3 - Seeking Your Subgenre

We can immediately recognize the trappings of "generic Dark Age Fantasy" on sight: Medieval architecture (castles, primitive villages, etc.), sword-wielding knights, Elves in the woods, Dwarves in the mountains, scenic hillsides dotted with ruins, and so forth. We have general agreement on some of the things a Fantasy world should not have, like technology reaching/surpassing the Industrial Revolution (so no cars, trains, guns, and so on).

Alan Lee

But beneath that simple veneer, we have countless (far more now than when Fantasy RPGs began in the 70s) subgenres, for which we scarcely have the language to address their broad demarcations.

Many groups simply have accepted their “Fantasy gaming world” uncritically as part of the ‘RPG package’. But like all other elements, a greater enjoyment can come from identifying & then pursuing the gaming subgenre you really want.

We do possess some agreed-on literary Fantasy sub-genres categories

· “Epic Fantasy” (the stakes are huge and/or the wars involve true Good & Evil) a la Tolkien or T. Brooks,

· “Sword & Sorcery Fantasy” (the focus is more on adventure/battle) a la Robert Howard’s Conan,

· “Gritty/Dark Fantasy” (the world is generally dismal, finding “true goodness” is almost impossible) a la D. Gemmell or J. Abercrombie,

· “Portal Fantasy” (characters from the Primary World enter a Secondary World) a la Lewis’ Narnia or Kay’s Summertree.

Such categorizations may be helpful, but there are nuances within each subgenre that steer the exact feelings of each world. It’s useful to point at such landscapes in the breadth of the Fantasy realms.

Can you pinpoint where your Fantasy RPG world currently sits? Is it in the ballpark of videogames like Skyrim? World of Warcraft? Do you use (or replicate) traditional RPG worlds like Forgotten Reams? Krynn (Dragonlance)? Greyhawk? What about novels? Do you want (something like) Middle Earth? Westeros? Do you actually know what you most want?

For example, while I love both Tolkien and D. Gemmell, their subgenres feel quite different. Tolkien’s is far more ‘lofty’, beautiful/sacred, and guided by Fate, whereas Gemmell’s is far more like our own: a broken, perpetually unfair, ‘gritty’, etc. world.

While some people might clump all such settings into one “Fantasy crate”, there are a score of major (and a hundred minor) differences between these. Consciously or not, each subgenre of Fantasy generates its own feeling, and that specific feeling is a powerful draw with roleplaying groups. Identifying the specific subgenre you want is therefore imperative.

But as always, finding agreement with labels is precarious. Instead, I think that it’s better to address questions about the specific kinds of experiences you want. We can compare/contrast elements by asking a host of question starting with,

“Do you want a Fantasy world where…”

· …everyone in this world is familiar with magic? Is it just another skill, like smith craft or sword craft? Do we want people to be more or less blasé about it? Are magical items (like potions) for sale at the local market?

-Vs.-

· … everyone in this world is in awe of the mysterious, uncontrollable thing called

‘magic’, which virtually none of them have seen, let alone possess? Are magical items extraordinarily rare; would the notion of having a “WoW-Mart” seem absurd?

“Do you want a Fantasy world where…”

· Virtually everyone is literate, aware of other nations, & possessing maps of most (if not all) of their world? Is getting from A to B a simple matter of getting the right “connecting flights” (caravans/ships, etc.)?

-Vs.-

· Virtually everyone is illiterate, largely isolated, and what few maps exist in the world only cover a tiny fraction of the world (and even those are untrustworthy)? Is traveling to a distant location a recipe for getting utterly lost in the wild at best, and, more likely, getting eaten by unknown monsters?

And,

· “Fantastical” beasts (unicorns, dragons, demons, etc.) are common enough in the world, and if you go to the (equivalent of a) local “library” in this world, you can read up on them and probably find them?

-Vs.-

· Such creatures are the stuff of legend? While people do believe in them, they are out of everyone’s direct experience. Little of practical value is actually known, and they are impossible to go find on a map. Only Fate could bring you face-to-face with one.

And,

· “Adventurers” are a dime-a-dozen, wandering the world searching for treasure/fame, etc.?

-Vs.-

· People only leave their homes under extraordinary circumstances, usually because they have little-to-no choice in the matter?

These are just examples of questions to start asking yourself to determine what exact Fantasy subgenre you desire (and actually do) play in. Are they aligned?

Of course, everything is on a spectrum in between the extremes. While we may end up applying labels to our subgenres, the best starting place is to answer questions like these instead, & try for labels later.

The specific subgenre we use for our worlds has broad, perpetual effects on our RPG campaigns. If a group has little or no clear notion of what they want, disappointment & conflict are waiting right around the corner in every session. That is, if you really want a Middle Earth setting, and yet your GM has a setting like Westeros (Game of Thrones), you’re setting yourselves up for recurring problems. Far better to spend the time pondering what you really want before session one of a new campaign.

Daniel

2 - Beyond Bread & Water

Discovering What you Truly Want in RPGs

While it’s true that our survival depends on us getting the bare minimum of our nutritional needs met, that’s not where we set the bar regarding food. Early in life we come to know which foods we really love (and hate). We hunger for specific dishes, from ribeye cooked medium-rare, swimming in onions & butter to fish-n-chips drowned in vinegar and tartar sauce, or chili so hot that it clears clogged sinuses.

