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<blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 1936557" data-attributes="member: 3649">Two things to think about in any hard SF setting: &nbsp;(1) One of the things to think about in any hard SF setting, be it a game or a book, is the culture of the people involved. This is one of the hardest ideas I have ever tried to get across to a couple people that regularly play with and is one reason we don't normally do hard SF games. Just because they can build automatic robots 20 feet tall doesn't mean they do build them. &nbsp;(2) Just because you saw it in a movie or read about this really cool Thing doesn't mean it was ever used, even if it was invented. People are fond of saying 'By year X, we'll have Technology Z. Thus, Activity Y will be useless/obsolete/whatever'. &nbsp;20 year ago when I was in school, AI was 'just around the corner'. Household Robots were 'in five or ten years'. Both proved to be very, very much harder to build than anyone imagined. 20 years later, we have no machine sentience, no humanoid robots worth a damn. We might never get them. Biotech seems promising, but it's thousands of times more complex than robotics.&nbsp;Those two things combined means that an RPG setting or book must pick and choose what technologies sound plausable and come up with a reason for why it is or is not used.&nbsp;Psionics in Traveller is a good example. Psionics is possible within that game universe. In fact, if you're gifted in it, it's kinda easy to train. Thanks to a backfired psychohistory experiment, virtually no-one in the Imperium uses psionics. In fact, there are planets where you could be killed for having that training. There is a strong cultural impediment to learning that skill.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="WayneLigon, post: 1936557, member: 3649"] Two things to think about in any hard SF setting: (1) One of the things to think about in any hard SF setting, be it a game or a book, is the culture of the people involved. This is one of the hardest ideas I have ever tried to get across to a couple people that regularly play with and is one reason we don't normally do hard SF games. Just because they [b]can[/b] build automatic robots 20 feet tall doesn't mean they [b]do[/b] build them. (2) Just because you saw it in a movie or read about this really cool Thing doesn't mean it was ever used, even if it was invented. People are fond of saying 'By year X, we'll have Technology Z. Thus, Activity Y will be useless/obsolete/whatever'. 20 year ago when I was in school, AI was 'just around the corner'. Household Robots were 'in five or ten years'. Both proved to be very, very much harder to build than anyone imagined. 20 years later, we have no machine sentience, no humanoid robots worth a damn. We might never get them. Biotech seems promising, but it's thousands of times more complex than robotics. Those two things combined means that an RPG setting or book must pick and choose what technologies sound plausable and come up with a reason for why it is or is not used. Psionics in [i]Traveller[/i] is a good example. Psionics is possible within that game universe. In fact, if you're gifted in it, it's kinda easy to train. Thanks to a backfired psychohistory experiment, virtually no-one in the Imperium uses psionics. In fact, there are planets where you could be killed for having that training. There is a strong cultural impediment to learning that skill. [/QUOTE]

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