasy" would want "Lord of the Rings, except it's a fantasy megacity"; I'm even fairly sure that you can find at least one other person who would think it bizarre that someone might consider Ravnica different from what "urban fantasy" means. Doesn't mean that that's what the typical person is going to understand when you say, "Ravnica is an urban fantasy setting."

Classifying Ravnica as "lotr but its a fantasy megacity" makes me question how long it has been since you read about Ravnica? Because it is as much lotr as the Dresden Files, thst is, it aint.