The real answer in Present Year(TM)? Despite proclaiming that diversity is their strength, 99% of game developers know frick all about historical settings outside of a shallow view of Medieval Europe/Feudal Japan.
That's why Tyranny was such a standout (Bronze Age/Iron Age) or Arcanum (Victorian Steampunk).
Tyranny had some minor bronze age aesthetic flourishes but still felt very medieval Europe overall, though maybe more early medieval than the more common late medieval.
>I am the consensus
Does it make you angry that this thing you thought was true, isn't?
Or perhaps your idea of a thought isn't considered thinking at all.
>I am the consensus
I wasn't saying that, dumbass, but you're straight up moronic if you don't think the popular idea of fantasy was swords and magic for decades
DnD was more influenced by pulp fantasy that wasn't Tolkein
And? It and Tolkein were both the bases for generic fantasy. Together
>Saying that DnD and Tolkien are synonymous is wrong.
That's not what I said. Go reread it and this time more carefully
2 years ago
Anonymous
Go read this:
Everyone is ripping off D&D which was ripping off Tolkien.
To which you replied with "exactly"
You are backpedaling
2 years ago
Anonymous
>yo this other person said something so clearly you did as well even though you said something different!
God you're stupid. I never once said the two were synonymous.
Also for the record you're fricking stupid if you don't think DnD was heavily based off of Tolkien anyways.
In 1E halflings were literally called hobbits because Gygax wanted to do self insert Tolkien shit. Frick off back to 5e, zoomer.
2 years ago
Anonymous
The style and flavor of D&D adventures and gameplay line up tremendously more with pulp stories like Conan or Elric. Dwarves and Hobbits and Elves were mostly there because LOTR was popular and he liked those races. Everything else is pretty strictly Sword and Sorcery fantasy
2 years ago
Anonymous
>d-doesn't count
b***h you suck at this
Because if you set the game in Africa during that time period you'd be dealing with cannibals and mud huts.
Tyranny is unfortunately is a rather bland, subdued take on the Bronze age. It seems closer to the early days of Rome considering how much of a massive Romeaboo Sawyer was.
Stuff like Mesopotamia and Egypt during the bronze age was a far more interesting time even after the collapse where it was an actual post-apocalyptic setting. Then you get stuff like Glorantha or Conan which does justice with it
Tolkien orcs have nothing in common with the raceplay present in generic game fantasy. They are not "savages", but possess darker aspects of civilisation (especially in Mordor/Isengard/Angband).
Because most of the devs are western, why is that a fricking question?
>Because most of the devs are western
To me, this raises another question, which is why is "medieval European" fantasy is so much more popular as a setting for RPGs than science fiction.
Yeah. That's what I'm saying. They didn't have coliseums and ancient ruins. They had druids high on shrooms making blood offerings to wooden fertility gods carved with big erections.
And eventually led to SJW bullshit as the European's true nature has no grounding and tries to assert itself in increasingly degenerate ways.
Can't uplift a savage.
2 years ago
Anonymous
not before leading to the enlightenment. >but the enlightenment leads to SJW
maybe. SJW is a cancer, ideally you should fight the cancer without killing the organ.
The Cerne Abbas Giant dates from the 17th century, genius.
It's a satirical representation of Oliver Cromwell, who was styled "the English Hercules" by his supporters.
2 years ago
Anonymous
They're called geoglyphs.
2 years ago
Anonymous
That isn't necessarily true, even if you state it that way. There are split expert opinions on its origin.
>Makai kingdom
a godscape where deities create worlds >Mario games
rpg interpretations of a greater mushroom world. >Megaman battle network
a world not too disimiliar from our own >Arc the Lad
first "modern"jrpg
there's no big technology development or 'network society' as in most cyberpunk media. MML is more 90s culture + post apocalypse setting + developed ancient civilization
I agree with Battle Network but then again it's the same setting as Cyber Sleuth
not very "punky" though, sillyhead. why not shadowrun? cyberpunk is often tonally dark as well. legends is only aesthetically dark and thats a stretch.
