Without clichés fantasy?

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Ho all,

Is there any fantasy setting that runs without the standard clichés?
Where elves aren't long lived , super intelligent, brittle, endangered species? (Not counting Pratchett, where they are transdinensionsl vermin/threats)
Dwarves don't have mining monopolies in the mountains or speak with Welsh/Scots accents?
Orcs have a level of culture and civilisation above early iron age?
Halflings arent jolly agrarian fellows but run health spas?

[Last Hussar]

You'll have problems with finding halflings, as they are effectively an invention of Tolkien,  who wrote them that way.

[Big Insect]

Sounds like you are looking for a 'universe' as in the 'Bright' film genre; but hopefully without Eddie Murphy!
Combine that with a bit of 'Day Shift' and 'Hell Boy' and you are away     

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Sounds like you are looking for a 'universe' as in the 'Bright' film genre; but hopefully without Eddie Murphy!
Combine that with a bit of 'Day Shift' and 'Hell Boy' and you are away     

⁰
'Bright' was Will Smith (I enjoyed that film though).
Day Shift was hilarious. Hell Boy comics are great

[sunjester]

Long lived elves are a staple of most mythologies and folklores and most fantasy writers have followed that.
Scots accented dwarves are an invention of Games Workshop as far as I recall, continued by Peter Jackson (Tolkien's dwarves certainly did not speak Glaswegian).

For the most part I think you are looking for fantasy settings that aren't nicking ideas from Tolkien?

[steve_holmes_11]

I think you'll have to do your own work, maybe homebrew elements of your world.

I find the TV Tropes website really useful for this sort of thing.
For example Our Dwarves are all the same


Avoiding cliches can involve stripping out the fluff / lore and "racial bonuses".
Dragon Rampant does this.
All your light shooters are identical, upgrades cost points.
If you wish to upgrade your elves as elite shooters, you can.


An alternative is to homebrew your own tropes.
I find it's best to avoid bonuses that create super troops (see: "Ogre proofing your rules").
Something I found effective was assigning gaps in each army list - I'll explain.

Consider sample rules with a range of troop types: light and heavy foot, light and heavy mounted, light and heavy shooters (There are probably more).
Instead of using "Dwarf heavy foot get a bonus" - encouraging all dwarf armies to be exclusive heavy foot.
Try "Dwarves don't fight mounted".
Throw in "Elves don't have heavy foot", "Ogres don't have shooters", "Goblins don't have heavy troops".
This provides some interesting lists that can't do everything.

An additional layer might offer forbidden types as mercenaries or unreliable allies.
Your all light Goblins may now recruit a shock unit of Ogres - but they're unreliable; good luck.


I'm the kind who'll either embrace or subvert tropes.
This isn't precisely what you asked about, but can be fun.
It's also a staple of later fantasy literature: The drow who gets on with overlanders, the wizard who can handle himself in a bar-room brawl...


Consider fantasy Dwarves: Miners, smiths, jewellers, exiles, hoarders, clannish, secretive.
Tolkien's are now considered Ashkenazi coded - of their time, and harmful stereotypes.
Scots (more Russ Abbott than Rabbie Burns) are a modern popular alternative.

But there are other cultures that fit the cliches.

Yorkshire: 
All the tropes.
Throw in a drop of Last of the Summer Wine, or Wallace and Gromit.
Heroes might include Brian Blessed, Sean Bean, Brian Glover, Fred Trueman, Dickie Bird, Michael Palin.
Situations include the perennial "Trouble at t'Mill" but also Wheeled bathtub careering downhill, Rugby league / Cricket matches and "See what they've done down that London?"

Afrikaner/Boer:
Ticks about half the tropes: 
Exiles who've embraced their new homeland and carved a dominant niche.
A range of sporting (rugby and cricket) stars as heroes.
Situations include big game trampling / predating the crops / herds - fantasy has an excellent range of big game options.
Bonus that Google translate offers some Afrikaans support (if you want some authentic Dwarvish phrases or inscriptions).

Welsh:
A minor twist on the Scots/Yorkshire angle - coal mining heritage.
Welsh Dwarves may accentuate Rugby, Male Voice Choirs, Music, poetry and Language.
Welsh dwarf women (if they exist) wear tall black hats.
They aren't exiles, preferring the familiarity of home. Their Royalty is intact - with a living prince.


That's a long ramble, and didn't answer all the questions.
I hope it provoked some thought.

[Raider4]

Is there any fantasy setting that runs without the standard clichés?

