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Why are the biggest games Fantasy games?
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<blockquote data-quote="(Psi)SeveredHead" data-source="post: 6034346" data-attributes="member: 1165"><p>Sci-fi gaming is hard. It's not easy coming up with all the reasons it's harder, but when I ran Alternity sci-fi, I found it <strong>much</strong> harder than D&D, even though at the time I knew the Alternity system better.</p><p></p><p>To this day, the only sci-fi RPG I've seen done really well is FATE, although Star Wars SAGA edition works fairly well too. FATE is incredibly rules-light, and their sci-fi setting involves creating a star system cooperatively (the entire group will be as familiar with it as the DM) and ... you don't go elsewhere (the PCs can't suddenly appear where the DM wasn't expecting them to go).</p><p></p><p>I think it's also easier to come up with a fantasy setting. There's standard Western Europe medieval civilizations, and the standard races (elves, dwarves, and humans at minimum), and even character "classes". Other settings have to be more flexible, but this creates problems in writing rules and then running a game.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>This is a big one.</p><p></p><p>DMs in 3.x often complain that wizards can "break" this (can Teleport anywhere, can Scry, can use Sending). One thing I like about 4e is the DM still has a lot of control over these things (especially teleporting). You can't just teleport or plane shift (in non-combat terms) wherever you want. You have to go to a teleportation circle, which the DM can make into an encounter. (If you discover the BBEG's teleportation circle number and teleport into there - and frankly you probably won't without DM buy-in or at least letting them know this is an upcoming possibility - you'll be facing some really nasty opponents, possibly a seriously overleveled encounter.)</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The player and DM aren't always on the same playing field in a modern setting. If a player knows guns more than the DM, or computers, or anything else that pops up in a game, there's going to be problems. Making matters worse, people become obsessed with realism in a modern or sci-fi game. I don't see a whole lot of complaints about how unrealistic taking gunshots is in Warhammer Fantasy, but as soon as you switch to d20 Modern, you find out that two members of the group, people living in a big city in <strong>Canada</strong>, know a huge amount about modern guns.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="(Psi)SeveredHead, post: 6034346, member: 1165"] Sci-fi gaming is hard. It's not easy coming up with all the reasons it's harder, but when I ran Alternity sci-fi, I found it [b]much[/b] harder than D&D, even though at the time I knew the Alternity system better. To this day, the only sci-fi RPG I've seen done really well is FATE, although Star Wars SAGA edition works fairly well too. FATE is incredibly rules-light, and their sci-fi setting involves creating a star system cooperatively (the entire group will be as familiar with it as the DM) and ... you don't go elsewhere (the PCs can't suddenly appear where the DM wasn't expecting them to go). I think it's also easier to come up with a fantasy setting. There's standard Western Europe medieval civilizations, and the standard races (elves, dwarves, and humans at minimum), and even character "classes". Other settings have to be more flexible, but this creates problems in writing rules and then running a game. This is a big one. DMs in 3.x often complain that wizards can "break" this (can Teleport anywhere, can Scry, can use Sending). One thing I like about 4e is the DM still has a lot of control over these things (especially teleporting). You can't just teleport or plane shift (in non-combat terms) wherever you want. You have to go to a teleportation circle, which the DM can make into an encounter. (If you discover the BBEG's teleportation circle number and teleport into there - and frankly you probably won't without DM buy-in or at least letting them know this is an upcoming possibility - you'll be facing some really nasty opponents, possibly a seriously overleveled encounter.) The player and DM aren't always on the same playing field in a modern setting. If a player knows guns more than the DM, or computers, or anything else that pops up in a game, there's going to be problems. Making matters worse, people become obsessed with realism in a modern or sci-fi game. I don't see a whole lot of complaints about how unrealistic taking gunshots is in Warhammer Fantasy, but as soon as you switch to d20 Modern, you find out that two members of the group, people living in a big city in [b]Canada[/b], know a huge amount about modern guns. [/QUOTE]
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