>High Fantasy >Low Fantasy >Epic Fantasy >Sword&Sorcery

I don't know. How does King Crimson work, OP?

>>50533803
google it

>>50533803
Maybe if you looked it up more than not at all you'd know. Come on man, you have access to almost the entire sum of current human knowledge at your fingertips. There's no excuse for this kind of shit.

>>50533803
>stupid
>boring
>cliche
>hipster

>>50533803
>Elric
>Game of Thrones
>Lord of the Rings
>Conan

>High Fantasy
Magic everywhere, distant from reality
>Low Fantasy
Magic sparse, close to reality
>Epic Fantasy
Same as High Fantasy but with a greater scope focus than individuals
>Sword&Sorcery
Attempt at meeting the middle ground between high and low fantasy by allowing mundanes to content with the supernatural

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>>50533869
Fuck, this might be right.

>>50533803
> High Fantasy
Everybody gets magic.
> Low Fantasy
Nobody gets magic.
>Epic Fantasy
Global stakes. This one's kinda bullshit.
>Sword&Sorcery
Villains get magic. Heroes don't get magic.

>>50533803
>High Fantasy
Not grounded in reality.

>Low Fantasy
Grounded in reality.

>Epic Fantasy
Good vs Evil saving the world stuff.

>Sword&Sorcery
More personal and selfish sorts of plots.

>>50533869
>Epic Fantasy
>Lord of the Rings
Yeah that's on point. I can't really think of any setting that I'd describe as epic fantasy other than Middle-Earth.

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>>50533803
Useful, but sometimes pedantic, categorization. It doesn't includes all the fantasy genre offers, like my favorite Invisible Cities.

The modern world has this mania for making a precise classification of things, and sometimes it is misleading. I consider this a side effect of the sheer amount of information our age produces and stores.

The biggest example is Lord of the Rings: defined as high fantasy, but that 'subgenre' was defined afterwards Tolkien wrote his trilogy.

When he made it, he intended to, and achieved, mythology. It's not wrong to call LofR high fantasy, but it has more in common, and draws from, the Odissey, Mahabarata and similars.

Those examples do have many ideas defined as trappings of high fantasy. The "Astras" showed in the Mahabarata are clearly epic and godly weapons that destroy great evils and powerful, Tarrasque-level monsters, each one could be the basis for an entire campaign.

>To summon or use an astra required knowledge of a specific incantation/invocation, when armed. The deity invoked would then endow the weapon making it impossible to counter through regular means. Specific conditions existed involving the usage of astras, the violation of which could be fatal. Because of the power involved, the knowledge involving an astra was passed in the Guru-shishya tradition from a Guru (teacher) to a Shishya (pupil) by word of mouth alone, and only following the establishment of the student's character. Certain astras had to be handed down from the deity involved directly, knowledge of the incantation being insufficient.

>Bhaumastra could create tunnels deep into the earth and summon jewels.

>Nagaastra would have an unerring aim and take on the form of a snake, proving deadly upon impact.

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>>50533813

>>50533869
>GoT
>Low

>>50533869
I'd consider Elric Sword and Sorcery. If not in themes, in style for sure. It's old school.

>High fantasy
In literary terms it's fantasy with no connection to Earth. In neckbeard terms it's "fantastical" fantasy where the story emphasis is on the fantastical elements.

>Low fantasy
Literary: Some connection to Earth
Neckbeard: Emphasis is on human struggles rather than fantastic elements.

Lord of the RIngs is high fantasy in both senses.

Narnia and The Worm Ouroboros are examples of literary low fantasy, neckbeard high fantasy.

Game of Thrones and Black Company are literary high fantasy and mostly neckbeard low fantasy, though the fantastical elements are very fantastical, the focus of the story is on regular human shit.

>Epic

Come on man

>Sword and sorcery

This is a tougher one. Thematically sword and sorcery tends to be rough and gritty, old school where the dudes are huge and there's women hanging off of them, and the villains are usually evil sorcerers or lizard people.

Stylistically sword and sorcery tends to be more along the lines of something you'd hear told over a campfire.

>>50535794
Epic Fantasy is a name I'd only ever attribute to LotR. Tolkien practically wrote his own literary epic.

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>>50533803

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>>50535794
>Narnia
>low fantasy

>>50536167
>literary low fantasy, neckbeard high fantasy.
He's kinda right. Low fantasy in traditional literary terms refers to fantastical events occurring in or in relation to our world. The idea that low vs high fantasy somehow decides if the setting has magic and dragons or not is something that came along later.