Some questionable choices on that list. Torment could actually be moved down to 'celestial fantasy' as it takes place entirely in the AD&D afterlife, even though the player characters are not petitioners. You could use practically any game for the generic 'high fantasy' label. I wouldn't consider Star Ocean games to be space operas either. Also Bloodlines and Dude Sex are not RPGs at all.
Anon, do you even know what differentiates "high fantasy" and "low fantasy"? It's not the abundance of magic/the supernatural, despite what most people think.
"High Fantasy" means that the world's magic is basically a science - there are established rules to how it works, how it can be manipulated etc.
"Low Fantasy" is the opposite - magic is unknowable, the rules are completely arbitrary and can be bound and broken. In other words, it retains the mysticism and mystery of the supernatural.
Actually high and low fantasy refer to the amount of fantastical elements in a give work, not how structured those elements are.
Wizard of Oz is high fantasy despite the fantastical elements having zero fricking structure.
Conversely your average urban fantasy story where there's some sort of hidden supernatural group with low level powers that have a frickton of rules and restrictions about how they work is low fantasy.
>"High Fantasy" means that the world's magic is basically a science - there are established rules to how it works, how it can be manipulated etc. >"Low Fantasy" is the opposite - magic is unknowable, the rules are completely arbitrary and can be bound and broken.
What are you talking about? That's literally not what those words mean
The high and low refers to the degree to which the setting is removed from the normalcy of our IRL world. I.e. low fantasy is only slightly fantastical compared to IRL (and may even BE our IRL Earth) while high fantasy is significantly fantastical compared to IRL (and may even be a different world entirely)
You can have high fantasy with a loosely defined magic system (i.e. soft magic) and you can have a low fantasy with a strictly defined magic system (i.e. hard magic)
Not at all, it depends heavily on the context. Hard is better in most cases for Fantasy, even if the rules aren't fully explained to the audience, although soft works well for something like the supernatural aid in a Hero Journey.
Shadow Hearts Covenant takes place in the year 1914. It takes place in a slightly alternate history. Only game I know of where the Russian princess Anastasia Romanov is a party member.
It's the second game in the series but I wouldn't recommend playing the first Shadow Hearts before finishing Covenant. Covenant's Good Ending leads into the first game's plot thanks to time travel.
Not exactly unique (Since it drew heavily from Darksun, a tabletop RPG), but Vagrus takes place in a Bronze Age-like world cursed by its own gods who just left the place and let demons settle in to play in the ruins. Mankind is mostly similar to a collapsed version of Rome, slave labor is common practice, and iron is extremely scarce.
"You mean romance isn't about love?"
"I don't have time to explain. The Bear Cult orgy starts at sundown and you know how the druids get if we're late."
"But wait -- What's so wonderful about a centurion impregnating you and leaving you in the middle of nowhere to build a city? Or wading through swamps."
"They're called baths. And maybe I want to keep the baby."
"But what about the sacremen--"
"Shush! What happens at the blot stays at the blot"
To give a more fair reply, there are a limited number of alpha RPG franchises. It's not reasonable to expect a series like The Elder Scrolls to be any more experimental with its setting than it already is.
When RPGs first became popular, Medieval Europe became the most popular setting inspiration for a variety of reasons, many of which have been mentioned in this thread already (
Because that's the most pleasing time to a majority of people for fantasy settings. Most people think castles look cool, along with medieval armor and weapons. Most other ancient settings are pretty niche. You go too far back and you have shitty bronze swords and robes, go too far forward and you have shitty muskets and rapiers from the revolutionary war, plus you then have to include sea battles which a lot of people hate. Medieval Europe is just GOAT.
). These reasons tend to coincide with reasons why it's just a popular fantasy setting in general, and many of the most famous and successful fantasy novels are medieval(ish). Although most novels I've read tend to cover a variety of cultures within that era and anachronisms are common.
So obviously, this trend dominated early videogame RPGs, and the most popular and successful RPG franchises were either medieval or "medieval with sci-fi elements." Even space opera/fantasy tends toward having swords and melee combat, from lightsabers in Star Wars to sword-wielding Gundam Mecha.
