"Science fantasy" (or "sci-fi fantasy" or whatever) is a lovely mishmash of traditional fantasy and science fiction elements mashed together into one kitchen sink-esque hybrid. It's a world where technology meets magic and everything in between (aliens optional).
What are your experiences with such settings? What is the appeal (or lack thereof) of such a motif? What do you consider important, and how would you pull it off yourself?
Previous thread: >>46703690
>>46775038
Experiences with
>Setting, modern Earth with magic recently added in due to an alien goddess doing shenanigans that is eventually put down by some home grown heroes plus a few from her world of origin
>Whole new schools of science are founded to work out magics
>Someone figures out how to crystallize magic as a power source
>Soon all technology is powered off magic batteries giving it almost unlimited use time
>Magitech paves the way to space, terraforming and colonization
>The Magitech empire of Earth spreads across the cosmos
>>46775399
So in your case, the aliens came and introduced magic. That's one way to do it.
>>46775908
For the world building thread go here
>>46775038
Guilty Gear and Blazblue count for science fantasy, right?
>>46775980
Pretty much. They're high-powered settings, but the main conceit is the same.
How can you make a purely fantasy world/story feel like that of a sci fi?
Its a thing i've been thinking about because its easy to do the other way around
>>46776856
What do you mean?
>>46776856
You'll find it's mainly an aesthetic thing.
Bloodborne? FMA?
so, High Fantasy?
>>46777041
A subgenre of it, yes.
>>46777041
Ssssomewhat. You might call it a modernized high fantasy, in a way.
>>46775038
>What are your experiences with such settings?
Good. I played Rifts and 40K with friends as a kid. I now collect the RPG books for both genres.
It's also a pretty common theme in a lot of the anime I watch.
>What is the appeal (or lack thereof) of such a motif?
Cognitive freedom and intellectual honesty. Most SciFi is fantasy that calls it's magic "technology" or "Psionics". Meanwhile, if you try to leave real science and technology out of fantasy settings it just gets even more unreasonable than worlds with Elves, Dwarves, and Dragons already are. Blatantly combining the two is just more fun and honest.
>What do you consider important, and how would you pull it off yourself?
I tend to play-up an order vs chaos dynamic. Technology is reliable and consistent, while magic is mysterious and uncertain. I once fooled around with building a setting that was mostly hard SciFi, but dependent on magic to do fancy things like FTL travel and communications. Part of the meta plot was the constant effort by governments to cover-up the fact that the interplanetary portals interstellar trade was dependent on were fueled by dark pacts with unspeakable things from beyond human comprehension. Think Cyberpunk meets Lovecraft.
Are people still okay with the typical fantasy races (elves, dwarves, orcs, etc.)?
>>46779748
Of course.
>>46780028
That doesn't look like something I'd expect out of a setting like this.
>>46780928
A better example maybe.
I love the earliest iterations of this genre, those pulpy stories with astral projection to travel to other planets and such. Where the line between scifi and fantasy wasn't really there.
>>46781058
>>46776856
>>46776992
this is something I was talking about in the last thread
Asura's wrath does this if you can put up with the negative aspects of its exclusively QTE gameplay.
If you want some anime proper, try Visions of Escaflowne.
a pair of others that technically fit this are meduca meguca and NGE if you get into the nitty gritty, but they're pretty meh so go with whatever looks like it interests you.
I personally would love to see more hard fantasy settings where tech has developed based upon magic as a science, but it's an idea people just don't seem like they want to put the effort into writing.
>>46776856
You mean a fantasy world that grows into sci-fi, or a sci-fi world introduced to fantasy?
Do superheroes count as science fantasy?
>>46787351
depends on which hero and which setting, and what kind of science fantasy.
Supergod is arguably science fantasy via Clarke's Third. There was another one, Uber or something, that was a little more science fantasy proper.
