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<blockquote data-quote="PhelanDarach" data-source="post: 7689781" data-attributes="member: 6808550">I think this is because most &quot;pure&quot; fantasy RPGs (and fantasy in general) are more or less based on our planet's real past history, one way or another.&nbsp; Two of the biggest &quot;original&quot; influences on fantasy gaming, Lord of the Rings and Conan, were both explicitly derived from our own real-life history...and there's only one past history.&nbsp; So people copying elves or halflings or what not, I think are seen as just copying from the same wellspring, as it were, and since it's all shared, a vague similarity seems to be OK with people.&nbsp; Sci-fi (and even sci-fantasy), OTOH, take place in the &quot;future&quot; or at least a different world, with infinite possibilities, so a little more &quot;uniqueness&quot; is expected, and copying from that uniqueness isn't regarded nearly as favorably.&nbsp; Because it isn't shared, and never actually happened in the first place (sure D&amp;D never &quot;happened&quot; either but it's based on stuff that did happen, or at least was *thought* to happen anyway), it isn't part of a common &quot;wellspring&quot; so people don't think &quot;oh this is just the faerie legend&quot;, they are more aware that it's something created more recently and specifically.Phelan</blockquote>

[QUOTE="PhelanDarach, post: 7689781, member: 6808550"] I think this is because most "pure" fantasy RPGs (and fantasy in general) are more or less based on our planet's real past history, one way or another. Two of the biggest "original" influences on fantasy gaming, Lord of the Rings and Conan, were both explicitly derived from our own real-life history...and there's only one past history. So people copying elves or halflings or what not, I think are seen as just copying from the same wellspring, as it were, and since it's all shared, a vague similarity seems to be OK with people. Sci-fi (and even sci-fantasy), OTOH, take place in the "future" or at least a different world, with infinite possibilities, so a little more "uniqueness" is expected, and copying from that uniqueness isn't regarded nearly as favorably. Because it isn't shared, and never actually happened in the first place (sure D&D never "happened" either but it's based on stuff that did happen, or at least was *thought* to happen anyway), it isn't part of a common "wellspring" so people don't think "oh this is just the faerie legend", they are more aware that it's something created more recently and specifically. Phelan [/QUOTE]

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