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That's not true. Knowing if a mushroom is poisonous or not comes under foraging. Obviously. Since if I cannot tell between harmful and beneficial plants, how can I forage for food? Nature tells you exactly what kind of mushroom is and what family it belongs to and all the academic knowledge...

For anyone interested in the dichotomy I've talked about, I cannot recommend enough pretty much anything by Dr. Amy H. Sturgis. Fantastic stuff. To be honest, that's probably where I picked up the terms Wellsian and Vernian.

Ok, in the interests of trying to move past this stumbling block, let me try to explain my point without resorting to any jargon. In SF, there are two (note, this does not mean that there are ONLY two, just that these are two among many) common themes. In the first theme, science can resolve...

Again, you understand the point I’m making. It’s not controversial at all but for some bizarre reason you keep banging on about the terms instead of actually addressing the point. Since you have no problem with the pint, choose terms you like and I’ll use those. I am certainly not wedded to...

As a fellow teacher, I’m still pretty baffled that anyone who claims to study SF has never heard these terms before. It would be like someone saying they’ve never heard of postmodernism. Sure if you’ve never done any lit crit I’d understand. But it would be weird to see someone claim it does not...

Sorry, but, all I can really say is that the terminology I'm using is pretty commonly understood in any criticism of SF. That @Celebrim needs to bring in hundred year old quotes to support his point isn't really much of a counter argument. I mean, good grief, Google Wellsian vs Vernian and it...

And, just to add later. Just because a work or two by a particular author may not fit the concept perfectly isn't really much of a counter argument. The two main streams (or schools if you prefer) of SF are Vernian and Wellsian. The Vernian school is characterized by a view of science as...

In SF criticism, these are the terms used to characterize the divide. I have zero interest in yet another pedantic quibbling about terminology. You clearly understand the point that is being made and apparently have no particular issue with the point that there is a divide in SF between the...

Just to pontificate for a moment. Not sure if my thoughts are totally organized here. One of the big divides in SF fiction is Wellsian vs Vernian. In H.G. Well's stories, science is typically seen as the cause of the problems. These stories tend to take a very critical view of the idea of...

That, right there, is what I'm looking for. If I'm using a VTT, why do I have to constantly have to deal with the mechanics of the game? I've got a whole computer right there. I don't want to futz about figuring out which modifiers to add and when. I don't want to have to kludge together...

Sorry, but, "NGL"? Not familiar with that acronym and I'm probably totally showing my age here. :p

Oh, no, totally fair. Totally get that. And, I would certainly never want a steady diet of "catharsis" games either. But, it does make for an interesting and fun change, for me. Sorry if what I said sounded like I was advocating some sort of general style of play. Oh, good god no. It's...

Heh. Even with the power of a VTT behind me, my newbie player STILL struggles with his battlemaster fighter. And this is a player who played an entire Phandelver campaign with me and is now halfway through Out of the Abyss. I mean, it really can't get much easier when you're using a VTT...

Fair enough. Tastes obviously vary. I talked about the elevator pitch I did for a Despair campaign where the world was dying. That's the point of the campaign. How do you act knowing that at any point in time, everything will die. And, it's not a question of if, it's when. The world is...

Just to quibbe. It's not so much @EzekielRaiden that it is noble to for doing the right thing when you'Re guaranteed to fail, it's rather that stories about that theme, ie. tragedies, are cathartic. Or, if they are done right anyway, they should be cathartic. They're not meant to be...

It's always interesting to see different experiences. See, I play on VTT exclusively. Something like a Twilight cleric doesn't add any time at all - the Twilight Cleric player just clicks a button and can do it while other people are doing their turns without interrupting anything. So, there...

Personally, I would lean into the "more empathy" style setting. Sure, there's lots of bad stuff, but, by and large, given the choice, people will choose empathy over hate. So, the whole, much criticised, "Cantina scene" is not out of place in the setting. Anyone who chooses to "None of those...

I know that you've dropped out of the thread, and fair enough, but, all those works are absolutely SF. "Advanced technology" is not required, at all, for SF. If your (and I mean this as the general you, as in anyone) definition of SF excludes any of those works, that's not a commonly accepted...