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Whats your preferred flavour of fantasy and major influences

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Re: Whats your preferred flavour of fantasy and major influe

Postby Goblin-King » Thursday January 2nd, 2014 4:02am

A lot of the books that have already been mentioned.

I'll add in the Smurfs comics. They actually are a pretty cool fantasy setting when they don't switch lanes into full fledged comedy.
Also Valhalla comics are a great source of inspiration.
I read a LOT of choose your own adventure books. primarily the series by Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson. Those were great!

I can't deny my roots in Warhammer Fantasy either. Say what you want about GW as a company. The setting and races are great!

A lot of different artists which I only knew from the covers of Heavy Metal magazines. I only learned their names much later, but many images has stuck with me forever.

Oh... and take a quick glance at my avatar/username ;)


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Re: Whats your preferred flavour of fantasy and major influe

Postby Malcadon » Thursday January 2nd, 2014 4:14am

For me, its Robert E Howard's Sword & Sorcery fiction and Edgar Rice Burroughs' Planetary Romance for the same reasons that makes Twilight so popular: an escapist fantasy with a flat and overly idealized leading character that the reader can become immersed in, who has multiple love-interests, would become some sort of savior in the end, and lot of unlikely events with narratives that appeals to the reader even if its too idealistic. As dumb as that might sound, its actually a good thing. Its an outlet for our own dreams, desires and wish-fulfillment, that shapes our actions and creations to better things! Yeah Bella Swan is a terrible role-model, but her sense of romance is just as out there as an Earth-man who never acclimates to Marian gravity and outfights people who spent centuries of their lives honing their dueling skills, or a muscle-headed barbarian who is an academic savant and future king of a pridefully civilized nation. The details don't matter: they are all stuff a particular demographic really enjoys reading.

I have been working on a setting that is based on the old Masters of the Universe mini-comics (the one that came with the figures; before Filmation butchered the fiction and turned it into a damn Pride Parade!). Like early MotU, it is basically a universe-spanning war that left worlds in a barbaric stat, were people use magic alongside technology, and has lots of beefcake and cheesecake warriors. The chief technology that makes it possible for people to fight with swords along with blasters are miniature force field generators mounted on battle harnesses. They work like Holtzmen Shields from Frank Herbert's Dune, in that they block range attacks (but would not nuke if you hit them with a laser) while allowing for slow-moving melee attack to slip through, because if you make the shield tighter, the wearer cannot breath. The tightness of the shields also trap body heat, so the wearer have to dress down for better ventilation, so no heavy armors. In other words, loincloths & leather straps and chainmail bikinis are now practical wargear! WOOHOO!!! |_P In my setting, worlds are connected by giant gates and people can travel by Barsoomian-styled airships. Each world is radically different, with their own ecology, cultures and dangers. The focuses of the setting are action, adventure, exploration, aerial-navel warfare, tribal politics, paranormal strangeness, and sensuality. Additional inspiration comes from '20s-'30s era pulps, '30s-'40s era movie serials, '80s cartoons, and cheesy '80s Sword & Sorcery movies. Its not meant to be taken too seriously, as its about trying to be as fun and awesome as possible.


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Re: Whats your preferred flavour of fantasy and major influe

Postby Sjeng » Thursday January 2nd, 2014 4:15am

I think my first introduction into fantasy was Neverending Story. Don't remember it that well, but it made an impact on my young soul.
Then of course the Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Goonies, Gremlins, Masters of the Universe cartoons and toys (I also had G.I.Joe and Transformer toys!). Conan movies were cool too. Red Sonya as well. Stuff like that.

Sadly, then came a period of very few fantasy movies, almost none in the 90's, and at school I had to read literature books. In NL, that means WWII books and foppy writer's books. Hated them all. Not one interesting book on that list.
English literature allowed LotR though, but at the time, that was a whopping three huge books to read for relatively little points, so I skipped it.
Right after school, I never wanted to touch a book again, so I read comics. Fortunately, after about a year, I picked up the Dutch translation of the Hobbit and LotR, and blew through them. I was instantly hooked on fantasy again. And reading.
I started playing Magic: the gathering, but after 2 or 3 years, I discovered the books behind the story, and stopped playing alltogether and read just about all the books they had.
I have always been intrigued by D&D during high school, but the only ones playing it were two VERY nerdy guys, who were okay, and we didn't shun them in fears of being unpopular (because we didn't care, and the "cool" kids were jerks anyway), but simply didn't really befriend them either. But they did tell me some things about the game. But back then it seemed tedious and too long to play to me. I did not have HeroQuest back then. Forgive my ignorance.

