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What Is It About the Fantasy Genre Anyway?
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<blockquote data-quote="Toben the Many" data-source="post: 4609993" data-attributes="member: 19273"><p>Yeah, I can't agree more. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Right. People keep talking about how Sci-Fi is not more dominant in the RPG market because it's more work. I'll agree that Sci-Fi is more work, because whatever you come up with has to be justified with science somehow. Whereas in Fantasy, you can just say, "It's magic!" </p><p></p><p>Science-Fiction will often skip over things as well. For example, according to Roddenberry, Warp Speed was always "the speed of plot". Nor did it come up with how "Warp Speed" worked when he was doing the show. But you cannot hand waive everything. That alone creates more work. </p><p></p><p><u>However</u>, I don't think that alone is enough to explain why there isn't more of a Sci-Fi market in RPGs. </p><p></p><p>I think that has to do with a variety of factors. Chief among them is that Fantasy literature nowadays is heavily grounded in the Tolkien/Arthurian mythology. It has its their roots there. Whereas Sci-Fi has multiples roots from multiple trees. When you say Sci-Fi, what do you mean?</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Jules Verne's vision of the future?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Isaac Asimov's vision of the future?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Star Trek utopian view?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Star Wars space opera view?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Traveller hardcore view? </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Cyberpunk view?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Transhuman view?</li> </ul><p></p><p>There are so many genres of Sci-Fi, there are so many branches...that's it's very hard to pin Sci-Fi down to one thing. Thus, there is no one Sci-Fi game that dominates the market. Instead, there are a number of small but fanatical followings of various systems. </p><p></p><p>For exampe, there is a very solid Star Wars RPG fanbase out there. There is a solid RIFTs fanbase out there. Battletech has a dedicated following. So does Traveller. ShadowRun. Etc. And each of these settings, while all falling under the umbrella of Sci-Fi are <em>radically different</em> from each other. </p><p></p><p>So there's a big Sci-Fi following out there, but they're just blocked off into different corners.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Toben the Many, post: 4609993, member: 19273"] Yeah, I can't agree more. :) Right. People keep talking about how Sci-Fi is not more dominant in the RPG market because it's more work. I'll agree that Sci-Fi is more work, because whatever you come up with has to be justified with science somehow. Whereas in Fantasy, you can just say, "It's magic!" Science-Fiction will often skip over things as well. For example, according to Roddenberry, Warp Speed was always "the speed of plot". Nor did it come up with how "Warp Speed" worked when he was doing the show. But you cannot hand waive everything. That alone creates more work. [u]However[/u], I don't think that alone is enough to explain why there isn't more of a Sci-Fi market in RPGs. I think that has to do with a variety of factors. Chief among them is that Fantasy literature nowadays is heavily grounded in the Tolkien/Arthurian mythology. It has its their roots there. Whereas Sci-Fi has multiples roots from multiple trees. When you say Sci-Fi, what do you mean? [list] [*]Jules Verne's vision of the future? [*]Isaac Asimov's vision of the future? [*]The Star Trek utopian view? [*]The Star Wars space opera view? [*]The Traveller hardcore view? [*]The Cyberpunk view? [*]The Transhuman view? [/list] There are so many genres of Sci-Fi, there are so many branches...that's it's very hard to pin Sci-Fi down to one thing. Thus, there is no one Sci-Fi game that dominates the market. Instead, there are a number of small but fanatical followings of various systems. For exampe, there is a very solid Star Wars RPG fanbase out there. There is a solid RIFTs fanbase out there. Battletech has a dedicated following. So does Traveller. ShadowRun. Etc. And each of these settings, while all falling under the umbrella of Sci-Fi are [i]radically different[/i] from each other. So there's a big Sci-Fi following out there, but they're just blocked off into different corners. [/QUOTE]
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