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>>50533803
High Fantasy:
>doesn't take place on Earth

Low Fantasy:
>takes place on Earth

It's not hard you guys.

>>50535414

you can count the uses (and users) of magic in the world with one hand. monsters exist and generally none of them enjoy seeing any humans alive. that's a decent compounding of low fantasy tropes.

>>50536740
ASOIAF is High Fantasy because it doesn't take place on Earth. You are thinking of High/Low Magic.

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>>50533931
>>Sword&Sorcery
>Villains get magic. Heroes don't get magic.

But heroes get big bulging thews, so it all works out.

>>50536334
So a completely magicless setting without any other races is immediately high fantasy if the continent it takes place on isn't shaped like europe?

That's bullshit and you know it. You can regurgitate the same opinion as many times as you like, I'm going to disregard it every time.

>>50533803
Means you should lurk moar

>>50536239
>Low fantasy in traditional literary terms refers to
>traditional literary terms
actually no, low/high fantasy as you're describing it is a colloquialism coined by neckbeards arguing about fantasy literature in the 60's

there's no traditional definition of low fantasy, be it in literature or otherwise

>>50537314
You're free to shut your eyes to the truth, anon. I can't stop you.

>>50536334
>What is tone and a thematic setting?
Someone's been playing Darklands.

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>>50533803
>High Fantasy
There are enormously powerful non-human Powers at play, influencing events and conflicts between various people with fantastic abilities with little regard to the laws of Science or Nature.
>Low Fantasy
People vie for resources and territory/political power, and resolve their conflicts through strategy and abilities that generally respect Physical Law.
>Epic Fantasy
Clashing Empires/Worlds/Dimensions struggle for their people's future, if not the future of all Reality
>Swords and Sorcery
Scrappy murderhobos try to overthrow the local dickish Warlord/Cult leader/Wizard who's making everyone's lives difficult.

>>50537433
This guy gets it.

>>50534267
What about shit like Malazan or Wheel of Time where you got godmode motherfuckers walking around blowing everything up and doing all sorts of crazy shit?

>>50534267
Almost the entire work of Michael Moorcock? Even Frank Herbert's Dune qualifies.
It's not our fault you aren't well read.

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>>50537621
>genre fiction
>well read

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>>50537657
>Oh noes genre
>In a thread specifically addressing genre

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>>50537657
>Has only watched LotR blu rays
>Smugly weighs in on the differences of fantasy genre anyway.
>Gets touchy when he's called out for being completely unfamiliar with the thread topic

>>50537085
Go fuck yourself already

>>50537657
>"literary fiction" is still a genre, it's just a genre for snobbish people

http://www.strawpoll.me/11802262

Let's settle this

>>50537834
He's moved on to /co/, to tell them that comics and cartoons are for babbies

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>>50537921
I settled it here
>>50537433
You weren't paying attention, clearly.

>>50537921
Where is the "it linguistically used to mean that it took place on an alternate earth, but evolution of the phrase means that in its modern usage it refers to a low-magic setting" option?

>>50537947
Then we're determining whether that shift has achieved critical mass yet.

>>50537921
The truth isn't a democracy.

>>50537921
Neither answer is correct. You can have hedge magic all over the place and it still be low fantasy, if hedge magic is just used to make the chickens lay extra eggs and cure warts and so forth. Whether it takes place in quasi-historical England or Xombarg is irrelevant as well.

>>50533894
>>50533931
>>50537433
>Buffy the vampire slayer is high fantasy
This is how stupid you sound.

>>50537972
The definition of words is. The will of the people says that 'gay' means 'cocksucking assfaggot', not 'happy'.

>>50537992
We'll compromise and call it middle fantasy.

>>50537972
Not with everything, but it is with words.

>>50537921
The best modern definition is >>50534000

Seriously, "it has magic in it" is something in basically every fantasy story ever told and how much magic is a waste of breath because you immediately have to use other genres terms to continue to describe it instead of being used like a subgenre.

It's also stupid because there is a defined floor and no defined ceiling to magic and the border is impossible to define.

It's a garbage definition even if the primary/secondary world is too broad and inconsistent.

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The difference between High Fantasy and Low Fantasy is the extent to which the fantastical elements are driving the narrative and empowering the sides in the conflict.

