Anachronisms in Fantasy

LoneWolf23

First Post
I have to admit, I'm a big fan of webcomics like Bruno the Bandit and Supermegatopia, as well as cartoons and anime series set in fantasy settings where anachronisms like malls and televisions happen.

I've often considered creating such a setting. How would you guys go about it?
 

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You just hit upon my one pet peeve. Intellectually I recognize it could be fun, but I really don't care for those sorts of anachronisms.

I haven't read X-Crawl, which I think is dungeon crawling as game show. Does it have something like this?
 

Piratecat said:
Intellectually I recognize it could be fun, but I really don't care for those sorts of anachronisms.
This is why Eberron has absolutely no appeal to me.

Lightning bolt-powered trains? Ugh.

Not my cup of tea.

Anyway...

LoneWolf23, you may want to start by making a list of things that you want to incorporate into your game, and then work on developing either their magical analogs or the magical means by which they function. For example, a crystal ball could be analogous to a television, or conversely, a television receiver could be powered by the same spells used to create a crystal ball.

(I recall reading a funny thread somewhere about using crystal balls as a sort of Internet - the problem was they were all developed by the archmage M'krosapht and had a tendency to stop working and turn blue, leading to the warning about "blue balls of Death.")

Good luck!
 

LoneWolf23 said:
I have to admit, I'm a big fan of webcomics like Bruno the Bandit and Supermegatopia, as well as cartoons and anime series set in fantasy settings where anachronisms like malls and televisions happen.

If you look at most of the successfull fantasy settings, you will see that they are full of anachronisms. Typically, they are mixed bags of elements from around 800 (or much earlier) to the late 20th century. Eberron picks just a different set of anachronistic elements, which happen to be more obvious on a first glance.

I'm not a fan of the glaring type of anachronisms, either.
 

Well, since it is fantasy there's really no such thing as an anachronism possible. These things never happened, and thus something that's part of it can't be "out of time" -- it was never "in time" in the first place.

That being said, silly british accents don't make the language any closer to a "medieval" setting that so many people apparently strive for. To the degree that anything can be considered anachronistic, I'd say that's the most consistently glaring (though I will note that it bothers me not at all).

But, do whatever makes you feel good (as long as its legal, anyway). If you want to have crystal balls that work as the internet - go for it. It's not like someone can huff away from the table, saying, "real crystal balls never worked like that!" since there just aren't any real magic crystal balls.
 

The most rescent dragon issue has a bunch of magic items that act as modern technology, like PDAs and video phones.

I might use that in Eberron...
 

Fantasy without magic or anachronisms is called historical. Historical with magic is called Historic Fantasy. If it has magic and does not take place in the past on this world, everything is possible, nothing is forbidden. Its the whim of the person who writes the world. If you think technology should not be past 1350 and there is the ability to cast simple spells, but its not this earth, great. Thats your choice. But in my take on it is that you sure are missing out.

A,
 


Piratecat said:
You just hit upon my one pet peeve. Intellectually I recognize it could be fun, but I really don't care for those sorts of anachronisms.

I haven't read X-Crawl, which I think is dungeon crawling as game show. Does it have something like this?

I'm with the cat here - just not my bag anachronisms.

X-Crawl would be a good source of material for this kind of campaign though.
 


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