Moving on!
Here's a quick description of one of the more memorable fantasy RPGs I’ve played. The main character has a distinctive sword as his trademark weapon. He wanders around a strange world full of diverse creatures (and usually kills them). He faces the likes of dragons, ogres, and demons. Sometimes he and his friends use magic spells to defeat them. It sounds pretty generic, but I found Final Fantasy 7 to be one of the most unique fantasy titles I’ve played.
Final Fantasy 7 (and it’s barrage of T.V. commercials) was what convinced me to buy a playstation. The game totally lived up to the hype (with one exception:
I mean really...).
What impressed me the most about it was how strange it was, despite being rooted in the traditions of a fantasy RPG. In addition to the features I listed earlier it was also filled with things you never saw in Dungeons and Dragons. The game was infused with all sorts of cyberpunk stuff: machine guns and helicopters (and zeppelins), and robots. Despite all these technologies, the main hero still carried a sword (a hugely impractical sword that was impossibly large). The characters for FF7, indeed all the elements of the game, seemed well thought out and interesting.
Final Fantasy is obviously not “traditional fantasy” by any means but it still feels like part of that genre. To be fair, it’s probably at the fringe of what you could get away with and still call it a “fantasy RPG”. It works as a good example for this discussion because even though it's "out there", it's not completely "gone".
I don't think you have to go that far to keep things lively. But in order to accomplish the task of making a fantasy game (or anything) that doesn’t seem exactly like all the other ones, there are a few things I would take into consideration.
Defining the Genre:
The first part is probably the easy one. How to identify the trademarks of the fantasy genre. What to we expect from a standard “wizards and warriors” type affair? On the surface there are three basic ingredients:
1) A vaguely medieval or early renaissance setting.
2) Magic and mysticism
3) Fantastic creatures and demi-humans.
That’s the makings of your basic fantasy anything. Knights in armor, spell-slingin wizards, and a dragon eating an elf. Perfect! Ship it! These are the superficial elements to the fantasy genre. There are games/books/movies that do great things just by dropping or changing these elements. We've already discussed the cyberpunk infused Final Fantasy VII as an example of addition, but subtracting from these main three elements can yield equally interesting results. The "Harry Potter" series has elements 2 and 3, but is set against a contemporary backdrop and is much more interesting as a result.
Another commonly mentioned aspect to fantasy is the “escapism”. Fans of the genre want more than compelling drama and love-able characters. They want a whole new world to immerse themselves in. Hand-in-hand with that escapism often comes a built-in sort of nostalgia for a past that has long since gone. Fantasy often takes a romantic view of "olden times" and it's this idyllic "world of yore" that we escape to when we get lost in a great fantasy game. Even the aforementioned "Harry Potter" series shares this fondness for days of yore (You never see Dumbledore use a computer or anything like that).
Pushing and pulling all these different elements is what leads to innovation, within a standardized genre.
Question and Answer
Ultimately it's not enough for any of these games or stories to throw together fantasy elements with no real intention or forethought. The memorable experiences do something critical to creating amazing worlds and compelling stories. The best examples of the genre ask us an interesting question, and delivera a thoughtful answer.
Final Fantasy 7 asks the question, “what would happen if a typical fantasy world were imprisoned by a cyberpunk one?” Harry Potter asks, “What would happen if you woke up to discover that you were part of a secret world of Witches and Wizards?” The question can be dark or whimsical (or both), but it's this flight of fancy that drives the whole fantasy experience. The question ignites our imagination, and opens the door to daydreams and wonderment.
This is the part where World of Warcraft falls short. The world is not without its charm. It’s colorful, well presented, and full of variety. Ultimately though, the WoW universe feels so generic because it doesn’t give us a compelling “What if?”. It’s well crafted, but formulaic. While there are some challenging game-play moments, the world itself fails to challenge our minds.
“Thoughtful answers” and tweaking the genre
Asking a compelling question is only half the job. A thoughtful answer is also important. A fascinating set-up will only lead to a let-down if it's not followed through with a thoughtful attempt to examine consequences, and fully explore the logical conclusions that these questions might bring us to.
