Well, I'd vote but I can't see the poll. I'll vote any way, I love fantasy based RPG's. I won't go into a long explanation of why, I just love fantasy. (dragons rule)
Are you sick of fantasy-based role-playing games?
- Thread starter Snaggly Pete
- Start date
No, just sick of all the Tolkien, D&D, and kids' anime that are practically required in every fantasy RPG by law at this point.
It's the year 2020. Nazi Accountants are Plotting to take over the world with the Mind Control Lasers hidden on their Orbital Banking Satellites. Only you can stop them...Indigo_Dingo said:
I don't mind fantasy settings as long as they have something interesting to offer.
Morrowind's setting offered a whole civilization and culture that was fascinating and different from what I'd seen before. Unlike, say, Oblivion.
And fantasy settings are popular because you (yes, YOU) won't pay money to play an RPG character with no special magical/technoloical powers. CRPGs are based on advancement, and you would get bored if you could only use experience points to improve mundane, non magi-technological skills.
Morrowind's setting offered a whole civilization and culture that was fascinating and different from what I'd seen before. Unlike, say, Oblivion.
And fantasy settings are popular because you (yes, YOU) won't pay money to play an RPG character with no special magical/technoloical powers. CRPGs are based on advancement, and you would get bored if you could only use experience points to improve mundane, non magi-technological skills.
I could answer simply yes or no to the question so i will: Yes i'm sick of fantasy based RPG's. If there was a more logical fantasy game i think we'd all enjoy it.
What would you rather have than medieval or sci-fi as the basis of your ideal RPG? I cant remember any where you level up. You could count GTA San Andreas when he has to work out but hardly.
Stupid Idea:
Here's a game pitch. Modern day, you're an employee that works in a cubical. your life goes to shit and you turn it around by hunting criminals like drug dealers, smugglers, renegades. You're only kinda like batman. how the hell would you level up tho?
What would you rather have than medieval or sci-fi as the basis of your ideal RPG? I cant remember any where you level up. You could count GTA San Andreas when he has to work out but hardly.
Stupid Idea:
Here's a game pitch. Modern day, you're an employee that works in a cubical. your life goes to shit and you turn it around by hunting criminals like drug dealers, smugglers, renegades. You're only kinda like batman. how the hell would you level up tho?
Ditto.mwhite67 said:
I love fantasy gaming but I there haven't been enough steampunk rpgs for me.
My p&p group has been playing Iron Kingdoms for DnD and it's pretty decent.
Here's a simple explanation for why fantasy is the norm for an RPG setting. People do not go from having no combat experience to being able to kill gods with their little finger in less than a year (or at all for that matter), so you just can't have the standard RPG formula without having magical powers or items involved. If you have a character with a reasonable power scale than he has to get better over time some other way, usually through acquiring mundane equipment like guns and armor (In which case you're more likely to be playing an action game), or through a system where the character gets more skilled at what he does over time, but not so much as to be unrealistic. The best example of an RPG setting I can think of with believable, non-magical growth is Shadowrun, if you only count the characters in the setting that DON'T have magic. Basically, while I may get tired of the fantasy settings sometimes, I know that they're pretty much unavoidable in an RPG with classic, power leveling growth. If you want something different you'll have to either play the few RPGs out there with a fantasy setting different from the norm or play a different style of adventure game altogether.
The only non-fantasy RPG I have played is Deus Ex. Ok, its not a convential RPG with all of its first-person malarkey, but it has all the other prerequisites of a good RPG, such as an excellent story, tactically challenging gameplay and cutscenes galore!!!
EDIT:
Oh yeah, my brother recommends anything from Bioware. How could I forget about them!
EDIT:
Oh yeah, my brother recommends anything from Bioware. How could I forget about them!
While I am not sick of fantasy RPGs, I am sick of fantasy worlds which look exactly like the historical medieval time periode despite the existance of monsters, magic and superpowered heroes, coupled with "Aeries Dies" effects (Abilities, like ressurecting dead people, work in combat but outside of it they don't work because the plot requires them not to). Such things should impact how the society looks and works and not be tacked on mindlessly.
But as such a world would look very not like Lord of the Rings and likely would not appeal to the mass market such a game will likely never exist. As a substitute give me modern, or better science-fiction rpgs.
But as such a world would look very not like Lord of the Rings and likely would not appeal to the mass market such a game will likely never exist. As a substitute give me modern, or better science-fiction rpgs.
The reason, in my opinion, why you see exponentially more fantasy-based settings than modern/future settings is because execution is easier to pull off. Thanks to Lord of the Rings, Dungeons & Dragons and things like it, nothing can considered outlandish. The magic-users-bent-on-summoning-the-prince-of-all-demons-onto-the-prime-material-plane-to-erradicate-all-life-and-build-a-factory-out-of-orphan-bones-to-make-cupcakes-filled-with-the-essence-of-pure-evil plot is fair game in elf land fantasy but not so kosher in any other setting.
I kind of forgot where I was going with all this but, in short, I'm only sick of games that are in a fantasy setting for the sake of being in a fantasy setting. If it's fun to play and has a compelling story, I'll fight as many elves, ogres and dragons as the developers will throw at me.
