Ten Tropes of the Fantasy Action-Adventure Genre
The Fantasy genre has a rich history of storytelling, spanning the works of JRR Tolkien, Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Anne McCaffrey, George RR Martin, and many more throughout the last hundred years. A good fantasy story might have dragons, wild beasts, unusual races, and epic quests. Here's my list of ten tropes that are found in many of the fantasy action adventure novels I've read over the years.
- Intriguing World
- Heroic Protagonist
- Epic Quest
- Formidable Antagonist
- Magic and Myth
- High Stakes
- Epic Battles
- Character Growth
- Themes of Good vs Evil
- Satisfying Resolution
Intriguing World
If you plan to write a fantasy novel, you should invest time creating an interesting world. Consider the following elements of your story as you develop a world that helps ground the reader within its make believe world. Maybe your conflicts are best served in the mountains where life is just a misstep away from falling to a horrible death. The castle could be near a bog or the nearby river acts as a native highway between villages. Changing one or two items can change the story itself.
Where will the story take place? Have you considered where the action of your story will occur? You could have all the story elements within a simple farming community or within the confines of a castle. Maybe your fantasy action adventure story takes place within a small kingdom or encompasses many kingdoms as they battle for a common goal. A good fantasy novel will include the world as part of the struggles the protagonist must battle to achieve their place in history.
At which stage of historical significance will your characters be living in this world? Will it be after something evil has happened and your characters will have to re-build or work through the hardships within the lands? Compare how a story about magic happening in an urban setting differs from the same story set in a fourteenth-century environment. It could be the same plot, but told through different lenses. Dan Willis writes a fantasy mystery about a detective that uses magic in a steampunk civilization that mimics the nineteen-twenties in America. Robert Jordan invented ways for his characters to travel more like modern day humans, but using fanciful magic to ride a platform through a dimensional space, or walk through dreams. These details may seem minor until you need to get your character a thousand miles away in two days.
What peoples will populate the world? You can write a fantasy novel with just humans, but we find throughout the popular fantasy worlds there are unusual creatures the protagonist must deal with. It might be the troll in Harry Potter's world, the elves, dwarves, hobbits, or tree people in Tolkien's classics, or the dragons and dragon riders in Anne McCaffrey's stories. Think of creatures that might make your story more interesting, both races that side with the protagonist and those evil creatures and races that work to help propel the antagonist to victory. Keep in mind, the flying monkeys have the potential to be trained by a wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz.
Writers of fantasy novels can build the world that best works for the story they want to tell. Transportation techniques, strange peoples, a location with capabilities that aren't possible in our current world can enrich a story just as much as a sympathetic character.
Heroic Protagonist
You don't have to have a heroic protagonist, but most stories written today have a hero to save the world from certain death placed upon the people by the evil antagonist. I don't always understand the motivation that the evil emperor has as they subject their people to harsh punishment and think nothing of blowing up an entire world of people, just to show their strength and power. Wouldn't it be better to over tax them instead of eliminating them?
You find at the story's beginning; the protagonist living their daily life, complaining about minor issues that bug them, but still successfully navigating each day without being affected by the concerns of the world around them. And then they get the letter, or a loved one dies, or the powerful evil king pushes the protagonist over the edge and they must take on the role as a leader of their people and be willing to stop at nothing to enact change in their world.
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Epic Quest
Now our character is on the move highlighting injustices and working to help that one person in their lives. But at some point, they realize that it's not just fixing this one problem, all of society is in distress and needs help. Our fantasy protagonist is on the move to fight against the great giants of evil of their age and will take on the quest against those mighty powers. Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz just wants to get home, but finds she must defeat the wicked witch to get what she wants.
Rand, the main character created by Robert Jordan, is a farm boy with a desire to marry his village sweetheart, but finds himself entangled in a grand adventure and must actively work to save the world. He knows nothing about the powers he possesses. In fact, he believes people will shun him when they find out he has these powers, because he could accidentally kill them and himself. But over the fourteen books in the series, he learns and accepts the epic quest he must take to overcome the evil in the world.
Frodo finds he is unequipped to take on Sauron and destroy the ring, but Gandalf encourages him to accept this epic quest and save the world. He finds even his friends are sometimes his enemies. I'm a big proponent of the hero's journey and style my fantasy novels to have each story be an epic quest amongst the general long-term epic fantasy novel. In the first book, the teens from Earth are on an epic quest to save their friend. In the second book, Al and Erik seek the golden crown to open the portal to Earth. Book three is an exciting story for a quest to rescue the stone warriors. In book four, Zita must attempt to find and harness the power of the crystal. And in book five, the quest is to take back Velidred Castle.
Formidable Antagonist
No fantasy novel is complete without an antagonist that is stronger than the protagonist. That's why writers start their main character as a farmer. As the story unfolds, we find this inexperienced farm girl and have to wonder, how could she ever defeat the most powerful person in the world? The first look at hero versus antagonist and the hero doesn't stand a chance. Later on in the story, the hero will test the antagonist once more. She still has no chance against the great and mighty evil in the world and upon a test, finds out she's making a horrible mistake and should retire back to the farm. But she doesn't give up.
The antagonist has built up their power over years. They are experts at forcing their people to submit to their will. They have minions in high places that will twist the local populace and beat them down into submission. Their army is powerful and no one has a chance or the fortitude to defeat them. He is free to victimize his people to the evil plans he has, and to force them to worship him at any cost.
