Science Fiction in Your Fantasy Game?

[Quentin3212]

I am always very very leery of time travel, particularly in a setting of your own creation. It could be pretty easy to rewrite huge sections of lore with very little effort.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Numenera in this thread, though I personally dislike both the system and the setting it pretty much fits exactly with what a lot of people are talking about in their posts.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Numenera in this thread, though I personally dislike both the system and the setting it pretty much fits exactly with what a lot of people are talking about in their posts.

I am completely sick of post-apocalyptic, "It's just your typical fantasy setting but oh wait the magic is secretly just technology and everyone is too stupid to know better," settings.

 

[Sage Genesis]

If you're talking to a demon, and she mentions how demons came to this world ten thousand years ago in a space ship, then that's kind of like "doing in the wizard". It's not a nice thing to just spring on an unsuspecting player.

What about Spelljammer?

If a setting has guns, like the Three Musketeers, it isn't pure pseudo-medieval "fantasy" to me. Gaming in the Renaissance isn't like gaming in Greyhawk

Musketeer-style... well, muskets, are a bit too late, I'll grant you that. But firearms in Europe predate full plate, and personally held firearms (as opposed to cannons) arose more or less at the same time that full plate armors came into use - probably not a coincidence, plate armor could indeed deflect a bullet of a contemporary rifle.

Sorry if this is off topic but as a European I'm always a little bit amazed by how people's perceptions of medieval Europe seem to be hugely informed by what they see in (fantasy) movies and games. And those sources are... not exactly accurate, shall we say.

 

[Imperialus]

I love it.

In my current campaign the PC's are exploring their ancient predecessors version of DARPA using a wild combination of swords, guns ranging from blackpowder muzzle loaders to a magazine fed carbine. One of them has an ancient weapon that when the trigger is depressed emits a shock that can be used to disable the mechanical men they have been fighting (it's an Ion Cannon).

There is a group of barbarians to the north who charge into battle wearing iron suits that give them the strength of ten men (power armour).

Many people worship a great land leviathan as a god (Basically an OGRE).

 

[jasper]

I will go with barrier peaks. A little bit just as a twist but the space artifacts soon or later break down. I won't mention that I took the Star Trek Enterprise Blueprints of the 70s and made a dungeon of them. hmm. I wonder if I still have my notes.

 

[Obryn]

So I was thinking... On the one hand, as I mentioned, I like putting sci-fi elements into fantasy, particularly if they're "pulp" style like ray guns with fins.

On the other hand, I hate adding fantasy to sci-fi unless it's part of the initial premise. See: Lost, BSG.

But on the other other hand, if you add flying saucers to Middle Earth you get a mess. So I dunno.

 

[Quentin3212]

The setting has to work with it, otherwise I think it's jarring and horrible.

If there are hints or traces of sci fi in various aspects of your universe it won't be so strange when the players encounter such things. As opposed to if your setting is pure fantasy and all of a sudden the part finds a rocket launcher that's actually a rocket launcher.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Again, I can only say it depends on what direction I want to go with my campaign.

Usually, it starts with mucking about with the races. Copying myself copying myself from elsewhere (emphasis added by me):

Copying myself from elsewhere:

Dwarves: I made them into sentient stone in one campaign, and they reproduced by carving new ones. The type of stone determined their exact stats and favored class. Tougher minerals were better at being the warrior types. Gemstones were better at being the spellcasters.

In another one, I killed them all off...sort of. I made the dwarven survivors of an apocalyptic war into a fantasy version of Dr Who's Cybermen or Daleks. Psionically active dwarves transferred their consciousnesses into the bodies their slain bretheren constructed- Warforged. They had the physical attributes of Warforged (but with darkvision added), but the mental and cultural attributes of dwarves. They called themselves "Inheritors."

Elves: In one campaign, I combined elements of the Minbari (from Bab5) with making them sentient plants). This latter twist is one of my most common.

Another common twist for me- making them true "fey" and using the "Drift" rules from the Geomancer PrCl to warp them as they age.

In another campaign, they were sci-fi "Greys" who had crashlanded on a fantasy world. They used their high tech stasis devices and tesseract generators to create what humans called "Underhill" to give them a nearly timeless and quite vast space in which to live while awaiting either rescue or for native tech/magic to be up to the task of repairing them.

Another old post, with some other reflavorings of note:

I do this a lot...my Bugbears taste like Watermelons.




What?

OH!

I do re-imagine races quite frequently, but I seldom get to use them to the fullest. I've mentioned several on these boards:

1. Elves who are actually alien Greys (you know- the skinny, big headed, pupil-less eyed guys from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, X-files, etc.). Their ship crashed hundreds of thousands of years ago, becoming covered by a mounded clearing in a forest. Their stasis fields (keeping them alive all those centuries) teleporters, image scramblers and account for legends of Underhill, how they dissapear in the woods, and how they are mighty enchanters...
2. Elves who are part plant, truly one with The Green. I basically applied the Woodling template and took a few hints from Dragonstar's Galactic Races. I also made them true Fey.
3. Dwarves who are elementals. They carve each other from stone, and the kind of stone they are made from determines their favored class.
4. Warforged who are essentially D&D versions of the Daleks or Cyber-Men: their metal bodies house the brains of psionically active dwarves (minimum 1PP).
5. The Nephilim are my reworked Planetouched. "They were the hybrid offspring of fallen angels and human women." says one definition...but mine are the hybrid offspring of any sentient race and any extraplanar being. To pull that off, the Nephilim were designed as a racial character class, a la Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed/Arcana Evolved RPG.
6. A size S, flying version of the Thri-Kreen. They are ultra-high dex, and favor spears/javelins rather than the gythka, etc., and can communicate by bioluminescence.

I've also enjoyed helping others at ENWorld reflavor or shuffle races for their campaigns, most notably suggesting:

1. Anthropomorphic Snapping Turtles, an amalgam of river-dwelling Halflings, the powerful physique of Dwarves, certain reptilian characteristics from Lizardmen and the business acumen of Ferengi. They are the master tradesmen of the lakes, rivers and freshwater wetlands.
2. Humans who ride Giant Flightless Birds- like axebeaks or real-world Moas- and have a culture analogous to those of the Plains Indians.
3. Reworked Kobolds who are arboreal, and have gliding membranes.
4. Using Alternity/D20 Modern Sesheyans as rulers of an Underdark empire- possibly as replacements for the Drow.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Generally, I hate SF in fantasy, whether it be RPGs, video games, books, or movies. There are so few exceptions that I voted the last option. The primary exceptions are books by Andre Norton and Roger Zelazny, both of whom routinely mix fantasy and SF and still tell great stories.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

Rod Serling defined it thusly: "Fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science fiction is the improbable made possible."

That's my new favorite explanation of the difference. Thanks!