Familiar

>this realm of fantasy, that follows its own internal logic and has its own aesthetic styling, doesn't follow these realistic parameters
>let me complain about on Veeky Forums for one hundred threads

World trees are fine
No one cares what you name things
Agreed spears and polearms and sieges should be more common
More complex systems than “i cast fireball” would be something I’d want to try

Coding a setting with familiar tropes makes it more accessible to players.

If a DM doesn't exploit this body of common knowledge, they have to waste time describing their setting with boring monologues, slowing down the game.

There are quite a few games with spell creation systems. Try one of those, like Ars Magica or Runed Age.

>he wants casuals in his game

>Complaining fantasy is too fantastical

>He doesn't design for effect

Ill bite, what's wrong with a town gaurd? Aren't they effectively just patrolling policemen?

>familiar
By that logic any historical RPG is bad. Familiarity is not an inherently good or bad thing. There are good things that are familiar (your pet dog) and bad things (stubbing your toe), it means nothing.
>elemental creature/race
Elementals take many forms. Are you arguing against the flaming people from DnD, against the undines from greek culture, or any of the other representaions of the 4 (or 5) elements.
>oversized pauldrons and spikey armor
Spiked armor was 100% real, but not often used because it was useless against armored foes and was also difficult to craft. Giant pauldrons depends on the size, some single arm paudrons held blade guards as part of their design, and therefor could be quite bulky.
> 15th-century technology yet no guns
Depends on what you mean by 15th century technology. If there is no gunpowder but the printing press exists that's fine, but having a proper cannon and no rifle in the same world is bad design.
>world trees
See point 1
>lovecraft
See point 1
>meaningless place names like 'valator' because they sound Tolkien-esque
Most names are meaningless in context. London is thought to be named after a guy called londinios, or maybe an ancient family name for fierce, but no-one actually knows.
>dark lords
see point 1
>characters wears sword sheath on their back
Back sheaths are real, they just work differently than you think.
>town guards
100% real, every town had at the very least a small militia for punishing local criminals
>standing military
Does Greece not exist to you?
>every soldier has nice armor
Does Rome not exist to you?

>I hate fantasy but I still play
hurr durr

thank you mr. fun police

>soldiers use swords first with not polearms in sight
Finally, you said something that made sense
>open battles are common instead of actively trying to avoid each other to lay siege
Depends on the time period and your definition of "open battle". Sorties were extremely common during sieges, and often involved large numbers of troops rather far away from the castle or defensive position itself. Not to mention that the French and English had a whole thing going on with "people in lines just hitting each other in a field"
>magic college
How else are you supposed to learn the secrets of magic without a place to actually learn?
>magic is as simple as 'cast fireball'
Setting dependent. Magic can be an innate skill that functions through feelings, or a projection of ki with different channeling through chakra points, or using the power of music to shoot lightning. Fuck you it's magic.
>plate armor and shield at the same time
plate armor and shields show up very commonly in 14th and 15th century literature and artwork, but many sources do say that they were rarely used in battle.
>golems
See 1
>tieflings
See 1
>drow
See 1
>every non-human race is a monoculture
While i personally dislike this trope, see 1
>empire is evil while the kingdom is good
I have literally never heard of this trope
>beastfolk
See 1
>dwarves live in mountains to mine even though hills were a preferred area for mining
Depends on what you are mining as well as the geography. Mountain mining is common in eastern america due to the high amount of surface level coal. Since fold mountains and mountains formed of underthrust strata can potentially bring up deep layers of the crust, while overthrust and volcanic mountains can potentially do the opposite. That's all assuming the fantasy world works like Earth.

Thanks, this incredibly dumb post helped me brush up on my Geology and 15th century ironworks history, so at least it wasn't a total waste.

good thread

While I know OP is made of pure baitium, I really think he meant ‘familiar’ as a noun - you know, the little creatures that spellcasters sometimes carry around.

>dwarves live in mountains to mine even though hills were a preferred area for mining
This is just fucking retarded. Basically, what wrote, while mining in an unaccessible region is of course more difficult, depending on geological formations / ore deposits, the additional gains might very well be woth the cost.

