>hate mixing scifi elements into fantasy settings
>love mixing fantasy elements into scifi settings
I'm not alone, am I?
Discussion of other genre crossovers is also welcome.
>>45030276
You are alone. So very alone. Like aSpelljammerin the void.
>>45030276
Vikings with power armor, robots and generators, mutant elfs, zealot robots, mages and dragons. All taking place on fantasy world biological experiment site. Is it sci fi in fantasy or fantasy in sci fi?
>>45030276
I'm the opposite. I like throwing a raygun into the treasure hoard of the wizard's tower.
>>45030276
Mixing fantasy into sci-fi is good because fantasy is better than sci-fi.
Mixing sci-fi into fantasy is bad because sci-fi is worse than fantasy.
>>45030368
Sounds more like fantasy in scifi, kinda like Rifts is.
>>45030451
Actually it's very ambigious what is magic and what technology. The main magical component the Dust is actually collection of nanomachines left by the aliens, yet still magic is done with wands and spells.
>>45030368
Endless Legend is fantasy in SF because it takes place on a planet in the Endless Space universe. All the magic is actually nanomachines, although to be honest even in Endless Space they're pretty much magic in all but name.
I use to hate it a lot. Then I started sort of warming up to it. And then I went to full on liking it. As long as it's done with at least a little thought to it and not ''Hurr I'll just add robots to this fantasy setting just because or I'll add magic to this sci-fi setting cuz I suck at technology'' it's fine by me. I especially love people mistaking science for magic or the reverse. Or when magic and science actually work together instead being mutually exclusive. Makes me hard.
>>45030276
That's one cute snake.
Ancient alien ship crashed in the hills as dungeon and dirt farmers calling laser pistols fire wands is dope.
Finding a dragon on mars and reprogramming souls is dumb.
>>45031048
cute reptiles doing cute things
>>45030321
Things become a lot more fun when you stop considering whether a thing is sci-fi or fantasy.
>>45030696
I find it kinda hilarious that the Broken Lords are the remnants of the faction of Ancients that DIDN'T want to transcend an existence of flesh through the use of their nanomachines / energy constructs / Dust.
>>45030838
Science is a methodology. Whatever magic is in your setting, as long as you can apply said method to it, it's a science. Even if the characters aren't doing so, but it's possible in theory, it's science.
I don't like either, but settings like Shadowrun are the worse.
Kitchen-sink setting making at it's very worst. If I want cyberpunk, I don't want elves and dragons in it.
I like both, thank you very much.
I tend to prefer fantasy elements in scifi, but I won't say no to things like power armor or mechs in fantasy.
>>45030368
>Is it sci fi in fantasy or fantasy in sci fi?
Weird Fiction.
>>45035270
Well robots are hardly alien to fantasy. Greek mythos had all kinds of robots, some of them giant.
>>45030425
>being objectively wrong
It's ok anon, we'll pray for you.
>>45030276
I am intrigued by this.
My dream is to run an x-files inspired game set in an alternate world 1992 using DnD 3.5 rules and core races.
I so desperately want shotguns with magical enhacements.
>>45030276
I prefer the opposite, courtesy of my Might & Magic-filled childhood.
>>45030276
I'm the exact opposite. I don't mind mixing science fiction with fantasy settings. And not pseudo sci-fi stuff like Spelljammer (not saying it's a bad setting), but honest to god, technologically-powered cybernetics, laser rifles, and robots right alongside magic swords, dragons, and wizards. But having things like blatant space magic or "feudal kingdom IN SPACE" gets real bland for me after a while.
>>45035630
Forgot to add that exceptions to that rule exist. Shit like Dune is fucking awesome.
>>45030276
I also like Star Wars, OP
Unfortunately I also like SaGa.
.
>>45035591
>DnD 3.5
But why, though?
>>45035764
That looks terrible.
>>45035794
That looks like a rejected design from E.Y.E
>>45035764
My only problem with this is the fucking one on the right.
What the fuck is the purpose of the holes on his pauldrons?
And why does his gun look stupid and complicated despite the overall more simplistic design of the robots?
>>45030276
>>45031048
>>45031670
>>45036054
The gun is scratched and worn.
