What do I like in my fantasy? Well, let's see... Ashley Renee, Bebe LeBadd, Drew Phonix and...

Oh, not THAT kind of fantasy, huh? Well, never mind then......

Musclebound barbarians and lusty sorceresses. Weird magic. Demons. The poetry of carnage.

Not one hint of irony or self-reflection, anywhere.

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In some moods. That's really all bullshit, though. I like a good story, is all. Some fantasy stories are good; those are the ones I like.

Quote from: droogI like it to be fantastic.

That's where I am.  I don't want every game to have talking trees and full on animism, but I do want a lot of material that makes me go "Wow, that's really neat."

Fantasy, to interest me today, has to be doing something other than the classic Swords & Sorcery.  Fortunately, there's still a lot of room for fantasy outside of that narrow genre.

Part of what I like about Vimary is that it's actually a very small and very mundane area--Montreal and environs. The clash between that and the utter weirdness of things like the Fatimas and the Z'Bri that inhabit it is what does it for me. If the setting were some alien ice asteroid or some vast, Realms-sized fantasy world, the effect would be diluted.

Ancient  citys with dark secrets. Twisted powers behind the throne.

Ruins that are abandoned for a reason. Curiosity that killed the cat.

Mysterys of the past. Ones that take whole campaigns to unfold.

Wizards and Priests wielding powerful magic. Warriors and Rouges with strength and guile.

Creatures that make you fear the dark away from the citys and towns. And cults that make you fear the dark with in them.

Mad gods and insane priests. Unspeakable horrors from beyond. That what you must flee rather than fight directly.

When being a hero is actuality about a tough decision, not just the 'right' one.

Brave last stands. Glorious final charges. Deals with your enemy made on the fly. Wiggling out from under certain death.

Fantasy. I like it to be wholely unknown with the cities, cultivated countryside, and kingdoms literally being bastions of safety that humanity clings to. Few make it through the wilderness alive and those few that do have horrific and fantastic stories. Legends are born.

Villiages on the outskirts of the civilized areas are lawless areas where local guilds rule. Always willing to hire martial help to stave off the unknown horrors that threaten their livelihood.

The past is wholely forgotten. Unnamed ruins are occasional stumbled upon. Perhaps the Magi Guilds harbor the hidden history or perhaps not.

Rangers and wilderness scholars have sketchy records of other intelligent beasts that have been encounters. Aside from a general physical description, they a ignorant the the culture and practices of these other bestial races.

Quote from: NazgulAncient  citys with dark secrets. Twisted powers behind the throne.

Ruins that are abandoned for a reason. Curiosity that killed the cat.

Mysterys of the past. Ones that take whole campaigns to unfold.

Wizards and Priests wielding powerful magic. Warriors and Rouges with strength and guile.

Creatures that make you fear the dark away from the citys and towns. And cults that make you fear the dark with in them.

Mad gods and insane priests. Unspeakable horrors from beyond. That what you must flee rather than fight directly.

When being a hero is actuality about a tough decision, not just the 'right' one.

Brave last stands. Glorious final charges. Deals with your enemy made on the fly. Wiggling out from under certain death.

Works for me, good list, the only changes I'd make would be dropping priestly magic and occasionally not wiggling out from under certain death.

The wiggling out part comes from being able to get yourself out of that corner that you painted yourself into. Like an animal caught in a trap, it sometimes requires you to leave part of yourself behind.

No love for Priests, Balbinus? Is it that you don't like healing magic in games or that you see no need for a second spellcasting class(mages should have both)?

Quote from: NazgulThe wiggling out part comes from being able to get yourself out of that corner that you painted yourself into. Like an animal caught in a trap, it sometimes requires you to leave part of yourself behind.

No love for Priests, Balbinus? Is it that you don't like healing magic in games or that you see no need for a second spellcasting class(mages should have both)?

I see clerics and clerical magic as an artefact of D&D, to me they are very much part of D&D but not so much part of fantasy more generally.

Simple as that really, I don't think they reflect much in the fantasy genre other than D&D tropes.