D&D General Who put all this Sci-Fi in my soup!?

[Paul Farquhar]

But this is simply a choice of setting. Both tech and magic are D&D.

Yeah but I like flashy VFX more than I like earnest sincerity or gritty realism in my RPGs.

 

[Blue]

Early D&D had things from Gygax and his era implying that the setting was long post-apocalyptic, and that there was technology and ancients ruins of advanced civilizations about.

 

[Yaarel]

Yeah but I like flashy VFX more than I like earnest sincerity or gritty realism in my RPGs.

Similarly me. I am less a fan of gritty low-magic. Whether hi-magic or hi-tech, there must be something fantastical for me to get into it.

 

[CreamCloud0]

It's theme: one is based on magic, the other on science. That's why we call one fantasy and the other science fiction.

yeah, it's almost as if that's exactly what the first half of my post had been saying, but scratch off the superficial factors and underneath that theme it's not really all that different.

 

[Zardnaar]

It was one of their Extra Life charity things.

Gotcha.

I dont want a lot of that type of stuff in a PHB. 100% fine with it existing though. Sometimes I would want to use it as well.

 

[Reynard]

Man I wish people would stop calling Spelljammer "sci fi."

 

[Laurefindel]

Man I wish people would stop calling Spelljammer "sci fi."

Yeah, I don’t see it as sci-fi either, but genres are in a flux of definition and redefining now. Sci-fi used to be a sub-genre on fantasy, and fantasy itself use to be basically any fiction that couldn’t realistically happen on earth. If you included elements like overt magic or races/species à la Tolkien, then you were in the sub-genre of high-fantasy.

This is all being reshuffled now, but settings like FR and Spelljammer are widely different in style, presentation, and expectation, even if they are adjacent enough to occasionally cross-over. Since regular, relatively low-gonzo D&D refuses to be medieval-fantasy and just be “fantasy” people feel the need to call Spelljammer something else. Sci-fi immediately comes to mind…

 

[Reynard]

Yeah, I don’t see it as sci-fi either, but genres are in a flux of definition and redefining now. Sci-fi used to be a sub-genre on fantasy, and fantasy itself use to be basically any fiction that couldn’t realistically happen on earth. If you included elements like overt magic or races/species à la Tolkien, then you were in the sub-genre of high-fantasy.

This is all being reshuffled now, but settings like FR and Spelljammer are widely different in style, presentation, and expectation, even if they are adjacent enough to occasionally cross-over. Since regular, relatively low-gonzo D&D refuses to be medieval-fantasy and just be “fantasy” people feel the need to call Spelljammer something else. Sci-fi immediately comes to mind…

I mean, Space Fantasy is right there...

But, yeah, it is just a peeve. I don't expect the world to move for me.

 

[Laurefindel]

I mean, Space Fantasy is right there...

It may be right there but I never heard of it before or occurred to me. I like it!

But that’s what I mean, genres are being redefined and specified now. Give it a few more years and space-fantasy will be an established genre. It probably is already, or else gaining momentum since not enough people use it in favour of “sci-fi”.

The world doesn’t move for you or me, but it is moving. It’s fine to give it a little nudge in the direction of our convictions

 

[Reynard]

It may be right there but I never heard of it before or occurred to me. I like it!

But that’s what I mean, genres are being redefined and specified now. Give it a few more years and space-fantasy will be an established genre. It probably is already, or else gaining momentum since not enough people use it in favour of “sci-fi”.

The world doesn’t move for you or me, but it is moving. It’s fine to give it a little nudge in the direction of our convictions

From Earth to the Moon.
Space 1889.
Treasure Planet.
it is a real genre that has been around for a long time.