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Low fantasy was and is the term for Conan-style sword and sorcery, where the stakes are 'so you steal this treasure' rather than 'do you defeat the Dark Lord of Evil.' It's adventure fantasy, but the kind of adventure is not a quest modeled on ancient epics but more of a picaresque, heist, or pulp combat.
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Aug 30, 2018 23:10
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| # ? May 23, 2024 18:38 |
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Joe Slowboat posted:Low fantasy was and is the term for Conan-style sword and sorcery, where the stakes are 'so you steal this treasure' rather than 'do you defeat the Dark Lord of Evil.' It's adventure fantasy, but the kind of adventure is not a quest modeled on ancient epics but more of a picaresque, heist, or pulp combat. Conan spends a lot of his time fighting great evils tho 
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Aug 30, 2018 23:13
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That's thoroughly muddled by the provenance of picaresque stories with either an epic background or omnipresent magick. (The Dying Earth is an example of the latter.) Edit: "Liane the Wayfarer" is about a sociopathic thug who goes on a quest to steal a magical tapestry from a monster covered in eyeballs. His goal is to have sex with the witch he heard about from a tiny man riding a dragonfly. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 23:33 on Aug 30, 2018 |
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Aug 30, 2018 23:13
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This is kinda magic or This is magic as gently caress
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Aug 30, 2018 23:16
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I feel like the high/low fantasy thing is just never going to be the same in literature as it is in RPGs. The experience is just too different for the same terms to mean the exact same thing. For me, the distinction between high and low fantasy is always: can you play a guy who blows people up with magic (or do similar dramatic, flashy magic). If magic like that is available to PCs then regardless of how many limitations or restrictions you place on them, it's not going to feel like low fantasy. If the closest thing to a PC "wizard" is something like an herbalist, alchemist (without bombs) or fortune teller who might be able to do things like brew a healthful tincture, sense misfortune and evil or possibly affect things invisibly (such as pushing luck or fortune one way or another). Then it's probably low-fantasy, even if the setting features sorcerer-kings, demon lords and dragons. To a lesser extent, magical items are also a part of this...if you need a belt designed to hold potions or you've ever "upgraded" from one magical sword to a better magical sword, you're not low fantasy. Doesn't matter if the biggest artifact in the realm of man is a sword that never rusts, what matters is what's in the hands of the players. The on-the-ground PC experience is the most important.
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Aug 30, 2018 23:21
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fool_of_sound posted:Conan spends a lot of his time fighting great evils tho I mean they were more like regional evils. Like evil wizards, evil kings and evil wizard kings. Nothing that could threaten the whole continent.
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Aug 30, 2018 23:23
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oriongates posted:I feel like the high/low fantasy thing is just never going to be the same in literature as it is in RPGs. The experience is just too different for the same terms to mean the exact same thing. Which is probably why I'm not a fan of low fantasy using your definition, it tends to just be boring to me
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Aug 30, 2018 23:27
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It's also muddled by the fact that a lot of low-magic, grounded stuff, if it goes on long enough, seems inexorably to turn into high-flying epic wizard duels for the fate of the Well of Human Consciousness or whatever. Like, Melanie Rawn wrote two series (or 1.666 series, since I don't think she ever finished the second one after her mom died) that start out with pretty low-key magic that is mostly about personal character drama and international intrigue. Either slowly or quickly, all the heroes get everything they ever wanted and are just happy and in control, and then the Ancient Powers and the threats to life as we know it start creeping in. In my experience first- and second- and third-hand, this happens with a lot of RPGs, too.Plutonis posted:I mean they were more like regional evils. Like evil wizards, evil kings and evil wizard kings. Nothing that could threaten the whole continent. I mean, maybe Thoth-amon, if he wasn't just completely full of himself.
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Aug 30, 2018 23:28
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That Old Tree posted:I mean, maybe Thoth-amon, if he wasn't just completely full of himself. He just wanted his dang ring back!
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Aug 30, 2018 23:32
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There were at least the dudes from Hour of the Dragon and Black Colossus, even if they’re basically the same character but repurposed for a longer novel.
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Aug 30, 2018 23:36
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The best Conan story is the one where one wizard turns into a giant bird and yanks off another wizard's still living head and Conan's just like "man, gently caress wizards and all their dumb bullshit."
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Aug 31, 2018 00:12
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Kai Tave posted:The best Conan story is the one where one wizard turns into a giant bird and yanks off another wizard's still living head and Conan's just like "man, gently caress wizards and all their dumb bullshit." I think Conan cut the one wizard's head off. Which nevertheless keeps cursing at Conan, and once the bird-wizard flies off with the head, the headless body bumbles off after it. But yes that is the best.
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Aug 31, 2018 00:21
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Is there a thread or repository for short/small/concise game systems and/or mechanics? I want to see some other stuff like Fate, Freeform Universal, PTBA, and rulesets that can be put into a page or less for researchy stuff.
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Aug 31, 2018 00:58
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Halloween Jack posted:His goal is to have sex with the witch he heard about from a tiny man riding a dragonfly.
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Aug 31, 2018 01:13
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In conclusion, low fantasy is a land of contrasts.
