Experiences Do you like low or high fantasy settings more and why?

[GraySkyl]

Supposing you like to play in fantasy rps, would you rather play in a high fantasy (a.k.a. magic is everywhere, it's not that hard or unusal for people to learn to use magic, and if you're not careful the magical artifacts might fall out of your pockets, so to speak), or in low fantasy (a.k.a. magic and magical beasts (dragons, etc.) exist, people know about magic existing, and, if you're lucky and have someone who can teach you, you might even be able to learn to use magic, but, apart from big cities, the majority of people have never actually seen some use magic) settings?

I generally enjoy low fantasy settings more, just because I'm way more interested to see "ordinary people" overcome supernatural challenges. It just feels, to me, more satisfying. My way of describing it is always, that I'd rather be Frodo and Sam, than Gandalf.

 

[Onmyoji]

A while ago, I would have 100% answered that I prefer High fantasy. Now I feel like I enjoy a bit of both without hard preference.
I definitely prefer fantasy rp to realistic though, so I require fantasy elements in all of my roleplays. The degree of fantasy may vary

 

[Ayama]

Huh, I have never seen High and Low Fantasy described that way before. In all my years of RPing, and every time I've looked it up, it's always been more along the lines of "High Fantasy is when you pretty much create an entire, fictional world from scratch, whereas Low Fantasy is more when you inject fantasy elements into the 'real' world". In other words, High Fantasy is more for fanatics of lore creation and world-building, and low fantasy can generally be a little bit more easygoing and casual.

In the context of these definitions, I enjoy both, but I will say I have a distinct preference for carefully-crafted and fleshed out worlds that the GM has lovingly created for people to play around in. In the context of your definitions, I can also do and enjoy both, but I've never been the biggest fan of magic so I would say, on the whole, that I tend to favor settings where it's decently minimal, if that makes sense.

 

[GraySkyl]

Interesting! Using this definition, I'm definitely a fan of high fantasy

It could be that the difference in definition is "regional", meaning that in the country I'm living in those terms are used differently, than how they are used in other parts of the world

 

[Sagey]

I've actually seen it described more as Ayama mentioned myself. I've come to learn that I don't care to RP high fantasy as much. Not that I don't like it or low fantasy, but I definitely have more of a preference for more realistic settings. Much to the dismay of two of my characters who happen to be a kitsune and a fae.

For their sake, just to be able to play them, I would find a fantasy setting. I just haven't found one that caught my attention long enough.

 

[GraySkyl]

Yes, I looked it up, and my definition is apparently a pretty specific regionalism (not only specific to the country, but in fact specific to the TTRPG community in the country), so yeah, sorry for confusing everyone

I hope you'll find a setting that excites you soon!

 

[Daisie]

I've discovered I pretty much like every setting - high/low fantasy, realistic & modern, supernatural, sci fi (is there low and high sci-fi?), dystopian, whatever - as long as I really enjoy the characters amd their relationships!

Not sure if that's a helpful answer but it's my thought process.

 

[BuggaBoo]

Supposing you like to play in fantasy rps, would you rather play in a high fantasy (a.k.a. magic is everywhere, it's not that hard or unusal for people to learn to use magic, and if you're not careful the magical artifacts might fall out of your pockets, so to speak), or in low fantasy (a.k.a. magic and magical beasts (dragons, etc.) exist, people know about magic existing, and, if you're lucky and have someone who can teach you, you might even be able to learn to use magic, but, apart from big cities, the majority of people have never actually seen some use magic) settings?

Hi!!

lol big wordy question.

But fr i often find myself in the high fantasy rps but actually do prefer the lower fantasy.

But the fantasy I like best is kinda like when its framed like urban fantasy or magical girls. Like there is a lot of supernatural/superpowered things happening but its all behind a veil that normies cant see. I'm not really about the zero to hero high fantasy arc cuz its more about power fantasy wish fullfillment for the most part. Fun but kinda over it.

But! I do appreciate the normie learning how to magic and the funnny ish that usually goes along with adapting to a life of secret magical powers lol.

And charries knowing each other or at least familiar with each other at the start? Yeah that's it and soooo there for it fr tho.

 

[Idea]

I’m a much bigger fan of high fantasy myself. To me magic - and I should note I don’t necessarily restrict the notion of that to something like spells alone - is the essence of fantasy. While what magic can do as a narrative and world building element and tool can be explored very well in both high and low fantasy, with its own ways of highlighting and impacting the narrative, world and characters, I prefer it when magic is more integrated into the world building and a more central part of things. I think the biggest thing skewing my preferences here is that high fantasy is much less keen on hiding its magic and related elements, whereas you can go through entire books of low fantasy with barely any of any actual contact with any magic. Hidden world worldbuilding exists in high fantasy stories as well of course, but I do think it’s more prevalent in low fantasy. Adding to this, low fantasy is also where you find the “everything is just our world but there’s this one magical thing that may not even have a big presence” type of story and world. That later type in particular presents a big restriction in how inventive the world building can be. It’s not like I need the world to be some hyper-original creation full of jaw-dropping ideas every time, but I do have an interest for the ideas and possibilities that a world of fantasy can bring about - be it strange animals and plants, the reshuffling of society, often even small adaptations of its inhabitants to that environment. Naturally, when I’m the one writing I love bringing in such details into my worlds, plots and characters.

