How much fantasy is too much fantasy?

[Tavernking]

Select your desired amount of fantasy in medieval RPGs.

No fantasy - e.g. Kingdoms Come Deliverance - set in a historical setting with no magic/monsters. Human race only. Anything 'made up creatively' is only done so out of necessity, and adheres to strict historical accuracy requirements.

Low fantasy - e.g. Game of Thrones - a made up world but very low magic and very low monsters. Magic and monsters are often disregarded as myths by the human inhabitants. Dwarfs, elfs, halflings, don't exist or are extremely rare/remote.

Tolkien fantasy - e.g. Lord of the Rings - magic is rare but known to exist. Only 0.001% of the population might know some magic. The world is full of monsters and various fantasy races, but it may take some travelling to see them. For example, the existence of elves would be common knowledge, but most humans would only see a few of them in their lifetime.

High fantasy - e.g. Skyrim, Baldo's Gate, 99% of medieval RPGs - Magic is common and can be learnt by a significant portion of the population, or by everyone! Regardless of whether everyone can use it, everyone has seen magic being performed at least. Monsters are so common that there's probably a group of them right outside the city gates. Various fantasy races that are usually interacting with each other all the time. There are probably multi-racial cities where humans, dwarfs and elves live alongside each other.

 

[Sranchammer]

Could you at least classy up High Fantasy examples with Steven Erikson or something?

 

[GrafvonMoltke]

Any/all

 

[Ranselknulf]

Any time an author tries to use medieval speak for "authenticity"

 

[Puteo]

I don't see an option for "Guns"

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Elves- TOO MUCH
Elf- Too much
Magic- Too much.

Barbarians- Just right

 

[Delterius]

all fantasy has its place in settings made for them

would love a game where magic needs lots of effort and ritual in a low setting tho

 

[Saerain]

I used to be pretty militantly against high fantasy and "no fantasy", but somehow I stopped caring. Even though it still seems like games are always one or the other.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

all fantasy has its place in settings made for them

would love a game where magic needs lots of effort and ritual in a low setting tho

Have a look at Outward sometime.

 

[Deleted Member 16721]

I'm cool with pretty much anything, it's more about if the setting is well-realized and the gameplay is sound. That said, I'm a sucker for high fantasy, and like magic mixed with fantasy races and all the trappings that go with it.

 

[Jokzore]

Whatever level Conan is.

 

[Agame]

Whatever level Conan is.

YES! Proper sword & sorcery setting is so under-used.

 

[Neanderthal]

The beautiful thing about Conan's Hyboria is that the fantastic is rare, and found only in far away places or legendary individuals but due to superstition and awe it echoes throughout the setting and sets a tone of exotic mystery that enhances the fantastic nature of the fantasy. A single huge serpent plucking a negro from the deck of Belit's ship serves as a far more stark and effective threat than a thousand orcs charging. Less is more and enhances the stygian, eldritch horrors when they crawl from their nighted lairs to lay ancient claws on the young, virgin soil that has never known their tread.

 

[Yosharian]

Wtf is 'Baldo's Gate'? Jesus christ

 

[Monkeyfinger]

Tropey high fantasy with a focus on exploration and combat over dialogue and lore dumps.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Wtf is 'Baldo's Gate'?

It's the sicilian bootleg version of Baldur's gate where instead of being a child of bhaal, you're the don's kid whom everyone wants to kill because you can talk without hand gestures.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[mondblut]

Tolkien fantasy - e.g. Lord of the Rings - magic is rare but known to exist. Only 0.001% of the population might know some magic. The world is full of monsters and various fantasy races, but it may take some travelling to see them. For example, the existence of elves would be common knowledge, but most humans would only see a few of them in their lifetime.

The Silmarillion would beg to differ.

 

[a Goat]

Dey al be like shieeet and shieeet

 

[vortex]

As much fanatasy possible to have fully functioning wizards.

 

[Momock]

No magical colorful sparkles for kiddies and faggots is the right amount of fantasy.

 

[anvi]

I like fantasy worlds that look realistic with a bit of fantasy. What a stupid fucking thread.

 

[JarlFrank]

The beautiful thing about Conan's Hyboria is that the fantastic is rare, and found only in far away places or legendary individuals but due to superstition and awe it echoes throughout the setting and sets a tone of exotic mystery that enhances the fantastic nature of the fantasy. A single huge serpent plucking a negro from the deck of Belit's ship serves as a far more stark and effective threat than a thousand orcs charging. Less is more and enhances the stygian, eldritch horrors when they crawl from their nighted lairs to lay ancient claws on the young, virgin soil that has never known their tread.

This.

I want more sword & sorcery RPGs, where the magical is actually magical and not mundane. Where you explore a labyrinth and fight the minotaur, rather than a minotaur of which there are many in the game and you can meet them in standard random encounters.
I don't want to find swords +1 and +2 wielded by every bandit captain, I want to find the legendary Skullcleaver which has been enchanted by a powerful sorceress 200 years ago and which has some badass special effects rather than just a mundane +1 to hit.

Make the magical cool and mysterious and build it up to be special, then actually make it special. When there's only one medusa in the game and she has a petrification attack that you have to defend yourself against by covering your eyes with your shield, and the snakes that make up her hair can attack you with a dozen strikes each turn, and she also uses a bow with poisoned arrows, and she has a horde of venomous snakes as her trash mob allies, that is going to be a much more memorable and cool encounter than regularly having random encounters against 3 medusas against whom you can defend yourself with easily available protection from petrification scrolls.

 

[laclongquan]

Low fantasy.

Set up a medieval world. Inject magic element where you plan to, and control its effect tightly, which is possible because low magic.

Or Tolkien is fine, which is low-middle tier magic world.

It's when they try to set up High Fantasy that is a problem. On the one hand, they dont have the logic, the knowledge, the skills to set up a fully 100% magic element civilization. On the other hand they dont want to emulate modern world but replace SF element with magic. (Or that they are unable to, it being a highly skilled activity).

 

[Darth Canoli]

All of them if done skillfully with a good TB party based combat system.

This.

I want more sword & sorcery RPGs, where the magical is actually magical and not mundane. Where you explore a labyrinth and fight the minotaur, rather than a minotaur of which there are many in the game and you can meet them in standard random encounters.
I don't want to find swords +1 and +2 wielded by every bandit captain, I want to find the legendary Skullcleaver which has been enchanted by a powerful sorceress 200 years ago and which has some badass special effects rather than just a mundane +1 to hit.

Make the magical cool and mysterious and build it up to be special, then actually make it special. When there's only one medusa in the game and she has a petrification attack that you have to defend yourself against by covering your eyes with your shield, and the snakes that make up her hair can attack you with a dozen strikes each turn, and she also uses a bow with poisoned arrows, and she has a horde of venomous snakes as her trash mob allies, that is going to be a much more memorable and cool encounter than regularly having random encounters against 3 medusas against whom you can defend yourself with easily available protection from petrification scrolls.

Sounds appealing, makes me want to read Robert E. Howard collected works all over again.