Whats your preferred flavour of fantasy and major influences

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I'm just curious about different people favourites in terms of fantasy genres and what their greatest influences are?

With me for example I'm not a fan of high fantasy, Dragons and Princesses *yawn*, I prefer a darker gritty world with a dash of horror where the characters strive for survival rather than dream of being crowned King of the Realm.

J R R Tolkien - I struggle to imagine anyone, whether they like or loathe Tolkien's work, who can honestly claim they have not been influenced by it! I enjoyed LOTR and related stuff when I was a kid, but I find the world setting now to be not great for creating adventures in, too high fantasy, too black and white morality, and having the One Big Baddy makes it difficult (for me) to create adventures, they just get too linear (that said he wrote the books for his kids, so for younger players that black and white morality works well in a HQ setting as that was initially at least aimed at the younger market.)

Robert E Howard (and H P Lovecraft) - I'm a huge fan of Lovecraft but his horror is too disturbing for a board game for kids, but Robert E Howard has a touch of Lovecraft's macabre and his stories, including the obvious Conan ones, are the greatest influence on my fantasy world-view. If you haven't read these books, you are really missing out, don't be put off like I was for many years thinking of Conan from the films or the comics, the book version is so much better!

Michael Moorcock - Also very influential, I think it was his concept of Chaos and Order that prompted Games Workshops Chaos and Order duality, one of the better things about the GW mythos - although how they mix that with Tolkien's mythos does make something of a hodge podge.

What is your preferred flavour of fantasy and who influenced you the most?

[knightkrawler]

The Lord of the Rings, obviously, and MERP, the RPG for Middle-Earth. The first set of RPG rules I read, pulled me into fantasy games.

I absolutely adore Earthdawn, 1st edition; Barsaive as a background world (a region only as large as the Ukraine, mind you!), the history of Barsaive and Thera, the creatures living there, the social and technical/magical standard... perfect.

The Dark Eye (original: Das Schwarze Auge), German RPG, medieval with fantasy influences, but not too many. Great weapon and combat system.

Myranor, a spin-off of The Dark Eye, incredible background world, way more fantastic (Homerian), I am not up to describing it.

The Fighting Fantasy gamebook series by Steve Jackson, and the Lone Wolf series by Joe Dever: absolutely love both series and the concept of them; just so awesome.

Conan, R.E. Howard's actually written down stuff. 'Nuff Said.

TV and Movies: Willow, Game of Thrones, Conan the Barbarian, many many Italian early '80s fantasy flicks just for the sake of fraggle, and the '90s Conan cartoon.

Dungeons & Dragons, all editions, mostly for the rich creature and class background. Source material only.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

Wolfgang Hohlbein's Enwor novels.

I also count Masters of the Universe in. Don't know why.

I actually like the Warhammer background for some of the factions though I absolutely despise the closeness to the real world. It's so far from creativity, if you look at Earthdawn in comparison. Then again, the Warhammer background is just flavor you don't need for the game.

[Count Von Bruno]

*D&D Basic Set (Barbarian facing red dragon on covers) from a very early age (older brother) and Larry Elmore
*He Man and the Masters Of The Universe cartoon and toys (mostly the lead in shots of Snake Mountain and Castle Greyskull)
*Conan The Barbarian and Destroyer films, later on I got into Robert E Howard's actual stories which are awesome
*Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Legend, Heavy Metal and the animation Fire And Ice (though I forget just about everything about it)
*80's and 90's Warhammer
*Lone Wolf and Choose Your Own Adventure books
*70's AD&D books
*Boris Valleyo

(I only read the LOTR and Hobbit books in my 20's)

[torilen]

I love high fantasy - dragons, wizards, knights, etc. I also love gothic fantasy - vampires and werewolves and undead.
I am not really a big fan of non-magic fantasy...like Conan materials - they're okay, but not my favorite.

For inspiration - almost any of the classic and stereotype fantasy movies:
Legend, Harry Potter, LoTR, Dark Crystal, etc.

Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and, to a lesser extent, Greyhawk novels...mainly the original 3 Dragonlance,
The Cleric Quintet, Dark Elf Novels, Avatar Series (forgotten realms)...Shannara Series...mainly the original 3,
and the Scions series...not so much the newer sets

To a small extent - chronicles of narnia

D&D basic (basic/companion/masters) - some AD&D

Classic fantasy art - Jeff Easley, Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson, Clyde Caldwell, Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, Hildebrandt Brothers

One kind of big one - the Quest For Glory computer game by Sierra - game 1 and 2...not the others.

To a small extent - Dragon Warrior video game and Gauntlet video game...the first legend of zelda game

[bruenor]

I love high fantasy - dragons, wizards, knights, etc. I also love gothic fantasy - vampires and werewolves and undead.
I am not really a big fan of non-magic fantasy...like Conan materials - they're okay, but not my favorite.

For inspiration - almost any of the classic and stereotype fantasy movies:
Legend, Harry Potter, LoTR, Dark Crystal, etc.

Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, and, to a lesser extent, Greyhawk novels...mainly the original 3 Dragonlance,
The Cleric Quintet, Dark Elf Novels, Avatar Series (forgotten realms)...Shannara Series...mainly the original 3,
and the Scions series...not so much the newer sets

To a small extent - chronicles of narnia

D&D basic (basic/companion/masters) - some AD&D

Classic fantasy art - Jeff Easley, Larry Elmore, Keith Parkinson, Clyde Caldwell, Frank Frazetta, Boris Vallejo, Hildebrandt Brothers

One kind of big one - the Quest For Glory computer game by Sierra - game 1 and 2...not the others.

To a small extent - Dragon Warrior video game and Gauntlet video game...the first legend of zelda game

All this.

[Bareheaded Warrior]

I am not really a big fan of non-magic fantasy...like Conan materials - they're okay, but not my favorite.

How are the 'Conan' stories "non-magic fantasy"?

I must also add The Fighting Fantasy gamebook series by Steve Jackson, don't know how I forgot that!

[wolfie907]

conan is low fantasy meaning the focus is less on the magic aspects which are barely explained and don't matter much to the story. Conan don't care about magic he just crushes his enemies and drives them before him and listens to the lamentations of their women because that is what is best in life

[chaoticprime]

Fritz Leiber, Robert E. Howard, Robert Jordan, Hajime Kanzaka, Ryu Mizuno and Mobius.

[torilen]

Conan does have magic, yes, but as stated...it is low fantasy. The focus is not on the magic.
Granted, the only REAL experience I have are the two Arnold movies - I have only seen the comics
and graphic novels just a bit, so I don't know how much magic focus those have.

[chaoticprime]

Its not about the magic, its about the focus of the story. Sword & Sorcery is basically action & adventure in a fantasy setting. They're like Westerns, but in a different time and place. Fritz Leiber originally coined the phrase, actually. The use of the fantastic in Sword & Sorcery is so that there can never be defined a limit to the mysteries and horrors. Its not so much low-magic, as it is that magic is unnatural and terrifying. It goes without definition so that it can be used in all ways the writer sees fit.

Tolkien's the Hobbit was fantasy, but his LotR was high fantasy--the latter being actually a sub-genre of fantasy that's about the setting. High fantasy's goal is to show how different the fantasy world is from our reality.