You’re not wrong about Stardust, as that one was explicitly an homage to pre-tolkein fantasy.
American Gods is surrealism or magical realism. I wonder what shelf it’s on in my local bookstore. It belongs on the shelf wherever Marquez, Borges, and Murakami are, in my opinion. Ironically, Tolkein could be a “new” god inside this book, one that is created out of modern nostalgia for the old gods.
One of the ways I ask myself: “is this fantasy that follows the trappings of Tolkein or Conan?” is to rephrase the question as “if you set a D&D campaign in this universe, aside from the local lore, would you have to change much?”
Earthsea very nearly fits. High magic, but not medieval. The tropes were not as established in 1964 when Earthsea was conceived, and Le Guin pushed back against them somewhat. It’d make an excellent D&D setting. I should really reread it. I recently got a nice illustated single volume copy, but haven’t cracked it except to look at the illustrations haha.
Discworld is so much a parody of the tropes, but still contains the tropes. It’s still medieval fantasy with high magic. It would make a great D&D setting if you were looking for a comedy oriented campaign. Hell, it’d be super fun to DM this campaign. Just imagine Death as an NPC haha.
You’re not wrong about Stardust, as that one was explicitly an homage to pre-tolkein fantasy.
American Gods is surrealism or magical realism. I wonder what shelf it’s on in my local bookstore. It belongs on the shelf wherever Marquez, Borges, and Murakami are, in my opinion. Ironically, Tolkein could be a “new” god inside this book, one that is created out of modern nostalgia for the old gods.
One of the ways I ask myself: “is this fantasy that follows the trappings of Tolkein or Conan?” is to rephrase the question as “if you set a D&D campaign in this universe, aside from the local lore, would you have to change much?”
Earthsea very nearly fits. High magic, but not medieval. The tropes were not as established in 1964 when Earthsea was conceived, and Le Guin pushed back against them somewhat. It’d make an excellent D&D setting. I should really reread it. I recently got a nice illustated single volume copy, but haven’t cracked it except to look at the illustrations haha.
Discworld is so much a parody of the tropes, but still contains the tropes. It’s still medieval fantasy with high magic. It would make a great D&D setting if you were looking for a comedy oriented campaign. Hell, it’d be super fun to DM this campaign. Just imagine Death as an NPC haha.