You can have a Low Fantasy setting on Planet Shoobala with big pink dinosaurs and floating islands, and it just be some hunter gatherer types attacking each other with primitive weapons and burning each other's villages with torches.

Conversely, you can have High Fantasy in Wales with two warring clans using Druidic Magic and sacred monolithic stones to summon faerie assassins.

>>50537996
>Satan exists and sends his demons to fuck with sexy vampires and the occult wielding humans who hunt them.
Yes, this is High Fantasy.

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Each of these words mean something different to someone else but basic idea from what I understand is:

>High Fantasy

Anything from "Lord of the Rings" to "Final Fantasy". It's silly, magic is prevalent, scifi elements might be mixed into the batch, etc.

>Low Fantasy

usually means Game of Thrones or any fantasy where magic isn't prevalent and people die of diseases.

>Epic Fantasy

Have not heard this?

>Sword&Sorcerey

Often crosses over with Low Fantasy and explicitly just means "Conan the Barbarian" or anything of a pulp fantasy variety. Usually taking place in a proto-medeival setting.

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>>50537996
Yes, same as Kevin Sorbo Hercules. Or Xena for that matter.
The overarching plot and conflicts are driven by supernatural entities who openly wield unknowable magic powers.
That's how High Fantasy works, even when it isn't Epic.

>>50538092
see>>50537433

>>50537433
Solid definitions there senpai

8/10

>>50537657

Go back to /lit/ you David Foster Wall-ass

>>50537972
Low/high fantasy has never had a proper definition, it is merely a label slapped onto fantasy as a way of compartmentalizing shit some nerd wants to argue about in an essay.

outside of informal use, the distinction is literally a spook

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Every dickish Sword and Sorcery BBEG warlord should be played as Jack Palance would have.

>>50538009
The motion carries, next order of business, the ratio of magic swords in high fantasy compared to low

>>50538052
Even still, a man is allowed to use words in an archaic sense both in everyday conversation and in writing. For example:

"Grey patriarchs of weathered stone gazing grim and stern over the green grasses where the laughing gay children run and play"

is perfectly acceptable to say.

>>50537921
Neither. It is about tone.

>>50537996
> Buffy isn't high fantasy
This is how stupid you sound

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>>50538228
This is low Fantasy Sword and Sorcery, btw.

As is Conan the Barbarian, as Crom generally gives no fucks and Doom is a cultist who can wereshape into a snake. Valeria popping in for 3 seconds doesn't change this, as the narrative is simple "You killed my Father, prepare to die".

>>50533869
I really do think that Elric is closer to Sword and Sorcery, but still, that's not bad at all.

>>50538315
Princess Bride, also Low Fantasy Sword and Sorcery.

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>>50538329
Elric's universe (multiverse really) is driven by an eternal conflict between Law, Chaos and the Balance, and he's eternally living lives upsetting the very balance of the universes he incarnates in, sometimes to the extent of destroying entire pantheons/nations.
It's definitely High Magic, Epic Fantasy.

>>50538090
That's not even close to what Buffy's plots or themes are. It's a monster of the week show featuring high schoolers facing unknown supernatural forces. Magic, demons, etc. are widely unknown to people.

>>50538125
>Hercules and Xena are high fantasy
By this definition fucking anything with fantastical elements is high fantasy. What is low fantasy to you?

>>50533803
>High Fantasy
Focus on grand conflicts, large presence of magic, and generally an emphasis on the influence of greater powers (gods, magicians, kings, ect...)
>Low Fantasy
A focus on the normal folk. Magic can be present but isn't the focus of the narrative. People are born, live, and die without knowledge of it and magic is known only to a handful of people.
>Epic Fantasy
Like high fantasy, but with more of an emphasis on the battle between good and evil as well as godly conflicts as well as larger-than-life characters
>Sword and Sorcery
A combination of low fantasy and epic fantasy, with grand quests and magic but mixed with personal struggles and grit. Mainly attributed to Conan and other like settings.

>>50538381
Yeah, you're right. I guess I think more of the pulpy bits of the books and tend to forget a lot of the larger world building.
Time to reread Elric and Corum at least.

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>>50538381
Whereas Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser are High Magic, Sword and Sorcery.
While Gods and Immortal Wizards exist, they rarely influence human affairs with their powers, and generally are a nuisance to the duo's petty robberies and squabbles.

