- Joined
- Jan 22, 2008
- Messages
- 8,072
I think gunpowder is one of the big things. Personally what the heck, I don't mind it, but it bothers some people. (Did this arise from the belief that plate armour was impenetrable before firearms?) I am writing a story set in the late Renaissance, when pistols and guns are quite available (and probably more advanced than they really were then), and it makes things quite interesting. Also, the "our castle is impregnable but what are the enemy doing with those funny barrels?" scene has now been well and truly done.
The thing that strikes me as very D&D about that piece was the proliferation of races who are all quite similar. The more races you have, the more like each other every elf, halfling, orc etc becomes and hence the less credible. I am brutal and cockney - ah, you must be an orc then. I like delicate knives and unusual sex - hello, dark elf. While I'm all for some sort of fairy folk in fantasy (Robert Holdstock, anyone?) I find the whole half-elf fighter-thief-mage distinction just creates so many categories it seems to lose all the mystery that having a fairy world implies.
What I don't mind in the slightest though is the sense of straight-up fun you got from old fantasy novels. Although it's not what I'm trying to do - I doubt I could pull it off - there's something great about good honest heroics. I get bored of writers confusing "deep" with "dark".
The thing that strikes me as very D&D about that piece was the proliferation of races who are all quite similar. The more races you have, the more like each other every elf, halfling, orc etc becomes and hence the less credible. I am brutal and cockney - ah, you must be an orc then. I like delicate knives and unusual sex - hello, dark elf. While I'm all for some sort of fairy folk in fantasy (Robert Holdstock, anyone?) I find the whole half-elf fighter-thief-mage distinction just creates so many categories it seems to lose all the mystery that having a fairy world implies.
What I don't mind in the slightest though is the sense of straight-up fun you got from old fantasy novels. Although it's not what I'm trying to do - I doubt I could pull it off - there's something great about good honest heroics. I get bored of writers confusing "deep" with "dark".
