My Changing Thoughts on Science Fantasy Games

[Dragonhelm]

Since the first day I have ever gamed, I have had a love of science fantasy as a genre. The first campaign I played in was a homebrew science fantasy setting using the AD&D 2e rules. Plus, I'm a huge fan of Star Wars. By far, it's one of my favorite sub-genres.

In TTRPGs, I find there are a few different takes on the subject.

1. Fantasy has advanced tech added on. Mage Hand Press' Dark Matter is a great example of this. My friend who ran the old college game is now running a next generation game, and we're using Dark Matter for that.
2. Sci-fi and fantasy blend seamlessly. The best example of this is Starfinder. I absolutely love the setting. Gods, magic, and tech co-exist equally. Sometimes tech and magic are merged into one. I would say that Star Wars fits into this category as well, with lightsabers and such.
3. Post-apocalyptic. The world is reduced to a medieval level of technology, but artifacts from the ancient ones keep resurfacing.

There's probably more that I'm forgetting.

Despite my love for the genre, I can see some pitfalls. The most notable of which is when tech overpowers fantasy. If other 3rd party sources are included and not balanced out, then it can easily be an issue. I've experienced this first-hand.

So while I may have been a science fantasy apologist in the past, I feel lately that one must take great care to balance everything out so that the sci-fi or fantasy does not overpower the other.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Since the first day I have ever gamed, I have had a love of science fantasy as a genre. The first campaign I played in was a homebrew science fantasy setting using the AD&D 2e rules. Plus, I'm a huge fan of Star Wars. By far, it's one of my favorite sub-genres.

In TTRPGs, I find there are a few different takes on the subject.

1. Fantasy has advanced tech added on. Mage Hand Press' Dark Matter is a great example of this. My friend who ran the old college game is now running a next generation game, and we're using Dark Matter for that.
2. Sci-fi and fantasy blend seamlessly. The best example of this is Starfinder. I absolutely love the setting. Gods, magic, and tech co-exist equally. Sometimes tech and magic are merged into one. I would say that Star Wars fits into this category as well, with lightsabers and such.
3. Post-apocalyptic. The world is reduced to a medieval level of technology, but artifacts from the ancient ones keep resurfacing.

There's probably more that I'm forgetting.

Despite my love for the genre, I can see some pitfalls. The most notable of which is when tech overpowers fantasy. If other 3rd party sources are included and not balanced out, then it can easily be an issue. I've experienced this first-hand.

So while I may have been a science fantasy apologist in the past, I feel lately that one must take great care to balance everything out so that the sci-fi or fantasy does not overpower the other.

Love Sci Fantasy too. Where does Star Wars fall in this - probably category 2 I suppose.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Post-apocalyptic. The world is reduced to a medieval level of technology, but artifacts from the ancient ones keep resurfacing.

This is a pretty spot-on description of Ralph Bakshi's Wizards.

 

[GMMichael]

I feel lately that one must take great care to balance everything out so that the sci-fi or fantasy does not overpower the other.

I feel that some good plots/Macguffins will be missed if the sci balances the fantasy perfectly.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Love Sci Fantasy too. Where does Star Wars fall in this - probably category 2 I suppose.

Only in the Skywalker Saga, which obviously focuses heavily on Jedi. Plenty of stories and plenty of room in Star Wars for stories and games without space magic.

 

[djotaku]

Great points. I think I'm a little less worried about the balance. I think it's going to be very setting-dependent and even story-dependent. Take a look at Star Wars. KOTOR, The Mandalorian, and movies 1-9 feature "the force". Yeah, the force lets them block laser "bullets" with their laser swords, but you can't use "magic" to get rid of all the ships blockading a planet. Then look at Mandalorian and there's 0 magic, more or less, in the same setting.

But at a broader level, I think that's most likely is that you have science-flavored fantasy or fantasy-flavored science. And it's still going to depend on the story you're telling. A story on whatever planet has the machine intelligence in SF (Akiton? Apollon?) is probably going to be way more SF than one on Castroval.

 

[haileris23]

This is a pretty spot-on description of Ralph Bakshi's Wizards.

Also Thundarr the Barbarian!