The case for (well written) derivative fantasy

Good fantasy and science fiction can take us to the world(s) of the possible...

Since I was a kid, I have escaped into words, ideas and music. Originally, because of the stresses of growing up in a house with my wonderful caring and schizophrenic mother (when she was good, she was the best, when she was having an episode she was scary crazy. See my post https://steemit.com/cryptotech/@drwom/what-if-the-future-arrived-and-we-didn-t-notice-well-most-of-us-didn-t-anyway).

Now, I escape into creative pursuits because I love to, and because it feeds my creative side (see my #drwom-ography #steemography linked below to check my posts on creativity and collaboration).

And since I was a kid I wanted to be a writer and a musician. Professionally, I mean.

I do both - although not professionally. And I guess that even though I (think) I do both well, I must also acknowledge that I am a child of the cultural conditions in which I grew up. Like us all. And that influences my creative side.

I indulge my own creative taste.

As a kid I really enjoyed roleplaying games. Not the crappy computer games which even today are really only advanced versions of kids' choose your own adventure books. No, I mean real roleplaying games like D&D - but not D&D - not even Advanced D&D.

No. Way better than that.

Check it out:

Best guess is that Dragonquest is now owned by Wizards of the Coast. But they couldn't give a damn.

Dragonquest was an SPI game. Unfortunately, this greatest of game companies went broke only a couple of years after Dragonquest's release.

The game's magic lay in the... you know what? I still don't know.

The rules covered all the key fantasy touchstones: character races (Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Giants...), skills and abilities, the use of magic, and monsters (all drawn from real life or from mythology - Celtic, Norse, etc). And the rules were expansive, without being oppressive, clunky or stupid.

But the game allowed its players to become totally immersed in an alternative reality, and the game mechanics facilitated this.

This is what good writing can do. And why I like derivative fantasy. I understand the rules. Nearly everyone does. The magic and originality doesn't come from the ideas of worldbuilding. No. The magic is in the plot. It is in the adventure itself.

Granted, there is nothing as bad as badly written derivative fantasy. But there can be real magic in well-written classic fantasy.