By contrast even when not particularly creative, subgenres of fantasy I like I would often put into high fantasy. Isekai for instance is generally speaking places in high fantasy settings, as are other of the RPG-esque types.

I rather enjoy the freedom of fantasy, and I find it constrained when there is too little of it. There’s always a balance that must be struck between freedom and limits for a creative endeavor, but fantasy and Scifi offer an unrivaled flexibility in this sense. Adding to this, high fantasy in particular lets you set the details more than anything else. You can decide how the world is, what its rules are, what is or isn’t possible within it. It lets you craft the perfect environment for your needs, which quite appeals to me given how focused I am on that type of planned and structured writing.

This freedom has another personal benefit. Bringing real world baggage is one of the things I hate most (well, as a general rule. I’m certainly not opposed to people exploring themselves and their lives through their writing, though even this I find is often done in a pretty tasteless and inconsiderate way). I think that line separating reality from fiction is just a lot more evident and it’s easier to detach when one is dealing with an entirely made up environment.

Lastly, there’s tone. I can enjoy dark-toned stories and roleplays, but I do have a slight preference for more light hearted, wholesome and comedic stories. I find in low fantasy people tend to default to the dark and grim a bit too much, in fact it seems almost universal.


So those are my reasons for preferring high over low fantasy.

 

[Chained Echoes]

Either one is fine with me as long as they're done right.

 

[DistractionAttack]

Personally I love high fantasy more then low fantasy but the grit of low fantasy has a draw to it.

High fantasy is my favorite because everything is magical. so mundane action seem so fantastical. The monsters and villains have such variety to, or at least I think so. Villains that can teleport through glass walking through mirrors like water, to a robotic angel that can control ancient constructs for magitech. So much variety and I've been tinkering with the idea of high fantasy wild west but I'm trying to find a good mix.

All of this but low fantasy in my opinion has an appealing grit. Where skill and force are your friend. Where those devoted their whole lives to learn one magic spell that they can barely control. People get creative against magical creatures that can level them in an instant. Instead of healing magic you get herbalists and most ranged options are bows crossbows or even flintlocks. The most appealing thing for me is imagining a low fantasy just pure weapon fight. Going blow for blow as these people try to get the upper hand especially if it's against the main villain, chills.

Overall I mostly love high fantasy and I think it has a lot of creativity to it.

 

[Pokeking]

I like both equally. I have done world-building for both which includes developing characters. For my high fantasy setting, I had these stories and characters who were of a medieval fantasy settings including my first OC. The characters and locations were unrelated to each other and had nothing in common except the medieval fantasy setting. I thought and thought about it. What if I did some canon-welding/embellishment/retcanon through tweaking places and backstories to make everything fit. I would like to think I am doing a good job.

For example, Jojin is my 1st OC and is a self-insert. He's a boy/young man who is a sorcerer king. In the original iteration back 20 something years ago, his county was populated by both humans and centaurs. About 10 years ago, I created a minotaur character named Xenophon who lived in another region. I ditched the centaurs and created a new region in Jojin's kingdom where they live. The homeland where the original iteration of Xen lived became the land that they left. I also started to revise Jojin's abilities since he seemed to be without limit.

My werewolf character of Josh Nakayama lives in a low fantasy setting. A main downside is trying to do world-building which incorporates a masquerade. How is that all these werewolves have been able to keep their real natures hidden from humans for so long? It only becomes more complicated if I have a variant which includes sorcery and other supernatural beings.

Overall, they have their pros and their cons.

 

[Jannah]

Low fantasy, easily. While I have played in my fair share of high fantasy settings, especially when I was younger, I do have a preference now towards the low fantasy settings. I just love the idea of something a little more magical being hidden within our own more mundane world so to speak. Plus, as much as I love worldbuilding, I actually sort of hate it for RP. Most RP's just don't last long enough to justify doing extensive worldbuilding. I save that for my own writing projects.

 

[GojiBean]

Hoyo!

Personally, I lean more towards low fantasy unless I'm playing a fandom I really like which is high-fantasy in nature.

I really like a more realistic world that's close enough to our own that I don't have to explain much, if anything, about how it works.

I've tried high fantasy RP's in the past and I was able to do them just fine. But I found that the level of information that has to be created and then bestowed upon anyone who joins is rather overtaxing and more often than not saps my creativity and motivation. Especially if people are joining all at different times forcing me to re-explain everything half a dozen times. Ya know?

I like both high fantasy and low fantasy in films, tv, and video games don't prefer either over the other in those mediums. But for my own RP's, low fantasy all the way these days.

Cheers!

- GojiBean

 

[RedArmyShogun]

No real preference. Depends on the story. Typically, however I don't gravitate towards magic. I much rather play generic humans skilled at hand to hand or sword combat. I'm the Generic Human Fighter. I like to out skill or outthink a foe. So high or low fantasy doesn't much matter to me as I'm going to be the sword slinger.

 

[Lorsh]

No real preference. Depends on the story. Typically, however I don't gravitate towards magic. I much rather play generic humans skilled at hand to hand or sword combat. I'm the Generic Human Fighter. I like to out skill or outthink a foe. So high or low fantasy doesn't much matter to me as I'm going to be the sword slinger.

There's name I haven't heard in awhile. Also, agreed!