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Narrative
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The exploits of strong-thewed, sword-wielding heroes and their thiefly, wizardly and/or priestly companions, as they spend their days smiting evil, fighting monsters, recovering treasures and quaffing ale.
Heavily influenced by The Heros Journey, the Arthurian cycle, the Conan The Barbarian stories and movies, the game Dungeons And Dragons, and classical myth.
Sometimes set in a world that looks an awful lot like medieval Europe, although it can range all the way back to a "forgotten prehistory" such as in Conan The Barbarian, or even the "classical" period (ancient Greece, Sparta, etc.), as found in Xena: Warrior Princess (this variant is sometimes called "Sword and Sandal").
Sometimes it can be found in the future, often in After The End setting. Also often features Medieval Stasis.
Also known as "sword and sorcery", though there is much debate of the definition of these genres. Unkind souls have even described Heroic Fantasy as nothing but an upmarket term for Sword and Sorcery.
The odd tendency for anime to use Heroic Fantasy settings with an obvious European flavor is noted under Medieval European Fantasy.
Good live-action film and television fantasies can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Dying is easy. Fantasy is hard! On the other hand, roughly half of all RP Gs ever written fall under this genre, if not more.
Examples:
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