Do you prefer historical fiction or low fantasy?

  • Historical Fiction
  • Low Fantasy

0 voters

Historical fiction being like Eagle’s Heir and low fantasy being like… actually I can’t think of a low fantasy example? Maybe Game of Thrones in the first book/season. Maybe with a tiny bit of fantasy elements, but portrayed in a “realistic” way.

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I like both but stories set in the actual past as someone who studied history at university always interest me more, whether as pure historical or alternate history.

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High Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Low Fantasy in that order. My imagination needs to be excited to get me to read. Alternate Future Science Fiction (Hunger Games, Daniel Suarez books, Terminator, etc) can be more interesting than all these genres IMO.

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It really depends. If a historical fiction story is set in a place I’m unfamiliar with, I’m more likely to read it so I can learn more about the culture. I like to acquire knowledge from the things I enjoy. It makes my mind feel productive.

But if it has flowery prose and intricate worldbuilding that’s unique, I prefer low fantasy.

I like both. Which do I prefer? Neither over the over, depends on how the author handles the story.

Historical fiction over low fantasy. I like magic in fantasy settings, so any sort of secondary world setting I want it to show up(it can be dark, or rare, or dangerous etc but I want it to be there). I don’t miss it quite as much when it’s a story set in real world history.

I like them both, but I like historical fiction more.

High fantasy, low fantasy, and historical fiction all interest me, but I prefer them in that order. Sabres of Infinity and Guns of Infinity count as low fantasy.

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i’ll take fantasy over historical fiction :grin:

I’d say Cannonfire Concerto is both. Favourite CoG out there. I’d prefer historical because it’s all very exciting being able to recognise events you’d read about before and imagine yourself within them, but low fantasy that actively incorporates stuff like politics, economics, and philosophy and how the slight differences between that world and our world impact social norms or character psychology is also enjoyable. (But not high fantasy, dear me, it’s terribly confusing.)

I’ll have to go with historical over high fantasy, mostly because it’s really hard to build a realistic world and lore from scratch, and to bring the reader into that world. With many pieces, unfortunately, that means plot holes and weird things that sometimes can be really jarring.

Low fiction is an interesting balance though, but it really will have to depend, sometimes they do fall into cliches that can get a bit bland!

It’s kind of funny- a majority of the commenters prefer historical fiction and a majority of the poll takers prefer low fantasy.

Did the poll lead to more people talking about historical fiction, or is that side more chatty?

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I suspect the latter since I think fantasy games are the most common type of COG because there’s a larger audience for them, whilst people who want historical games are thus more receptive when one is suggested and ask more about it?

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Why not historical with low fantasy :yum:?

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That sounds about right. There isn’t really any need to campaign for more fantasy games (unless you’re looking for something in particular in the theme).

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