What I find interesting is that there is so much discussion about how much gamers are outsiders, but they tend to want their outsider aesthetic to be the norm and its no different than anyone else. I run Arcanis: the World of Shattered Empires. It's tropes are based on late Roman Empire and mostly non-Western inspirations. The setting history is so detailed and just different enough from Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk that people are hesitant to try it. But once they do they're hooked.
I think the "strange but familiar" rule applies in fiction just like rpgs. People like things they can relate to to ground the experiance. Grim sites this as the counter for the "but my dragons" arguement where just having dragons does not mean everything is fundamentally different and if it is you start to lose people. Even in fiction, a weird idea is usually a short story or one episode of Dr. Who because there is not enough meat on this bone to delve into how a society functions with a weird concept past the point of first contact. Everyone has played a game of bunnies and burrows, but few have played a campaign because there is not a lot of room to go with that idea.
I think its just, we understand the particular through the universal. So "weird" settings require the extra efforts of getting past the unfamiliar to find that in the end its just characters and plot like everything else.
If I may suggest, polish up an elevator pitch for the game. Sell the experience. Why do you love it, and why is it objectively fun? Extra credit for specifically appealing to each person's favorite aspects of role-playing games. I would say something like, I think Dark Sun is awesome because it's about desperate adventurers in a setting that is like a regular D&D setting turned upside down. We get to play gladiators, soldiers, secret magicians. We get to play the dark Lords troops or an underground resistance, or a mercenary band trying to keep their freedom by risking their lives. I think that you(your friend or prospective player) will like it because you love unique fighters and playing the underdog(reason they like ttrpgs). Hope this helps. On a personal note, Dark Sun is cool. Definite John Carter of Mars influenced. Sword and Sandal and Psionics. Post spell-pocalypse, high fantasy turned on its head, religion is both weirder and more realistic and literally bone-bending earth-shattering magic. Ooh and xenophobic cannibal halflings!
@@beardyben7848 , thanks for your lengthy reply. I don't have any problems selling weird stories to players, I have the problem of defining it at the table, especially when players start to default to the fantasy tropes that they know and having to interject. e.g. Dark Sun Player - "I ride into town on my horse!" GM - "Well.... the town is a city slum that arose around the God King's ziggurat. Also horses went extinct several millenia ago, during the Cleansing Wars, so you are riding a giant tick called a kank. Along the kanks back are nodules, filled with honey-like nectar that help you survive the open desert without water. Player - "W...T...F..."
Anthropomorphics IS Furry though and furry is more than the erotic artists and writers. You mentioned Granville, that's Furry. Using the Anthro label is for people trying too hard to dissociate, to the point it has been co-opted by extremists called the furry-raiders (who are actual alt right). For much of the fandom, we prefer things clean, I certainly do. It's sounding like you're lumping a game about bat people that's probably clean with this weird inflation game that took over Drivethru for a day as a likely joke. I'm starting to feel like a broken record, at least a thematic one. But, if someone won't defend the younger generations of fans from the same shit I faced back in the day, who will?
And this was a day after I was starting to cool off a bit. I'll be honest, I don't know of many gaming channels like yours. It's refreshing to have an oasis of better coverage in a mostly dry desert of ignorance, culture wars, and just so much petty behavior. But, what's it worth if I keep frustrating myself? At least we shared a moment in the D6 System coming back. Glad to know we have that in common, even though I'm not sure your D6 Gor game is for me and you addressed that well in your D6 Gor Q&A video.
@@PostmortemVideo I'd like to hope so. "No Yiffing" and then some are heavily tired jokes as I'm concerned... Decades of being a punchline tends to do things to you, after all. I'm sure you've dealt with equivalents throughout this tabletop fandom.
What I find interesting is that there is so much discussion about how much gamers are outsiders, but they tend to want their outsider aesthetic to be the norm and its no different than anyone else. I run Arcanis: the World of Shattered Empires. It's tropes are based on late Roman Empire and mostly non-Western inspirations. The setting history is so detailed and just different enough from Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk that people are hesitant to try it. But once they do they're hooked.
