I'm starting to develop a few adventure ideas, and I got curious about what people usually prefer.
When you play or GM RPGs, do you prefer more classic fantasy, with big adventures, magical creatures, kingdoms, and exploration, or something closer to dark fantasy, with horror, decaying places, disturbing creatures, and a heavier atmosphere?
I’ve noticed that my ideas naturally tend to lean much more toward dark fantasy, so I wanted to ask: which style appeals to you more, and why?
I prefer darker, grittier and grounded fantasy, but I'm mainly a GM, so I don't know if it counts. But I prefer when characters can be heroic when it's not the expected default experience. I do need a dose of comic relief though.
Whatever doesn’t look like an entire convention got isekaied into it.
Somewhere in the middle.
While there are elements of dark fantasy that I vastly prefer, I've gotten somewhat tired of how generic dark fantasy is lately.
Entrails, Indescribable Monsters, Body Horror, Everyone's an asshole, blood, EVIL magic, take something not evil like fairies or angels and make them grotesque and bloody.
I love the way a good Gothic dark style feels for a world, but I find it tiresome how it has become synonymous with porn for misery and gore. I don't prefer clean cut classic as it were, but I'm not really interested in buying any more books that are just a slideshow of blood and guts.
I prefer low-magic historical/historically themed fantasy with a very large dose of grounded believability.
Classic fantasy.
* The real world is dark enough.
* The best stories, IMHO, feature both darkness and light, good and evil, etc. because that is realistic. Too much media these days is all in on the darkness with no hope.
* Cynicism and edgy darkness doesn't necessarily make you mature or wise.
Both have their place but I prefer it hopeful.
There's gotta be some points of light in the vast inky blackness.
More The Two Towers, The Book of Three or The Scarlet Citadel than The Rime of the Ancient Mariner or The Epic of Gilgamesh
I like both dark fantasy (very dark and gritty) and high/epic fantasy. For some reason, it's the low/rustic fantasy genre that literally has 0 grasp on me (think Legend in the Mist, just to take a recent and relatively famous example).
If your developing ideas. Go with what you enjoy
That's it
I like both, sometimes you want to feel heroic and impactful to the world, and in others you just want to feel dread and despair(while playing as a Khajiit, if i wanted to play a human i would be playing Twilight 2000)
I prefer lighter than classic fantasy, but it's rare. Many rpgs are too American and too combat focused for my taste, and many non-American rpgs are too dark for my taste. Found a few exceptions like Ryuutama though and I can always change a setting.
Not sure quite what ‘classic fantasy’ is, tbh. I’ve played a lot of what I think of ‘vanilla’ D&D fantasy, which has become its own thing. Elves, Dwarves, Halflings etc per D&D aren’t really what I ever read about or look for in actual fantasy fiction. At least not these days. When I started with 1e I found that D&D could easily be used to adapt fantasy from other sources. Less so later. IMO, of course.
I assume Dark Fantasy is more along the lines of the Old World of WFRP 1e etc, or books like The Black Company, or Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Some of Michael Moorcock’s fantasy fits in here, to my mind.
I prefer fantasy to be firmly based off mythology/folklore, or someone’s own homebrew adaptation of some books/films/TV. I prefer relatively low magic, and grittier games. I like the three instances I gave above, for example. However, I don’t tend to like things being excessively grim or dark. I’m also quite happy for the fantasy world not to have Elves/Dwarves/Halflings or any of the familiar fantasy races.
However, I’ve been around a while, so I’ve learned to enjoy a variety of fantasy styles, and to enjoy having the variety. Which is probably why I enjoy playing in the more high magic/higher fantasy 5e and GURPS games in one group, but in the other group (where I’m the forever GM) I run low magic/low fantasy worlds via Into the Odd & Tales of Argosa.
"Too much media these days is all in on the darkness with no hope"
I mean, write what you know right? When something hopeful happens again I'll start playing in the land of noble dwarves and happy elves again.
I prefer and lean towards dark fantasy adventures set against a high fantasy backdrop if that makes sense?
The characters are trudging through dark dungeons and blighted forrests and such, but in a world where mighty wizards, ancient gods and dragons have their own plots, plans and gambits that are mostly unseen, but occasionally involve the party either directly or indirectly.
I definitely prefer a classic fantasy setting. I find dark fantasy a bit too edgy and draining to GM week to week. I want a bit of levity and adventure in my gaming.