>15th-century technology yet no guns
This is justified in my setting in that there are no natural volcanic areas. The only volcanic area is entirely artificial and is used to imprison a xixecal. Should it attempt to escape, its chamber will be flooded with magma, killing it.

There's potassium nitrate in poop, suck a dick retard

Grats, you now have a handful of shit. Where's your sulfur?

Salt domes

Which weren't discovered until the 19th century.

I'm going to need a source on that

geology.com/stories/13/salt-domes/
>Salt domes were almost unknown until an exploratory oil well was drilled on Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, Texas in 1900 and completed in 1901. Spindletop was a low hill with a relief of about 15 feet where a visitor could find sulfur springs and natural gas seeps.
20th century, my bad.

>15th-century technology yet no guns
Kill yourself
>magic college
Nothing wrong with that, depending on how magic works in the setting
>golems
Kill yourself
>familiar
Alright, fucking off yourself

how the fuck do tectonics work than in your setting

>familiar
check
>elemental creature/race
check
>magic is as simple as 'cast fireball'
check
>plate armor and shield at the same time
check
>drow
check

But OP you forgot
>orcs of any kind

>world trees
>golems
>shit

Considering the world got kersploded until settling into a ton of islands floating on a small body of water, tectonics aren't an issue. Planet is tiny and yes gravity is fuck-all.

Sounds like a fairly generic setting, can you give us a little more imformation? Also, might I suggest posting in /wbg/, they usually have some good advice on these kinds of things

>familiar
>elemental creature/race
>oversized pauldrons and spikey armor
>world trees
>lovecraft
>meaningless place names like 'valator' because they sound Tolkien-esque
>dark lords
>town guards
>standing military
>every soldier has nice armor
>soldiers use swords first with not polearms in sight
>magic is as simple as 'cast fireball'
>plate armor and shield at the same time
>golems
>drow
>every non-human race is a monoculture

SAY THAT TO MY FACE ATOP YGGDRASIL AND NOT ONLINE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS

than how does the volcano work where does the supposed magma come from

Like I said; artificially created and maintained with countless man hours worth of magic, carving, and harvesting metals from other planets for heavy chains. It's not a volcano, it's a lava cave incapable of eruption made to imprison a terrible ice demon so that it wont reincarnate and wreak havoc. Better to lock it up for 500 years than to have it show up every century.

>magic is as simple as 'cast fireball'
Ah yes I too enjoy my magic being so overdesigned to hell and back that I need to conduct an incredibly frustrating and tedious ritual homebrewed by the DM who thinks he is being unique and witty for shitting on anything involving casters, just to achieve underwhelming results.
Seriously, a player who is actually passionate about playing a caster character will take care of magic being "too simple" themselves, its their job after all. You dont need to artificially make things difficult, just ask players to be more descriptive and imaginative about things they cast. I mean, I understand that some DMs might feel tired of people taking magic for granted instead of treating the Art with reverence it deserves since they literally shape reality with their own hands and mind, but thats no the fault of magic. Making magic to be incredibly anal to use wont fix that.
Just play Ars Magica if you want something actually substantial.

than why don't they just magic a gunpowder solution into existence

Might as well ask why don't they just magic a computer into existence. They have no concept of it, and don't know that sulfur can be used to create explosives. The science behind bat shit and sulfur being used to make fireballs is over their heads.

Chemistry is quite lacking.

This sounds pretty complicated just to justify not having the boomstick in your setting. There really is no reason not to have guns in a medieval setting other than the author's ignorance of history. Guns and other things you associate with the medieval era co-existed for several centuries and they weren't the downfall of knights or the cause of industrialization, ironically the cause of those two things were what many fantasies actually have, a printing press and by association a higher literacy rate among the common man.

>There really is no reason not to have guns in a medieval setting other than the author's ignorance of history.
What about gunpowder being made completely on accident?