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>>50538385
>What is low fantasy to you?
Any setting where the Big Supernatural stuff (if it exists) is just window dressing for down-to-earth tales of robbery or regular warfare.

Frankenstein and Werewolf fiction are like this, they involve supernatural fantasy, but God or Satan isn't directly involved and the big bad is put down with fire or silver.

>>50533803

>High fantasy is defined as fantasy set in an alternative, fictional ("secondary") world, rather than "the real", or "primary" world. The secondary world is usually internally consistent, but its rules differ from those of the primary world. By contrast, low fantasy is characterized by being set in the primary, or "real" world, or a rational and familiar fictional world, with the inclusion of magical elements

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_fantasy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low_fantasy

>>50538530
Excalibur is just rivals fighting over a girl and a small kingdom on an island, it's Low Fantasy Swords and Sorcery. Merlin makes some smoke, disguises one guy, and a Lake Maiden hands off a really sharp (but breakable) sword.

>>50538425
Dancers at the End of Time is some crazy shit too.

>>50533869
Personally, I'd put the Gentlemen Bastards series for Low Fantasy, but then that's still relatively obscure.

>>50538830
The Thorn of Emberlain when?

>High Fantasy
Fate of the world
>Low Fantasy
Fate of the kingdom
>Epic Fantasy
Fate of the multiverse
>Sword&Sorcery
Fate of the dick

>>50538849
Not nearly soon enough.

>>5053897
/thread

>>50537314
It's not like it's a hard discipline, there have been no referendums on this terminology. There can be and are different definitions.

The distinction of high fantasy and low fantasy being non-Earth and Earth are the first definitions of those terms. They were coined meaning these things, by Lloyd Alexander.

It makes sense (arguably more sense, which is why people started taking them this way to start with) that they're used to mean "more fantastical, thus more magic" and "less fantastical, thus less magic", but it doesn't change what the terms were created to mean.

>>50537996
Not as stupid as the spongebob squarepants movie does not follow the heros journy but its up there.

>>50538270
I would say it does not auctualy matter.
However high fantasy will have more of the higher end magic swords although low fantasy can sometimes reach much higher quality at the top end.

>>50533803
>i've shit taste and can't roleplay anything that isn't mary sue
>i've shit taste and can't enjoy anything that isn't in covered in shit
>i've shit taste and can't enjoy anything that doesn't go well with my dragonforce collection
>i've shit taste and i like to ripoff conan the barbarian

For your sake I've also taken liberty to define certain other genres:
>dark fantasy=i've shit taste and my setting is like dark souls but tabletop
>science fantasy=i've shit taste and i love to mix things that should not be mixed
>science fiction (soft)=i've shit taste and i like to recycle my fantasy shit in space
>science fiction (hard)=i've shit taste and my autism doesn't allow anything fun in my setting
>lovecraftian=i've shit taste and i just read at the mountains of madness and decided that it would make a perfect run'n'gun setting

>>50539570
>I've shit taste and my autism doesn't allow anything fun in my setting
What is: The Expanse?

>>50539570
Cyberpunk is the best genre?
Okay then.

>>50539610
The Expanse isn't anywhere near hard sci-fi. What are you talking about?

>>50539570
kys

>>50539625
Could you provide examples?

>>50537657
>*rattles tits* GENRE FICTION GENRE FICTION GENRE FICTION

>>50539664
Isn't Hard Sci-fi cyberpunk in space?

>>50536077
mech fantasy best fantasy. Mechs and mideval is my fave aethetic.

Only ones i can really think of are warmachine and (to an extent) 40k knights

What about Dark Fantasy?

>>50537996
Urban fantasy

>>50540497
99% of current dark fantasy campaigns can be summed up
>it is like dark souls expect X

>>50539880
Not necessarily. The Expanse is pretty solidly hard SF in the background (apart from super-efficient fusion drives, but there's no FTL and colonies are made using generation ships) but the alien tech that appears in the books is pretty much sufficiently advanced technology. The books still respects science up to a degree, though, so it's nicely hard. You're thinking of stuff like transhuman space and eclipse phase (which are hard sf + cyberpunk, and a sprinkling of borderline incomprehensible advanced technology in the latter's case).

What would you classify this setting?
Literally Medieval Earth but with all locations and cultures under different names with magic being prevalent, gods are real but they rarely appear and only their effects can be seen and no explicit Judeo-Christian religions, but various analogues for them exist.
Various mythylogical creatures exist but the focus is still on humans even though humans can become as strong as demigods through magic if they apply themselves.

