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<blockquote data-quote="Wolf1066" data-source="post: 5218392" data-attributes="member: 88680"><p>Good points - though in general terms, fantasy and superheroes (for all they grab lots of stuff and mix them together in a fashion that makes purists scream) have become very much their own genres. Few would step outside the box and have firearms in a "fantasy" setting - not even single-shot match- or flintlocks - and other high tech things are generally right out. The boundary seems to be "as long as they used swords, clubs and (cross)bows, it's fine". Blurring the boundaries of a thousand years or so of relatively low-tech cultures and throwing in every "sword-'n'-sorcery" reference and fantastic monster you can find is "kosher" in that milieu - the authors of fantasy stories have been "guilty" of it for centuries.</p><p></p><p>It's possible to bring in higher tech, but the GM's going to have a lot of conversion work to do - unless they're using a system like GURPS etc that has all its data in a uniform format (whereupon you just pick up a copy of GURPS Space, or whatever, and the GURPS weapons supplement and your wizards are on their way to the stars along with Vargrs, Narns and Klingons).</p><p></p><p>Superheroes are rather more open to different times and greater or lesser degrees of technology (to the extent of some technology far in advance of the times they are set - Spidey's web spinners, Batman's "cool toys", Ironman's armour etc) and have settings that range from low-tech to distant future, so there is, as you say, plenty of scope to fit them into any "time" you like. Even "magic" is permissible, along with psionics, mutant abilities, alien races with weird powers etc.</p><p></p><p>That does make for a lot of flexibility for a GM with a good imagination. And the genre is such that if a Norse god can be running around being a superhero in fairly contemporary times, a spell caster can sure as hell be heading for the surface of Epsilon Eridani 3 in a drop ship alongside a couple of aliens with superhuman abilities...</p><p></p><p>One could also probably run pretty much any scenario they wanted using Cyberpunk as the base as well - by default, weapons cover everything from clubs to energy weapons; vehicles from horses to space ships. You can raise or lower the tech level as you like, set it on Earth or in space (not much of a stretch to devise other planets or more advanced space stations etc), and <em>Ianus Games </em>and others have done the donkey-work to bring in Vampires etc and stress/fatigue/insanity rules.</p><p></p><p>What I notice is that different game systems treat certain things differently or bring in ideas not found in other systems - Palladium's Insanity rules were quite the change from D&D's "get killed, be resurrected, carry on adventuring" outlook - I played one session of Palladium, fought something demonic and my rather tough and imposing Wolfen wound up becoming a transvestite from the shock of it all! I was better off than my fellow adventurer who died and was brought back - he was really messed up afterwards...</p><p></p><p>Vampires in D&D are monsters - you see 'em, they try to kill you, you try to kill them... one of you succeeds. WoD - any version. Vampires are entities with their own motives and goals - you see 'em, <em>maybe </em>you try to kill each other. And maybe the vampire says "Hey, you guys look resourceful, I've got a bit of a problem that requires the attention of someone who can go abroad in daylight - how'd you like to make more money than you've ever seen?"</p><p></p><p>It comes down to what the GM and players find is important to the game play - they may or may not want insanity rules or intelligent "monsters" or books that can drive you mad before you even get a look at the BBEG.</p><p></p><p>We've always been an experimental bunch - running traditionally NPC races as PCs (Minotaurs, Drow, Wemics etc), introducing Friday Night Firefight (2013) combat into Traveller (ouch!), playing werewolves in VtM before the WtA books came out... all sorts of stuff.</p><p></p><p>I'd quite happily have my current "Cyberpunk" game world shaken by the discovery of Earth by a Vilani trading ship and give the players the option of signing up to explore a pre-Imperium Traveller universe populated by creatures that resemble various races from Babylon 5 and Larry Niven's "Known Space". If they didn't take the opportunity to be the World's first Interstellar Edgerunners, Earth would be changing quite a bit with access to advanced technologies and that would be an interesting concept to explore as well...</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Wolf1066, post: 5218392, member: 88680"] Good points - though in general terms, fantasy and superheroes (for all they grab lots of stuff and mix them together in a fashion that makes purists scream) have become very much their own genres. Few would step outside the box and have firearms in a "fantasy" setting - not even single-shot match- or flintlocks - and other high tech things are generally right out. The boundary seems to be "as long as they used swords, clubs and (cross)bows, it's fine". Blurring the boundaries of a thousand years or so of relatively low-tech cultures and throwing in every "sword-'n'-sorcery" reference and fantastic monster you can find is "kosher" in that milieu - the authors of fantasy stories have been "guilty" of it for centuries. It's possible to bring in higher tech, but the GM's going to have a lot of conversion work to do - unless they're using a system like GURPS etc that has all its data in a uniform format (whereupon you just pick up a copy of GURPS Space, or whatever, and the GURPS weapons supplement and your wizards are on their way to the stars along with Vargrs, Narns and Klingons). Superheroes are rather more open to different times and greater or lesser degrees of technology (to the extent of some technology far in advance of the times they are set - Spidey's web spinners, Batman's "cool toys", Ironman's armour etc) and have settings that range from low-tech to distant future, so there is, as you say, plenty of scope to fit them into any "time" you like. Even "magic" is permissible, along with psionics, mutant abilities, alien races with weird powers etc. That does make for a lot of flexibility for a GM with a good imagination. And the genre is such that if a Norse god can be running around being a superhero in fairly contemporary times, a spell caster can sure as hell be heading for the surface of Epsilon Eridani 3 in a drop ship alongside a couple of aliens with superhuman abilities... One could also probably run pretty much any scenario they wanted using Cyberpunk as the base as well - by default, weapons cover everything from clubs to energy weapons; vehicles from horses to space ships. You can raise or lower the tech level as you like, set it on Earth or in space (not much of a stretch to devise other planets or more advanced space stations etc), and [I]Ianus Games [/I]and others have done the donkey-work to bring in Vampires etc and stress/fatigue/insanity rules. What I notice is that different game systems treat certain things differently or bring in ideas not found in other systems - Palladium's Insanity rules were quite the change from D&D's "get killed, be resurrected, carry on adventuring" outlook - I played one session of Palladium, fought something demonic and my rather tough and imposing Wolfen wound up becoming a transvestite from the shock of it all! I was better off than my fellow adventurer who died and was brought back - he was really messed up afterwards... Vampires in D&D are monsters - you see 'em, they try to kill you, you try to kill them... one of you succeeds. WoD - any version. Vampires are entities with their own motives and goals - you see 'em, [I]maybe [/I]you try to kill each other. And maybe the vampire says "Hey, you guys look resourceful, I've got a bit of a problem that requires the attention of someone who can go abroad in daylight - how'd you like to make more money than you've ever seen?" It comes down to what the GM and players find is important to the game play - they may or may not want insanity rules or intelligent "monsters" or books that can drive you mad before you even get a look at the BBEG. We've always been an experimental bunch - running traditionally NPC races as PCs (Minotaurs, Drow, Wemics etc), introducing Friday Night Firefight (2013) combat into Traveller (ouch!), playing werewolves in VtM before the WtA books came out... all sorts of stuff. I'd quite happily have my current "Cyberpunk" game world shaken by the discovery of Earth by a Vilani trading ship and give the players the option of signing up to explore a pre-Imperium Traveller universe populated by creatures that resemble various races from Babylon 5 and Larry Niven's "Known Space". If they didn't take the opportunity to be the World's first Interstellar Edgerunners, Earth would be changing quite a bit with access to advanced technologies and that would be an interesting concept to explore as well... [/QUOTE]
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