If your perspective is fixed on major IPs, expect Medieval Fantasy to dominate, followed by post-apoc and maybe Sci-Fi.
Simple tools made of rocks, bones and wood, "magic" system based around early naturalistic beliefs and discovery of fire, collecting food and wild herbs instead of buying potions etc, some early domestication stuff as pet mechanic, massive wild beast of that era and neanderthals as enemies. Sounds like based idea for survival/rpg mixup.
Post-Apocalyptic medieval with magic and monsters created by radiation and a violent arms race for pre-war tech, which involves going into dangerous dungeons (pre-war military bases and buildings now populated by monsters).
"Fantasy setting is actually a post-apocalyptic setting" isn't that rare as is. >Crystalis >fricking Dual Orb 2 >Might and Magic series
kinda. it's not really Post-apocalyptic, but fantasy races and monsters exist in the setting because aliens seeded planets with genetically engineered life and those aliens come into play later >Phoenotopia (not an RPG, but a good game), >Oriental Blue >Vay (although it's crashed alien tech, not pre-war tech) >Xenoblade 2
There's similar stuff in a bunch of Square's games too. Final Fantasy 1 and 4 are pretty close to that with the Lufenians and the Giant of babil respectively, as is Treasure of the Rudras with the super weapon on the moon bit.
Pretty much any game that features ancient civilization that has fallen to ruin might qualify if you really stretch it. >Skies of Arcadia had the entire world on the brink of annihilation before. >Tales of Phantasia's world almost died due to magitek >Trails series >Lost Sphear
>Pretty much any game that features ancient civilization that has fallen to ruin might qualify if you really stretch it.
Maybe it's a pet peeve but I really don't think it's appropriate to stretch the definition.
Post-apocalyptic really implies a society directly affected by the cataclysm, maybe a couple generations removed at most. It's about people struggling to survive in the ruins of a former civilization, where governments have collapsed, production has halted, economy has crashed, and basically life has reverted to a primitive state with access to lingering bits of technology and infrastructure. Once the world has recovered to the point of having a stable, functional, thriving society producing its own technology and infrastructure it's no longer a post-apocalyptic setting.
>Once the world has recovered to the point of having a stable, functional, thriving society producing its own technology and infrastructure it's no longer a post-apocalyptic setting.
So it's a post-post-apocalyptic setting?
2 years ago
Anonymous
Maybe. But the decreased dominance of the apocalypse in shaping the setting means there's probably going to be a better primary category for the setting that has nothing to do with the apocalypse (the specific category will depend on the setting). The generic fantasy setting is inspired by medieval Europe, which emerged from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire-- not precisely an apocalypse but functionally similar to what happens in the history of many fantasy settings in terms of its effects on politics, law and the social order (although to a much more creative/fantastical degree than what actually happened in reality). The European Renaissance itself is based on "rediscovery" and revival of classical ideals from antiquity.
dying earth setting with ancient sci fi stuff deemed to be very magical
would be funny if radiation gets called dark magic y'know or something like that
because swords and sorcery are cool and a good way to build an rpg around adventure and combat
theres no adventure in modern settings unless its in space
Because that's the most pleasing time to a majority of people for fantasy settings. Most people think castles look cool, along with medieval armor and weapons. Most other ancient settings are pretty niche. You go too far back and you have shitty bronze swords and robes, go too far forward and you have shitty muskets and rapiers from the revolutionary war, plus you then have to include sea battles which a lot of people hate. Medieval Europe is just GOAT.
Because early fantasy writers were inspired by European Christian and pagan mythologies and were mainly interested in the medieval or "dark age" time periods. These writers went on to inspire the people who would go on to start the early table top fantasy war gaming stuff. The very heart of rpgs both videogames and table top are based on this foundation.
They aren't really medieval. More like early modern, maybe the very, very late middle ages. They have things like rapiers, common use of full plate, 16th Century style ships, etc. More games should be truly medieval, like 10th-11th Century.
As weird as this sounds, it's because us westerners feel disconnected from the medieval europe. It's a far away period you can use to write what you want without people reading too much into it.
