Yes, the self-referential aspect of D&D has grown over the decades.D&D becoming self-referential, its own products and fiction defining and reifying its own boundaries. And then those calcified a bit.
Yes, the self-referential aspect of D&D has grown over the decades.D&D becoming self-referential, its own products and fiction defining and reifying its own boundaries. And then those calcified a bit.
Clarke's Third Law helps a good bit there. To a large extent you can rationalize any appearance of magic in sci-fi as being technology beyond the observer's comprehension.I don't know that it's icky but there does seem to be a very cognitive dissonance for most fantasy fans that seems to make scifi stuff unfun, I don't seem to see that as much in reverse from Scifi fans when thier scifi get's a little fantasy. But that may be because star trek and star wars are full of that kind of stuff.
Yes, the self-referential aspect of D&D has grown over the decades.
Clarke's Third Law helps a good bit there. To a large extent you can rationalize any appearance of magic in sci-fi as being technology beyond the observer's comprehension.
Very much in keeping with The Dying Earth and other primary influences on Gary.Tech and magic are practically the same thing in my game. My world is a retro-future Earth, post magical apocalypse.
I also started then, but absorbed much stricter genre dividing lines as part of my aesthetic, so my games were much less gonzo. I feel like the 80s were largely the dividing line. Folks more influenced by older fiction tended to have more blurry boundaries, and folks more influenced by Tolkien and post-Del Rey fantasy fiction sharper ones.I did start playing in the 80's. Gonzo has always been a part of my world.
Very much in keeping with The Dying Earth and other primary influences on Gary.
Mine also include kung-fu movies, plus Tolkien, Beowulf, Latin class, and living in England for a while.Though strangely enough, I haven't read much of Gary's Appendix N.
My influences were more Thundaar, He-Man, and Blackstar. Heavy Metal magazine and kung fu theater.
I always used to get jealous reading Games Master and Games Master International magazines (from England, late 80s to early 90s), and hearing about the LARPers playing in rented actual castles.... and living in England for a while.![]()