tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2649414800580132680.post2441192227841009167..comments2024-03-28T02:54:09.487-05:00Comments on No School Like The Old School: "Medieval America" Nice, Safe, Derivative, and Boring.Mark Sieferthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14409314388156575545noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2649414800580132680.post-14060299701404658502011-06-20T14:18:22.084-05:002011-06-20T14:18:22.084-05:00I had the name feeling when I first encountered Du...I had the name feeling when I first encountered <i>Dune</i>. It seemed so exotic. Jaded old man that I am now, its hard to find anything that elicits as much of a reaction.Treyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04647628467658839351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2649414800580132680.post-61787226963719487732011-06-19T22:45:12.894-05:002011-06-19T22:45:12.894-05:00Hearty agreement. My hope is that people who are w...Hearty agreement. My hope is that people who are working away at their strange new worlds will keep doing so, and sharing a bit with the rest of us. Though he used tons of mythological types and folklore for material, the first time I read Tolkien it was WEIRD--it didn't seem vanilla at all. I think the boring material is that which is regurgitated Tolkien, or regurgitated Gygax, etc. That's how vanilla happens, for me at least. Fortunately, I have a lot of hope in the talents and imaginations of many writers right here in our midst. I don't know about commercial releases, but I think we will continue to see awesome flavor coming out.Alexeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04962792394148711578noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2649414800580132680.post-71954401448251218372011-06-12T20:37:17.598-05:002011-06-12T20:37:17.598-05:00I think the familiar is always going to resonate m...I think the familiar is always going to resonate more with some people than the new. I think there's a market for new, though--Tekumel is still around, after all. <br /><br />Even the setting's you mention are treading familiar ground in some ways, though. They're all still science fantasy sort of setting--and I love those, but newer, different things have been done. How about move weird fantasy to a different level of technology, like Mieville's Bas-Lag or Gilman's <i>Half-Made World</i>, or thinking beyond the pulp weird tropes like Jay Lake's <i>Mainspring</i> series--an alternate history were the universe quite literally runs on clockwork?Treyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04647628467658839351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2649414800580132680.post-35804244054679389592011-06-09T04:13:05.935-05:002011-06-09T04:13:05.935-05:00Sing it, brother! I'm right there with you: no...Sing it, brother! I'm right there with you: no more vanilla fantasy for me, please. And "medieval America" is exactly what I call it, too, although I also mean (and dislike) that expansionist, racist, Manifest Destiny, wild west thing that so many OSRites love.<br /><br />But there are problems.<br />1. the low concept issue, for getting people involved. High concept is something you can pitch to a movie exec in an elevator because it's made out of familiar parts, low concept is something you can't explain in less than half an hour. All the settings you cite are so resolutely low concept that really you should give the players the rulebooks to read a couple of weeks before you start playing so they have an idea of what characters to make and are jazzed to get involved. I love that, but I've seen it fail repeatedly even in long-running, patient and nerdly gaming groups if it's not presented carefully. It is definitely a limiting factor on spreading the word.<br />2. looking around the OSR, there seem to be lots of people who really love vanilla fantasy. Even folks like Alexis who want their games to be art also want goblins who shut up and are stupid little Tolkien rejects. I think they see the specialness of their game coming from somewhere else - somewhere I can't always follow them.<br />3. I personally get as jaded on exoticism for its own sake as I do on vanilla. Sadly, I feel Talislanta has quite a bit of this, even if it also has good qualities. I can understand being resistant to having to learn about issho and dyshas and all that when it's not obvious how any of it is different from magic. And I see the curse of this from both sides, because there's something in, say, 1980 Flash Gordon that really speaks to me, but other people won't get that spark off it, they won't think "cool" about that particular exotic detail, and if I build my world about it they'll go "meh," while I go "meh" over their Wookiees or gorge trolls.<br /><br />So for now I'm thinking more about fantasies that start close to Earth history and reveal their secrets slowly. But I'm damned there too because the histories I really want to tell aren't European.richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13517340075234811323noreply@blogger.com