>>familiar
Often done boringly, true. I also dislike archetypes with "pets" where a character is supposed to be interesting through his relation to a more interesting entity than himself. But that is a personal taste thing.
>>elemental creature/race
Very prolific trope, yet super boring. Often a pure vehicle for rock paper scissors energy types. A monotonous vague blob of one type that is only interested in stuff of it's type is not very thematically stimulating. Absolutely agree.
>>oversized pauldrons and spikey armor
Slightly oversized does good things for style and recognizably, same thing for spikes. It's more a problem of things getting more and more extreme with each copy iteration. Also the choice becoming compulsive.
>> 15th-century technology yet no guns
Absolutely fine, a fantasy world is not beholden to our timeline. Though I welcome guns.
>>world trees
A tad superfluous as a pure mythological background when you could have the actual structure of a tree influence the geography of a world. It is wasted as mere doodle on a scroll between the names of two planes.
>>lovecraft
Absolutely overused and flanderized right now. Everybody's favorite crossover material it seem. Agree.
>>meaningless place names like 'valator' because they sound Tolkien-esque
Doesn't sound too much like Tolkien. But yes most fantasy names are to heavy on vocals for my taste.
>>dark lords
They are fine.
>>characters wears sword sheath on their back
Fine if you don't go for full realism. Looks good. And even then I think it's a nice detail design challenge to make it work with the weapon and scabbard form. Also valid traveling transport for a war weapon.
>town guards
Not sure what you are on about. totally fine.
>standing military
Same. Reminder, fantasy is no mirror of our historic circumstances, even if you go for maximum verisimilitude.
>every soldier has nice armor
Provides the production base or stocks from a prior time, yes why not?

...

>image macro
>>>/2011/

I think I won't bother going on. I can share OPs sentiment in favor less generic settings, though I think his distaste for individual tropes is mostly misplaced. You can't judge a single very basic element in a vacuum isolated from genre and the remainder of the setting.

But 2011 was the year of implications, try 2008 instead.

>It's a caster crying the moment he thinks he might not be the epiciest guy in the battle

And how did you deduct that from my post?

>familiar
wtf is wrong with this autismo?
>elemental race
yep this is gay
>oversized pauldrons and spikey armor
gay
> 15th-century technology yet no guns
gay
>world trees
who the fuck cares
>lovecraft
a must in every world
>meaningless place names like 'valator' because they sound Tolkien-esque
who the fuck cares
>dark lords
gay
>characters wears sword sheath on their back
gay
>town guards
>world with monsters
>not having town guards
>standing military
>world with chaotic races
>not having standing army
>soldiers use swords first with not polearms in sight
gay
>open battles are common instead of actively trying to avoid each other to lay siege
gay
>magic college
if magic exists they'd be a college for it
>magic is as simple as 'cast fireball'
forcing people to create fluff just to stop you having an autistic fit
>everything below this
you have autism.

I really, really, really like that image. :)

Can I save it?

>familiar
magical animal companions are okay.
>elemental creature/race
>lovecraft
are good if done right.
>characters wears sword sheath on their back
has been done for travelling purposes.
>town guards
??? explain this one please
>golems
>tieflings
>drow
>beastfolk
are you not a fan of fantasy?

>>empire is evil while the kingdom is good
>I have literally never heard of this trope
I have, but only in the context of someone complaining about it in Veeky Forums.

>Historical accuracy

then you're even more retarded for defending the OP

I see nothing wrong with playing a beast race with a familiar.

You made a thread just to tell us what tropes you don't like? We don't even know who you are, why should we care?

>This thread

Who are you quoting?

You cared enough to post, thanks for the bump btw friend! Thread was almost dead without you :^)

ah the ol' 'if I make a jpg out of the situation in mspaint then I'll be the victor' tactic

>> 15th-century technology yet no guns
The only fantasy setting I can think of that is mostly 15th century is WHFB. The standard is 14th or 13th century, and while guns certainly existed they were nowhere near as prominent as they were during the 15th century.

all of that sounds pretty rad

Literally all of Final Fantasy.

nothing wrong with town guards, golems, and beastfolk

>liking things