C'mon a'ready, we did the other one.  Let's see some love, some sunshine, some glittering rainbows of happiness and joy!

...

...No?  Okay, then just something that you do like in your fantasy.  

Me, I like characters with descriptive names.  I'm not talking about names like Hroftar Greywulf and stuff -- I'm talking about names that say something about the character.

Jack of Blades.  Avro No-Nose, The Butcher of Greenwall.  Serina the Finder.  Long-Eared Huld.  Talia Keenpointe, Swordmistress to King Jun.  Grove Wanderfar.  Poondo Full-Pockets.

Nicknames, descriptive adjectives, or just names that tell you where the character comes from, who the character is.  I dunno why, but I find that more enthralling and colorful than Ker'wen Dral'muster or Qizz't Do'Urban.  Why?  Search me.

Now you!  Or I uncork this genie:

Vast wilderlands, and lost civilizations/ruins.

Oh, and dungeons.  Dragons too, I guess.

RPGPundit

Sneakin' thru the SECRET UNDERGROUND ENTRANCE into the THIEVES' GUILD, which located right in the middle of this city of DEPRAVED CULTS and CANNIBALS that's modeled on ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, in hopes of a) snuffing out the GRAND MASTER who's residing on the third floor; b) abducting his MAP to the hidden BLACK LOTUS FACTORY; and c) escaping via his PRIVATE STEAM-POWERED AIRSHIP that's sitting on the Guild's roof as we type; all while d) liberating its GNOME ENGINEER-CAPTAIN in the process; so that he might fly them right into the GREEN WORLD in the FORBIDDEN DEPTHS OF THE GRAND FOREST into which the ELVES have retreated a century ago when THE RED METEOR HIT THE CONTINENT and spilled forth its ARMY OF DOOM.

That at least is what's goin' on right now in my PBEM campaign.

Exploration of ruins and lost cities.  Political strife and intrigue.  Gnomes blowing shit up.  Fat "halflings" that prefer tea to adventure, but manage to stay alive anyway.  Primitive airships!  Last stands, desperate charges, and hordes of bad guys to fight.  Hundreds of barbarian tribes.  City-states jockeying for position on a long "silk road"-style trade route.  Bar fights.  Pirates that don't have hearts of gold, and those that do.  Ogre PCs.  Awesome place names!

I like all the gritty details of fantasy. I want to feel the scrape of steel as I test the edge of the blade with my thumb, to smell the old leather of my armour and feel the weight of the shield as I take it up, to taste the bitterness of the old wine, and to hear the footstep on loose scree of the ogre behind me on the mountain.

I like it to be fantastic.

Well, for one thing, I like blood.  Blood in astonishing quantity.  Creatures so big that when you finally kill the motherfuckers there's a crimson spray that coats you from head to toe.

I like blood because it is a powerful symbolic reminder of the many other ways in which violence has not been beaten and domesticated and stigmatized in the era of fantasy.  These crimson worlds are a dream of a time in which savage, brutal men and women are respected precisely because savagery and brutality are tools that people understand, tools that still need using in a world not yet tamed or pacified, a world that will swallow humanity if given half a chance.

I like there to still at least be some place left where you can check reality at the door, lay heavy on the suspension of disbelief button, and just dream.

A place were you just relax, have fun, and leave the anal retention so common in RPGs at the door.  

There's an innately childlike sense of imagination in the best of fantasy, and I wouldn't change that for the goddamn world.

I like mythic pageantry, ruins that cause the breath to catch in one's throat, vast wildernesses hiding both lost wonders, and dark terrors.

I like heroes who may not always be likable, but who when chips are down put their life on the line for what they believe in.

I like magic and enchantment, from ancient words of power, to riddles scribed in long dead tongues tied to curses needing to be unraveled.

I like elves, and dwarves, and dragons, and monsters that read like they come from Medieval Bestiaries, and those that spring fully from the flights of fancy for a world.

Any RPG setting, but fantasy in particular, I like building. Building my character to a point where they can then build a life goal. That goal may be a weapon, castle, stability or what have you but it is best if built. I love when you can go into ruins and rebuild them while exploring them and the surrounding terrain.

If I can't have that, I like getting ripe tomato...after all, I usually play a spud-boy.

Bill

Political intrigue between noble houses.  Huge battles with armies numbering in the thousands.  Swords.  More swords.  Blood.  And leather.

Real grim and gritty close up combat, ended only by biting out the throat of your foe.

Socks. You ever try wearing shoes or boots for any period of time without socks? The damn things can do some serious damage.

Soup and sandwiches. I know it's nutrious and easy to make, but you get sick of a constant diet of stew.

Wildlife. You go for weeks without seeing a damn ungulate, then all of a sudden a major predator pops up. No wonder that tiger, barbarian tribesman, or dragon always fights to the death, poor fellow is starved!

Taverns with decent sized towns to support them. You find a small village, a hamlet, a hovel with a long deceased inhabitant, and it has a tavern next to it. And the tavern is always packed. Where do the people come from? Where do they find the food to feed them and the booze to get them sloshed?

Local stores that don't carry everything and a wide selection of kitchen sinks. You walk into a place no larger than a walk-in closet, and it has multiple suits of full plate in a variety of sizes. And 15 aisles down is the protection from bonfires amulet section (15% discount this week only, 35% with a 2,000 gold minimum purchase).

Coinage that isn't worth the same wherever you go. How 'bout a little variation in prices for crying out loud? You really think pecans are going to cost the same where they're harvested as they do three months travel away?

Dragons that treat you like annoying pests. Which you are, in case you didn't know.

Children. How does the population replace itself? Is there a special "children's" department in that closet sized local store? When's the last time a snot nosed, mud smeared, naked brat tried poking her finger in the gaping wound in your hip? While noting, "Oooh, you got worms in there!"

Antagonists who know what they're doing. 'Nuff said.

And those are some of the things I like in my fantasy.

I like magic to be magical and the wilderness to be a place of fear and mystery.

As for character names, my character in the current D&D game is Benin the Nimble.  Also in the party are Nazreem the Terrible and Hamar Antslayer along with other PCs yet to gain titles (actually, Hamar's not too keen on that title, but I apply it to him at every opportunity and have paid our party majordomo to do likewise).

The weird and unexpected and the familiar yet unfamiliar.

A sense of wonder.

Ruins that are truly ancient and unknown.

Dark cults with inscrutable motivations and plans.

Magic that is mysterious, dangerous, and rare.

An embattled, flawed humanity struggling to survive against the odds.

Electrum pieces.