For games, it's critical that the users themselves are allowed to answer these questions through play. This is more than just moving from one plot point to another. The challenges the players face are the aftermath of the question. The powers and skills they use to overcome those challenges are part of the answer. As the players grow in skill and power, they also understand this world better and are better equipped to solve it's problems.
The Alchemist
Now for some half-assed attempts to tackle some of these issues on my own. I know you’ve all been waiting for it.
For fun I thought I’d challenge myself to spend a few minutes dreaming up an “interesting question” and some “thoughtful answers“ of my own. Here’s what I came up with:
My fantasy setting takes place on an alternate Earth: The fertile crescent, around 4000 BC. Life for the people of this world was once very dangerous. Rival tribes were constantly at war with one another. Food was scarce and dangerous creatures roamed the plains -- a constant threat to the fledgling groups of nomads there.
Over time, life improved for these nomadic hunters. The weaker clans fell or were swallowed up the by stronger ones and a balance of power was achieved. Animals who once terrorized the people were encountered less and less. Food was still hard to come by but the life the people had made was free. A nomad saw the horizon and called everything from here to there “home”.
Into this stable culture comes the first cities of Eridu and Uruk. It is the dawn of Bronze Age in Mesopotamia (I'm playing a lil fast and loose with the history here...a margin of error of about 2000 years...but whose counting? :) )
Popular theories about the founding of the first cities around the Tigris and Euphrates typically involve the invention of agriculture, but it turns out that those theories are incorrect. The first cities were founded after the discovery of a strange substance called "Majuk" (that's right...it's "magic" but spelled differently)
A collection of lesser tribes banded together upon making these discoveries and built permanent walls and other permanent structures to protect the stuff and keep it for themselves.
In its raw state "Majuk" is basically benign, but the priests discovered its secrets. By combining it different elements (wheat, flesh, blood, earth, etc) the "Majuk" would reveal startling properties that were extraordinarily powerful. Majuk could be made to heal or to hurt -- to build or to destroy. A new specialty emerged..."The Alchemist" - who was master of Majuk.
The leading nomadic tribes are now faced with two problems. The lands that they roam and depend upon are being "possessed" by others. This is a concept both foreign and insulting to the nomads. As these prosperous city-dwellers grow in numbers, they steal more and more land. Then of course there's the Alchemists and their Majuk who have tipped the balance of power into their favor.
Enmity also festers within the walls of the cities. The Alchemists are becoming the envy of their world. They have supplanted the standard priests who have fallen from grace. City leaders are also growing suspicious of these strange sorcerers. Mistrust and suspicion threaten to collapse the new society from within.
...Okay so there's my brief little set up. I sketched out a few characters (but I dont have a scanner right now so you have to endure camera phone pictures) including the Sumerian Sorcerers, the Alchemist:
(the alchemist at work)
I liked the idea of giving the alchemist some sort of full face mask to protect their eyes from unexpected results of their experiments. I also picture them as a kind of "grenadier" in combat. They don't shoot lightning from their fingers but they can bottle it and hurl them at their enemies. Alchemists need to be fit and agile in order to accomplish this task. I also gave this guy some "star" patterns (on the mask and pants) to echo the classic image of the wizard in the pointy hat - bedecked with a similar pattern.
(the darker side of alchemy)
Why not turn Majuk into some sort of addictive substance as well. It's frequently consumed in order to absorb the properties it contains. The alchemist is ultimately corrupted by his own creations.
(a warrior type?)
Some alchemists will be in the employ of rulers or mercenaries. They won't likely share all their secrets, but for a price they will sell you some. This warrior wears light clothing but is protected by vials of Majuk sewn into his uniform. He also carries a long staff with a powerful globe of Majuk at it's end...
(Smash!)
He gets a "one-time" use out of it, creating a powerful explosion or shock-wave.
So there you go. A different approach (I hope) to the standard fantasy fare. Obviously it would need a whole lot more work to really bring it to life but I think it's a good start for a fantasy setting that gives us something a little different from the standard fare.
-E