This, in turn, becomes a self feeding loop where people read even less into the setting because it's used for fantasy so it's used more for fantasy.
The real answer in Present Year(TM)? Despite proclaiming that diversity is their strength, 99% of game developers know frick all about historical settings outside of a shallow view of Medieval Europe/Feudal Japan.
That's why Tyranny was such a standout (Bronze Age/Iron Age) or Arcanum (Victorian Steampunk).
Tyranny had some minor bronze age aesthetic flourishes but still felt very medieval Europe overall, though maybe more early medieval than the more common late medieval.
>Minor Bronze Age flourishes
>The technology
>The weaponry
>The architecture
>The social structure being non-feudal
>The clothing
What else would you want? A fricking Roman Legion? Oh, wait, there is one in all but name.
It's because of DnD and Tolken being synonymous with fantasy for years, you idiots.
Exactly
>I am the consensus
Does it make you angry that this thing you thought was true, isn't?
Or perhaps your idea of a thought isn't considered thinking at all.
>I am the consensus
I wasn't saying that, dumbass, but you're straight up moronic if you don't think the popular idea of fantasy was swords and magic for decades
And? It and Tolkein were both the bases for generic fantasy. Together
>And?
Saying that DnD and Tolkien are synonymous is wrong. You are moronic and saying things that are wrong.
>Saying that DnD and Tolkien are synonymous is wrong.
That's not what I said. Go reread it and this time more carefully
Go read this:
To which you replied with "exactly"
You are backpedaling
>yo this other person said something so clearly you did as well even though you said something different!
God you're stupid. I never once said the two were synonymous.
Also for the record you're fricking stupid if you don't think DnD was heavily based off of Tolkien anyways.
In 1E halflings were literally called hobbits because Gygax wanted to do self insert Tolkien shit. Frick off back to 5e, zoomer.
The style and flavor of D&D adventures and gameplay line up tremendously more with pulp stories like Conan or Elric. Dwarves and Hobbits and Elves were mostly there because LOTR was popular and he liked those races. Everything else is pretty strictly Sword and Sorcery fantasy
>d-doesn't count
b***h you suck at this
You kind of missed the point, huh? Moron.
DnD was more influenced by pulp fantasy that wasn't Tolkein
Tyranny is unfortunately is a rather bland, subdued take on the Bronze age. It seems closer to the early days of Rome considering how much of a massive Romeaboo Sawyer was.
Stuff like Mesopotamia and Egypt during the bronze age was a far more interesting time even after the collapse where it was an actual post-apocalyptic setting. Then you get stuff like Glorantha or Conan which does justice with it
Everyone is ripping off D&D which was ripping off Tolkien.
>which was ripping off Tolkien.
Showing your ignorance, m8.
Bitch, who do you think invented orcs?
Not him but you're missing the link, d&d took everything from dragonlance which basically is generic tolkien ripoff but in the 70s/80s.
Do you have some sort of brain damage? Dragonlance was a campaign setting for D&D, released seven years after the original D&D.
Pretty sure it's sarcasm. Not funny but that's vrpg for you.
Tolkien orcs have nothing in common with the raceplay present in generic game fantasy. They are not "savages", but possess darker aspects of civilisation (especially in Mordor/Isengard/Angband).
Aren't Tolkien orcs just elven based mud dolls? Hard to even call them a race at this point.
This. It's just Baby Duck Syndrome.
>Because most of the devs are western
To me, this raises another question, which is why is "medieval European" fantasy is so much more popular as a setting for RPGs than science fiction.
No.its not baby duck.
Nothing interesting to see in science fiction
And what interesting is there to see in 'medieval european' fantasy?
Because most of the devs are western, why is that a fricking question?
They got castles there.
Why are so many water bodies wet?
I think you mean Rome.
Medieval Europe isn't at all like Rome
Every single Square RPG up until FF7 was Medieval Europe
Yeah. That's what I'm saying. They didn't have coliseums and ancient ruins. They had druids high on shrooms making blood offerings to wooden fertility gods carved with big erections.
What?