Howard's Hyborian Age? No elves, dwarves or halflings. Just humans, plus the occasional monster dragged up from hell, giant apes, an elephant-headed half-god from outer space, the odd giant snake and a frost-giant's daughter.

Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself trilogy and it's successors? Again, mostly humans. There are orcs - or Shanka ("f***ing flatheads") - but they are a mindless, animalistic threat, not characters. Also a very good read.

[Orcs]

Ho all,

Orcs have a level of culture and civilisation above early iron age?

Excuse me - I have progressed above the early Iron age. I use a computer and live in a house with central heating.  As for my culture ............ 

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Excuse me - I have progressed above the early Iron age. I use a computer and live in a house with central heating.  As for my culture ............ 

Can we have a second Unbiased opinion on that ?

[Big Insect]

⁰
'Bright' was Will Smith (I enjoyed that film though).
Day Shift was hilarious. Hell Boy comics are great

Of course it was Will Smith  ! And yes, all 3(4)films wrapped into one set of rules, great stuff.

[Last Hussar]

Excuse me - I have progressed above the early Iron age.

Are you claiming you can get creases out of a shirt?

[Ithoriel]

Nudging things more or less back on track ....

"Grunts" by Mary Gentle

where the orcs are the (anti?)heroes.

[fred.]

Runequest's Glorathana?

[Orcs]

Are you claiming you can get creases out of a shirt?

Yes I am can iron a shirt, but that is a pink job in my house, so I am not allowed to iron clothes, Mrs Orcs does that.

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Nudging things more or less back on track ....

Well that didna last long   

[steve_holmes_11]

Seems like there's a big pool of cliches (Reminder about TV Tropes).

Select your own subset.

[Big Insect]

There is always the Michael Moorcock Eternal Champion series - Elric or even Hawkmoon.
The Melnibonéans are not really elves (well ..but ... maybe).

Lots of dragons, demons, gods and sorcerers (those from Pan Tang were one of my favorites), plus the Young Barbarian Nations (a mix of celts, vikings and Hyboria).
Well worth considering.

Long time ago I read and reread E. R. Eddison's classic fantasy novel 'The Worm Ouroboros',[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worm_Ouroboros] with its heroic, noble lords of Demonland and the cunning and malevolent sorceror kings of Witchland.
I imagined the lords of Demonland very much in the Viking saga heroic mold, whilst the Kings of Witchland and their forces as a fantasy Assyrian or Ancient Persian type empire, decadent aloof, cruel and cunning. Slightly different from your traditional fantasy villains (tongue in cheek).

I think there was also a set of fantasy rules (maybe skirmish) called 'Gloriana' (I think) based upon a Shakespearean or Christopher Marlow based magical Elizabethan world (Fairey Queen type stuff). Lots of sword and dagger duels and swash-buckling! Not sure if you can still get a set - maybe as a PDF online - but it played quite well and in 28mm the various Reiver or Border Raider or Conquistadores type figures fitted it well (especially the Foundry ones).

We often forget L. Sprague de Camp and his collaboration with Fletcher Pratt. They wrote 'The Compleat Enchanter' series, which features a modern psychologist who travels into various mythological worlds and which is very humorous & 'alternative' fantasy. He also co-authored a number of the Conan books and was an authority on our much loved H.P.Lovecraft. What's not to like.

So I think you probably have a lot to play with there.
Good luck
    

[Raider4]

We often forget L. Sprague de Camp . . . . He also co-authored butchered a number of the Conan books and was an authority on our much loved H.P.Lovecraft. What's not to like.

Fixed that for you.


I would also argue that the words "much loved" and "Lovecraft" do not belong in the same sentence.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

Read all of Hawkmoon, Corum and Elric in my youth.
Eric is my type of background, and my Warhammer Oldworld army is Melniboneans. It's still a doomed Elf type race, resting on their arrogance and oast glories.
Grunts is a brilliant subversion, as is Orcs and anything Pratchett, just if I want a holiday read, I will inevitably go for something like Neal Ascher hard sci-fi (even if I disagree with his personal politics, he tells a good tale) , or Trudy Canavan or Rob Hobb high fantasy (although he still ends up with Dragons in his ship series, but in an unusual way).
BTW - if you want something REALLY very silly from Neal Ascher, try "Mason's Rats", a series 8f short stoeies, which also  got dramatised in the 'Love, Death & Robots' series too.

[Big Insect]

Fixed that for you.


I would also argue that the words "much loved" and "Lovecraft" do not belong in the same sentence.

Hmmmm ... I see ... not a Lovecraft fan hey  you are of course allowed you own opinions, no matter how wrong they might be ... it's (almost) a free country afterall