Or criminals, drug dealers, smugglers or renegades.
Although proposed as a "Stupid Idea," I quote this because, unfortunately, throwing away a cliched fantasy setting often means picking up some other over-the-top cliched setting. I'm not saying fantasy settings are better or worse than modern settings (or future settings), I'm not even saying over-the-top settings are bad (all the time), but that there has to be something extraordinary about the setting or the plot or the main character because otherwise it's normal life.hell4raizer said:
I kind of forgot where I was going with all this but, in short, I'm only sick of games that are in a fantasy setting for the sake of being in a fantasy setting. If it's fun to play and has a compelling story, I'll fight as many elves, ogres and dragons as the developers will throw at me.
Or criminals, drug dealers, smugglers or renegades.
Bringing up the "Aeries Dies" effect just reminded me of something even more nonsensical. I gave Baten Kaitos a try recently, and one of the first things we find out about the main character is that he has wings. Ok, I can accept that. Now I walk outside the village for the first time into the forest. The moment I start walking along the path I run into the usual logs, rocks, small gaps, and other such things that RPG characters can't seem to be able to climb over. THE MAIN. CHARACTER. HAS. WINGS. It's not like he has any trouble flying either, he spends most of his time during random battles in the air. I ended up laughing so hard over watching the main character fail to get over a knee-high log that I couldn't play anymore. It's not like the game was preventing me from going outside the screen either, these things were purposefully put on the path to make me do puzzle stuff to get around them.
Are there any good RPG video games in which the player gets no access to magic, Force, dark matter or whatever Japanese Tiger Form fighting they want to call it?
I agree with the general sentiment above that traditional RPG requires not only a certain level of disbelief suspension, but also a compelling reason to stop actually living normal life and playing the game. I think the reason so many RPGs happen in Sci-Fi/Fantasy settings is twofold:
1) In traditional RPGs, you gain experience by doing things, like lifting rocks to increase your strength, or basically killing things to increase fighting ability or spellcasting or whatever. In modern times, without the presence of evil aliens, there really aren't ways to gain experience in non-boring ways. Running around killing animals is a good way to star as the villain in an early-90s disney rip-off film, or at least get assaulted by PETA. Also, doing menial tasks to increase strength and whatnot can get boring, which leads me to my next point.
2) RPGs, for me at least, are all about Escapism, and well, role-playing. I like it better when I can become a character in a world different from my own, otherwise, in my opinion, playing said game would be an utter waste of time, (more so than it already might be). For instance, if I was playing a non-fantasy/sci-fi RPG, and my character wanted to get good at playing guitar, I might grind some guitar lessons, or I might stop playing the game, purchase a guitar, and learn for myself. Luckily for me, I happen to like (good) Sci-Fi and Fantasy quite a bit. If you don't, now might be a good time to enter the game-development industry and make your own games, because with the exception of over-done war games, that might be your best bet.
1) In traditional RPGs, you gain experience by doing things, like lifting rocks to increase your strength, or basically killing things to increase fighting ability or spellcasting or whatever. In modern times, without the presence of evil aliens, there really aren't ways to gain experience in non-boring ways. Running around killing animals is a good way to star as the villain in an early-90s disney rip-off film, or at least get assaulted by PETA. Also, doing menial tasks to increase strength and whatnot can get boring, which leads me to my next point.
2) RPGs, for me at least, are all about Escapism, and well, role-playing. I like it better when I can become a character in a world different from my own, otherwise, in my opinion, playing said game would be an utter waste of time, (more so than it already might be). For instance, if I was playing a non-fantasy/sci-fi RPG, and my character wanted to get good at playing guitar, I might grind some guitar lessons, or I might stop playing the game, purchase a guitar, and learn for myself. Luckily for me, I happen to like (good) Sci-Fi and Fantasy quite a bit. If you don't, now might be a good time to enter the game-development industry and make your own games, because with the exception of over-done war games, that might be your best bet.
I absolutely would love more non-fantasy games. Lets see an open world RPG set in a modern city even, or in a space cruiser travelling between worlds. Somewhere between GTA and Oblivion. Even something like Shady O'Grady's Rising Star given a bigger budget could be great.
The guy was an absolute literary genius. Whether you like his writing or not, you have to give anyone props that created an entire language. He did more then just some great things for fantasy. His writings have been groundwork for everything "high fantasy". I dare say there would be no high fantasy without him and CS Lewis, but I suppose that's openly debatable.Saskwach said:
Just a thought:
Obsidian is working on an espionage RPG that is supposed to be set in the present day. It would be an RPG/shooter kind of like Mass Effect, but with more places to put those points. I know that I would rather pick up a game like this one than even one of the better Fantasy RPGs (something on par with Oblivion)
Obsidian is working on an espionage RPG that is supposed to be set in the present day. It would be an RPG/shooter kind of like Mass Effect, but with more places to put those points. I know that I would rather pick up a game like this one than even one of the better Fantasy RPGs (something on par with Oblivion)
I love fantasy based RPGs, but I agree that the genre could do with some expanding. The vast majority of them are either high fantasy or sci-fi, and I think a new setting would be great.