>>50540636
So basically it's the new >it's like Berserk except X

>>50533931
this
+
>>50534000
this.

for sure.

>>50537085
useless definition.

if it takes place on our earth, its not.

if it takes place on an alternate earth with magic (harry potter) (buffy) (marvel comics) (dresden files) etc, its still not our world, its a different world simply designed to look less alien.

this definition of high/low fantasy is functionally useless.

>>50535794
>forgotten realms is low fantasy
this definition is not functionally useful.

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So from what I learned from this thread is that varying degrees of fantasy definitions is just neckbeard autism made manifest?

>>50537970
according to the poll, its achieved 50+ acceptance, so id argue it has.

small sample size mind you

>>50538276
>gay children
and yet everyones mind will infer the homosexual meaning first, and many wont even realize the word has the previous meaning.

grounds for ridicule, at best.

So what fucking genre is Age of Sigmar?

>>50541227
definitions or terms are not agreed upon, though those terms ezpediate discussion of subject matter and are thus still used regularly.

well, people mostly agree on sword and sorcery and epic fantasy. its the others theyre iffy on.

you can avoid using the terms, but if you do use them, you will cause confusion, or shift the discussion over to whether your usage of the term follows the "correct" meaning.

personally i simply avoid the "high/low fantasy" terms because of the hassle they cause.

>"high/med/low powered fantasy" - powerlevel. low is real life or action movies, high is like green lantern corps+, med is harry potter.
>"high/medium/low magic fantasy" - magic commonality
these tend to be fairly clear and cover my needs in discussions without causing arguments or confusion.

>>50541334
im more familiar with old whfrp but ill take a stab at it.

its not s&s
might be epic.
"literary high fantasy"
high magic fantasy.
medium power fantasy.

i think that more or less covers it

>>50541334
'tard fantasy

>>50537657
You nerds are getting triggered at this but hes not wrong, reading dune and Moorcock or other mainstream genre fiction does not make on 'well read'.

>>50537559
>>50537621
I didn't use epic in reference to scale. I used it in reference to old epics (as in epic poetry) from the middle-ages and antiquity. Tolkien's the one author I've encountered who's actually tried and somewhat succeeded at building his own mythology with similar methods. It's not WHAT the book series is about; it's how it's written.

>>50537657 wasn't me.

>>50541103
Hardly surprising considering that Dark Souls was
>it is like Berserk but with more undead and less rape

>>50541403
well read can be subject specific.

i can be well read on philosophy, and not at all well read in term of "classical american literature"

>>50540817
The 7th sea setting? Low fantasy (because the focus is no in dividuals and local groups as fits swashbuckling onventions and trappings , but like Middle magic, because, gods don´t intervene but there are fantastic moster and semi- casual magic users (those tarot witches in not!Venice and channeling legendary archeypes in Avalon, aka not! early Christian Britain, irrc )

>>50541423
"fantasy fiction" being the subject referred to in this thread, its clearly the category you'd use to determine if you're well read.

(I'm not well read in the subject either. i like conan the witcher and non salvatore/greenwood forgotten realms in published fantasy fiction, and otherwise tend to stick to games/movies/tv)

>>50541436
I haven't heard of this 7th sea, but it sounds interesting.
its the setting for my comic I want to make

>>50541420
Dark Souls could use more rape.

>>50541363
Well, it's like if Michael Moorcock got a brain injury and wrote the synopsis for a Saturday morning cartoon based on He-man and fantasy Stargate.

>>50541403
Not having read those doesn't make you well read. Being well read is about what you have read, not what you won't read.

>>50536077
>medieval
>lots of people in full plate

>>50533803
>Magic is common
>Magic is rare
>Races are very good at specific things that they do and the setting is spread miles and miles over the world.
>People do things for their own gain. Magic is considered evil regardless of the wielder.

Want to go on?
>Science fantasy: Technology is advanced but magic and monsters exist
>Mythic fantasy: Pick a mythological setting. Done.
>Power fantasy: Machines and war casters everywhere if the races can provide it.
>Horror fantasy: Horror, but fantasy.
>Pulp fantasy: Every kind of fantasy in one setting.

Sauce?

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>>50538066
>Conversely, you can have High Fantasy in Wales with two warring clans using Druidic Magic and sacred monolithic stones to summon faerie assassins.

