Ultanya

When did a backstory become a warranty? It establishes your character’s past, but some players expect it to secure their future too. Their "heroic destiny" becomes something the DM is supposed to deliver. If keeping you alive until you get a satisfying ending is part of the deal, I call it plot armor.

A campaign arc gives the group a shared goal. It doesn’t guarantee any individual character’s destiny. I want us to have something worth pursuing, with our decisions determining whether we get there and what it costs us. Having a stake in the outcome doesn’t mean my character is entitled to survive it.

Expectations also change how players approach danger, which is where combat as sport comes in. It’s probably my biggest issue with modern D&D. Once players assume every fight is suitable for their characters, “should we fight?” starts giving way to “how do we win?” They’re choosing tactics instead of deciding whether those monsters are worth tangling with. That changes the whole game before anyone rolls initiative.

A fight designed to be winnable doesn’t automatically mean the DM will prevent you from losing. But pair that expectation of suitable fights with a heroic destiny the DM is supposed to protect, and how dangerous is this adventure supposed to be? It’s Avengers with swords. Everyone gets to be a superhero, and the DM gets the job of making sure it works out.

When the dice or the players’ decisions threaten that promised future, the DM steps in with a deus ex machina. Someone arrives just in time, and everyone lives to fulfill their destiny. Keep doing that, and players learn that getting in over their heads is the DM’s problem to solve. Sure, plot armor has always existed, but I object to being expected to provide it.

I want a traditional fantasy adventure with actual stakes. If you guarantee everyone survives to fulfill their “heroic destiny,” then you’re playing a cozy story game with dice. Putting a dungeon or a dragon in it doesn’t make it dangerous.

I wasn't planning to write about Deathbringer. Then I started reading the reactions to it.

I honestly couldn't believe what I was reading.

Apparently fantasy has beautiful women now, and this requires a symposium.

Several months ago I wrote a post called Frazetta Armor. It had absolutely nothing to do with Deathbringer. Truth be told, I'd been making the same joke on social media for years. While working on my Hyborian themed Shadowdark campaign, I finally turned it into a blog post.

The joke was simple. The less armor the hero wore, the harder they were to kill.

Everybody got it.

Because that's been part of fantasy for as long as I can remember.

I grew up on painted paperback covers. Every bookstore had a fantasy shelf full of warriors with impossible muscles, forgotten temples, giant snakes, skulls, sorcerers, and yes, beautiful women. Nobody stood there wondering whether the armor met OSHA PPE regulations. You picked up the book because the cover promised adventure.

That's what fantasy looked like. That's still what fantasy looks like to me.

So when I see people calling Deathbringer embarrassing because it has attractive women wearing revealing clothing, I honestly wonder where they've been. This isn't some shocking new direction. This is one of the oldest visual traditions the genre has.

I've seen people say the women are too attractive.

Too attractive? I didn't realize fantasy was supposed to stop celebrating beauty.

Then there's the clothing. Really?

We're talking about a genre where Conan wandered around in a hardly there loincloth, where Red Sonja became one of fantasy's most recognizable characters, where every other wizard somehow owns a robe with sleeves long enough to trip over. Fantasy has never dressed its characters for practicality. It dresses them to create an image you'll remember.

That's the whole point.

The criticism that really puzzles me is the claim that this somehow makes Deathbringer shallow.

Why? Because it has beautiful women?

Fantasy has always dealt in ideals. Bigger monsters. Greater heroes. Darker villains. The artwork isn't trying to convince you this is real life. It's trying to convince you this world is worth visiting.

There's a difference.

Look, you don't have to like the art. Maybe it isn't your thing. Maybe you think you've seen it all before. Fair enough.

What I don't understand is acting like this aesthetic is somehow foreign to fantasy.

It isn't.

It's one of the reasons a lot of us fell in love with fantasy in the first place.

When I look at Deathbringer, I see a game that's perfectly happy to admit where it came from.

Apparently a lot of other people were looking for exactly that.

Judging by the BackerKit numbers, I'd say they found it.