The Romans civilized european savages.
Their culture is different though
I don't see many RPGs with marble statues and Roman architecture
They have castles and shit
Glory of Heracles might be what you're looking for.
I think you've played too much Skyrim.
What do you mean?
And eventually led to SJW bullshit as the European's true nature has no grounding and tries to assert itself in increasingly degenerate ways.
Can't uplift a savage.
not before leading to the enlightenment.
>but the enlightenment leads to SJW
maybe. SJW is a cancer, ideally you should fight the cancer without killing the organ.
The Cerne Abbas Giant dates from the 17th century, genius.
It's a satirical representation of Oliver Cromwell, who was styled "the English Hercules" by his supporters.
They're called geoglyphs.
That isn't necessarily true, even if you state it that way. There are split expert opinions on its origin.
The Romans were a bunch of boy-lovers you prancing lala homosexual man.
Luckily they're going back to Medieval Europe for FF16. Sadly looks like action combat though.
branch out more
What are some RPGs with unique settings?
smt strange journey
there's a literal shopping mall as a whole level
>Makai kingdom
a godscape where deities create worlds
>Mario games
rpg interpretations of a greater mushroom world.
>Megaman battle network
a world not too disimiliar from our own
>Arc the Lad
first "modern"jrpg
Where do SMT games fall in that list? Feel like it's a mix of post-apocalyptic, alternate history, or sci-fi?
Post apocalyptic urban cyberpunk high fantasy in a fictional real world.
No I am not kidding.
probably urban fantasy with light cyberpunk elements.
I don't think MML is cyberpunk
Digimon Cyber Sleuth would be a better choice for example
everyone is a robot dude, that's pretty cyber, maybe battle network would have been better.
there's no big technology development or 'network society' as in most cyberpunk media. MML is more 90s culture + post apocalypse setting + developed ancient civilization
I agree with Battle Network but then again it's the same setting as Cyber Sleuth
not very "punky" though, sillyhead. why not shadowrun? cyberpunk is often tonally dark as well. legends is only aesthetically dark and thats a stretch.
Chrono Trigger is most Medieval too
that's only one time peroid, the present seems more like the 80's before the internet was widespread and there were cellular phones zoom zoom.
Some questionable choices on that list. Torment could actually be moved down to 'celestial fantasy' as it takes place entirely in the AD&D afterlife, even though the player characters are not petitioners. You could use practically any game for the generic 'high fantasy' label. I wouldn't consider Star Ocean games to be space operas either. Also Bloodlines and Dude Sex are not RPGs at all.
>Dude Sex
???
Anon, do you even know what differentiates "high fantasy" and "low fantasy"? It's not the abundance of magic/the supernatural, despite what most people think.
"High Fantasy" means that the world's magic is basically a science - there are established rules to how it works, how it can be manipulated etc.
"Low Fantasy" is the opposite - magic is unknowable, the rules are completely arbitrary and can be bound and broken. In other words, it retains the mysticism and mystery of the supernatural.
Actually high and low fantasy refer to the amount of fantastical elements in a give work, not how structured those elements are.
Wizard of Oz is high fantasy despite the fantastical elements having zero fricking structure.
Conversely your average urban fantasy story where there's some sort of hidden supernatural group with low level powers that have a frickton of rules and restrictions about how they work is low fantasy.
>"High Fantasy" means that the world's magic is basically a science - there are established rules to how it works, how it can be manipulated etc.
>"Low Fantasy" is the opposite - magic is unknowable, the rules are completely arbitrary and can be bound and broken.
What are you talking about? That's literally not what those words mean
The high and low refers to the degree to which the setting is removed from the normalcy of our IRL world. I.e. low fantasy is only slightly fantastical compared to IRL (and may even BE our IRL Earth) while high fantasy is significantly fantastical compared to IRL (and may even be a different world entirely)
You can have high fantasy with a loosely defined magic system (i.e. soft magic) and you can have a low fantasy with a strictly defined magic system (i.e. hard magic)
correct
Soft magic > hard magic and it's not a close race
Incorrect
Not at all, it depends heavily on the context. Hard is better in most cases for Fantasy, even if the rules aren't fully explained to the audience, although soft works well for something like the supernatural aid in a Hero Journey.