I never knew how much I wanted this

>>50542159
OP's pic could be from newest godzilla flick.

>>50533803
>that pic
I was about to go to bed but I sure as fuck ain't now.

>>50542195
Sleep is for the weak anyway.

>>50539464
What they meant originally is irrelevant to how they are used today though.

That said, the definitions used today are so varied that if someone told me that a work I'm unfamiliar with as "high fantasy" I'd ask him to explain what he means by it.

>>50536167
Narnia is portal fantasy, which is like a midpoint between (literary) high fantasy and (literary) low fantasy. Also included are Zelazny's work, Three Hearts and Three Lions, and piles and piles of trashy escapist Isekai light novels.

As I see it:

>High Fantasy
- Completely made up world with fantastical elements (floating mountains, cities protected by ancient giant golems, the moon is cracked in half as a result of a war between gods, there's a land where everything feels/looks evil/good and you are always breathing that evil/good, etc.)
- "High Fantasy" describes just a style of world more than a style of story. Most of the time, Heroic Fantasy or Epic Fantasy stories are set in High Fantasy worlds.

> Low Fantasy
- Whether historical or made up, the setting resembles our real world.
- Morality is more shades of grey
- Magic is mysterious and very low key and generally not used/controlled by the characters.
- The conflicts are more personal (revenge, love, power struggles, politics, etc.)

> Sword and Sorcery
- The world: Same as Low Fantasy
- Morality: The protagonists are very very Grey. The antagonists are always the blackest of blacks.
- Magic/Supernatural: Very low key and generally evil or corrupting. Most of the time only the antagonists use it.
- Stakes: The protagonists have very selfish motivations (revenge, money, power, sex, simple survival, etc.). Civilization is generally decadent and corrupt so there's nothing worth "saving", anyway.

> Epic Fantasy
- The world: Can range from somewhat realisitc to very high fantasy
- Morality: Mostly white and black, even to the point of romanticism. The heroes are always heroes, the villains are always villains.
- Magic/Supernatural: Can range from very low key/plot device/evocative to fireball slinging wizards.
- Stakes: START AN EPIC JOURNEY TO UNITE ALL THE FREE RACES, CONFRONT THE FORCES OF EVIL IN AN EPIC FINAL BATTLE AND EPICALLY SAVE THE WORLD!

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>>50533803

>High Fantasy
In your face morals, lots of magic, divine beings as characters, etc.

>Low Fantasy
Magic is less in your face. Morality can be questionable, if there are Gods they are not active plot devices.

>Epic Fantasy
Heroes quest. Can be either High or Low though

>Sword&Sorcery
Free with Kindle Unlimited.

>>50533803

>High Fantasy
F/SN
>Low Fantasy
Asoiaf
>Epic Fantasy
Warcraft
>Sword and Sorcery
Conan

>>50543849
>Fate is now high fantasy
Nigga you wot

>>50543940
>High fantasy
Basically capeshit, but with ringmail instead of capes.

>>50545231
Its chuuni pretentious battle shounen that pretends to be smart. It's not high fantasy in the slightest.

>>50545231
It's cheap urban fantasy, you twit.

>>50535794
>This is a tougher one. Thematically sword and sorcery tends to be rough and gritty, old school where the dudes are huge and there's women hanging off of them, and the villains are usually evil sorcerers or lizard people.

It's more like the fantasy you'd read in old pulps. Stuff like Fafhard and the Grey Mouser doesn't really fit that theme (And neither does Conan really). It honestly could be interchangeable with Low Fantasy in some regards, and usually fetures some roguish characters going around and having adventures in a dangerous world filled with all the normal dangerous thing, plus also sometimes a Wizard wants to kill you and they've sacrificed their humanity for their magic, so you know they're not going to bother being subtle with you.

>>50546908

Forgot o mention Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser also coined the term "Swords & Sorcery" and the same titled comic originally starred those two.

>>50536077
>mech fantasy isn't the dude in plate next to some tiny buildings with a laser sword and brightly coloured armour
>science fantasy isn't the dude in plate with a laser sword and neon lights upon his armour

>>50543849
>Low Fantasy
>Asoiaf

Dude, we've covered this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genres#Fantasy

I suggest there should be some ISO certificate system for genre fiction, because the chaos is rampant.
I suggest using magic word count per 100 pages as an objective measurement of fantasy highness.

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>>50540497
>What about Dark Fantasy?

