I am looking for you thoughts about how to make the mundane fantastical and fantastical mundane. What I want to do is make a fantastical world seem normal to my players, while at the same time, making normality seem strange and otherworldly.
Do you have any thoughts, tips, hints on how to do this, and how do you do it in your games or with your characters?
Thanks
Foxes.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
For mundane to fantastical: Play with anthropomorphism and personification.
For fantastical to mundane: Go super high magic, but make it redundant, commonplace, and less magnificent. Strip power away from the otherwise powerful.
ex- There's folks flying everywhere (wizards, quidditch without the broomsticks, etc.) yet way above the city are dozens of flying ships. Large galleon things.
ex- There's dragons but they don't breath fire or fly. Don't do this to all of them because that's uncool. Those dragons become normal(ish) big lizards at that point.
ex- Everyone wields fire swords but it's a hellish landscape. Most are immune to it and fire is everywhere anyway.
ex- Have the gods walk the realms. The gods are gnomes and halflings. Barefoot, unassuming, plain, dirty, and sloppy. They're gods (invulnerable and such) but they never display their power and aren't impressive otherwise.
ex- Don't make elves ethereal. Make them mad maxian thugs.
ex- Shrink your cathedrals. Get rid of them in fact. There's only shrines, which are nothing more than some carpet, 3 poles, a flap of canvas and a crayola scrawling of a god's symbol.
ex- Empires crumble and dragon's lairs are hollowed out goblin hidey holes now. The beautiful, awe inspiring nature of all things is broken and grey.
I feel like the mundane to fantastical would be fun. The other way around not so much. If you're going to strip the fantastical away, why call it that or go that way? Why not just have a normal, almost boring world. That's just my preference these days. When I think cool worlds, I want flying rhinos, goblin saddlers, black markets that headquarter inside the stomach of a worm that moves once a week, etc. I don't like "normal" in my fake worlds.
If you describe the fantastical using words and tone of voice that conveys the mundane nature to the human ear, the players will accept it as mundane.
If you use language and intonation to convey a sense of the fantastic to mundane things, the players will feel like it is fantastical.
It’s the same technique politicians use to get people to vote for stupid things, the same technique that salespersons use to get people to buy stuff they don’t need, and the same technique educators use to engage students.
The easiest thing I've found in my D&D games is food. Nothing makes my players sit up and take notice like "modern" real food in a fantasy setting. Tater Tots at the Inn. A high end candy shop with chocolate kisses. Spam. People don't think of those things as strange and fantastic until it's offset by Neverwinter.
The fantastical to the mundane comes from familiarity. Think of the Jetsons cartoon. (Tells you how old I am, perhaps I should have said Futurama but alas again still old) Flying cars, moving sidewalks, robot housekeepers, talking dogs, all very normal and expected for George and Jane Jetson. It becomes mundane because it is expected to be there. It’s so expected that they rely on it almost completely. Think how in Eberron they take an unusual thing in a fantasy setting (like trains and steampunk and android soldiers) and makes it very normal. To make the mundane fantastical, you need to think more like The Flintstones. Taking everyday objects and seeing them in a new or unusual light. Your trash bin is a pelican, your crane is a brontosaurus, etc. It’s about taking what is familiar and expected and making it unusual. Think how Acquisitions Inc takes a normal thing (like running a business) and makes it fantastical by putting it in a magical fantasy setting.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
Or read Robert Asprin's Myth novels, which do a much better job of presenting the weirdness of anachronistic technology and magic mixing together, have real plots, and don't have the baggage of being written by an author with a creepy obsession about having 40-50 year old men hooking up with teenage girls.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Or read Robert Asprin's Myth novels, which do a much better job of presenting the weirdness of anachronistic technology and magic mixing together, have real plots, and don't have the baggage of being written by an author with a creepy obsession about having 40-50 year old men hooking up with teenage girls.
Maybe I should re-read those. I don't remember the creepy stuff at all.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
It was a common theme, but I think the editors leaned on him to tone it down because it eventually became a lot less blatant. You might not have noticed it depending on when you started reading.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
You live in a Fantastical World that seems Mundane to you. Imagine growing up in your grand parents age.
Fathers yelled at little girls to get off the rotary phone because their boss was going to call them that night.' No texting.
No twitter, no facebook, no internet worthy of anyone except us nerds.
To play D&D you had to bike over to your friends house (because there was no Uber) and use actual dice rather than log on to roll20. There were these things called miniatures that you bought and had to paint, rather than tokens you got for free.
There were only TWO good sci-fi movies during the ENTIRE year of 1977. You had to wait 3 years for the sequel to Star Wars and you never got one for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Not a single super hero movie worth while.
The TV's were tiny.
The Marijuana was so freaking weak - and ILLEGAL to boot.
You could play this cool video game called "Space Invaders" where bit graphic aliens predictably marched across the screen.
When you wanted to listen to music you used a Tape Deck. Maybe one small enough to carry around. Dad would not let you touch his Record Player. No Pandora. No Itunes. Not even MTV
You live in a fantastical world full of marvels, and you think it is mundane.
About the only thing that stayed the same is that the Republican President claims he did not break the law, his lawyer did.
I am looking for you thoughts about how to make the mundane fantastical and fantastical mundane. What I want to do is make a fantastical world seem normal to my players, while at the same time, making normality seem strange and otherworldly.
Do you have any thoughts, tips, hints on how to do this, and how do you do it in your games or with your characters?
Thanks
Foxes.