Magic and Myth
A lot of fantasy action adventure writers have the magic part down, but they don't always think about the myths and legends of their worlds. A good fantasy novel will carefully craft and define the magic system so it makes sense. It can't be all powerful, otherwise you don't have a story. There should be some degree of difficulty in using it, either a hard to gain base ingredient for magic, or a magic that uses up resources each time it's used and may not be available when our protagonist needs it.
The myth and legends of a good adventure story come from a rich history. Early in the novel, the author establishes the myth to make the hero believe she can't achieve her goal, because the surrounding myth is so strong that no one could do what she must do to overcome the antagonist. The myth might be the power of the magic or the ability to find an artifact that is powerful beyond measure. Legend has it that you can find this powerful object in the mountains, valleys, caves, ponds, or cemeteries. But wait, many people have tried and failed to find it. What makes anyone think our heroine is special enough to acquire this mysterious crown, sword, spear, ring, staff, wand, or magical necklace?
Robert Jordan wrote in book one about the legend of the great heroes of ages past coming back one day to defeat the evil one. In book two, we find out more about that legend. Then later in the series he twists the legend and makes a character of the legend a main character. That's what is great about fantasy stories. You can bend them and create facts stranger than truth to do the will of the story.
High Stakes
So, our character is learning and growing and making alliances throughout the book, but each time she gains new skills and magical artifacts, the stakes get higher. Yes, she has the staff of retribution, but if she uses it too soon or draws too much power through it, then she might burn her magic out and she won't be able to save the world. Sure, she defeated one of the evil ones midway through the adventure, but now she has the staff and she will have to encounter the antagonist's second most powerful follower.
A professional boxer doesn't fight his first boxing match against the world champ. He has to fight someone at his own level. Once he defeats that guy, they offer him the opportunity to face a boxer who has a winning record in most of his fights over the years. He might have to box in ten to twenty bouts before being given the opportunity at the third or fourth best.
In a similar vein, our heroine's successful conquering of each trial leads to the elevation of the stakes, enabling her to overcome the antagonist's next obstacle. The fantasy author starts early in the story to introduce the reader to the powerful people in the king's hierarchy, creating suspense about whether the heroine will win when she is placed in the match. And a good story will lead us to believe that she will probably lose.
Epic Battles
Our hero is now ensconced as the leader of the resistance. She has many people cheering for her to win, but also willing to go into battle to defeat the surrounding evil. In an action fantasy novel, the righteous kings send their forces against the forces of the evil empire. I remember watching the movie for book two of the Lord of the Ring series. They have a brilliant scene where thousands upon thousands of men garbed in chain mail, force their horses forward toward the castle in hopes they can overpower it with sheer numbers.
Paul J Bennett, in his epic sword and sorcery fantasy stories, does a great job describing battle scenes with the moves by the good guys, followed by the countermoves of the soldiers supporting the evil one. In Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, Matt's character skillfully leads small skirmishes to victories, constantly planning to maneuver his allies and avoid combat in order to protect himself. An epic battle unfolds as wizards blow up the other side with fireballs and magical spells, while Matt and his crew use their swords to defeat the men on the ground.
Character Growth
Our hero is learning new skills at each conflict. They are gradually taking on more responsibility. Sometimes they make mistakes, but they learn from their mistakes. They are still alive not because they're so brilliant, but because someone else was watching their back. Early on, they don't have the leadership skills to manipulate their comrades into the right position to win the victory, but each failure leads to success at the next round, because they remembered the earlier mistake and didn't repeat it.
Over the course of a decades long epic fantasy, our teenage farm boy has left their humble beginnings, walked through the big city fascinated by all he sees, given some power, made mistakes, is given more power allowing him to make bigger mistakes, and then risen to the leadership role of the insurrectionists. Our farm boy has experienced character growth and probably lost friends as he rises to power.
Themes of Good vs Evil
Most fantasy novels will have some form of good versus evil. The Lord of the Rings showcases the good of the lowly, but happy hobbits, versus the evil machinations of Lord Sauron. If you think of the Star Wars franchise, you can picture Luke Skywalker using his magic called the force to defeat the evil empire. In The Wizard of Oz, the movie portrays the Wicked Witch as evil, and Dorothy works hard to defeat her. The character Rand in the Wheel of Time series is trying to defeat the evil one from forcing his will on Rand's world.
From the ancient books of the Bible, the theme of good versus evil has made for a good story of triumph and redemption.
Satisfying Resolution
You would think defeating the evil emperor would be enough to make a satisfying resolution, but the fantasy author can't stop there. They must tie up loose ends. What happened to the young guy that was saved and followed our heroine through thick and thin, almost sacrificing their lives several times during the adventure? There is probably a love interest or two in the mix and the reader wants to know which boy our heroine chose for her happily ever after. We must have the heroine go back to see her aged father, where the initial melee occurred that drove her from her village.
An epic fantasy over ten to twenty books might have a need to wrap up each book into a nice little bow, but also think about completing the overall epic adventure.
In Conclusion
We have taken our poor little heroine from her humble beginnings and through a series of adventures and conflicts; she has grown into a strong and powerful foe to the evil one that is terrorizing her world. She has survived epic battles during her epic quest, resolving adventures with action and with magic and supernatural objects containing great power to help her defeat her adversaries. The stakes have grown in each book, and as the story has unfolded through the entire series, she is ready to go head to head with the antagonist. Good defeats evil and she thanks her friends, maybe chooses a love interest, and returns to her family on the farm to fanfare and joy.
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Interested in reading more Fantasy Action Adventure Stories? Check out last week's blog post.
Twelve Best Fantasy Action Adventure Novels
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Bruno Sousa
Casper Johansson
Jon Tyson