Nobody quite answered the question I thought I'd asked in my last post. They answered the part about why Fantasy fans keep doing the same thing over and over, but not the part that really interested me.

So let me ask the same question, differently:

If the appeal of Fantasy over Science Fiction is really the comfort of the familiar, why do so many ( Read more... )

Over on Second Life, a friend of silkspider's was helping another friend work up an RP sim ( Read more... )

As most of you know, I dabble in RPG design, mostly as a sounding board for normanrafferty. Some of you may also know that I am (like three out of four people in the fandom) working on a "fantasy epic" of my own. Thus, many of my conversations revolve around the Theory and Practice of World Creation ( Read more... )

A post that the_gneech made early this morning brought this to mind, and I thought I'd expand upon and share the thoughts in my earlier comment.

( Some thoughts on the applied use of clichés and tropes: )