Gaming has always been big. I liked Eye of the Beholder, Diablo 1 and 2, Guild Wars (played 1 for 8 years as guild leader), probably plenty of others too. (And Super Mario lol)

Now my bookcase has the Legend of Drizzt books by Salvatore, Robert Jordan's wheel of time, many Raymond E. Feist books that need reading, the series that starts with the First Law of Magic (can't be arsed to walk to my bookcase atm) and plenty more.
Modern movies include Pan's Labyrinth, Stardust, LotR movies and Hobbit movies of course, John Carter, and probably some I forgot.
HQ didn't enter my life until 2011, which in turn lead me to GW miniatures and Mantic, Reaper Bones etc.

Besides all that, sci-fi is also a great interest, but that's another story alltogether and would take up at least an equal wall of text. (Star Wars, Star Trek, series, movies, books, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, close encounters, Black Hole, Last Starfighter, Terminator series, Alien series, Predator, Robocop, Judge Dredd, the list goes on and on and on.)
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Re: Whats your preferred flavour of fantasy and major influe

Postby TMU » Thursday January 2nd, 2014 6:00am

My first touch to fantasy was... Tadaa, HeroQuest :D
"There is no greater danger than playing it safe."


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Re: Whats your preferred flavour of fantasy and major influe

Postby wolfie907 » Thursday January 2nd, 2014 7:34am

my uncles used to read savage sword comics when I was little and theyd leave them around the house I used to love looking at them the artwork tells the story and it didn't matter that I couldn't read yet so conan is a big one for me of course the movies came out around that time also I remember the barbarian brothers movie from around that time what else krull, tom cruise in legend, the hobbit cartoon, labyrinth, dark crystal books I used to read all the time ive read 80 plus conan novels, lotr, terry brooks, terry goodkind, piers Anthony, david eddings, r a Salvatore, david farland, Robert jordan, all come to mind magic the gathering and dnd were also huge as well as hq and warhammer. man im a dork


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Re: Whats your preferred flavour of fantasy and major influe

Postby Patroclus » Thursday January 2nd, 2014 9:50am

My first influence was conan’s movies…
Image
I still remember the T-shirts in school and I had a A2 poster with schwarzenegger in my room holding a sword.

Crossbow and catapults was my first game with a fantasy theme. I was 5 years old!
Image


After that as a kid I was reading a magazine like “heavy metal” magazine with tons of interesting stories, thanks to my big brother who is 3 years older than me. I was about 10 years old.
Image

“Slaine the horned god” of Pat Mills, a graphic novel with the amazing artwork of Bisley, makes me want to start painting swords and monsters, and stuff like that.
Image

I’ve learned about ad&d through magazines for pc games, though it was very hard for us to understand how to play it. Then comes space crusade and hero quest but those days as kids we had thousands of games to play and we can’t recognize how great they are. We are playing Amstrad 6128 with games as Bloodwych with the amazing paint of Chris Achilleos(for those who don’t know him, he has make many paints with fantasy theme, as the one for talisman 2nd edition):
Image
Official site: http://chrisachilleos.co.uk/

Of course Frazetta was also a great influence…
Image

As a teenager I’ve read some of the Howard’s novels, and this put me too deep in sword and sorcery that I stuck until today. I am still reading Howard and I think I’ve read almost everything he has write. Now the books are the number one influence for me, I have read a great number of books, from sword and sorcery (Howard, Moorcock, RA Salvatore, etc) to horror novels (Graham Masterton, Clive Barker, Stephen King). But if I have to choose one of them, it’s definitely Howard. For those who don’t have read his novels, do it now!