Gary Gygax & Dave Arneson

Five decades of RPGs have resulted in scores of different “gaming dishes” to choose from. Thanks to documentaries like The Secrets of Blackmoor (Morgan & Graves), we get a glimpse into the kinds of experiences the pioneers of RPGs enjoyed fifty years ago. And thanks to books like The Elusive Shift (Peterson), we are also able to see how RPG appetites evolved & (quite quickly, in fact) diverged.

Specific stylistic & subgenre recipes mix to generate very different RPG experiences, and they can end up feeling alien from each other. Just compare the Adam West Batman with the Christian Bale version. They’re both called ‘Batman’ but the substantial similarities stop there.

But many people, regardless of how long they have played, settle for what they inherited by chance, and do not consider what precise experience they actually want (and don’t want). The chances that what RPG elements fell into your lap matches exactly what you most deeply desire are abysmally low.

Why People Settle

People learn to settle for many reasons. For some role players the RPG activity, itself, is (to different degrees) irrelevant. Like having “movie night” where the group doesn’t care about which movie someone picked, the main drive here is to get together with their friends, eat carbs, drink beer, & ignore the weight of adulthood for a while. Socializing with friends irrespective of the activity is, of course, a fine motivator. If you’re sure that is your real drive, then good for you, & you need read no further.

But I believe that most role players do care quite a bit about the exact gaming experience they have, but have not stopped to consider their specific RPG desires. Perhaps people view their role playing as a mostly static thing. “This is what it means to role play.” Or maybe we assume that we will be “rocking the boat” and annoying our groups by ‘complaining’ or trying to change things. It’s hard to find a single answer. But we are creatures of habit, and we accept that something is just “good enough” too easily.

For gamers who do care about the game itself, I encourage you to ask yourself, “Do I know precisely what I want out of it?” (Note, that this is not the same question as, “Am I having fun?” What generates ‘fun’ is random, relative, and difficult to track to its source. I.e., it’s possible to have a terrible RPG session, and still have fun for a host of non-RPG reasons.)

The question here concerns your appetites & fulfillment (or lack thereof) in your role playing games. Returning to our movie night analogue, are you watching the movies you really want, or are you settling for whatever someone (even yourself) randomly picked? How close to the mark are you getting? Do you even know what your mark is?

Again, if you don’t care about the activity, itself (the movie for movie night or how the RPG is played for your gaming night), then settling makes sense. But if you do care, then settling is robbing yourself of (perhaps a great deal of) more enjoyment.

Adequately facing this question requires that we highlight the many elements within RPGs to discover what we want. Much like food-preparation, everything is on a spectrum. The proportions and types of vegetables, spices, breads, meats, etc., going into a dish generate the exact food you put into your mouth. What you drink with your meal has an effect, as does the order in which you consume parts of the meal. We have innumerable RPG methods, mechanics & settings, and those specific mixtures affect the exact experience in gameplay.

The Problem of Labels

It’s at this stage that many attempt to help clarify appetites by employing different paradigmatic tools, like the holy trinity of RPG pillars: The “Gamism, Narrativism, & Simulationism” (aka, the ‘GNS’) model developed by Ron Edwards c.2000. Others point to global playstyles and even systems themselves. What we convey with such categorical statements depends heavily upon the listeners' understanding of such terms. Using such labels may have some value, but also notoriously generates confusion & conflict. As is always the case, labels are double-edged swords, a problem exacerbated by social media impatience & contentiousness.

Instead of labels, I think it’s far more useful to discover the precise experiences you most want (& don’t want) when you play. A great starting practice is to reflect on your sessions to identify what you most strongly ruminate on, positively and negatively. These ruminations are telling you something important: “I really love it when…” or “I really wish we could skip over…” or “I get so annoyed/bored when…” Listing these insights will be illuminating.

Asking a multitude of questions will get your inner-dialogue going as you investigate. Broadly, these kinds of question will get the ball rolling:

• Do you want a heavily battle-centric game (where everything else in the game is largely an excuse to hack & slash)?

• Do you enjoy theatrically/dramatically playing your character, and interacting with your group as they do the same?

• Do you want to be in a very specific world/setting, or just a vague mishmash of eras & places?

• Do you expect your GM to let you succeed through one means or another?

• Do you want your situations to be lite? Silly? Serious? Dark?

• Do you want your sessions to mainly be a series of challenges: Puzzles, riddles, combat, etc.?

• Do you want the feeling of free exploration in the world, or do you prefer following a story that your GM has created?

• Do you want the possibility of character death from any reasonable source, or only when it serves some “dramatic purpose”?

• Do you love crunching numbers, figuring out how to use the game’s mechanics to your benefit?

• Do you love the ‘craps’ element, where dice rolls are the deciding factor in many events?

• Do you want a strong sense of legitimate cause/effect in the world, or do you prefer an endless series of Deus Ex Machina trapdoors to open to maximize drama or tell a specific story?

• Do you want to feel like you are truly inhabiting another world?

This kind of internal-interrogation is the beginning of finding your true appetites. Many answers will be, upon reflection, nuanced & contingent on other elements. Finding online RPG surveys help as well, for they ask the dozens of questions we need to answer.

This is where the journey starts: Asking yourself specific questions about what you love the most/least when you play. It may take months of rumination, but remember the goal: Knowing exactly what you want (regarding all areas of life) is absolutely necessary for getting it.

Daniel