Shadow Hearts Covenant takes place in the year 1914. It takes place in a slightly alternate history. Only game I know of where the Russian princess Anastasia Romanov is a party member.
It's the second game in the series but I wouldn't recommend playing the first Shadow Hearts before finishing Covenant.
Covenant's Good Ending leads into the first game's plot thanks to time travel.
Skies of Arcadia just does whatever when it comes to technology and culture. The evil empire looks like it's in the 20th century.
I really like FF8's mostly late 1990s-derived world with sci-fi tech, it's easily one of the best parts of that game
Wild ARMS
Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Hong Kong.
Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines
Age of Decadence
Underrail
Not exactly unique (Since it drew heavily from Darksun, a tabletop RPG), but Vagrus takes place in a Bronze Age-like world cursed by its own gods who just left the place and let demons settle in to play in the ruins. Mankind is mostly similar to a collapsed version of Rome, slave labor is common practice, and iron is extremely scarce.
it's less about medievalism and i think more about tolkein's influence in rpgs as a whole
because africa didn't build any dungeons
Because it's what sells and western fantasy is what most people enjoys and expects.
No, people beg for more interesting settings
Just hipsters and various tryhards and professional whiners who don't really understand the genre or even have much experience with it.
"You mean romance isn't about love?"
"I don't have time to explain. The Bear Cult orgy starts at sundown and you know how the druids get if we're late."
"But wait -- What's so wonderful about a centurion impregnating you and leaving you in the middle of nowhere to build a city? Or wading through swamps."
"They're called baths. And maybe I want to keep the baby."
"But what about the sacremen--"
"Shush! What happens at the blot stays at the blot"
To give a more fair reply, there are a limited number of alpha RPG franchises. It's not reasonable to expect a series like The Elder Scrolls to be any more experimental with its setting than it already is.
When RPGs first became popular, Medieval Europe became the most popular setting inspiration for a variety of reasons, many of which have been mentioned in this thread already (
). These reasons tend to coincide with reasons why it's just a popular fantasy setting in general, and many of the most famous and successful fantasy novels are medieval(ish). Although most novels I've read tend to cover a variety of cultures within that era and anachronisms are common.
So obviously, this trend dominated early videogame RPGs, and the most popular and successful RPG franchises were either medieval or "medieval with sci-fi elements." Even space opera/fantasy tends toward having swords and melee combat, from lightsabers in Star Wars to sword-wielding Gundam Mecha.
If your perspective is fixed on major IPs, expect Medieval Fantasy to dominate, followed by post-apoc and maybe Sci-Fi.
If you got the chance to retroactively change the typical RPG setting to something other than medieval Europe, what would it be?
Medieval China, but with European names for everything
Nothing, I like european fantasy.
Alien worlds
Ancient Egypt
Slavic mythology.
Something based on our real world but gunpowder was never discovered and ~~*magic*~~ is a nuclear deterrent.
Greek/roman mythology, with some egypt and persia mixed into the setting
Stone Age.
Simple tools made of rocks, bones and wood, "magic" system based around early naturalistic beliefs and discovery of fire, collecting food and wild herbs instead of buying potions etc, some early domestication stuff as pet mechanic, massive wild beast of that era and neanderthals as enemies. Sounds like based idea for survival/rpg mixup.
Post-Apocalyptic medieval with magic and monsters created by radiation and a violent arms race for pre-war tech, which involves going into dangerous dungeons (pre-war military bases and buildings now populated by monsters).
"Fantasy setting is actually a post-apocalyptic setting" isn't that rare as is.
>Crystalis
>fricking Dual Orb 2
>Might and Magic series
kinda. it's not really Post-apocalyptic, but fantasy races and monsters exist in the setting because aliens seeded planets with genetically engineered life and those aliens come into play later
>Phoenotopia (not an RPG, but a good game),
>Oriental Blue
>Vay (although it's crashed alien tech, not pre-war tech)
>Xenoblade 2
There's similar stuff in a bunch of Square's games too. Final Fantasy 1 and 4 are pretty close to that with the Lufenians and the Giant of babil respectively, as is Treasure of the Rudras with the super weapon on the moon bit.