As an example:

From Hour of the Dragon:
Image

The long tapers flickered, sending the black shadows wavering along the walls, and the velvet tapestries rippled. Yet there was no wind in the chamber. Four men stood about the ebony table on which lay the green sarcophagus that gleamed like carven jade. In the upraised right hand of each man a curious black candle burned with a weird greenish light. Outside was night and a lost wind moaning among the black trees.
Inside the chamber was tense silence, and the wavering of the shadows, while four pairs of eyes, burning with intensity, were fixed on the long green case across which cryptic hieroglyphics writhed, as if lent life and movement by the unsteady light. The man at the foot of the sarcophagus leaned over it and moved his candle as if he were writing with a pen, inscribing a mystic symbol in the air. Then he set down the candle in its black gold stick at the foot of the case, and, mumbling some formula unintelligible to his companions, he thrust a broad white hand into his fur-trimmed robe. When he brought it forth again it was as if he cupped in his palm a ball of living fire.
The other three drew in their breath sharply, and the dark, powerful man who stood at the head of the sarcophagus whispered: "The Heart of Ahriman!" The other lifted a quick hand for silence. Somewhere a dog began howling dolefully, and a stealthy step padded outside the barred and bolted door. But none looked aside from the mummy-case over which the man in the ermine-trimmed robe was now moving the great flaming jewel while he muttered an incantation that was old when Atlantis sank. The glare of the gem dazzled their eyes, so that they could not be sure of what they saw; but with a splintering crash, the carven lid of the sarcophagus burst outward as if from some irresistible pressure applied from within, and the four men, bending eagerly forward, saw the occupant--a huddled, withered, wizened shape, with dried brown limbs like dead wood showing through moldering bandages.
"Bring that thing back?" muttered the small dark man who stood on the right, with a short, sardonic laugh. "It is ready to crumble at a touch. We are fools--"
"Shhh!" It was an urgent hiss of command from the large man who held the jewel. Perspiration stood upon his broad white forehead and his eyes were dilated. He leaned forward, and, without touching the thing with his hand, laid on the breast of the mummy the blazing jewel. Then he drew back and watched with fierce intensity, his lips moving in soundless invocation.
It was as if a globe of living fire nickered and burned on the dead, withered bosom. And breath sucked in, hissing, through the clenched teeth of the watchers. For as they watched, an awful transmutation became apparent. The withered shape in the sarcophagus was expanding, was growing, lengthening. The bandages burst and fell into brown dust. The shriveled limbs swelled, straightened. Their dusky hue began to fade.
"By Mitra!" whispered the tall, yellow-haired man on the left. "He was not a Stygian. That part at least was true."
Again a trembling finger warned for silence. The hound outside was no longer howling. He whimpered, as with an evil dream, and then that sound, too, died away in silence, in which the yellow-haired man plainly heard the straining of the heavy door, as if something outside pushed powerfully upon it. He half turned, his hand at his sword, but the man in the ermine robe hissed an urgent warning: "Stay! Do not break the chain! And on your life do not go to the door!"
The yellow-haired man shrugged and turned back, and then he stopped short, staring. In the jade sarcophagus lay a living man: a tall, lusty man, naked, white of skin, and dark of hair and beard. He lay motionless, his eyes wide open, and blank and unknowing as a newborn babe's. On his breast the great jewel smoldered and sparkled.


