Fantasy with science fiction

[Ninja-Bear]

I really curious. Has anyone ever done a fantasy game that has a mix of science fiction and fantasy? For example Thundarr or He man.

[phydaux]

Gary Gygax, 1980

 

[Cantriped]

The Pathfinder Campaign Setting (Golarion) has a country with a crashed spaceship as its castle, with androids, and robots, and laser pistols... oh my!

[Lord Liaden]

I really curious. Has anyone ever done a fantasy game that has a mix of science fiction and fantasy? For example Thundarr or He man.

 

Oh, yeah. Someone really, really did. 

 

Keith Curtis's The Savage Earth

 

Just set aside some time. You're gonna want to explore a while. 

[Ninja-Bear]

Thanks for the answers! I guess what I really want to know, has anyone played in or built their iwn world like this?

[Ninja-Bear]

P.s. I do have somewhere a Blackmoor module that has a crashed space ship and cyborg for AD&D.

[DasBroot]

Oh, most assuredly.  I haven't run a 'pure' fantasy game ever.  

 

My longest running / most frequently played fantasy setting is a home brew where the characters are immortals (in the Moorcock 'reborn over and over again in times of need' sense rather than the 'Highlander' sense - though one of the longest running world antagonists is one of these immortals who 'rejected' the call to return to death and has just stuck around, going mad over the aeons).

 

It's technological and magic levels are very, very Final Fantasy inspired (FF6 to be precise, released the year after I started running my homebrew)  - larger cities have basic technologies (steam age) augmented by magic, with a few weird things like magic-crystal powered laser weapons (always popular in FF).  When Ebberon was released everyone in my gaming group laughed at how similar some things were (that's magi-steam-punk for you, though... there are only so many themes to go around)  - though the Warforge are much cooler than the Clockworkers in my setting.

 

The reason for overall technological stagnation, though? No oil.  The world was created by a god as is and he didn't see fit to include oil.  The world is, in its own way, also immortal - natural non-renewable resources like iron, etc grow back over time - and even man / dwarf / orc made tunnels heal themselves given decades as well.

[Lord Liaden]

Thanks for the answers! I guess what I really want to know, has anyone played in or built their own world like this?

 

Savage Earth, like I posted upthread. Our former forum colleague Keith Curtis engaged in major-league magical post-apocalyptic world-building for his long-term campaign, using Hero System Fifth Edition. It's essentially an entire free Hero campaign source book: rich background information, a host of social and racial descriptions and templates, many distinctive "monsters," unique detailed magic "technology," numerous maps, lots of beautiful color illustrations, extensive campaign logs covering a wide area for adventures, all well organized via links to make it easy to follow.

 

Thundarr would feel at home there.

[Lord Liaden]

P.s. I do have somewhere a Blackmoor module that has a crashed space ship and cyborg for AD&D.

 

You're probably referring to City of the Gods, published for TSR's Basic Dungeons and Dragons line, not AD&D. That module deliberately introduced anachronistic technology into what was otherwise TSR's standard Tolkienesque fantasy. Blackmoor became official history for D&D's Mystara world book line; the Blackmoor civilization's exploitation of that advanced alien technology led to its destruction and the rise of Mystara's "Known World."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackmoor_(campaign_setting)

[Ndreare]

The Shannara series is based on the two mixed together as 90% of the series take place in the far future and old tech is oftentimes the obstacle to overcome.

[Cantriped]

Thanks for the answers! I guess what I really want to know, has anyone played in or built their iwn world like this?

During my last Pathfinder Campaign one of the party's missions involved finding an android living in exile, and sometimes I'll sneak items from the Technology Guide​ (the sci-fi equipment guide) into the loot...

 

I have also built at least one setting with some high-technology elements. One of my niche campaign settings is called Bag (it is literally a world inside a bag of holding, inhabited almost entirely by gnomes). One of the gnomish ethnicities came to Bag from a post-apocalyptic world via a dimensional breach their Ark's "warp drive" created when they tried to leave their war-torn planet.

[Christopher R Taylor]

I am not very fond of the blend, but I used to be long ago, when I first started.  These days it seems like that's all you find: Guns and wizards, sci fi elements and magic mixed together.

[Chris Goodwin]

I like it as a side dish, but not necessarily as the main course.  I like it as a spice, not just dumped in and mixed willy nilly.  

 

I really like it when, for instance, there's a fantasy world, and elsewhere in the universe or multiverse there's a technological world, and a ship from the technological world ends up in the fantasy world.  Like the Warlock In Spite Of Himself, or the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, or the High Crusade, or Cowboys vs. Aliens.  I don't much care for kitchen sink fantasy plus kitchen sink science fiction, when everything is mixed together for the sake of mixing everything together.

[DShomshak]

Oh, yeah. Someone really, really did. 

 

Keith Curtis's The Savage Earth

 

Just set aside some time. You're gonna want to explore a while. 

I must take a look at this. Decades ago, I made notes for a Post-Holocaust Fantasy campaign, but it never reached the stage of play. I thought I had a rather nice background on how magic developed, though. A few good bits, such as the famous heirloom mace Western Pipeco  (the name is stamped right on the metal shaft -- now inlaid in gold).

