How do you combine "gritty" in fantasy with the tone of myth and mythic fiction, folklore, and fairy tale? And once you've done that, how do you wrap it all up into an RPG campaign?
(Random thoughts follow. You have been warned.)
Perhaps the "grittiness" aspect should be primarily in a combat system that is suitably, but not overwhelmingly, crunchy?
I want a game that isn't child-ISH; there should be a feel / tone that is eerie, yet reminiscent of the childlike awe and wonder in folklore, fairy tales, creation myths, mythic fiction, and epic poetry.
I want it to be well-shaded, but not exclusively “dark.” (And yes, I am here distinguishing between "gritty" and "dark.") I want it to have light and dark extremes, but the tone must slip between the two, though always angling toward the fabulous, the wondrous.
I don’t want it based in the modern world. I don’t want it to be a “crossover” genre RPG either--people from our "real" world traveling to a fabulous world; while not a deal breaker, I never particularly liked that element in my fiction. Rather, I want the characters to be native to the fabulous world, though with little exposure to its fabulous elements prior to the beginning of the campaign.
One way to combine gritty and wondrous is, perhaps, is to selectively twist some of the fabulous elements to the horrific. Give the players hints at marvels, then surprise them (i.e., stab them in the face) with horrors. This has been accomplished to excellent effect in recent volumes of Berserk by Kentaro Miura.
Another way is to have the fabulous elements seem surreal--to have the characters seem firmly grounded in their gritty, low-magic world, then selectively add elements that are, by turns, weird, fabulous, and (to the characters) surreal.
And that begs the question of how to use magic as a fabulous element. Fabulous elements, including magic, must be culturally rooted, grounded. Each land / culture should have its own magical / mythical / fabulous elements, and these elements should *feel* different than the fabulous elements of other cultures. Thus, even if players are familiar with how magic works in their characters' cultures, magic remains novel / wondrous / frightening enough when their characters are exposed to other cultures. Rumor and hearsay can even be used to enhance, rather than detract from, this effect.
Should exploration and journeying should be an important (perhaps crucial) element of the campaign?
I've been thinking that the One Roll Engine (ORE) used in REIGN might be the perfect system to combine with many elements in the game Everway. ORE has the system crunch that makes combat and conflict satisfying. The combat system is gritty, perhaps deadly, enough to give the players pause, but its “unworthy opponent” (i.e. mook) rules make gives the players some satisfaction that their characters are suitably buff. The magic can be easily simulated once I have the magic / spell creation rules for REIGN, and REIGN’s magic already feels adequately culture-specific. The other Everway elements can be incorporated over time, including locations (though perhaps not multiverse aspects) as desired. Alternately, with exploration and travel campaigns, the other worlds found in Everway can simply be introduced as other cultures / lands on the same world.
Then again, the "narrativist" rules of HeroQuest might be a better system, though HeroQuest might not have enough combat crunch to satisfy many players.
Hm. So, yeah, that's what I want. So there.
Fiction with the right "feel" / tone I'm looking for might help, yes?
And that begs the question of how to use magic as a fabulous element. Fabulous elements, including magic, must be culturally rooted, grounded. Each land / culture should have its own magical / mythical / fabulous elements, and these elements should *feel* different than the fabulous elements of other cultures. Thus, even if players are familiar with how magic works in their characters' cultures, magic remains novel / wondrous / frightening enough when their characters are exposed to other cultures. Rumor and hearsay can even be used to enhance, rather than detract from, this effect.
Should exploration and journeying should be an important (perhaps crucial) element of the campaign?
I've been thinking that the One Roll Engine (ORE) used in REIGN might be the perfect system to combine with many elements in the game Everway. ORE has the system crunch that makes combat and conflict satisfying. The combat system is gritty, perhaps deadly, enough to give the players pause, but its “unworthy opponent” (i.e. mook) rules make gives the players some satisfaction that their characters are suitably buff. The magic can be easily simulated once I have the magic / spell creation rules for REIGN, and REIGN’s magic already feels adequately culture-specific. The other Everway elements can be incorporated over time, including locations (though perhaps not multiverse aspects) as desired. Alternately, with exploration and travel campaigns, the other worlds found in Everway can simply be introduced as other cultures / lands on the same world.
Then again, the "narrativist" rules of HeroQuest might be a better system, though HeroQuest might not have enough combat crunch to satisfy many players.
Hm. So, yeah, that's what I want. So there.
Fiction with the right "feel" / tone I'm looking for might help, yes?
- Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold
- The "Kushiel" series by Jacqueline Carey
- The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars by Steven Brust (obviously, not the modern aspects, but the folktale sections)
- The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien has a bit of this tone, though not his "Tolkienesque" imitators
- Some of the weirdness found in the work of Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and other pulp fantasy
Huh. Maybe I really want a good blend of pulp fantasy and folklore and mythic fiction? Hm. Pulp fantasy combat vs. unworthy opponents, but gritty combat vs. PC grade opponents. With fabulous elements that feel folkloric. And lots of intrigue and skulduggery to boot ...
*SIGH* ... this is going to take a while, isn't it?
Thoughts?
*SIGH* ... this is going to take a while, isn't it?
Thoughts?
1 comment:
I think one would need to leave Tolkien completely out of this equasion as the vast majority of people will not seperate him from his imitators, or rather look at his, oft neglected and in my opinion better work, the Silmarillion, and more recently the Children of Hurin.
RPGs that come to mind that might fit your criterion are things like Heroquest (Glorantha), Talislanta, Conan, Black Company or Artesia.
Heroquest has that big mythic and epic quality to it and I think the Heroquesting mechanic is phenominal.
Talislanta has all of the wierdness you could ever want and is yet somewhat familiar, at least more so than Tekumel.
Conan, is well, the quintessential pulp action with at time some mythic elements thrown in.
The Black Company is the grim gritty and wierdness.
Artesia follows along the lines of Conan but with magic more common and a heavy emphasis on the gritty realities of politics, war and religion. One of the more unique elements to Artesia is that when a person is initiated into a religious cult, the truths of that cult become TRUE for that person.
Post a Comment