History LighterAndSofter / TabletopGames

** ''Geist'' also tends to be lighter and softer compared to the ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' in general. It's not exactly a bag of kittens, but it's generally optimistic -- the Bound got a second chance at life, and intend to use it to the fullest, whether that means saving people, helping innocent ghosts, destroying malevolent ghosts, killing villainous people, or just making their lives comfortable. After previous games have been the likes of ''TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated'', ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'', or even ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'', it's a bit of a shock to see a game that falls closer to ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' on the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism.
** The ''New World of Darkness itself'' is actually slightly lighter than the Old one, due to lack of genuinely evil truly invincible {{Eldritch Abomination}}s (the ones it has are either oblivious or can be negotiated with if their BlueAndOrangeMorality is grokked), and there's nothing ''in particular'' that wants things to get worse [[ForTheEvulz just because]], everyone has their reasons (even if they're arcane and purely selfish ones). There's also a recurrent idea that the few beams of light it has can be and often are protected, just enough to make the world worth fighting for. And of course, there is no worldwide apocalypse coming, either.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. During 3e , there were chaos cultists on Terra, the Imperium was losing worlds by the hundreds and High Lords did not care, in fact most of them had been driven insane by imperfect deageing treatments. This was before the Horus Heresy, before the Imperium's methods were justified by dozens of books. There was no Literature/CiaphasCain, no likable or sane character to be found. The Sisters of Battle fielded suicide bomber cadres, the Space Marines were a shadow of their power in later editions, and more insane: imperfections in their half forgotten surgical techniques rendered 9 out of 10 recruits dead and the survivors deranged. Not to mention that rather being recruited from the best warriors to be found on the toughest worlds, they were recruited from the sweepings of the Imperial prisons. The ReligiousHorror was at its peak, the artwork like of things that can barely be called human hugging and kissing undetonated artillery shells, begging the gods of war for salvation has never been reprinted, the forces of Chaos, were simply presented as an alternate form of insanity to that of the Imperium's. By 5e, ''Warhammer'' shows an Age of War where humanity's survival hangs in the balance. 3e showed an Age of Insanity where the spirit of man was long dead.

** And then there's [[https://web.archive.org/web/20120410134009/http://www.mmogrindhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/hello-kitty-40k.jpg this...]] And ''WebOriginal/Brighthammer40000'', which takes every race and makes them more sympathetic save the Tau, who conveniently are AlwaysChaoticEvil. Note that this is not achieved by altering the Tau from canon, but merely by shifting everyone ''else'' in the setting so that the Tau seem like a terrible, evil option among numerous better ones, rather than the least of a great number of evils.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' is an interesting case. As mentioned above, after breaking off from D&D, it angled itself as DarkerAndEdgier than 4th edition, including more "mature" content and darker themes. However, as time went on, Paizo gradually moved away from its initial darker tone, and admitted that there were a lot of areas where they didn't handle mature content particularly ''well''. As of the game's 2nd Edition, Paizo is explicit about their intentions of making the game have a more-universal appeal, and the lore of their game world includes many tweaks and expansions in order to facilitate that. This isn't to say that they now completely shy away from more mature or horror-themed content; now they just include a [[ContentWarnings heads-up]] before doing so.

