A little less Drizz’t and a lot more Conan

So, we’ve discussed the reskinning of the many races of 4th Edition D&D. We’ve talked about making monsters unique and monstrous, and we’ve talked about ways to alter the way Magic Items are used in the game. What’s left? The fun part. Actually writing a setting – thinking about what makes up “Classic Fantasy” as a genre, and extrapolating outward from there.

Let’s start with a run-through of the assumptions on which our new fantasy world will be based, using a process similar to that which D&D’s existing settings are based on. We’ll examine the assumptions used to construct “Points of Light,” and see what needs to be changed.

A Dark World

This assumption can be toyed with. D&D’s “Points of Light” setting assumes that there are no great empires left in the world; Tolkien’s “Middle Earth,” has at least one, the land of Mordor. Minor realms (like Gondor and Rohan) certainly qualify for this, and the idea that no settlement is exactly “safe,” is certainly a valid assumption. The world of Classic Fantasy, then, is A Dark World. It is Fantastic – magic is very real, monsters are very real (if sometimes rarer than other settings), and most decent fantasy settings have plenty of Ancient Mysteries lurking in the background, just waiting to be explored.

Monsters are Rare

This is the first point on which we begin our departure from the Points of Light setting. Monsters are scarce, but terrifying. They are alien, powerful, and deadly. The briefest encounter with a monster like a Dragon (Mog), a Minotaur (Jason and the Argonauts) or even a Troll (Grendel of Beowulf fame) is enough to spawn legends. Proper nomenclature for monsters might not even exist; each monster may well have its own name, and the locals might be unaware that it’s part of an entire race (the, “Grendel’s Mother” phenomenon).

The exception are the monstrous races, like Dark Elves, Orcs, Ogres, Goblinoids, and so on – pick out a selection of them and populate a few barbaric tribes or wicked civilizations beneath the earth. There are enough of these to offer a decent selection of cannon fodder, but there will typically be only be one monstrous race in a given campaign. They might use larger monsters in place of siege engines or tanks (Tolkien’s Oelephants and Cave Trolls).

A really great Classic Fantasy style setting should probably be run as a Sandbox game – the players are free to explore, and free to run away from a fight. Not everything the players will meet in this type of game will be weak enough to beat the first time.

Adventurers are Exceptional

This one stands pretty well as is, but it can be easily varied. I’d say the default assumption – that Adventurers are a hardy stock, a cut above average, and with an unfortunate tendency to have bards writing songs about them – holds up well under pressure. On the other hand, some of the defaults of the game can be adjusted for a grittier feel.

The Civilized Races Band Together

This one also survives largely unchanged; the civilized races being Dwarves, Elves, Humans, and Hobb– I mean, Halflings. While there may be some distrust between them (Humans cannot be trusted! They’re greedy and weak!), they still know who to call to get things done; each other.

Magic is Not Every Day, But …

Here’s another one that may get played with. There are two possibilities here. …

1. But it IS Natural: People generally don’t have a problem with magic. They aren’t superstitious about it, but it’s still rare enough that it doesn’t often impact the lives of the everyday person in any but the smallest ways. Tolkien’s Middle Earth is a fair example of this kind of world, as is – in theory – the Points of Light setting. …
2. But it ISN’T Natural, Either: If you look at most of the original Conan the Barbarian stories as written by Howard, you’ll find that magic is most often in the hands of the antagonist. Magic might corrupt the land around the caster the way it does in Dark Sun, or worse, it might corrupt the mind or body of the caster. This is “Swords and Sorcery,” and I would say that it’s important to consider as part of the Classic Fantasy genre – they’re closely related. Arcanist PCs in a world like this might have to hide their nature from townsfolk, and carefully control the way they cast their spells to avoid corrupting the land around them.

For ideas on how to treat magic, or attitudes toward casters, read Howard’s original Conan works, some of the newer Red Sonja comics, and the Dark Sun Campaign Setting – only without Psionics as a side-step of the issue. In fact, Dark Sun’s combination of boons and inherent bonuses provide a decent alternative to the magic item rules as well, so read them over if you’re looking for more options.

It should be noted that divine casters won’t have the same problems – miracles, while less common than in a more typical fantasy setting, don’t tend to carry the same kind of stigma as arcane magic. Party conflicts could provide excellent role-playing fodder! Of course, religious conflicts might be more pronounced, as well – people may not wish for healing from the cleric of a rival deity.

The rest of the standard assumptions (Gods vs. Primordials, and so on) vary wildly from setting to setting. Classic Fantasy worlds will often have their own very unique cosmology that isn’t necessarily related to the D&D standard at all – see Tolkien’s The Silmarillon. It might use real-world mythologies, or none at all. Or, it might use the standard set of ideas that accompanies D&D 4th Edition – it’s all up to you, the world builder.

High Fantasy vs. Heroic Fantasy

Fantasy, as a genre, is defined pretty loosely as, “stuff with magic in it,” so really, there’s a LOT of wiggle room for how you might tell stories within the boundaries of Classic Fantasy. I split Classic Fantasy into “High” and “Heroic,” but there’s plenty of room to quibble about these labels. The chief difference is what kind of stories might be told. Since High Fantasy is the most different from how D&D is normally played, I’ll talk about that first.

High Fantasy usually centers on a major struggle between Good and Evil (as absolutes, and as real-world forces); between Light and Darkness. Between Mordor, and … everyone else.