 

Dean Shomshak

[SteelCold]

Scion from Crossgen Comics

 

Tale of the Comet box set from TSR

[Hyper-Man]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Star Wars yet. It's basically a fantasy setting with a science fiction 'skin'.

 

HM

[bluesguy]

The very first campaign world I created, in college, took place 100k years in the future on Earth.  This was a post-nuclear-apocalyptic world.  It took place mostly in NM, Texas and Colorado.  I was able to purchase USGS maps which were a great help.  There was magic and different races, monsters and the like.  All the result of the nuclear war that had occurred (rapid mutation for the monsters and races; magic because the fabric of reality around the earth was damaged).

 

There were places in the world where you could find the results of the war but no one knew what had really happened.  For instance I would describe places where there were huge craters, filled with a black glassy material and covered with strange mounds and monoliths (i.e. large cities that had been hit).  Each of these places was invested with undead (zombies, skeletons, and ghouls) .

 

Every once in a while I would let them find a small non-functional piece of technology.

 

They even went to the WIP site in NM (where they store nuclear waste) because some mage was looking for a special metal that he thought they kept there.  They ran into a hydra at the site.

 

I also mish-mashed a bunch of things together without thinking everything all the way thru.  In the end the campaign collapsed due to the inconsistencies.

[Lord Liaden]

I must take a look at this. Decades ago, I made notes for a Post-Holocaust Fantasy campaign, but it never reached the stage of play. I thought I had a rather nice background on how magic developed, though. A few good bits, such as the famous heirloom mace Western Pipeco  (the name is stamped right on the metal shaft -- now inlaid in gold).

 

Dean Shomshak

 

I'm a long-time unabashed booster for the Savage Earth. Of all the fan-created Hero campaign premises I've seen on the Internet over the years, this unique world is by far the closest to being convertible to a published book.

 

I'd love to hear what you think of it.

[SteelCold]

What about The Day After Ragnarok by Kenneth Hite?

[womble]

Shadowrun mixes fantasy into sci-fi, too.

[SteelCold]

The main problem I find in creating hybrid settings like this is some elements like locations, weapons or names have to be more or less recognizable or else it'll feel like just another fantasy world with the post apocalyptic "Big Bang" event which kickstarted the thing merely flavor text. You have show as well as tell your players what seems different and strange and what is jarringly familiar.

 

Don't tell me that this isn't impressive for a Thundarr/He-Man setting:

 

[Chris Goodwin]

There's mixing and then there's mixing.  For instance, I like chocolate, I like apples, and I like cheese.  I like chocolate cheesecake, and I like a slice of apple pie with a piece of cheese.  I'd even enjoy half a portion of each.  I'd need to be convinced on a hypothetical chocolate-apple-cheese casserole, though, and it would have to be more than just mix ingredients, pour into pan, bake.  

 

Science fiction spans so much that you kind of need to figure out where your starting genre is, and what you're adding in or swapping out, whether it's just one ingredient, half-and-half, or blend-and-bake.  For instance, I'd love to see hard-space SF (Niven-Pournelle type) with big metal starships, and elves, dwarves, orcs instead of whatever aliens, and/or spellcasting magic instead of psionics.  Or a fantasy world with Vulcans, Klingons, and Ferengi instead of elves, dwarves, and hobbitses; or with psionic folk who think they're doing magic.  Or, like, the World of Greyhawk, maybe a hundred years after the Twin Cataclysms.  That's a very much post-apocalyptic world with magic, but it's not Thundarr.

 

I'm super fond of Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos, Robert Heinlein's Magic Inc., Geoffrey Landis's Elemental -- urban fantasy where the magic is open and overt, and it's just a part of life the way radio and TV and cars are for us.  I'm not necessarily fond of urban fantasy settings where the full complement of Tolkien type races are there just because, or where the full complement of horror monsters are there just because.  Though I wouldn't mind seeing an urban fantasy world where there are open and overt vampires, or werewolves, or both, but I don't need the part about how the vamps and weres have societies and are enemies just because.  I thought Shadowrun was interesting when I first saw it, but kind of got tired of it quickly.  Thundarr, He-man, She-ra, were heavily done and I don't need to see more of that.

 

So, the way I like it: mix one thing in, do it well, and give it a reason for being there.  Mix a few things in, do it well, give it a reason.  Even give me half-and-half, as long as each half is well developed.  But I'm done with blend and bake, just because.  

[Netzilla]

I've never run it, but I've long had the idea of doing a campaign in the style of the old 'sword and

planet' style stories. The idea centers around a colony world taken over by a despot long ago. This

despot hordes all of the high technology for himself and his most loyal, leaving the rest of the world

in a roughly dark-ages state. So, while high tech exists and is known about, the common folk never see

it and practically revere it as magic. In addition, what made this planet attractive in the first place

is a type of naturally-occurring psychically resonant crystal that grant certain humans psychic powers

(aka magic to the common folk). Of course, "witchcraft" has been outlawed by the despot and its practice

is punishable by death.

