Hi tom.
another problem with generic conceptsparticularly in fantasy settings, is
that they miss out on all the history, linguistic beauty and world that
middle earth contains, and can often basically appear just as the standard
D&D world with nothing really creatively new about it.
While I completely enjoy standard fantasy games (though I wouldn't say the
same about generic fantasy books), if I am going! to play a fantasy game,
I'd prefer it to be in a world and setting that is unique and interesting to
that game in particular rather than just pinching stuff and renaming.
For example, lets take the setting of moria. Moria is an interesting setting
for a game because it used to be a beautiful dwarf city, but has been
abandoned for years due to the dwarves their unearthing the balrog, making
it more than just the standard D&D underground dungeon. Another interesting
fact about Moria, is that of Balins' expedition to retake the caves just
before lotr (and tolkien implies that other efforts existed in the past),
thus a very legitimate way to create magical weapons, and maybe even
friendly ally characters you meet along the way.
I could imagine a generic game set in an underground city,and depending upon
the good quality of the descriptions such a game might even be fun, but it
would have neither the history, nor the logical reason for meeting allies
etc that moria does, ----- something I have to say Tom Zuchowski's eamon
adventure Thror's ring does extremely well, particularly since it is such a
generic and over used setting in other works of fantasy.
for an original game I'd much rather it had an original setting.
for instance, suppose instead of the ruined city having been abandoned, we
state the inhabitants (who were not dwarves but powerful wizards), became
more and more paranoid about outside attack and eventually voluntarily sunk
their city under the ground by magical means. This lead to a civil war,
meaning that by the time the game happens, only a few of the oldest and most
powerfull wizards have survived.
All the creatures in the game are either wildlife of the underground, or
direct creations of the wizards, and the game might even involve allying
with one wizard against another, perhaps with the final twist at the end
being that all! the wizards are pretty much as bad as each other and by
knocking off several of them and leaving one alone in control of the city
and all the magic there in the heroes have created further problems.
thus, we have a similar! setting to moria, but with quite a different
history and evolving story throughout the game. No, this would not be a
middle earth story, but equally it wouldn't be just a general copy either.
while I'd love to play a legitimate lotr game, if this wasn't possible I'd
much rather play an interesting original work that someone had seriously
thought about the history and setting, than just a cheap copy.
Beware the grue!
dark.
---
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