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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Stacie GmrGrl" data-source="post: 8253659" data-attributes="member: 86279">Hey, bringing logic and reason and real world facts into the argument isn't fair. We're talking about make believe in RPG's... not other fictional real world stuff. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />I do have a question for the group.What do we mean by default as far as RPG's are concerned? It seems that the assumption that D&D is the default fantasy game is the default because it's the fantasy rpg that most people flock to because it's the one the majority of people flock too even though it has no real world equivalence beyond its own settings novels or comic books. Is it which rpg designed for the genre can handle the most tropes that fall within the genre? If that's the case than TSR Alternity wins and Traveller and Stars Without Number are tied for second. All are generic sci-fi rpgs that can handle many different sub-genres. If we also take into consideration the Cepheus Engine, which is an OSR Traveller game, then combined the Traveller system could be number one. I've seen a wild west game using the Cepheus Engine. But if we look at default as just being the most popular rpg, than D&D wins the fantasy argument and sci-fi is still waiting.If we think of default as which IP/game has had the greatest impact on culture and which was the greatest influence on others, then for much of the western world that's Tolkien and D&D for fantasy and for sci-fi it's... Well, even in pop culture we don't have a definitive number one but I'd put Star Wars as having the biggest impact on everything that followed it, even if Star Wars is more space samurai fantasy than sci-fi and was itself inspired from Dune and John Carter of Mars and samurai movies. I also don't think we'll find a default sci-fi equivalent because every world culture also has its own distinctive take on sci-fi that is their own default sci-fi. Sci-fi seems to be as much a cultural identity of where it comes from than the idea of it being sci-fi in general. So what does default mean?</blockquote>

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