Sustaining a Technological Anacronism

[Lady Chaomii]

One issue I've had as a DM is the players having trouble swallowing the technology levels of the setting.

Odly enough, they seem perfectly accepting of an underwater super-race with mecha, lasers and other ultra advanced tech, but don't feel right about any steam technology they encounter, even though I've already established that the setting is steam-punk merged with medieval fantasy.

Any way I can have the players accept the level of technology, rather than having them say "This is high fantasy, so that shouldn't be there"?

 

[GSHamster]

It sounds like you and your players disagree on what type of game you want. If you want steampunk and they want traditional high fantasy, there's going to be issues.

Personally, I think "merged with medieval fantasy" is where things are going badly. If you want to try steampunk, you might be better off going with a Victorian England setting, which is the more natural milieu for that.

Like, your players might not really grasp/understand/grok steampunk. So tossing into medieval fantasy is just confusing them. Maybe show them some standard steampunk movies/anime and play a standard steampunk game for them to get the concept. Then do the cross.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Any way I can have the players accept the level of technology, rather than having them say "This is high fantasy, so that shouldn't be there"?

Avoid all modern-sounding language. Mecha become golems, lasers are 'sun spears' or 'eyes of Helios', steam engines are 'iron dragons' or 'elemental conveyances' or somesuch.

Calling a game fantasy does create certain assumptions on the part of the players, I think. They expect there to be a central, familiar world that resembles medieval England, with all the weird, magical stuff kept to the edges. Maybe if you always call it 'steampunk fantasy' instead.

 

[MGibster]

Odly enough, they seem perfectly accepting of an underwater super-race with mecha, lasers and other ultra advanced tech, but don't feel right about any steam technology they encounter, even though I've already established that the setting is steam-punk merged with medieval fantasy.

Are the mecha, lasers and super-tech from your fantasy game or are they from a different game? Because it seems odd that they would complain about the steampunk stuff while accepting the ultra-tech stuff.

A lot of people have a certain idea of what a fantasy game should be. They have no problem with a quasi-medieval setting armor and weapons from early modern Europe but they complain bitterly about the inclusion of firearms in their fantasy setting.

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, personally I think one aspect of the problem is that steampunk just doesn't make sense.

You simply can't do all that stuff with steam and clockwork stuff. It's impossible. There's a chasm of disbelief that people just can't cross - some can, but others just can't buy it. (Don't get me wrong, it's neat, but pure whimsy)

Yes, most thing in fantasy are impossible as well, but that's sort of the whole point of magic. It makes the impossible possible.

Mecha, lasers, etc may or may not be possible. Who knows?

The other thing is, going with this, is that magic and high tech stuff is also believable because it's in movies and TV. Steampunk is pretty niche in fiction and virtually non-existent in film & TV. Uh, The Wild Wild West, Brisco County, and uh, that's all I can think of

 

[Nytmare]

Well, personally I think one aspect of the problem is that steampunk just doesn't make sense.

You simply can't do all that stuff with steam and clockwork stuff. It's impossible. There's a chasm of disbelief that people just can't cross - some can, but others just can't buy it. (Don't get me wrong, it's neat, but pure whimsy)

Yes, most thing in fantasy are impossible as well, but that's sort of the whole point of magic. It makes the impossible possible.

Mecha, lasers, etc may or may not be possible. Who knows?

The other thing is, going with this, is that magic and high tech stuff is also believable because it's in movies and TV. Steampunk is pretty niche in fiction and virtually non-existent in film & TV. Uh, The Wild Wild West, Brisco County, and uh, that's all I can think of

Frankenstein, Sherlock Holmes, I'm assuming just about everything Jules Verne ever wrote. In modern film: Extraordinary Gentlemen, Hellboy, Sherlock Holmes, (I hate to even mention it, but) Van Helsing, 9, The Golden Compass...

In a world where a summer storm is literally the tears of the Earth Mother, where earthquakes are a sign that the mountain gods are upset with a tribal sacrifice, and stars are actual pinpricks in reality that act as windows into realms man was not meant to know; why is it so hard to adjust your world view to thinking that you CAN do all that stuff with a little steam and a few clockwork gnomes?

It all whimsy, just adopt the view that this other version of reality works differently and move on.

 

[Glade Riven]

Point them to Girl Genius. Or you just need some Iron Kingdoms and call it Full Metal Fantasy. Huzzah!

 

[MGibster]

Since when is Frankenstein a steampunk story? Or, for that matter, since when was the original Sherlock Holmes a steampunk story?

 

[Nytmare]

Since when is Frankenstein a steampunk story? Or, for that matter, since when was the original Sherlock Holmes a steampunk story?

Victorian era science fiction romance where a person brings a dead guy back to life with a lightning bolt, that would later be used as a cornerstone of the steampunk genre?

I was trying to give examples of how the genre is not niche, not saying that Mary Shelley or Arthur Conan Doyle invented steampunk 100 years before it was born.

 

[fireinthedust]

Hi tech vs. steam punk: We grew up with He-Man and Thundercats, both of which are high fantasy with technology. I can see why they've be better at it than clockwork stuff.


Frankly, I wonder if some players choose to not "get" things like Steampunk. It's a concept, a big variable box, the X in the game where you can put magic, psionics, steamtech, hi tech, whatever. Granted, it's a silly idea, but it's the same suspension of disbelief principle.

Weird how people can only suspend their disbelief and stretch their imaginations is really familiar ways: you have to give them the familiar. Everyone gets D&D-land, but try running Gamma World and you'll get hums and hahs. Heck, try Sci-fi that isn't Star Wars or Star Trek (or some other known franchise) and you'll put most people off until they form that bond with whatever it is. Even Star Gate used mythology concepts (gods as aliens).

Oh well.


Also: I went to the theatre on a rough night with the sis, and we had two options: Van Helsing or League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I'd read the comic for LEG, but VH was made by the guy who made The Mummy (a fave for sure). I went with my gut (a real "use the Force Luke" moment), and we picked Van Helsing, and it was spectacular: it hit all the points I wanted for it, and was a thrill ride the whole way (a bit silly, but not uncomfortably so by any stretch). And thank God we did, considering how awful LEG was (I heard Sean Connery had the director fired so he directed the last bit, it was such a train wreck).
Like anything, you have to be able to do two things: relax and have fun with it. Just relax, it's not like they're changing the constitution; and have fun, it's a silly film but people worked hard on it. Entertainment, nothing more nothing less, and imho it was a great job. I still watch it when I'm down.