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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zander" data-source="post: 2263962" data-attributes="member: 1364">No! You can't agree that fantasy is a sub-type of fiction (among others) and also claim that because psychic powers are fictitious they must therefore be fantasy and not some other genre of fiction. Your logic here is flawed. Your reference to dragons is an interesting one. I have a book entitled The Flight of Dragons that attempts to explain, humorously and using (pseudo-) science, how dragons could do the things they do (fly, breath fire etc). The book is written tongue-in-cheek for the very reason that a fantasy creation (such as dragons) is based on imagery and can't be given a scientific or pseudo-scientific rationale. To do so would raise pseudo-scientific questions about every other element of fantasy which the genre can't sustain.  I agree that trappings by themselves don't make a genre. In the case of fantasy, and some other genres, they are a necessary component however. The technology in most fantasy settings is similar to that found in Europe circa 1500 or earlier. Apart from vulcanised rubber for the tires and springs for the suspension, they had the technology in the 1400's to make a working bicycle albeit not a great one. If trappings aren't central to the concept of fantasy there's no reason not to have bicycles in such a setting. Most authors of fantasy (and probably most GMs of fantasy campaigns) would reject bicycles on aesthetic grounds. Those grounds may only be cosmetic, but they do, in part, define the genre. So trappings are indeed to the point. As I've already stated regarding Star Wars, crosses between genres are possible. But because fantasy is more dependent on appearances than most other genres, crossing fantasy with something else produces a hybrid that almost always resembles its non-fantasy parent. In the case of Star Wars, it's sci-fi. You and I, and probably most members of these boards, can perceive the fantasy elements in Star Wars but chances are that the overwhelming majority of Star Wars movie-goers would classify it as sci-fi. For Star Wars, the trappings and to a lesser extent the pseudo-science make it more sci-fi than fantasy.</blockquote>

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