A High Fantasy Villain will probably be the closest thing to the embodiment of evil available, but usually NOT an actual devil. Sauron. The Lich King. Voldemort. Darth Vader (okay, not really, but picture a medieval fantasy version of Darth Vader and ignore everything that isn’t Star Wars: A New Hope, and you’re close to what I’m talking about). That kind of thing. They will typically have titles, like, “The Dark Lord,” or “Queen of Evil.” He will be seemingly unbeatable. Possibly even actually unbeatable.

His undoing? The One Ring. The Sword of Truth. The Hammer of Morradin; The Deathly Hallows. A Horcrux to destroy. The MacGuffin, or possibly even a proper Artifact of Doom.

The vast majority of High Fantasy villains either:

1. Can’t be defeated without a specific weapon,
2. Can only be killed by the subject of the prophecy (or even obvious loopholes like, “No Man can Kill Me!”), or
3. Can be disposed of via some seemingly easy method like, “destroy the phylactory!” or, “Take the Ring to the Fires of Mount Doom, where it was Forged; only there may it be destroyed.” That kind of thing. Something that sounds easy until you remember that Mount Doom is in the heart of Mordor, and surrounded by armies of orcs and goblinoids, and that you have to get through an entirely different army of orcs and goblinoids in order to get there – oh, and did I mention that it’s going to try to turn you into a villain on the way?

Yeah. It’s kind of like that.

High Fantasy is very “Big Picture,” with lots of “End of the World as We Know It,” plots.  That sort of focus lends itself well to Paragon tier play (under normal circumstances). But this is a Classic Fantasy game. You’ll likely be focussed on the main goal from the moment you set out on your first adventure – you’ll just have to be more careful about getting there (unless the player’s do something stupid and get themselves killed right away).

Also? You’ll want a map. Your best bet is to leave large portions of it blank and let the players fill in new details as you, “discover” them – or as you, the DM, make them up.

By contrast, Heroic Fantasy is more about the struggle of the heroes as individuals toward whatever their particular goals are – revenge, power, overthrowing an evil dictator of a more mundane stripe, that sort of thing. It’s less about absolute good against evil, and more about the personal problems of the people in the party and those they encounter. Politics may be a feature, and of course Evil Wizards are stock-and-trade. You may spend a lot of time in a tavern…

Let’s be real, here: Heroic Fantasy, as a genre, was codified by quite a few things: Conan was one. Dungeons and Dragons was another. Yes, that’s right. Heroic Fantasy is basically just saying, “Hey, let’s just play some D&D – and maybe in about 10 levels, when we find out what was driving all those seemingly unrelated plot elements, we can save the world.”

Of course, there are still good sources of inspiration if you want a more heroic-fantasy feel to your Classic Fantasy setting. See Conan, Xena: Warrior Princess (and to a lesser extent, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys) the previously mentioned Red Sonja, and many others – I highly recommend The Crimson Shadow and The Highwayman, both series by R.A. Salvatore, as excellent variations on the Heroic Fantasy ideal.

Getting Things Started.  What Happens BEFORE We Get to the Tavern?

Let’s take another look at Lord of the Rings for a moment. The Fellowship of the Ring is made up of:

• Aragorn, Ranger, master swordsman, descendant of kings and bearer of destiny
• Boramir, another great warrior
• Legolas, Expert archer and twin-sword style master; all around elf
• Gimli, Axe wielding gruff dwarf
• Gandalf the Grey/White, master of magic
• and Mary, Pippin, Frodo and Sam, four basically ordinary hobbits fresh out of the shire.

One of these things is not like the others… but in all seriousness, which are more likely to be starting characters in a Classic Fantasy game? That’s right: all of them. It just depends.

Luke Skywalker provides a similar example: naive farm-boy fresh off the farm strikes fierce blow against Evil Empire! Put him next to Han Solo, who’s been adventuring for years, Leia, Obi-Wan . . . yeah, I know, the Five Man Band is rarely balanced in film, but there’s something odd going on here.

This is about 2 parts hand waving (except in the case of the fairly incompetent hobbits) and 1 part investment into the world. Here’s a Classic Fantasy opening:

Start the heroes out in their home town, where everything is great, peaceful, idyllic. At like, level 0. Bad things happen, an artifact is discovered, or destiny revealed, and next thing you know the villains have shown up and the place is burning down around their ears.

This is also kind of how Star Wars opens, lending credence to my personal theory that the original Star Wars trilogy wasn’t actually a Science Fiction story, but rather a Fantasy story set against a Science Fiction backdrop. But that’s a discussion for another time.

On the flip side, we have the opening of every Conan the Barbarian story ever, which basically features an extremely competent adventurer who’s happened to have a run of bad luck. Again. I have yet to read a story that doesn’t start out with something like this: Conan was on top of the world, and then bad things happened and now we have something dramatic to tell a story about!

This illustrates another style of play: give your players everything (king of the castle, lords and ladies of the realm, start them at a higher level, the works). Then take it all away from them and make them fight to get it back.

We’ve all seen Classic Fantasy done. All you really need is inspiration and players who want to make it work. The very best advice I can give you is to immerse yourself in the literature that inspires you, become familiar with the tropes, and use it all to your advantage. If you love it, your players will probably love it, too.

Happy gaming!