Wherein nerds rage over what it means to be fantasy

[Asmor]

For any of us who remember when Eberron came out, I think we all have 'fond' memories of the "trains, planes and robots don't belong in D&D!" whargarbl that was so prevalent...

Well, history always repeats itself, and yet another popular fantasy RPG is experiencing growing pains as it incorporates technology.

Of course, if you click the link (or, to be honest, just hover over it and look where it's going), you'll see that maybe we're not so different from them after all.

 

[Nullzone]

I love how that post completely glosses over the fact that Gnomes have been riding on mechanical chickens since day one.

 

[Kaodi]

I love how that post completely glosses over the fact that Gnomes have been riding on mechanical chickens since day one.

Well, day two by my reckoning. I do not recall flying machines in Orcs & Humans.

 

[Klaus]

Well, day two by my reckoning. I do not recall flying machines in Orcs & Humans.

But then again, there were no gnomes in Orcs & Humans.

Warcraft II is still my favorite version of the game.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

Yeah, even prior to World of Warcraft the warcraft world (including tech) was pretty well established.



A more apt analogy comparing that post to Eberron would be if when they made 4e Eberon people said "OMG elemental trains! WTH!!! You're turning Eberron into [whatever category 3e Eberron already was]!"

 

[Asmor]

WarCraft has had at least industrial revolution-era technology for a long time. Granted, my memory's pretty terrible, but at the very least WarCraft 2 had bombs (Goblin Sappers), and I'm fairly certain WarCraft 3 had tanks.

Of course, the same arguments were made about Eberron (e.g. there was some classic AD&D adventure where the heroes explore a crashed alien spaceship, 3e had rules for firearms and lasers before Eberron came out, etc).

I just find the parallels... interesting.

 

[Umbran]

What's more funny is that these are largely folks of the Star Wars generation. If you can handle starships and laser swords in your fantasy, what's wrong with a robot chicken?

 

[Asmor]

what's wrong with a robot chicken?

I dunno, the 15-minute format is kind of annoying I guess.

 

[Cor Azer]

I dunno, the 15-minute format is kind of annoying I guess.

Is that you, MacFarlane?

 

[Impeesa]

WarCraft has had at least industrial revolution-era technology for a long time. Granted, my memory's pretty terrible, but at the very least WarCraft 2 had bombs (Goblin Sappers), and I'm fairly certain WarCraft 3 had tanks.

Yeah. Warcraft 2 had submersibles, dirigibles, helicopters, demolition teams, and offshore oil drilling. Warcraft 3 added tanks, guns, etc. When people complain of high technology in their medieval fantasy, they are ignoring the fact that the upper limit is not medieval at all. Much more modern technology exists, it just lacks the actual industrial revolution part. That way, the technology can exist without being really pervasive, thereby maintaining the superficially medieval atmosphere. This works really well for 'magitech' settings like Eberron, I think, since we implicitly accept the idea that economies of scale rarely apply to magic stuff, so we're not asked to suspend our disbelief that nobody's tried industrializing it.