>>45036054
The robots were made by a wizard from a typical medieval fantasy world who only has a very rudimentary understanding on how shit like robotics works from a crashed spaceship. The laser pistol was made by the actual crew of the spaceship, which crashed around 9,000 years ago. Yes it's a 9000 year old laser pistol that still barely works, just roll with itI have no idea what the holes are for. Wizards who comprehend basic robotics are fucking weird I guess
There is no real, quantifiable, definite difference between Fantasy and Sci-fi. They explore the same themes, they have the same tropes, they depend upon the same levels of handwaving and acceptance. Even the trappings have enormous crossover.
The divorce is very recent, and very very artificial.
>>45035752
Beaten housewife syndrome.
>>45036054
The holes are to look like warmachine models
>>45036947
These days the difference is apparently whether or not they're based on believable scientific theories and the laws of our reality or not. In Hard sc-fi, at least, I find that it feels very different to most fantasy simply because of how closely it adheres to what it physically or theoretically possible in real life.
And yet you'll still see sci-fi settings that pretend psychic powers aren't magic.
>>45035742
This is rad as fuck. Any more like it?
>>45037938
not that guy but I'm pretty sure its from pathfinder's Iron Gods/numenera stuff.
>>45037938
As in more undead astronauts? Unfortunately not, but that whole Iron Gods Adventure Path is pretty rad. Combines sci-fi and fantasy in a very cool way.
>>45036947
Yeah, nah. It's easy to tell them apart; I know em when I see em.
You touch on the tricky part yourself: it's not easily quantified, it's intangible. Unfortunately this is where you took a wrong turn: instead of accepting that the differences, while real, are difficult or impossible to define, you ignored that so you could pretend you were smart by claiming the two things are the same.
>>45036538
>>45030276
I like both, why do you dislike scifi in your fantasy anon?
I prefer fantasy with sci-fi elements.
One reason is because fantasy tends to operate on a smaller scale (usually a single continent or so with a few developed cultures compared to a whole galaxy with potentially thousands or more cultures in sci-fi). I just find it more manageable this way.
Another reason is because I like the idea of fantasy races having the technological means to repel alien invaders (ala War of the Worlds and the like), but nothing too advanced.
>>45035604
>>45035630
>>45035693
Same, but it's because I likeFinal Fantasy
>>45030276
You know that's the same thing?
>>45041305
Not necessarily. Sure you have star wars and star trek that can be very easily argued to be sci fi fantasy or such. However you can also take say Dragonlance and shove in railguns and a crashed alien ship, or shove magic into Battletech.
However I suspect op instead means something like a setting that's focus is science fiction with magic in it, or a setting that's focus is on fantasy and putting advanced tech in it.
>>45030529
It's all Dust. No one really remembers how to properly "program" Dust anymore, but they've figured out ghetto ways to stimulate it, like hitting a vending machine in a specific spot to make something fall out. There's even a line in Endless Space that says experimenting with Dust basically amounts to prodding it in increasingly specific ways to try and get it to do stuff, since it's advanced enough to effectively be magic to them.
>>45032220
This.
Genres are dumb.
I tend to like fantasy elements in my sci-fi more than vice-versa, if only because most magitech attempts I've seen have been kinda... I dunno, awkward.
Or maybe it's just because Star Wars made sword fights in space fucking awesome.
I did an apocalypse game where things were set to the theme of a medieval setting. The whole thing was about at one time the world was unified under one big cyber punk corporate nation where the rulers were obsessed with discovering immortality, and soon after actually finding it, they burned the world and planned to step out to rebuild it in their own image later on.
It was right when Skyrim came out so I told them that I was carrying over the concept of soul gems and instead a calling them like Empire Charges to charge wands and staffs. They were actually batteries.
The main bad guy that they fought was a guy named Necromancer who was actually a guy in a giant robot suit that doubled as a preservation chamber, he was an engineer before the Great Flame and tried presenting his preservation chamber idea to the rich guys, but they were not keen on the idea of drying into raisins in a robot.
He controlled an army of people that were petty much zombies or ghouls and would create really advanced tech for them to fight with. His whole idea was that after he saw The Great Flame he decided the world was better off being dumb and not letting that happen again. So there were a bunch of magic zombies going around shooting wands and staffs (which were actually laser guns and laser pistols) at everyone, burning books, and killing anyone daring to call themselves an alchemist in mass.
Elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and whatever other non-human were also failed immortality experiments that caused odd birth defects. This explained their long lifespans in many cases.
Orcs were super soldiers that were made to be a personal army for the Immortal Nobles before The Great Flame.
Goblins were a failed attempt at making Orcs, and pretty much became Drug Test Monkeys instead.
Golems did exist as giant robots that were said to feed off the magic in Empire Charges (Again, batteries) and fight for the will of their masters.
>>45043092
Oh yeah.
Also I never told my party any of this until they met Necromancer and he started talking to them about life before The Great Flame.
I had planned for them to meet The Nobles later on when they stepped out of their bunkers with Orc Armies and started oppressing the wastelands.
The Grout disbanded before that could ever happen though.
>>45040516
Sometimes it feels like either lazy world-building or a cheap twist.
>SYKE, magic is really nanonmachines!
>SYKE, all races were genetically engineered!
>SYKE, the gods are really ancient aliens!
>>45043502
>the gods are really ancient aliens
But that's fun.
I firmly try putting my games in the "weird" territory, which is summed up concisely as "organic but unnatural" A delicate balance between the two genres. This post puts it far more concisely than I ever will.
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.ca/2011/01/philosophical-implications-of-weird.html
I also draw frommany sources for my games. My Drow are more inspired by the 90's Spiderman Animated series than Forgotten Realms.Mutating spider-blood with spider-mutants like ettercaps and driders. Enigmatic priestesses who see the strands and many paths of the future and manipulate accordingly, priestess of Lolth or Madame Webb? Spider-climbing Drow ambushers wearing light black outfits with webbing patterns embossed on them.
>>45043502
That's making the fantasy scifi, no reason your adventuring party can't fight off a pack of greys
My settings are always based on the idea of a cyberspace merged with the organic world, and that "magic" is simply the alteration of ambient data and energy by exuding one's intentions on a certain frequency, and aligning the body's natural energy based on those intentions.
>>45030276
Depends on how the game is presented to me at first. If you want tell me you're run a space opera then I'm not gonna have a problem with space wizards running around and doing space magic, and if you tell me you're gonna be running a Conan-esque sword & sorcery game then I'm also not gonna have a problem with aliens or psionics or psionic aliens showing up and acting as villains in the story.
However, if you tell me you're gonna run a fantasy game that borrows heavily from northern European mythology then I am gonna be somewhat upset when it turns out that aliens where behind it all the whole time. Like, probably not drop the game immediately bad, but probably I'm not gonna trust you to GM my games in the future bad.
>>45043092
I actually really like this, if done in a subtle enough way it could actually make a nice surprise.
>>45030276
snek legion was a lot cuture before they started making her more and more human to please the Silver Age fanboys.
>>45030276
I'm the opposite.
In sci-fi, I don't want any psionics or mumbling to space-devils for power. I loved Star Wars titles like X-Wing, Tie Fighter, and Dark Forces, where "The force" meant "Good luck" and not "I'm a space mage and can now walk all over everything but other space mages". A lot of the stuff I was watching on TV from an early age was sci-fi cartoons, and some of it (Like "The Real Ghostbusters") had elements of using science and technology to defeat magic, mysticism, and the occult. Hell, I had a computer in my room from the time I was in a crib, and learned my ABCs on a Vic 20. For that matter, all the pirated games my dad had copied to floppy for the later Commodore 64, anything fantasy related seemed to go directly to R: tape loading error about 95% of the time.
Vice versa for fantasy... but mainly because the first time I liked Fantasy was Escaflowne, and most of the time I'm stuck playing whatever fantasy system, I'm really just eyeing everyone else in the room and sizing them up for whether I want to try to introduce them to Battletech.
There was a D&D 4e setting book that caught my eye a few years back called "Amethyst", but that was mainly because it promised a setting of Technology versus magic, and the image in my head of playing as part of a squad of Colonial marines hunting down mythological monsters and cleansing the world from mad elven mages was... probably nothing like how the game is played, but would have been right up my alley.
I tend to give Shadowrun special exception to this rule, though. Mostly due to it being "The other big title from FASA, and FASA made BattleTech so it must be good". It might also be in part that casters don't have that same "I can magic so now I'm better at anyone else at anything" feel to it.