What kind of Dark Fantasy?

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>>50548267

Is there a comprehensive list or guide on what RPGs / TTRPGs are worth getting into and exploring if I want to try and find something for my game group to play that isn't 3.PF/5e/Gurps?

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>>50549044
For nice and deadly combat try The Riddle of Steel or any of its successors (Blade of the Iron Throne, Song of Swords, Band of Bastards). It also forces players to think and plan, and not to try to solve everything with a head on fight, since characters can die easily, especially if one character has to face more than one enemy at a time.
PDF related is the TROS quick start. You can get everything SoS (not really finished, but already playable, also has a supplement for a ww2-ish setting) in the /tg/ thread and Band of Bastards (not finished but playable as well) on their website.

But for the comprehensive guide you asked about, I don't think there is one.

>>50533803
9/10. this is what good bait looks like.

>>50534000
>>Sword&Sorcery
>More personal and selfish sorts of plots.
also: heroic martials being on par (at least) with spellcasters

>>50536334
>>50537085
stop spewing this memetic definiton, you faggots

>>50550511
Conan does get his ass handed to him by magic a few times.

>High Fantasy
Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood

>Low Fantasy
Fullmetal Alchemist (2003)

>>50537085
You can't fit Song of ice and Fire into just one of those. It's both High Fantasy and Low Fantasy. Bran's tale of psychics and shapeshifters and trees and hive minds and Bluhd Rehvehns is High Fantasy. Sansa's story is really really low fantasy. It's just a girl living a generally shitty life.

Hell, maybe it's sci-fi if you believe those theories.

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>>50542168
It is. A version popped up on TPB recently. It's only half-decent as a movie but some of the shit Godzilla pulls off is fuckin sick.

>>50537921
It's not even about magic. If there's no magic but there's flying vampires coexisting with giant pandas in the elf city that's still high fantasy. Magic isn't the only fantasious element you can have.

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>>50551003

>>50533803
>High Fantasy
There's a lot of fantasy.
>Low Fantasy
There's fantasy, but only a little.
>Epic Fantasy
There's fantasy and it's epic (often this means there's a lot of it).

It wasn't that hard, was it?

Sword and sorcery is how the writers of conan-like fantasy agreed themselves to call the genre.

I feel more certain than ever that this field should be called the sword-and-sorcery story. This accurately describes the points of culture-level and supernatural element and also immediately distinguishes it from the cloak-and-sword (historical adventure) story—and (quite incidentally) from the cloak-and-dagger (international espionage) story too!

—Fritz Leiber, Amra, July 1961

>>50550511
It's more about the hero (normally Conan) being super badass than all martials being on par with spellcasters.

>>50551225
Conan always struck me as something close to the mythical heroes of ancient Greece.

>>50550562
and prevails. his trail is littered with dead spellcasters

>>50551225
that's why I said heroic martials

>>50551197
this. it's what we call tokien-esque fantasy these days. moorcock suggested epic fantasy but it didn't stick initially.

>>50533803
>High fantasy
Everyone is, like, totally stoned maaaan... Aaall the tiiiiime...
>Low fantasy
Everybody talks like James Earl Jones
>Epic fantasy
The story is told in the form of a grand poem, in the finest ancient style.
>Sword&Sorcery
Everyone's a gish.

>>50533803
>High Fantasy
A story that takes place in a completely alien world distinct from our own. Ex: ASOIAF
>Low Fantasy
A story that has some connection with the real world. Ex: Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia
>Epic Fantasy
A very long story. Ex: The Lord of the Rings, The Wheel of Time
>Sword&Sorcery
Just a buzzword for a fantasy story.

>>50538385
>Magic, demons, etc. are widely unknown to people.

This comment made me think about something that should've been mentioned already. You have to ask yourself if you're talking about the story or about the universe it takes place in. "Nobody knowing" the supernatural elements means bullshit when all the relevant characters do know and are involved in the highest fantasy. In the same way you could tell a low fantasy tale in a universe full of gods and demons clashing against each other destroying galaxies, you just have to tell it in a time and place not affected by that.

>>50533848
this is a fantasy thread not a list of personal traits.

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>>50552115
Fucking devestated

>>50551370
>Everybody talks like James Earl Jones
fuck yes

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>>50545357
HOLY FUCK I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS THIS.
I FUCKING HATE FATE AND ITS FANS SO FUCKING MUCH.