[DF] Advice for first-time Dungeon Fantasy GM

[Stripe]

Originally Posted by b-dog

Could there be a GURPS series about high fantasy with dwarves and elves and dungeons that is done in a serious manner?

As Kromm's public relations representative, I'm gunna have to advise him to stop using the word "silly" when referencing the DF series. He's not talking about the mood and atmosphere of a DF campaign. He's saying the fact that it is a heavy-magic world rife with classic dungeons (monsters, traps, treasure, etc.) with no explanation for it being so makes it "silly." He's calling any such world "silly."

For example, he's using the word silly to describe a DF campaign based on a world not much unlike Athas of the Dark Sun Campaign Setting. Of course, we can probably all agree that the mood and atmosphere of Dark Sun isn't silly and Kromm's not saying it is. (I'll note the one and only published adventure is set in a desert and there was nothing "silly" about its mood or atmosphere). But, DF, like Dark Sun, is a worked example; DF just doesn't use space in its rules books to include setting information to explain the classic tropes and staples and stereotypes of a campaign setting like Dark Sun (or Ars Magica or Pendragon or Stormbringer) does. So, by default, DF is "silly" in Kromm's words because that sort of stuff shouldn't exist and DF doesn't take the time to rationalize it.

In other words:

Originally Posted by Kromm

[DF] isn't explicitly silly.