And some action from Red Nails:
Image

"Lions wouldn't make that noise," whispered Conan. "Something's eating our horses, but it's not a lion--Crom!"
The noise stopped suddenly, and Conan swore softly. A suddenly risen breeze was blowing from them directly toward the spot where the unseen slayer was hidden.
"Here it comes!" muttered Conan, half lifting his sword.
The thicket was violently agitated, and Valeria clutched Conan's arm hard. Ignorant of jungle lore, she yet knew that no animal she had ever seen could have shaken the tall brush like that.
"It must be as big as an elephant," muttered Conan, echoing her thought. "What the devil--" His voice trailed away in stunned silence.
Through the thicket was thrust a head of nightmare and lunacy. Grinning jaws bared rows of dripping yellow tusks; above the yawning mouth wrinkled a saurian-like snout. Huge eyes, like those of a python a thousand times magnified, stared unwinkingly at the petrified humans clinging to the rock above it. Blood smeared the scaly, flabby lips and dripped from the huge mouth.
The head, bigger than that of a crocodile, was further extended on a long scaled neck on which stood up rows of serrated spikes, and after it, crushing down the briars and saplings, waddled the body of a titan, a gigantic, barrel-bellied torso on absurdly short legs. The whitish belly almost raked the ground, while the serrated backbone rose higher than Conan could have reached on tiptoe. A long spiked tail, like that of a gargantuan scorpion, trailed out behind.
"Back up the crag, quick!" snapped Conan, thrusting the girl behind him. "I don't think he can climb, but he can stand on his hind legs and reach us--"
With a snapping and rending of bushes and saplings, the monster came hurtling through the thickets, and they fled up the rock before him like leaves blown before a wind. As Valeria plunged into the leafy screen a backward glance showed her the titan rearing up fearsomely on his massive hind legs, even as Conan had predicted. The sight sent panic racing through her. As he reared, the beast seemed more gigantic than ever; his snouted head towered among the trees. Then Conan's iron hand closed on her wrist and she was jerked headlong into the blinding welter of the leaves, and out again into the hot sunshine above, just as the monster fell forward with his front feet on the crag with an impact that made the rock vibrate.
Behind the fugitives the huge head crashed through the twigs, and they looked down for a horrifying instant at the nightmare visage framed among the green leaves, eyes flaming, jaws gaping. Then the giant tusks clashed together futilely, and after that the head was withdrawn, vanishing from their sight as if it had sunk in a pool.
Peering down through broken branches that scraped the rock, they saw it squatting on its haunches at the foot of the crag, staring unblinkingly up at them.
Valeria shuddered.
"How long do you suppose he'll crouch there?"
Conan kicked the skull on the leaf-strewn shelf.
"That fellow must have climbed up here to escape him, or one like him. He must have died of starvation. There are no bones broken. That thing must be a dragon, such as the black people speak of in their legends. If so, it won't leave here until we're both dead."

Last edited by Patroclus on Sunday June 1st, 2014 10:44am, edited 2 times in total.


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Re: Whats your preferred flavour of fantasy and major influe

Postby Bareheaded Warrior » Thursday January 2nd, 2014 6:46pm

The mighty Krull how could I not mention you!

I have even considered renaming Chaos Warriors to Slayers... :chaoswarrior:
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Re: Whats your preferred flavour of fantasy and major influe

Postby torilen » Friday January 3rd, 2014 10:10am

Krull - yes...one of my favorite oldies classics.


I must also mention that SOME inspiration lately has been coming from Star Trek TNG and Doctor Who.
I haven't necessarily been able to transfer much into HQ yet, but I've been getting some great ideas and
rolling them around in my head.


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Re: Whats your preferred flavour of fantasy and major influe

Postby Malcadon » Saturday January 4th, 2014 8:34am

When it come to what got my feet wet in fantasy, I cannot just point to one source. Back in the 1980s there was so much fantasy floating around! There was movies like Star Wars (with I consider a sci-fi themed fantasy), Conan the Barbarian, Krull, The Beastmaster and many others! TV was full of cartoons like Blackstar, Thundarr the Barbarian, Masters of the Universe, Thundarcats, Galtar and the Golden Lance and so on and so forth! Book stores and comic shops were decorated with fantasy-themed covers and posters like it was going out of fashion, form fully-armored knights saving helpless princesses from big, scary dragons, to strong, near-naked barbarians killing beasts or whole armies with beautiful, near-naked women in tow, to the occasional non-misogynistic, family-friendly fantasy pics (although, I might be mistaken with the last one... Were there such a thing back then? ;)). Plus, my geeky parents got me into D&D at a young age.

So yeah, were was no "fantasy gateway drug" for me: I grew-up in a "fantasy pot farm!" :mrgreen: |_P


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Re: Whats your preferred flavour of fantasy and major influe

Postby Bareheaded Warrior » Saturday January 4th, 2014 8:16pm

the occasional non-misogynistic, family-friendly fantasy pics


I missed those!
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