No I’m not kidding.
Come at me bro
Or on me
Either or
If they don’t taste like peppermint, I’m sending them back.
“There are no ‘rules’ for fantasy”
Wrong. To write good Fantasy (of SciFi), you have to go through a process called “World Building” where you lay down the rules of your world. Properly done, the amount of World Building exceeds the actual works by far. It is absolutely necessary to create a core of inner logic to the story. You are not bound by the rules of our world, yes, but you are bound by the rule of consistency. If you violate those, you automatically write crap Fantasy (or SciFi).
Funny, though, that e.g. many literature teachers / professors don’t even know about the idea of World Building.
Crap fantasy is still fantasy. Had a great time coming up with bad fantasy stories in my childhood when I knew nothing about good writing. Art is what you make it.
To write good Fantasy (of SciFi), you have to go through a process called “World Building”
I think this is more implying that you don’t have to work from the same framework for every fantasy world. Not everything has to be set in Arthurian Medieval Times with Crusader-Era social sensibilities. The menagerie of mythical creatures isn’t a prerequisite or delimiter (dragons / unicorns / etc are not a requirement nor are robots / cthulhoid horrors / woolly mammoths disallowed). You need internal consistency (to a degree) but you aren’t forced to adhere / omit any genre trope.
I would say, at an absolute bare minimum, you need some kind of fantastical or supernatural element to make it “Fantasy” as opposed to “Historical Fiction” or “Science Fiction” or some other category of fictional prose. Although, the genre of “Magical Realism” does make even that distinction a bit fuzzy.
many literature teachers / professors don’t even know about the idea of World Building
You don’t necessary need to go through the whole work of World Building if you’re just banging out a short story or novella. Even serial writers don’t necessarily bother going deep on the background material until they feel the need to expand the scope of the setting. I mean, look at the Star Wars setting. George Lucas didn’t have Jabba the Hutt defined as a big slug monster until the third movie. In the original film, there was a cut scene in which Han confronts Jabba, who was just a be-feathered chubby gangster.
If you’re just spitballing or cranking out bits of fiction in brief, World Building can be superfluous. A story that takes place entirely in a single house over the course of a long weekend doesn’t need the kind of scaffolding that a Long Walk to Mordor requires.
George Lucas is the perfect example what happens when you don’t do world building. The Star Wars universe is basically just retcons stacked onto other retcons.
And I am a firm believer that even short stories in a fantasy or SciFi setting don’t work without at least a certain amount of world building.
The number of fantasy and SciFi stories where the author thought they could get away without thinking their world through and which ended up badly is amazingly high.
George Lucas is the perfect example what happens when you don’t do world building.
If you get into those coffee table books about the making of the first three movies, you find lots of world building.
All the bounty hunters on the deck of Vader’s Super Star Destroyer in Empire Strikes Back have canonical backstories, for instance. The cosmology of the galaxy - with Corusant at the center of the Empire and Tantoine way out in “Hutt Space” - was laid out by Lucas far in advance. “The Clone Wars” wasn’t just an off-handed reference, it was a thing Lucas had defined as the WW2 precursor to New Hope’s Vietnam. Hell, the fact that the first movie released was “Episode IV” should say it all.
One reason you got so many derivative works following Return of the Jedi is that Lucas dumped his director’s notes to the public as merch when production initially stalled on the Prequels.
If you get into those coffee table books about the making of the first three movies, you find lots of world building.
You are well aware that those are retcon? None of this existed before “A New Hope”. Most of it was done later by specialists hired by LucasFilm.
Also the important rule here is everything not explained to be different is assumed to be the same as our understanding of the real world.
That is part of world building, too. If your fantasy world needs more explaining than storytelling, something is seriously wrong.
Rules for fantasy writers.
For a post centered on reading, the actual comprehension of what is being said in this thread is poor.
Why do you imagine that the,post is about reading?
A clearer way to phrase it might be “there are no rules for the genre of fantasy”. An individual world needs self-contained rules, yes, but just because Tolkien’s Dwarves have beards regardless of gender doesn’t mean that your Dwarves need to be the same.
The old TSR/SSI game Unlimited Adventures had randomized potion colors. It’s also how I learned that khaki is not pronounced ‘kahiki’ when trying to explain what was going on to someone (I knew khakis as a type of trouser not a color).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Realms%3A_Unlimited_Adventures
Edit: or maybe I’m thinking of another gold-box game if that one didn’t have some random generation. Hrm.
That’s a roguelike convention. Potion colors are randomized. Runes/scrolls usually arent.
Pixel dungeon does the same thing, you don’t know when you start a run what any color potion does. So they’re randomized.
Why should your fantasy game be limited by something like “health”. Whether you die should be based on vibes.
My vibe is slightly hurt with a hint of mental damage
DM: Roll a Vibe Check
Player: I rolled Dark Green
DM: Ooohhh…
Nethack (and derivatives) is pretty much the only game I know of where the health potions may or may not be red.
And I guess Dark Souls… It’s more of an orange than a red. But maybe that’s just the color of the flask. Idk what the substance inside looks like. 🤷🏻♂️
the flask is green! i would know since i emptied it one too many times snd the texture is dark green
Then the insides have to be red for it to appear orange through green glass. The health potion is red!
I used yellow for health to avoid red/green colourblind issues
I love the possibility of having a red/green colorblind character and having to roll to hopefully pick the right potion when they both health potion and poison in their bag.
I feel like any decent adventurer would develop a system. I hear blind people will fold their paper money a certain way so they can differentiate between the different values…
My health potions are red, also, pulp free is not an option. >:)
The pulp is from fruit, right? The pulp is from fruit, right!?
… yestm
Similarly to how paprika chips come in blue bags and salted chips come in red bags. Anything else is heresy. Unless you live right across the border, where it’s exactly the opposite.
I hate dragons. Controversial take but like just come up with some other mystical creatures! have some fun with it! if rather interact with a pink unicorn plushie than fight another dragon
Granted.
Anthrax the Destroyer is how hiding among stuffed animals.
How about this food is poison and snake bites heal?
Then you are an undead
Divinity Original sin vibes
Daggerfall!
Looking at you, “Dragon Age” Veilguard.
Bright red barrel of aircraft grade fuel.
Shoot it.
Spawns a leak.
//FPS players mind’s implode//
Toss a lighted match into the growing puddle.
Match goes out.
Shoot it directly with a flamethrower.
Puddle burns slightly like a gas stove before going out again.
It’s true.
Rules are meant to be broken - apart from when they aren’t.
You can change any aspect of the world any way you like, but only if doing that is critical to your universe and story.
Messing up without reason conventions that are well established is a dick move, unless the whole point of your work is to screw with people.
Also you need to consistently break conventions once you do it or you really screw with people and make a shitty world.
Overlord the anome has a whole arc about the protagonist using his immense power and influence to have people start research on how to turn blue potions red.