 

I could never really decide on having the players being crashed explorers who get drawn into the plight of

the common folk or heroes from among the common folk who rise up (or some mix of both).

 

Not as wild and woolly as Thundarr & company but a reasonably close cousin, I think.

[Chris Goodwin]

Here's something I threw together quickly as a follow-up to my elves/dwarves/orcs in space idea above.  

 

Elves:  The elves have been a spacefaring race for almost ten thousand years.  Their "ships" are actually trees -- flying trees, with which the elves have lived in symbiosis for longer than they have even been spacefarers.  The elves themselves are spellcasters; the trees are only space capable by means of shielding and spaceflight spells provided by the elves.  (The elves may have in fact engineered the trees to be able to fly and to have a slight animal-level intelligence.)

 

The elves have fully explored and colonized their home system, and even some of the nearby systems through slower-than-light travel.  They have only discovered the "higher realm" (their word for hyperspace) about a hundred years ago; they have spells they cast to enter and exit hyperspace, but they are also capable of "jaunts" (teleportation which may or may not go through hyperspace).  They encountered the orcs right away, the dwarves maybe fifty years ago.

 

Dwarves:  The dwarves have been a spacefaring race for about a thousand years, an FTL race for about two hundred of those.  The dwarves are high tech, with strong AI, virtual reality, and cybernetic interfaces. 

 

While they don't appear to directly use psionics or magic, they have some oddness in this direction.  They use big metal starships and hyperspace drives not unlike those of the humans, but while the humans require psionic support to enter hyperspace, the dwarves have a highly trained navigators' guild.  Each ship has five or more navigators, depending on its size, crew complement, and mission profile; more navigators are present for shift work and redundancy.  It is theorized by human scientists that navigators are weakly psionic, which is how they access hyperspace. 

 

The dwarves also have something they call rune programming.  Dwarven electronic runestones seem to be slightly psionically active, and besides programming are used for navigation, games of skill and chance, and a form of playful divination (think humans with tarot cards or horoscopes -- most dwarves don't believe in it but many of them cast the stones anyway).  Runestones connect to dwarvish computers through a wireless networking protocol; the dwarves have FTL communications and networking, so they can program a computer on the homeworld as easily as one right next to them.  Arrangements of runestones are used by navigators to set courses and open hyperspace routes.  Intriguingly, and this was only very recently discovered by accident, dwarven runestones can interact, positively and negatively, with both human psionics and elvish magic.  None of the races are sure what to make of this, but they would all very much like to explore it further. 

 

Orcs: Orcs have been spacefaring for at least two thousand years, FTL capable for about five hundred years.  They separately encountered the elves and dwarves, but never bothered to tell them about one another.  Most of their own history has been made up of fighting and conquest, largely among themselves.  They seem to have no psionic or magical capability at all; in fact, orcs seem to be slightly resistant to both elvish spellcasting and human psionics.  Uniquely among the four races, their lack of psionics or magic doesn't seem to affect their FTL travel in any way; the elves need spellcasters, the dwarves need navigators, and the humans need psions to transit hyperspace.  Orcish computers are at the approximate level of human computers around the late 1960's; they are in their early integrated circuit period, and their systems run slow, hot, and power hungry, but are sufficient for interstellar travel.  Like dwarves and humans, orcs fly around in big metal starships, though they are generally lower tech than either; they go as much for melee (lots of sharp metal with leather-wrapped handles) as for ranged weapons.  Orcs don't seem to have a lot of interest in high technology; what they have works well enough for them, and they've been a starfaring race longest of the four. 

 

Humans:  Humans have been a spacefaring race for over two hundred years, having explored their home system pretty thoroughly.  They first discovered psionics about a hundred years ago, and about fifty years ago they went FTL for the first time.  Human FTL requires a psion on board; like the dwarves, most human ships carry three to five or more "hypers" for shift work and redundancy purposes.  The other three races had the beginnings of an interstellar trade framework in place, and the humans encountered this as part of their first contact.  Both elvish spellcasting and dwarvish rune programming seem to have psionic components that are perceivable by human psions, though the orcs seem to have no psionic or magical ability whatsoever.

[DShomshak]

Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Darkover" series is another example of a hybrid setting that's basically Fantasy with a veneer of SF. Darkover is a world in an overall SF universe, a Lost Colony of humans on a world that already had multiple sapient races, including some powerfully psionic Ancients. The aristocrats are descended from a mating between one of those Ancients and a human, giving them psionic powers that they further increased through selective breeding and psi-focusing (and -triggering) crystals. Visitors from Earth sometimes find latent psychic powers triggered as well.

 

Since psionics is just the old wine of magic in the new bottle of pseudoscience, yeah, it's Fantasy. A couple of the books even bring in a goddess -- an archetype from Darkovan mythology, given power and form by powerful psi-crystals, and capable of taking control of her evoker.

 

Actually, a lot of Planetary Romance is such Fantasy in SF drag. Barsoom, Pern, etc. I did such a campaign myself, creating my own world for the purpose. It turned out pretty well.

 

Dean Shomshak