Preference for Fantasy Games.

[Spudzill]

When I run Fantasy games most of my games are run more like Conan than Middle Earth. I love the old Decadent City-states, the Corrupt Temples of Wizard-Priests, and the grim darkness of the Gods they worship. My last game was a basically Greek Inspired Atlantis where Dinosaurs infested the Hinterlands and Mammoths were domesticated and the Evil Empire of Mu plotted continuously against the Mageocracy of Atlantis. As one went out into the Bush the reamains and ruins of Pre-Human civilizations littered the landscape. In the Mountains Sasquatch and Yeti would attack the unwary and a powerful Necromancer plots to return from his exile.
What are the fantasy preferences for you guys? I admit my own are sorta Pulpish. :D

[Sydney]

Originally Posted by Spudzill

When I run Fantasy games most of my games are run more like Conan than Middle Earth. I love the old Decadent City-states, the Corrupt Temples of Wizard-Priests, and the grim darkness of the Gods they worship. My last game was a basically Greek Inspired Atlantis where Dinosaurs infested the Hinterlands and Mammoths were domesticated and the Evil Empire of Mu plotted continuously against the Mageocracy of Atlantis. As one went out into the Bush the reamains and ruins of Pre-Human civilizations littered the landscape. In the Mountains Sasquatch and Yeti would attack the unwary and a powerful Necromancer plots to return from his exile.
What are the fantasy preferences for you guys? I admit my own are sorta Pulpish. :D

My tastes actually, tend in that direction as well. It makes for a fun time.

[sjard]

Sounds similar to my preferences as well. I like the occasional non human race, but usually as the rare npc rather than something for players to use.

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Originally Posted by Spudzill

When I run Fantasy games most of my games are run more like Conan than Middle Earth.

Same here, particularly when I'm running a Hyborian Age campaign.

(So happy to have copies of GURPS Conan.)

[Collective_Restraint]

I've been a long time fantasy fan and about 99% of my RPGing was with fantasy style games. I tend to like "generic" fantasy settings; elves live in forests, dwarves in mountains, orcs loot and raid and humans pretty much everywhere. The cities and empires can be as varied as they come; some allow slavery, some are decandent, some are bastions of justice, etc. That's how I play Dark Eye, D&D, GURPS, Dragon Warriors and the like. Why do I play these types of setting ? Because the players know what to expect right from the start and it speeds up the character creation process. I did GM some variant settings like Dragonlance ("it's fantasy but there's kenders instead or halflings and there's no orcs") or Ultima ("it's fantasy but in a very human-centric setting").

To me, what makes a good game is not a good setting, but a good story. Take the best designed setting and game in it with a GM that can't tell a story, it will fail miserably no matter what. I must admit that I also have an addiction to epics. I can't start a game without thinking of a major story arc that will happen. It doesn't mean that the game will only be about that story arc, but it will be present. I also like to incoporate plot twists for every PCs to make each one of them equally important to the story.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Collective_Restraint

To me, what makes a good game is not a good setting, but a good story.

Absolutely, but good settings are things that can be fun even when not actually gaming.

It's like the difference between a good work of fiction (the story is pretty critical) and a good work of non fiction (exploring the "setting" of the real world).

[Collective_Restraint]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Absolutely, but good settings are things that can be fun even when not actually gaming.

Yes. I guess what I was trying to say is that I see too many times that people seem to think a setting is good if it's original. Like considering Eberron better than GreyHawk because there's warforged. "It's so cool, there's sentient robots in a fantasy setting." Where I might find GreyHawk, Mystara and the Forgotten Realms better settings because there's a lot of background information on the setting. The maps are detailed and the history is rich. That makes it a good setting because the setting looks alive. I'm not saying Eberron is bad, I'm just saying it shouldn't be considered better just because it's different than other fantasy settings.

[whswhs]

Looking at my own campaigns, I've run more historical fantasy than modern fantasy. I don't tend much to run multiracial stew; except when I was doing Griffin Mountain, where the exotic races are part of the setting, I tend to have either all human, or human plus one fantastic race. Though I did run a campaign set in Middle-Earth with elves, men, and hobbits as PCs.

I tend to like fantasy where personal relationships are important to the story. Yes, there will be battles and missions, but who's friends with who and who's sleeping with who also get play time.

I'm not fond of predefined spell lists; I like either "define your own spells as powers" or "freeform magical improv" as modes.

Bill Stoddard

[Astromancer]

My tastes in Fantasy gaming have a Moorcockian/Fitz Lieber slant. I like cities that mix the traits of Ancient Rome, Elizabethan London, Neo-Classical Paris, Renaisance Venice, and Tokyo in the Edo period. With subtle, but powerful freeform magic, and steampunk tech. And I like rakes and con men, with magic powers, for protagonists.

Also the setting should have a feeling of the past to it. A sense of past civilisations and ancient magics!

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

My tastes in Fantasy gaming have a Moorcockian/Fitz Lieber slant. I like cities that mix the traits of Ancient Rome, Elizabethan London, Neo-Classical Paris, Renaisance Venice, and Tokyo in the Edo period. With subtle, but powerful freeform magic, and steampunk tech. And I like rakes and con men, with magic powers, for protagonists.

Also the setting should have a feeling of the past to it. A sense of past civilisations and ancient magics!

Sounds pretty spiffy!