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Aug 31, 2018 01:28
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I mean personally I'd class Dying Earth as a very specific kind of low fantasy, which is extremely weird and high-magic but is absolutely about an idiot going by Cugel the Clever getting himself into poo poo that only matters to him and whomever he's dragging down with him. Conan's got some high-fantasy moments when he faces off against epochal threats but they're pretty rare; usually the stakes are as low as Conan's own life and friends. But yeah genre's not real.
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Aug 31, 2018 01:31
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I’ve always seen it like this: low fantasy is something you’d airbrush on a van, while high fantasy is the blacklight painting you keep in your wood-paneled office/rec room and swear you’re going to frame someday.
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Aug 31, 2018 02:15
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I thought high fantasy was Naked Lunch.
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Aug 31, 2018 02:29
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low fantasy is when it's on the ground high fantasy is when it's in space
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Aug 31, 2018 02:55
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It's like the difference between Seinen and Shonen
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Aug 31, 2018 02:57
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low fantasy PCs drive a car like like this high fantasy PCs drive a car like this
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Aug 31, 2018 02:58
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Which Gundam shows are which kind of fantasy? Cite sources, use lots of quotes, and be thorough, thanks.
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Aug 31, 2018 04:33
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theironjef posted:Which Gundam shows are which kind of fantasy? Cite sources, use lots of quotes, and be thorough, thanks. MS-Igloo is Nazi fantasy. My source for this this is a fact that it focuses on the plight of a Zeon, talks about the tragedy their R&D Department faced, and ended every episode with a loving Nazi flag while a monologue went on about how cool the dead guy was and how cool he died. I know it's not actually a Nazi flag, but the Zeon flags is a Nazi flag. 
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Aug 31, 2018 04:52
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Covok posted:MS-Igloo is Nazi fantasy. My source for this this is a fact that it focuses on the plight of a Zeon, talks about the tragedy their R&D Department faced, and ended every episode with a loving Nazi flag while a monologue went on about how cool the dead guy was and how cool he died. I know it's not actually a Nazi flag, but the Zeon flags is a Nazi flag. Most people agree that IGLOO is overall mediocre beyond the new Mobile Suit and Mobile Armor designs it introduced, and any new music it added as well(in my opinion there's two things Gundam does well in almost every entry in the franchise, the mecha designs and the music)
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Aug 31, 2018 05:34
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theironjef posted:Which Gundam shows are which kind of fantasy? Cite sources, use lots of quotes, and be thorough, thanks. Don't ask questions about Gundams they have answers for.* * they have answers to all the questions
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Aug 31, 2018 06:28
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Neuromancer is low fantasy. Sleep's seminal album 'Dopesmoker' is high fantasy.
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Aug 31, 2018 06:37
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Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is loa fantasy.
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Aug 31, 2018 07:03
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Hedningen posted:I’ve always seen it like this: low fantasy is something you’d airbrush on a van, while high fantasy is the album covers of what you're blaring out of that van.
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Aug 31, 2018 07:03
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Foglet posted:Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers is loa fantasy. 
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Aug 31, 2018 07:07
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Lord of the Rings is high fantasy except for the bits in boats which is row fantasy.
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Aug 31, 2018 08:10
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Cinderella is toe fantasy
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Aug 31, 2018 08:30
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Low vs high fantasy are literary genres referring to whether things are set in the "real world" or in an entirely fictional world. It has nothing to do with the tenor of the stories told or the amount of type of magic present, that confusion is caused by RPG nerds misusing jargon they don't quite understand in an attempt to look smart and, when being called out on it, hiding behind what "the words mean to me, language evolves abloo bloo you're the wrong one shut up"
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Aug 31, 2018 08:59
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They're also kind of fuzzy distinctions to begin with due to things like Conan and Lord of the Rings being theoretically set on Earth a long time ago.
Splicer fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Aug 31, 2018 |
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Aug 31, 2018 09:06
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I'm starting to think the original distinction is meaningless, especially since there are now more precise terms to refer to various sorts of fantastical conceits intruding upon a presumably real world. Meanwhile at least the dumb D&D-ified term actually has some use, if only in describing tone.
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Aug 31, 2018 12:41
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In High Fantasy the races take inspiration from mythology and folklore. In low fantasy the races take inspiration from eugenics and phrenology journals.
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Aug 31, 2018 12:46
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I feel like the concepts of "magic users can topple buildings and raise undead armies" and "magic users can make healing poultices and commune wish spirits" can be better expressed with "high magic" and "low magic".
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Aug 31, 2018 13:55
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But what if the former is possible but uncommon? Where poultices and spirits make up the majority of magic use but the novel/campaign villain is working on a ritual that will turn the continent into angry skeletons?
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Aug 31, 2018 14:03
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I am now creating a setting where a poorly phrased spell has turned much of the world into angry skeletons, but none of the inhabitants.
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Aug 31, 2018 14:05
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https://twitter.com/Feyhaven/status/1035306299347619840
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Aug 31, 2018 16:26
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| # ? May 23, 2024 18:38 |
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PLAY BALL!!!
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Aug 31, 2018 16:42
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