User talk:BenofZongo
--Edmiao 12:49, 21 January 2007 (MST) About the high fantasy complaint. The idea that it is impossible to suprise characters with monsters and that this is game killing does not hold true with me. Do characters need to be suprised or shocked by the form of their enemies? Take a modern cop drama like the one shot Ben did a few months ago. There were no suprises in the form of the enemies: mob goons, gang goons, governement goons. The interest arises from the drama in which said goons participate. In high fantasy, replace mob goons with goblins, gang goons with undead and govenment goons with dragons. In WHFRP Matt got some milage out of introducing Scaven and hiding magic, but at this point the only reason we would run from Scaven is if they outnumber us. The interest arises from the question "who is controlling the scaven and to what end?" Complaints regarding DnD are a separate issue, but i think as DnD is so dominant in the RPG Fantasy genre, that those complaints may taint the genre as a whole.
--Jason 13:51, 21 January 2007 (MST)Thats only one facet of what is so wrong with high fantasy as a genre. The examples you give are from games where the enemies were basically mundane. In the City of Tears, the enemy was just some normal doctor guy, of course what he was doing was a form of horror. Yet in a high fantasy genre, organ harvesting is still ho-hum. Wizards the world over use organs for spell foci. The skaven were a little unnerving, but in the end the characters shrugged it off as magic. The biggest problem with high fantasy is there is no consequence, its just a game of WoW. You die? No problem, we'll resurrect you. Gotta travel 10,000 miles today? We can teleport you. The thing I like least about all games is the monty haul aspect, which is utterly rampant. High fantasy at its core is about getting more gold and bigger magic items and then using those to go to the lair of bigger creatures to do it all again. It is basically a symphony of the ridiculous, and I cant suspend my disbelief for that. Whats left in the game is dice rolling, and the tactical aspect of roleplaying is lacking compared to games like clix or necromunda.
Its pretty clear that what I want from a game is almost diametrically opposed to what the rest of the group wants. I understand that, so I work within those confines so that we can all have a good time. I have considered taking a break from roleplaying for a while, and that would give you guys a good opportunity to play the high fantasy. Dont despair just yet. :-)
--BenofZongo 14:10, 21 January 2007 (MST)Are those flaws inherent to the concept of a magic rich fantasy world, though? I agree that the typical delivery of high fantasy has the flaws of which you talk, but that doesn't mean that a given game has to. I don't want to run DnD, but I would kind of like to run a fantasy game where players can be lots of different races, lots of different classes, and where characters can actually have a shot at having some sort of spiffy piece of gear. Not a game-breaking one, but just something neat. Also, I'm not saying those flaws could definitely be avoided, just that I would be game for taking a shot at creating a game world in the "high fantasy" setting and seeing if it could avoid said flaws. Finally, it's only one idea on the table: Matt and I talked about this after game friday and we decided that in the circumstance that the Jin Dynasty game does not continue, each of us should come up with 5 ideas a piece: we'd present them all to the players, and people could vote/pick which one they wanted. Whoever's idea it was would GM (of course, if Ed wanted to throw ideas into the pot too, or anyone else for that matter, that would be cool) the next campaign.
