Genre, Ethos and Tropes - A Declaration of Intent pt. the second

It's important for me to emphasize that the setting and general world ethos of Enoa is that of light-hearted adventure movies. To go for more cinematic examples, it shares genre tropes with The Princess Bride, Willow, Merlin (the miniseries), to an extent the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (the slightly over-the-top combat, in particular) and most definitely A Knight's Tale.

Generally, it's assumed that player characters will survive the campaign (this is what Luck points are for), and that opponents will come in three categories, Mook, Named Villain and Main Villain. Mooks are treated akin to environmental hindrances, they're not a main threat, they're not meant to be a main threat (at all), and they're basically just there to, as mentioned, be a temporary hindrance (so that a Named or Main Villain can get away) and to make the player characters (PCs) look good. The orcs in the LoTR movies are an excellent example, especially the fight at the end of Fellowship.

There, the Named Villains (the elite Uruk Hai) capture two of the PCs, while the orcs and Named Villain Uruk Hai leader slows down the other PCs. The only one posing a slight threat to the PCs is the Uruk Hai leader, who is nevertheless dispatched with some fancy stunting and good die-rolls from one of the more combat-oriented PCs (Aragorn), and even then he deliberately impales himself on the sword just to slow them down a bit further.

Named Villains usually begin either at or slightly below the PCs level of skill/expertise. They work for the Main Villain for their own reasons (fanatic loyalty, self-interest, blackmail), and serve as plot devices, environmental hindrance and someone to focus attention on. Named Villains can easily be used as either Hidden Villains (a Main Villain who covered his own plot up by manipulating the previous Main Villain), Heel-Turn Villains (a Villain who only works for the Main Villain out of duress, like a hostage loved one or for misguided reasons such as vengeance, despair or love) or Enlightened Self-Interest (the moment they see the writing on the wall, they are so outta there, and might even help the PCs if they're not too villainous).

It's often necessary to inform players of these genre tropes, since many roleplaying gamers assume any villain (or NPC in general) is there to be killed and looted. I intend to solve at least part of this problem with a story hook system included in the character creation process, but for now it's more efficient simply to tell players that killing everything that moves is a bad thing unless they intend to become villains (another mechanic will be Reputation, negative and positive). Good guys don't stab someone helping them in the back, even if they're annoying and weaselly (they can kill them when the Named Villain tries screwing them over later, if he or she does so).

The point of this mild rambling is a repeat of the previous post: This Is Not Your Father's RPG. Many play roleplaying games as if they're first-person shooter video games or hack-and-slash fantasy videogames, where everything that moves, talks or breathes is something to be gunned/sworded down and stripped for ammo/money/loot. In Enoa, Player Characters are not the equivalent of wandering brigands/hitmen. They're Heroes, in the 20th century version.

Next, Reputation and Story Hooks.

Genre, Ethos and Tropes - A Declaration of Intent

The setting of Enoa is one of cinematic adventure-movie high fantasy. It's a world where princesses and pig-farmers can fight a dark overlord, where a wizard's apprentice can save the world, a world where a disgraced knight can help a short person defeat an evil queen.

It's not Tolkien. It's not Jordan, and it's definitely not George RR Martin.

Enoa is light-hearted, with night-black villains and heroes who might not be supermen but can still save the day thanks to pure motives, luck and a heaping helping of authorial fiat. Player characters (protagonists) are expected to be nice people, not ridiculously so, but still, the kind of people you wouldn't be afraid of.

Enoa is what is sometimes called "light fantasy". It's the kind of medieval world you'd see in the average Hollywood movie, no bad teeth, no plagues, no disfiguring boils and no bad hygiene. Barmaids are cute (and probably have implants), queens and princesses do not look like Richard Simmons and kings do not look like members of ZZ Top.

In short, it's not like the real middle or Dark ages were, at all.

Magic is everywhere in Enoa, but very little is wielded by people. There are elves, dwarves and drokla (basically seven foot vaguely feline people with tails), but none of these races are all that inherently magical, not even the elves. Most of the more powerful magics are either dark arts (and forbidden), wielded by powerful entities or simply too slow and complicated to be applicable out of the laboratory. Healing magic is fairly common, but bringing people back from the dead is not possible.
Most magic available to characters will be in the form of simple charms to ward off the mundane perils of the night (gestures to ward off evil, putting iron in your shoes to avoid the meaner types of fairies, stuff like that), or magical items, which there are still plenty of.

The general gist of the world of Enoa will be of fairly light action-adventure comedy coupled with a fairly serious world. Death isn't funny, here, but avoiding it narrowly might be. Mass murder is never funny, but a villain might be charming and almost funny (until you remember what they do for a living). Basically, the general mood is unlike the way a lot of people play fantasy role-playing games. Instead of heroes being wandering thugs who hunt down harmless goblins in their lair, they're the type to be attacked by said goblins.

Part 2 will be up in a while.