The art of Dungeon Fantasy 13: Monsters 1

[Kromm]

That's only an error when done unintentionally and/or obliviously. Missing in your analysis is acknowledgement of the fact (and it is a fact) that GURPS Dungeon Fantasy wasn't written as a generic treatment. It's a very specific mini-game within GURPS that was – with great deliberation and understanding – designed to address a very particular type of gaming. In the words of DF 1:

Fantasy is an engaging genre, bursting with wonder and mystery. It offers worlds full of fascinating lands, dotted with great cities and populated by exotic cultures. All of this has a powerful resonance with any gamer familiar with myth, fairytales, and the fantasy epics of literature and film. For that, get GURPS Fantasy.

But something else resonates with nearly every gamer. That's the thrill of taking a powerful, faux-medieval adventurer down into a cave – or a haunted forest, or a sinister stronghold – and seeing lots of monsters, killing them, and taking their treasure. For that, there's GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. Break it out when you don't feel like dealing with complicated plots, fussy social interactions, and so on. The results won't be refined. They might not even be "real roleplaying" (whatever that is). But they'll be fun!

I think that GURPS Dungeon Fantasy is utterly honest about its objectives. It's deliberately looking at a very specific, not-generic-at-all subgenre of fantasy and even of fantasy that takes place in dungeons. It isn't trying to handle "all fantasy set in dungeons," but only, "all rather goofy, low-fi fantasy set in dungeons." As I said earlier, I'm just thrilled that people are going beyond that, using my very specific sub-subgenre books for things outside the sub-subgenre ("goofy, low-fi fantasy set in dungeons"), the subgenres ("goofy, low-fi fantasy" and "fantasy set in dungeons"), and sometimes even the genre ("fantasy"). But I would be lying if I claimed that I intended this. It's a fortuitous outcome – like seeing GURPS Undead cited in a research paper – but not a plan.

Originally Posted by Lupo

I think you are overestimating the depth and seriousness of other dungeon RPGs.

Not at all. I'm merely identifying a specific subthread present in those games and focusing on it. As a writer, I value focus. I think it would be a mistake to try to do in a few 32-page supplements what often takes an entire game system to do.

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It seems that perhaps some people have lost sight of auctorial license. A creative writer has every right to tackle the topic he pleases from the direction he chooses, including and omitting details as fits his vision. He isn't a journalist bound to present facts rather than conjecture, or an academic expected to recognize the state of the field or its philosophical groundwork. He can write as though he were, but this is – like topic and direction – just a choice. Frequently, good things come from zooming in on a small part of something and examining just that, as a "what if." While game systems, especially generic ones like GURPS, aren't creative writing in that sense, game supplements like GURPS Dungeon Fantasy are.