BreakfastMan said:
I strongly suspect the first RPGs where fantasy primarily because the story typical of most fantasy literature (that of the "epic quest") fits much easier into a game format than, say, a noir mystery or whatever.
You're right, it's 'safe territory' that gives the best possible tools to GMs for worldbuilding.
But at the same time... colourful ponies. And how dare you try to cheapen that for me?
Fantasy is broad because it gives you a blank canvas to work with. About all it requires of a reader is suspension of disbelief. And in the end the barrier, or 'reward' impetus, for investment is lower.
But that's not bad... It can allow for character driven dynamics in situations that you couldn't have them any other way. The dangerous dimension to that is when that goes from delivering endearing characters to creating an impenetrable lore shield. Like how Trekkies in Star Trek fandom will always be weird to me.
Now, the problem with
impenetrable lore is two-fold ... it invites purple prose. Secondly, it invites purely egotistical writing. Whereby you lash your reader/viewer and you
tell them ytour world as opposed to
show them your world.
Let's be honest here ... Tolkien is kind of shit. Do you know who does worldbuilding really, really well?
George Miller.
Why?
Because he
shows you the nitty gritty, leaves you to pick up the pieces. So every Mad Max film is rife with symbolism of the whole. Now George Miller wrote
millions of words of all of his characyters he's ever portrayed. They all have a backstory. Humungus has an indepth backstory. Wes has an indepth backstory. MasterBlaster has an indepth backstory. Toecutter has an indepth backstory.
Fucking novels worth of lore and backstory ... and you know what George Miller did with all that? He Kurt Vonnegut-ed the shit out of it. Made 4 movies worth out of about 10-15 million words of notes, supposedly. He showed the audiences, he didn't tell them. Imagine if George Miller pulled out an Andrew Jackson or whatever? Imagine if every Mad Max film was a 3.5 hour long epic?
And that's basically what all good authors do. Regardless of genre, regardless of literary or filmography. Show, don't tell. If you're spending pages justr describing a person's fucking lineage ... you got to be fucking kidding me.
Either you move the plot, or you have character development (not character exposition), or simply don't write more about something.
There is kind of a reason why Miller 'ended up with two scripts' by the end of Fury Road. That's what he does
with every movie. He writes a massive world, then goes Kurt Vonnegut ... he doesn't pull out some The Silmarillion or Legendarium or any fucking tripe.
Tolkien created a stir, he created an influence. But that's no excuse to inherit his flaws.
It's kind of like Star Wars geeks. I saw TLJ recently ... thought it was okay. Fun to watch. Major pacing problems ... but that's the majority of Star Wars films, now. Some good action. Ditto Rogue One. I liked the moral complexity they gave the Rebellion. The fact they ixnayed the childish idiocy of the Jedi/Sith dichotomy. But you know what's fucking insufferable? Hearing Star Wars geeks IRL whine about how it was like cancer... and yet any suggestion I hear from them is teeth-grindingly bad, or about stuff that is so fucking esoteric that would either lose audiences
or be purely egotistical or purple prose writing and screenplay.
Also, I like Finn. Fite me, Star Wars losers.
The biggest problem with fantasy is it
most easily falls intothat trap of egotistical writing and purple prose.
You know ... like how every GM has this
cherished child of campaign worldbuilding they've created ... and because
it's theirs/yours they/you think it's great? But then as a player how many times have you actually
groaned under the weight of such a GM spending FUCKING HOURS explaining how laws around weapons use in public work, or racial relations because a PC just happened to play a certain species?
Show, don't tell. You'll enjoy it more, they'll enjoy it more.
First rule of writing.
Kurt Vonnegut everything... because you're never as good as you think you are to make something boring
unboring.