I think the "strange but familiar" rule applies in fiction just like rpgs. People like things they can relate to to ground the experiance. Grim sites this as the counter for the "but my dragons" arguement where just having dragons does not mean everything is fundamentally different and if it is you start to lose people.
Even in fiction, a weird idea is usually a short story or one episode of Dr. Who because there is not enough meat on this bone to delve into how a society functions with a weird concept past the point of first contact. Everyone has played a game of bunnies and burrows, but few have played a campaign because there is not a lot of room to go with that idea.
Gorge world also works as a commentary on American waistlines.
I think its just, we understand the particular through the universal. So "weird" settings require the extra efforts of getting past the unfamiliar to find that in the end its just characters and plot like everything else.
Wow... I am on a roll, catching 1st comment dibs 😂 Not even on purpose, was on a roll looking up coding topics, lol. Anyways, new Grim vid, woohoo! 😊
How do present weird settings to players? I find it hard to pass even settings like Dark Sun to players who aren’t already fans.
If I may suggest, polish up an elevator pitch for the game. Sell the experience. Why do you love it, and why is it objectively fun? Extra credit for specifically appealing to each person's favorite aspects of role-playing games.
I would say something like, I think Dark Sun is awesome because it's about desperate adventurers in a setting that is like a regular D&D setting turned upside down. We get to play gladiators, soldiers, secret magicians. We get to play the dark Lords troops or an underground resistance, or a mercenary band trying to keep their freedom by risking their lives. I think that you(your friend or prospective player) will like it because you love unique fighters and playing the underdog(reason they like ttrpgs).
Hope this helps.
On a personal note, Dark Sun is cool. Definite John Carter of Mars influenced. Sword and Sandal and Psionics. Post spell-pocalypse, high fantasy turned on its head, religion is both weirder and more realistic and literally bone-bending earth-shattering magic.
Ooh and xenophobic cannibal halflings!
@@beardyben7848 , thanks for your lengthy reply. I don't have any problems selling weird stories to players, I have the problem of defining it at the table, especially when players start to default to the fantasy tropes that they know and having to interject.
e.g. Dark Sun
Player - "I ride into town on my horse!"
GM - "Well.... the town is a city slum that arose around the God King's ziggurat. Also horses went extinct several millenia ago, during the Cleansing Wars, so you are riding a giant tick called a kank. Along the kanks back are nodules, filled with honey-like nectar that help you survive the open desert without water.
Player - "W...T...F..."
?
Anthropomorphics IS Furry though and furry is more than the erotic artists and writers. You mentioned Granville, that's Furry. Using the Anthro label is for people trying too hard to dissociate, to the point it has been co-opted by extremists called the furry-raiders (who are actual alt right). For much of the fandom, we prefer things clean, I certainly do. It's sounding like you're lumping a game about bat people that's probably clean with this weird inflation game that took over Drivethru for a day as a likely joke. I'm starting to feel like a broken record, at least a thematic one. But, if someone won't defend the younger generations of fans from the same shit I faced back in the day, who will?
And this was a day after I was starting to cool off a bit. I'll be honest, I don't know of many gaming channels like yours. It's refreshing to have an oasis of better coverage in a mostly dry desert of ignorance, culture wars, and just so much petty behavior. But, what's it worth if I keep frustrating myself? At least we shared a moment in the D6 System coming back. Glad to know we have that in common, even though I'm not sure your D6 Gor game is for me and you addressed that well in your D6 Gor Q&A video.
When I jest, it's good natured. 'Banter' as we say here in the UK.
@@PostmortemVideo I'd like to hope so. "No Yiffing" and then some are heavily tired jokes as I'm concerned... Decades of being a punchline tends to do things to you, after all. I'm sure you've dealt with equivalents throughout this tabletop fandom.