RETURN TO FANTASY: A FANTASY MANIFESTO

I was struck the other day about how there is a massive Role Playing renaissance happening right now & there is no unified voice for it. Just a lot of scattered voices online. I decided to bring those disparate elements together. I talked with Katie about starting a new magazine & she rightfully pointed out that doing a project like this right would take over our lives & do I actually want to devote myself to a publishing project like that again? (For those that don’t know, we published PORK magazine covering Rock&Roll, Weirdo Art & Bad Ideas from 2011 to 2018. The magazine provided a big tent for these things to be united by.) The easy answer was no, the number of personal projects I’ve got piling up & ideas that need to be explored in the future keep on growing. So I had the idea of Die Wurst expanding into that role. In that way, I’m doing the opposite of Dragon & White Dwarf, going from being wholly devoted to DUNGEON DEGENERATES to expanding our content to fantasy gaming in general. Katie gave me the go ahead so here we are. I’m opening up Die Wurst so that about half of it is dedicated to other works of fantasy gaming & the other half is dedicated to DUNGEON DEGENERATES. But first I need to establish a vision.

RETURN TO FANTASY

• Fantasy, when done right is an act of channeling something raw, mythic, buried deep in everyone’s psyche. It is not a mere genre, but a meeting with something primal that is inside all of us. It resounds.

• The desire for escape is a constant & natural part of life & therefore we should seek to benefit the audience & the audience should seek out fantasy that conceals useful life lessons, common patterns in life or historical narratives that are suppressed or unheard. We should uncover & seek that which exposes.

• The works should allow the audience to see the world anew, restoring a sense of wonder by presenting familiar things in an unfamiliar light, provide a legitimate means of escaping the hardships of reality, offering solace & respite & delivering joy through meaningful change.

• Fantasy should be built off of ideas from the real world & provide insights into the machinations of that reality. The intent is that a more comprehensive understanding of the world can come about through the use of these Fantastic & Escapist pursuits.

• The works form a triangular relationship between the source, the channeler & the audience. The work falls flat if these parties aren’t respected & understood.

• The channeling of material should be understood as sacred & not hindered by the boardroom & shareholders.

• The channeler must understand themself as an imperfect tool that needs constant improvement, like a spring that can get overgrown with weeds. Thus, more & better ways of bringing things from the Source & documenting them for the audience must be used, always. 

• Fantasy has been divided into numerous genres over the years. Science Fiction & Horror were birthed from it. People want to create more & more specific genres until the new confine is thoroughly explored & then they move on to something new. They leave the genres discarded in their wake until enough time passes by & the ideas seem fresh again. I encourage genre destruction & an attempt to just create, without too much attention to the increasingly nichefied attempts people make in this world. Make it good is the rule, don’t worry about the grotto it fits into.