Fantastic & Supernatural

Heroic Imaginings
Thinking about Appendix N, the antecedents of White Box and influences on the hobby in general and what it all means. We commonly refer to our games as "high fantasy", "low fantasy", "sword & sorcery" or simply "fantasy". The term fantasy implies escapist fiction and I suppose that is true when applied to the hobby. High fantasy generally refers to world shaping events, Tolkien races and lots of magic. Low fantasy usually applies to less magic and a more realistic, often gritty game. Sword & sorcery is associated with a humanistic, pulpy adventure where magic is perilous and often wielded only by the bad guys. All have an element of the fantastic and the supernatural.
Fantasy games by their nature usually deal with fantastic creatures, settings and/or happenings. The imagination thrives on such fodder and many a referee has enjoyed hours upon hours simply creating such fantastics even before play begins. To be surprised by the creations of another is a major appeal of fantastic literature and games. There seems to be something deep in the human psyche that craves to be entertained by such tales as they represent some of the oldest recorded.
The supernatural holds a slightly different fascination for us. It is often what lies beyond the horizon of sanity and being the curious animal we are, we are drawn to investigate and our imagination fills in the blanks. The unknown, the spooky, and the forbidden call to us in irresistible ways. Again some of our oldest literature contains such elements.
Born of literature, story-yelling and impromptu theater (and a dash of psychology I would add), role-playing borrows heavily from its antecedents and adds to the experience by allowing the participant to live out the adventure by proxy through a PC. The player decisions and actions, through the PC, builds and forms the story which unfolds during play. Through no other medium are we able to experience the same degree of involvement with the fantastic and supernatural, even if it is all taking place within our imagination.
The Tolkien races together with the cleric and magic user classes give white box a default high fantasy feel. The flexibility of white box however allows a referee the easy freedom to change this default setting and create any of a number of alternative "feels". The popularity of high fantasy makes the default a good choice. Over the years/decades I have repeatedly attempted to interest players in more low fantasy and sword & sorcery settings with little success. High fantasy and to some extent, science fantasy (combining high fantasy with science fiction elements) have met with more enthusiastic reception.
The hobby is currently in a state where game systems abound and rules for almost any kind of roleplaying game can be found either in print or online. Regardless of how one prefers to have their tabletop heroics, a system is probably available to support that vision. The would-be referee need only spend some cash and time reading in order to offer his/her players the kind of game they desire. And for those referees who still prefer to design it themselves, many systems are easily modified to support almost anything imaginable by way of gaming. Fantastic, you bet!