What is distinctive about fantasy RPGing? Or sci fi?

[pemerton]

The "What was JRRT's contribution to D&D" threads prompted the above question: what is distinctive about fantasy RPGing?

Is it the tropes? (Swords, spells, fantastic monsters, magic potions, undead horrors, etc)

Or is it the themes and situations? (Rightful kings to be restored to their thrones; ancient secrets to be rediscovered; vengeful gods to be placated; etc)

The same question can be asked about sci fi RPGing.

Recently I've been re-reading my Classic Traveller stuff and GMing some sessions of it. The first Traveller adventure published in White Dwarf was "The Sable Rose Affair". It's notionally a sci-fi adventure - the PCs fly in from another planet, there are flying cars, etc - but in the actual play it's barely distinguishable from the sort of adventure Gygax described in the closing pages of his AD&D PHB. The players receive a briefing from some NPCs - and with a map, and an outline of the expected targets, and the opportunity to choose their equipment, they have to infiltrate a club and extract some secret information. There are no wandering monsters, but there are "club alert buttons" which - if pressed - will bring the police in a certain number of rounds.

I was struck how closely the adventure resembles the sort of dungeon raid Gygax describes. It's basically stactical wargaming.

Does it become a sci-fi adventure just because of the tropes and trappings? Does a dungeon raid become fantasy just because there are orcs and rough walls rather than soldiers in a concrete bunker?

 

[ccs]

What's distinctive about RPGs be they themed on fantasy, sci-fi, or something else, is the type of game they are in the 1st place - RPGs.

 

[Arilyn]

The early RPGs often copied the DnD tropes rather slavishly. It took a while for games to get out of the dungeon mentality. Even early super hero games had players roaming through bases, which were pretty much just dungeons. I've even seen a fair number of more modern games have good advice and ideas for their genre, but then resort to dungeon crawls or a series of unnecessary combats in their sample adventures.

To answer your question more directly, I think genres need to be more than just trappings. Science fiction games should feel distinctly different from fantasy. Thankfully, game designers and adventure writers have come a long way. I've never played Traveller, but I believe the later adventures were less likely to follow the DnD model? Even many fantasy games should feel distinct from each other. Ars Magica, for example, should not be run like a typical DnD adventure.

 

[pemerton]

I've never played Traveller, but I believe the later adventures were less likely to follow the DnD model?

I bought some Classic Traveller adventure PDFs on DriveThru recently, but haven't looked at many of them yet.

So far the main thing I've felt in GMing it, and it's something I've deliberately been trying to bring out, is that it is modern rather than mediaeval - so there is law, and bureaucracy, and permits, etc. The game system supports this quite well (Admin skill, Bribery skill, Forgery skill, Bribery skill, etc; not to mention managing the mortgage on your starship). But that's not the same as sci-fi. I'm not quite sure I've brought out the sci-fi-ness yet.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Tech changes. Trappings change.

People, though? People are the same, regardless of time & place. They all need food & shelter. Rest & recreation.

The tech- be it mundane, Sci-Fi, or fantastic magery- mainly affects how we do what we do.

 

[Arilyn]

It depends too on how far you want to delve into science fiction. Star Wars has space ships and blasters, but is essentially a fantasy. Star Trek is closer to science fiction, but purists would claim it's not really science fiction either. I think we see way more sci-fi games based off space opera because it's easier. Science fiction is hard to do as an RPG because it's about plausible extrapolations of the future. Other than the "one independent wonder", Clarke allows in science fiction, it has to feel possible. It's all about asking deep "what if" questions. There can certainly be danger and action, but not in the "light sabre duel" or "planet of the week" kind of way.

What kind of science fiction are you wanting to emulate?

 

[Razjah]

For me, one of the most distinctive elements of fantasy games is how a few can make a huge difference. Even in a more Conan-esque game without wild magic and saving the world, the PCs can accomplish far more than "regular" folk. In high fantasy you save the world, in heroic fantasy you can save a kingdom or stop a great evil, in lower fantasy you can still gain a powerful reputation (Black Company). Pulp is all about two-fisted tales and doing the impossible.

Magic and monsters and swords and settings all help build the themes, but in fantasy, a big thing is the overcoming obstacles and making a difference.


In science fiction, I find many of the adventures to be part of the cogs. Even space opera- if you aren't a Jedi in the clone wars, but rather a squad of elite troopers, you achieve great things for the Republic. But at the end of the day you're soldiers and can't win a war on your own.

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[pemerton]

What kind of science fiction are you wanting to emulate?

Good question, and I'm not really sure. Probably something more space oper-ific than Clarke-ian.

In Traveller, it feels like space and size/distance should matter, in more than just a plane-hopping way. But I haven't quite worked out how to do this yet.

 

[Parmandur]

Good question, and I'm not really sure. Probably something more space oper-ific than Clarke-ian.

In Traveller, it feels like space and size/distance should matter, in more than just a plane-hopping way. But I haven't quite worked out how to do this yet.

Not going to say it is a good book, but Space Vikings is probably the novel with the clearest influence on what they were up to with Traveller.