Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[SavageGamerGirl]

Now, now, that's not a suggestive thread subject... get your mind outta the gutter!

Basically, when you play or run a fantasy RPG, how magical is it? What's the level of magic you prefer?
_________________
'But I don't want to go among mad people,' Alice remarked.
'Oh, you can't help that,' said the Cat: 'we're all mad here.'
The Order of the Dice... OF DOOM!

[Amaril]

I say D&D style, but what I really prefer is Eberron style in which magic has evolved as a source of technology applied to create convenient living. Lighting, hospitality, warmth, cleaning, transportation, entertainment, etc. are all provided or enhanced by low-level magic which is ubiquitous.

Additionally, NPC clergy aren't magic casters. Truly divine clerics are rare. Most clergy are just persuasive with knowledge of religion. True clerics (and paladins) are expected to travel the world and do 'good' for their cause.

I also like the idea of having some real world late-1800s/early-1900s technology analogs in Eberron. A skycoach in Sharn is a cab. A House Sivis messenger station is a courier or telegraph. A lightning rail is obviously a train.
_________________
Kristian
Savage Bloggers Network
Savage Worlds Google+ Community
Fantasy Companion Loot Generator

[Rachan]

I'm Other. Just because I couldn't pick one. I would say not D&D, and not Star Wars, and only Harry Potter with the right group. The other three are tied for the Win.
_________________
[quote="77IM"]… it's not specifically allowed by the rules, but the GM is specifically allowed to allow it. [/quote]

[BluSponge]

Mine isn't on the list. Swashbuckling low fantasy. Put Solomon Kane and 7th Sea in a blender, add tequila and lime juice, mix well and there you go. Hear me out there licensees?

Tom
_________________
Lewisville Public Library Roleplaying
You control the character. You make the story. You are the legend.
The only limit is your imagination.

[kreider204]

Hm, this is a tough one. For context, I should say I've only recently gotten back into RPGs, maybe a couple of years ago. Before that, I didn't do any serious gaming since the mid-80s, and that was AD&D / Greyhawk, so that style of fantasy still appeals to me, if only for nostalgia reasons. I've been buying SW setting books like crazy over the last year and a half, especially fantasy, and I'd have to say that Runepunk is really capturing my imagination so far. Still, if I were to pick one of the above to start playing right now, I'd probably lean toward Middle Earth style. I like magic, but the amount of magic - especially magic items - available in the old Greyhawk setting almost made it mundane.
_________________
"It only takes an extra second to be courteous."
- Constable Benton Fraser

[shadd4d]

Other: I'm an old school Shadowrun player, and I find that game's presentation of magic the one I feel most comfortable with. It's just another thing incorporated into the world. It's slightly more than Star Wars; after all, if there are necromancers in D&D, why aren't they in charge of countries with exceptional agricultural harvests due to an essentially unlimited workforce?

Edit: It strikes me that Shadowrun is essentially a Hellfrost-type presentation of magic, where it is common. If you consider alchemical devices the equivalent of anchoring and foci, then Shadowrun and Hellfrost assume similar levels of magic.

As I said, Shadowrun. With a possible addition of The Death Gate Cycle (best magic concept ever) and Alpha Omega.
_________________
Don

"But there is a difference between fear and horror. An important difference.
Fear is when you worry about what might be.
Horror is when you are certain." Dannyboy01

[SavageGamerGirl]

[Savage_Mask]

I'll second DPM with Hellfrost. Magic items, relics, shouldnt be bought in a magic shop. They lose their uniqueness if they are mass produced or common.

But I also like the Eberron style and sword and sorcery style of Conan and Solomon Kane.

I'm not a purist of any fantasy type, if it's fun and appeals to my imagination, I'll run it.

[inlife9]

Though I do not enjoy running Middle Earth games any longer, I do like worlds where magic is still, largely, hidden from the common world.
_________________
Eastwood Saves! The rest of you take Full Damage.

[ValhallaGH]

D&D or Conan. Both styles appeal depending upon my mood and my desired campaign.

[Thasmodious]

[steamdriven]

my fantasy is more grim gritty in your face nordic epic quests!

magic is common but you are born with it most of the time, none of this becoming a spell caster after you are born.

magic items are not that common, old play things of the gods and gifts left scattered around the world and the good stuff are one off items that often carry a cures or some other misfortune should you use it. very few people can make magical items. finding such a person is a long and dangerous quest

races are about as far removed from d&d games as you can get. again all have that old Norse twist

and there is death, lots of death. characters die and will not come back from the dead very often. if they do find a way out of the underworld it is for a short time and they are not always the same person, demons have been known to use these rifts opened in to the moral realm to talk over the body and use it to for-fill some inhuman task

the gods have a very active roll in the game. aiding the players as well as trying to stop them or simply toy with them just to see what they would do.

I know that sounds a bit like Hellfrost from what wiggy has told me back when he was writing it but I don't own any of the books.

[OSIAdept]

Depends on what i want for that particular setting.

Usually i go for a Conan Vibe but if am running a horror setting i go for a cthulhu style and if i mix genres like my space opera i use the magic is common but only a few can use it
_________________
Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/profile.php?ref=name&id=1164327586

My online art portfolio
http://paintedsamurai.deviantart.com/

Black Stag Publishing
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Stag-Publishing/223736847644167?sk=wall

[Ron Blessing]

For me I picked Conan-style, but more specifically, I'm thinking Fritz Leiber, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Magic is there, but it's foreboding, eerie, etc. It's a little like Conan, if perhaps Howard collaborated on it with his friend H.P. Lovecraft.
_________________
Ron Blessing
Check out:
Gamer: The Blogging
The Game's the Thing

[coyote6]

Other, in that I have no single preferred style. Depends on the campaign.
_________________
--
Bob

[Rachan]

[TheLoremaster]

[Rachan]

*ba-da-ching!*
_________________
[quote="77IM"]… it's not specifically allowed by the rules, but the GM is specifically allowed to allow it. [/quote]

[scourger]

Among the poll options, I chose Middle Earth style. It best represents where I want my fantasy gaming to be overall. A little magic should go a long way but not be overpowering.

[nonefornic]

My fantasy, I'd have to say, is "flavour of the month." At the moment thats a Wuxia game and an epic on alternating nights. I tend to make settings which are usually narrow and focused. My groups also pretty mercenary, with no two games having the same combo of players.
_________________
No longer a luddite... I have a blog... After losing settings, rules and more in PC wipe after wipe its now home to my swag of RPG homebrewing... http://theniconomicon.blogspot.com/