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What is distinctive about fantasy RPGing? Or sci fi?
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7274149" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>It's something I gave a lot of thought to, a long time ago. So it's been kinda settled in my own mind, but re-examining it is muddy.</p><p></p><p>In no particular order and to no precise purpose or point:</p><p></p><p>In fantasy, it seems OK to have a fantasy world with fantasy political units, and just give them all novel proper nouns, and call it a day - leaving everything else approximately like some pre-gunpowder period/place in history. In science fiction, it's fine to posit another world, but if there are humans, they've been transplanted there by some precursor race, or descended from colonists or something, there can be plenty of earth flora & fauna (likewise transplanted), but probably some native-to-the-planet stuff, too. Otherwise, the people will be at least Star Trek forhead-ridges, or ERB-color-not-found-in-humans 'alien.' </p><p></p><p>You could plop a random character from The Sword & the Sorcerer (or any even worse 80s fantasy flick) into LotR or Hyborea or Nehwon, and, apart from ignorance of the local proper nouns, he'll barely stand out. You plop a Green Man of Mars onto Dune or Pern or Darkover or Trantor and he will really stand out. </p><p></p><p>Plop a Jedi Knight onto Dune, and, even though Star Wars is in some ways decidedly derivative of Dune, he'll stand out - and light-(laser?)-saber vs personal shield may not end well. In fantasy, magic might work very differently from one setting or even one mage to another, but exactly how it works is often pretty vague, and the consequences of how it works often limited to what quest the hero must undertake to break a curse or something. It matters to the hero, not so much to the society. </p><p></p><p>In science fiction, technologies and societies shape eachcother. On Dune, booting up a computer is a capital crime and personal shields and laser weapons put MAD on the table in almost any conflict. On Trantor people carry computers in their pockets, and don't carry weapons because it's a safe well-policed capital. On Tatooine, everyone has a blaster and droids openly walk the streets, albeit, mostly as mere property - the Butlerians of Dune would never allow such abominations to exist.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7274149, member: 996"] It's something I gave a lot of thought to, a long time ago. So it's been kinda settled in my own mind, but re-examining it is muddy. In no particular order and to no precise purpose or point: In fantasy, it seems OK to have a fantasy world with fantasy political units, and just give them all novel proper nouns, and call it a day - leaving everything else approximately like some pre-gunpowder period/place in history. In science fiction, it's fine to posit another world, but if there are humans, they've been transplanted there by some precursor race, or descended from colonists or something, there can be plenty of earth flora & fauna (likewise transplanted), but probably some native-to-the-planet stuff, too. Otherwise, the people will be at least Star Trek forhead-ridges, or ERB-color-not-found-in-humans 'alien.' You could plop a random character from The Sword & the Sorcerer (or any even worse 80s fantasy flick) into LotR or Hyborea or Nehwon, and, apart from ignorance of the local proper nouns, he'll barely stand out. You plop a Green Man of Mars onto Dune or Pern or Darkover or Trantor and he will really stand out. Plop a Jedi Knight onto Dune, and, even though Star Wars is in some ways decidedly derivative of Dune, he'll stand out - and light-(laser?)-saber vs personal shield may not end well. In fantasy, magic might work very differently from one setting or even one mage to another, but exactly how it works is often pretty vague, and the consequences of how it works often limited to what quest the hero must undertake to break a curse or something. It matters to the hero, not so much to the society. In science fiction, technologies and societies shape eachcother. On Dune, booting up a computer is a capital crime and personal shields and laser weapons put MAD on the table in almost any conflict. On Trantor people carry computers in their pockets, and don't carry weapons because it's a safe well-policed capital. On Tatooine, everyone has a blaster and droids openly walk the streets, albeit, mostly as mere property - the Butlerians of Dune would never allow such abominations to exist. [/QUOTE]
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