I have a weird question to ask, Veeky Forums. Why is the wast majority of fantasy in set in a pseudo-medieval world? Is it just a legacy thing or is there is actually something about that time that appeals to the genre? I'm getting kinda thick of all the knights, kings, elves and Gendalfs. I think I would like to run weird non-modern and non-medieval fantasy game. Are there any good games or game settings like that? Is there something I should read or watch for inspiration?
Weird non-modern and non-medieval fantasy thread, I guess.
Ryder Ortiz
partly legacy, partly swords and bows
Ethan Bell
>Why is the wast majority of fantasy in set in a pseudo-medieval world? basically it's due to suspension of disbelief, the closer the setting is visually to the world the audience are familiar with the harder time they have accepting fantastical elements, by making it sort of medieval Europe you can get away with a lot more and the audience will also probably know enough about it that you don't need to explain the more mundane stuff
Henry Sanchez
Fantasy antiquity, run something where high magic and artifacts are being created and everything seems to be on the upswing. If you later feel like doing medieval shit have the ruins of your previous antiquity setting still be around, and high powered items that were common in fantasy antiquity be artifact level in fantasy medieval.
David Kelly
>I think I would like to run weird non-modern and non-medieval fantasy game. Isn't that the second most popular kind of fantasy? Especially if "non-modern" can mean futuristic.
Gavin Green
We had bows since what? - neolit? and swords since the bronze age. Is if want to talk gear you'll probably better off talking about armour.
Anthony Rodriguez
Eh, I probably should have been more specific. I'm not talking about sci-fi with psioncs.
Angel Mitchell
Most settings aren't pseudo-medieval so much as a wild mix of pre-gunpowder technology. You don't see a lot of fantasy settings with actual feudalism, for example.
If anything, medieval Russia and the medieval middle east is arguably closer to the average fantasy setting than medieval western europe.
Adrian Perry
Romanticism, mostly. And that era can reasonably tie in most other cultures as "mysterious race from far off land" because that was right at the end of such a thing existing
Jaxon Parker
Lazy worldbuilding. "Ye Olde Medieval Times" with wizards bolted on is a lot easier to write about than "modern world with coherent explanations for why the world isn't completely different from what it would be like if magic had existed for the past thousand years", mainly because we understand our time more than ye olden times.