Pretty much any game that features ancient civilization that has fallen to ruin might qualify if you really stretch it.
>Skies of Arcadia had the entire world on the brink of annihilation before.
>Tales of Phantasia's world almost died due to magitek
>Trails series
>Lost Sphear
>Pretty much any game that features ancient civilization that has fallen to ruin might qualify if you really stretch it.
Maybe it's a pet peeve but I really don't think it's appropriate to stretch the definition.
Post-apocalyptic really implies a society directly affected by the cataclysm, maybe a couple generations removed at most. It's about people struggling to survive in the ruins of a former civilization, where governments have collapsed, production has halted, economy has crashed, and basically life has reverted to a primitive state with access to lingering bits of technology and infrastructure. Once the world has recovered to the point of having a stable, functional, thriving society producing its own technology and infrastructure it's no longer a post-apocalyptic setting.
>Once the world has recovered to the point of having a stable, functional, thriving society producing its own technology and infrastructure it's no longer a post-apocalyptic setting.
So it's a post-post-apocalyptic setting?
Maybe. But the decreased dominance of the apocalypse in shaping the setting means there's probably going to be a better primary category for the setting that has nothing to do with the apocalypse (the specific category will depend on the setting). The generic fantasy setting is inspired by medieval Europe, which emerged from the collapse of the Western Roman Empire-- not precisely an apocalypse but functionally similar to what happens in the history of many fantasy settings in terms of its effects on politics, law and the social order (although to a much more creative/fantastical degree than what actually happened in reality). The European Renaissance itself is based on "rediscovery" and revival of classical ideals from antiquity.
Post-Renaissance/Thirty Years War setting
dying earth setting with ancient sci fi stuff deemed to be very magical
would be funny if radiation gets called dark magic y'know or something like that
>If you got the chance to retroactively change the typical RPG setting to something other than medieval Europe, what would it be?
Modern day Zimbabwe.
*Rhodesia
because what else could it be?
because swords and sorcery are cool and a good way to build an rpg around adventure and combat
theres no adventure in modern settings unless its in space
Because that's the most pleasing time to a majority of people for fantasy settings. Most people think castles look cool, along with medieval armor and weapons. Most other ancient settings are pretty niche. You go too far back and you have shitty bronze swords and robes, go too far forward and you have shitty muskets and rapiers from the revolutionary war, plus you then have to include sea battles which a lot of people hate. Medieval Europe is just GOAT.
wizardry
which is a shame because i almost always prefer sci-fi settings
Because if you set the game in Africa during that time period you'd be dealing with cannibals and mud huts.
There were plenty of advanced African civilisations in various time periods, with their own aesthetics.
>Because if you set the game in Africa during that time period you'd be dealing with cannibals and mud huts.
He was obviously talking about sub-Saharan Africa troony
Africa's middle age is not the same as Europe's middle age.
this must be bait.
cope
CARTHAGO DELENDA EST
Because early fantasy writers were inspired by European Christian and pagan mythologies and were mainly interested in the medieval or "dark age" time periods. These writers went on to inspire the people who would go on to start the early table top fantasy war gaming stuff. The very heart of rpgs both videogames and table top are based on this foundation.
Renaissance era is based as frick and no one can convince me otherwise.
They aren't really medieval. More like early modern, maybe the very, very late middle ages. They have things like rapiers, common use of full plate, 16th Century style ships, etc. More games should be truly medieval, like 10th-11th Century.
>why do so many *nips
FTFY
Because knights are cool, bro.
Because if they do anything else they risk being accused of cultural appropriation and being canceled, boycotted, losing their investment.
As weird as this sounds, it's because us westerners feel disconnected from the medieval europe. It's a far away period you can use to write what you want without people reading too much into it.
This, in turn, becomes a self feeding loop where people read even less into the setting because it's used for fantasy so it's used more for fantasy.