** The ''Strixhaven'' book in 5th Edition, is this compared to any other D&D setting. Set in the ''Magic: The Gathering'' world, Strixhaven is a beautiful WizardingSchool that combines the hominess of [[Literature/HarryPotter Hogwarts]] and the otherworldliness of the [[VideoGame/FinalFantasy8 Balamb Garden campus]]. The people at campus are only either good or neutral and the adventure included has mostly non-lethal combat - enemies will usually run off if they're brought to a faction of their life while protagonists are usually only stunned with someone then giving them a healing potion. Then a faculty member comes to nuke the opponent, saving the party.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. During 3e , there were chaos cultists on Terra, the Imperium was losing worlds by the hundreds and High Lords did not care, in fact most of them had been driven insane by imperfect deageing treatments. This was before the Horus Heresy, before the Imperium's methods were justified by dozens of books. There was no Literature/CiaphasCain, no likable or sane character to be found. The Sisters of Battle fielded suicide bomber cadres, the Space Marines were a shadow of their power in later editions, and more insane: imperfections in their half forgotten surgical techniques rendered 9 out of 10 recruits dead and the survivors deranged. Not to mention that rather being recruited from the best warriors to be found on the toughest worlds, they were recruited from the sweepings of the Imperial prisons. The ReligiousHorror was at its peak, the artwork like of things that can barely be called human hugging and kissing undetonated artillery shells, begging the gods of war for salvation has never been reprinted, the forces of Chaos, later UltimateEvil, were simply presented as an alternate form of insanity to that of the Imperium's. By 5e, ''Warhammer'' shows an Age of War where humanity's survival hangs in the balance. 3e showed an Age of Insanity where the spirit of man was long dead.

* The second edition of ''TabletopGame/Aberrant'' is noticeably less [[BewareTheSuperman pessimistic]] about its protagonists, the Novas. The books deliberately aim to lean into more heroic superhero traditions that the previous edition went out of its way to subvert or corrupt, while still aiming to be a fairly grounded setting. It's still ''possible'' to play up some of the previous edition's nastiness, but it's no longer the default mode of play.

** And then there's [[http://www.mmogrindhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/hello-kitty-40k.jpg this...]] And ''WebOriginal/Brighthammer40000'', which takes every race and makes them more sympathetic save the Tau, who conveniently are AlwaysChaoticEvil. Note that this is not achieved by altering the Tau from canon, but merely by shifting everyone ''else'' in the setting so that the Tau seem like a terrible, evil option among numerous better ones, rather than the least of a great number of evils.

** D&D 5th Edition undid many of the changes wrought by 4th edition, but also toned down the deadliness of the game significantly. Debates are raging about wether or not this was a good thing.

** And then there's [[http://www.mmogrindhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/hello-kitty-40k.jpg this...]] And [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Brighthammer_40,000_%282nd_edition%29 Brighthammer 40000]], which takes every race and makes them more sympathetic save the Tau, who conveniently are AlwaysChaoticEvil. Note that this is not achieved by altering the Tau from canon, but merely by shifting everyone ''else'' in the setting so that the Tau seem like a terrible, evil option among numerous better ones, rather than the least of a great number of evils.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. During 3e , there were chaos cultists on Terra, the Imperium was losing worlds by the hundreds and High Lords did not care, in fact most of them had been driven insane by imperfect deageing treatments. This was before the Horus Heresy, before the Imperium's methods were justified by dozens of books. There was no Literature/CiaphasCain, no likable or sane character to be found. The Sisters of Battle fielded suicide bomber cadres, the Space Marines were a shadow of their power in later editions, and more insane: imperfections in their half forgotten surgical techniques rendered 9 out of 10 recruits dead and the survivors deranged. The ReligiousHorror was at its peak, the artwork like of things that can barely be called human hugging and kissing undetonated artillery shells, begging the gods of war for salvation has never been reprinted, the forces of Chaos, later UltimateEvil, were simply presented as an alternate form of insanity to that of the Imperium's. By 5e, ''Warhammer'' shows an Age of War where humanity's survival hangs in the balance. 3e showed an Age of Insanity where the spirit of man was long dead.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 4th edition went this route in regards to certain races. In regards others, though, it went the DarkerAndEdgier route. The LighterAndSofter stance is emphasized when contrasted to ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'', which openly styles itself as the DarkerAndEdgier setting.

** And then there's [[http://www.mmogrindhouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/hello-kitty-40k.jpg this...]] And [[http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Brighthammer_40,000_%282nd_edition%29 Brighthammer 40000]], which takes every race and makes them more sympathetic save the Tau, who conveniently are AlwaysChaoticEvil.