What are the fantastical things that you want to feel mundane and what are the mundane things that you want to feel fantastical? You haven't told us anything about your world that can let us help you. If it's things like magic that you consider "fantastical" but want to make mundane, have it be abundant and pedestrian. No need for torches or gaslights in the streets since there are magic lights everywhere. No-one cares about keeping fires alive since you can have a small magic box that conjures flames for you. Bath houses comes with a free prestidigation. Carpenters and blacksmiths use Mending a lot and so on.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hi,
I am looking for you thoughts about how to make the mundane fantastical and fantastical mundane. What I want to do is make a fantastical world seem normal to my players, while at the same time, making normality seem strange and otherworldly.
Do you have any thoughts, tips, hints on how to do this, and how do you do it in your games or with your characters?
Thanks
Foxes.
A caffeinated nerd who has played TTRPGs or a number of years and is very much a fantasy adventure geek.
Random ideas -
For mundane to fantastical: Play with anthropomorphism and personification.
For fantastical to mundane: Go super high magic, but make it redundant, commonplace, and less magnificent. Strip power away from the otherwise powerful.
ex- There's folks flying everywhere (wizards, quidditch without the broomsticks, etc.) yet way above the city are dozens of flying ships. Large galleon things.
ex- There's dragons but they don't breath fire or fly. Don't do this to all of them because that's uncool. Those dragons become normal(ish) big lizards at that point.
ex- Everyone wields fire swords but it's a hellish landscape. Most are immune to it and fire is everywhere anyway.
ex- Have the gods walk the realms. The gods are gnomes and halflings. Barefoot, unassuming, plain, dirty, and sloppy. They're gods (invulnerable and such) but they never display their power and aren't impressive otherwise.
ex- Don't make elves ethereal. Make them mad maxian thugs.
ex- Shrink your cathedrals. Get rid of them in fact. There's only shrines, which are nothing more than some carpet, 3 poles, a flap of canvas and a crayola scrawling of a god's symbol.
ex- Empires crumble and dragon's lairs are hollowed out goblin hidey holes now. The beautiful, awe inspiring nature of all things is broken and grey.
I feel like the mundane to fantastical would be fun. The other way around not so much. If you're going to strip the fantastical away, why call it that or go that way? Why not just have a normal, almost boring world. That's just my preference these days. When I think cool worlds, I want flying rhinos, goblin saddlers, black markets that headquarter inside the stomach of a worm that moves once a week, etc. I don't like "normal" in my fake worlds.
All things Lich - DM tips, tricks, and other creative shenanigans
Read up on your Piers Anthony Xanth novels =)
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
Language.
If you describe the fantastical using words and tone of voice that conveys the mundane nature to the human ear, the players will accept it as mundane.
If you use language and intonation to convey a sense of the fantastic to mundane things, the players will feel like it is fantastical.
It’s the same technique politicians use to get people to vote for stupid things, the same technique that salespersons use to get people to buy stuff they don’t need, and the same technique educators use to engage students.
It works.🤷♂️
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Rarity.
If something is common place, people will get that its routine and treat it as if mundane.
If something is scarce, it becomes precious by its lack.
-
View User Profile
-
View Posts
-
Send Message
InsiderThe easiest thing I've found in my D&D games is food. Nothing makes my players sit up and take notice like "modern" real food in a fantasy setting. Tater Tots at the Inn. A high end candy shop with chocolate kisses. Spam. People don't think of those things as strange and fantastic until it's offset by Neverwinter.
Find me on Twitter: @OboeLauren
The fantastical to the mundane comes from familiarity. Think of the Jetsons cartoon. (Tells you how old I am, perhaps I should have said Futurama but alas again still old) Flying cars, moving sidewalks, robot housekeepers, talking dogs, all very normal and expected for George and Jane Jetson. It becomes mundane because it is expected to be there. It’s so expected that they rely on it almost completely. Think how in Eberron they take an unusual thing in a fantasy setting (like trains and steampunk and android soldiers) and makes it very normal.
To make the mundane fantastical, you need to think more like The Flintstones. Taking everyday objects and seeing them in a new or unusual light. Your trash bin is a pelican, your crane is a brontosaurus, etc. It’s about taking what is familiar and expected and making it unusual. Think how Acquisitions Inc takes a normal thing (like running a business) and makes it fantastical by putting it in a magical fantasy setting.
Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPmyTI0tZ6nM-bzY0IG3ww
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
Or read Robert Asprin's Myth novels, which do a much better job of presenting the weirdness of anachronistic technology and magic mixing together, have real plots, and don't have the baggage of being written by an author with a creepy obsession about having 40-50 year old men hooking up with teenage girls.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Maybe I should re-read those. I don't remember the creepy stuff at all.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
It was a common theme, but I think the editors leaned on him to tone it down because it eventually became a lot less blatant. You might not have noticed it depending on when you started reading.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
You live in a Fantastical World that seems Mundane to you. Imagine growing up in your grand parents age.
You live in a fantastical world full of marvels, and you think it is mundane.
About the only thing that stayed the same is that the Republican President claims he did not break the law, his lawyer did.
And just like that, things got political.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
What are the fantastical things that you want to feel mundane and what are the mundane things that you want to feel fantastical? You haven't told us anything about your world that can let us help you. If it's things like magic that you consider "fantastical" but want to make mundane, have it be abundant and pedestrian. No need for torches or gaslights in the streets since there are magic lights everywhere. No-one cares about keeping fires alive since you can have a small magic box that conjures flames for you. Bath houses comes with a free prestidigation. Carpenters and blacksmiths use Mending a lot and so on.