- For use of the term as an experience desired from a particular game, see promise or design goal.
Fantasy is a broad genre of setting that features imaginary or impossible things. Fantasy stories usually involve magic or other supernatural forces, and do not rely on real-world understanding (e.g. of history, science or nature) to be coherent. Fantasy is distinguished from the speculative fiction genres science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes respectively, although these genres overlap with each other and with others. Fantasy often contains elements derived from or inspired by mythology and folklore.
Fantasy is perhaps the most common genre in tabletop role-playing games, the first modern example of which was the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons. Dungeons & Dragons in particular has been so influential that it has had a significant influence on the fantasy genre as a whole (both within the role-playing hobby and in other media), as well as creating its own Tolkienesque sub-genre of fantasy (featuring spells, fantastic races, etc.).
Sub-genres of fantasy[]
Fantasy is an incredibly broad genre and, as such, also has a large number of (often overlapping) subgenres. Because of the nature of genres as fuzzy sets, fantasy draws on the tropes and elements of other genres (e.g. science fiction and horror as mentioned above), with many of its subgenres being intersections of the fantasy genre with other genres (e.g. science fantasy is one possible intersection of fantasy and science fiction).
Two early subgenres of fantasy (before fantasy itself was a codified genre) came to be called high fantasy and low fantasy. These were initially defined according to the setting of a work: low fantasy stories were ones in which fantastical elements appeared in the real world, while high fantasy stories took place entirely in a magical imaginary world. While the terms high fantasy and low fantasy are still often used in this context, they have also developed other meanings in informal usage over time, and are now somewhat ambiguous. The phrase high fantasy is often used for epic fantasy or heroic fantasy, and low fantasy variously refers to low-magic fantasy (in which fantastical elements in the imaginary worlds are muted or absent), dark fantasy, or sword-and-sorcery. (Other terms like urban fantasy have also taken over the original meaning of low fantasy in informal usage, whether or not the stories relate to cities.)
Common subgenres in role-playing games[]
- Arabian fantasy, inspired by One Thousand and One Nights
- Arthurian fantasy, inspired by the legends of King Arthur
- Dark fantasy, including disturbing or frightening themes, overlapping with horror
- Dungeons & Dragons, based on the various settings of Dungeons & Dragons
- Epic fantasy
- Fairy tale, based on fairy tales of usually European folklore
- Low-magic fantasy, in which magical elements are muted or entirely absent
- Historical fantasy, an overlap of the fantasy genre with the historical genre (e.g. medieval), taking place in a setting based on the past of the real world
- Modern fantasy, an overlap of the fantasy genre with the modern genre, taking place in a setting based on the modern real world
- Science fantasy, an overlap of the science fiction and fantasy genres
- Sword-and-sorcery, based on pulp action-adventure stories, set in ancient or imaginary worlds
- Tolkienesque, inspired by the works of J.R.R. Tolkien
- Urban fantasy, fantasy set largely or wholly within a large city, generally inspired by modern urban environments even if the setting is otherwise not modern
- Weird fiction, a combination of fantasy, horror and science fiction with a common focus on the emotional reactions of humans to utterly inhuman things and ideas