In the minority (my favorite genre isn't fantasy)

Shipyard Locked · January 02, 2014, 10:20:22 AM

Quote from: Phillip;720060Seeing how well that's worked in history so far, eh?

You can't deny that readily available teleportation, mass communication, internet searches, post-scarcity setting assumptions, transhumanism, and modern economic tools (to cite only a few common scifi elements) make a lot of conventional medieval fantasy problems much less challenging.

dragoner · January 02, 2014, 10:27:03 AM

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;720067You can't deny that readily available teleportation, mass communication, internet searches, post-scarcity setting assumptions, transhumanism, and modern economic tools (to cite only a few common scifi elements) make a lot of conventional medieval fantasy problems much less challenging.

If one was playing to those problems anyways, if not, then it isn't an issue. I find many fantasy games are in many ways like "supers" due to the heroic nature of fantasy that many assume to be there.

Phillip · January 02, 2014, 10:38:50 AM

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;720067You can't deny that readily available teleportation, mass communication, internet searches, post-scarcity setting assumptions, transhumanism, and modern economic tools (to cite only a few common scifi elements) make a lot of conventional medieval fantasy problems much less challenging.

Any conventional problems solved in 10 seconds by the latest gadget are likely to be trivial, and replaced with other trivial problems that tomorrow's modern people -- the archaics of the day after -- will no doubt regard as Terribly Important.

Shipyard Locked · January 02, 2014, 11:56:30 AM

Quote from: dragoner;720068If one was playing to those problems anyways, if not, then it isn't an issue. I find many fantasy games are in many ways like "supers" due to the heroic nature of fantasy that many assume to be there.

Quote from: Phillip;720068Any conventional problems solved in 10 seconds by the latest gadget are likely to be trivial, and replaced with other trivial problems that tomorrow's modern people -- the archaics of the day after -- will no doubt regard as Terribly Important.

Fair enough. I should not have engaged in hyperbole.

GeekEclectic · January 02, 2014, 12:52:29 PM

Quote from: Phillip;720060Seeing how well that's worked in history so far, eh?

Yeah, it's definitely realistic. Better tech and cheaper energy will likely only improve things as it's done for a couple centuries now.

jeff37923 · January 02, 2014, 01:03:26 PM

I did a Mongoose Traveller demo with the PCs goal being the destruction of a street gang at the local starport. I gave the streetgang inferior weapons, but modern communications (a comm may as well be a smart phone). The street gang was not a pushover for the Players.

dragoner · January 02, 2014, 01:47:27 PM

Quote from: jeff37923;720141I did a Mongoose Traveller demo with the PCs goal being the destruction of a street gang at the local starport. I gave the streetgang inferior weapons, but modern communications (a comm may as well be a smart phone). The street gang was not a pushover for the Players.

Trav doesn't do mooks though, because players don't level up; unless you are playing mary sue's, it usually is a battle of wits.

jeff37923 · January 02, 2014, 01:53:27 PM

Quote from: dragoner;720164Trav doesn't do mooks though, because players don't level up; unless you are playing mary sue's, it usually is a battle of wits.

And intelligence is ammunition, in this case the Players had a breakthrough when they captured not only a streetgang member but one with his comm intact.

dragoner · January 02, 2014, 01:56:57 PM

Quote from: jeff37923;720170And intelligence is ammunition, in this case the Players had a breakthrough when they captured not only a streetgang member but one with his comm intact.

It isn't uncommon for PC's to get into a shoot-out and then get out-shot by bad dice, even if they started with the advantage. Traveller kind of programmed in an anti-tpk though, in the morale rules.

3rik · January 02, 2014, 01:59:38 PM

Quote from: dragoner;719943I remember playing a cool TFT in Meso-America with Toltecs and such, anyone else play it? It would fall under historical, but there was magic.

Quote from: The_Shadow;720021Yeah, I remember that. It was one of the MicroQuest modules. I have a pdf of Toltec paper minis someone did specifically for TFT as well.

Quote from: dragoner;720059I went and did a little quest, it was Treasure of the Golden Unicorn, I bet I still have it somewhere.

Treasure of Unicorn Gold? Apart from the word "Toltec" there seems to be little that is historical about it. But that's just from reading the back cover. I'm not familiar with the actual book. Was it any good?

IMHO if you want to do a proper Mesoamerican game you need GURPS Aztecs. It has actually functional magic as an optional setting element. I'm still hoping for a Mesoamerican historical fantasy game in the same fashion as Qin to see the light of day someday...

dragoner · January 02, 2014, 02:04:04 PM

Quote from: 3rik;720174Treasure of Unicorn Gold? Apart from the word "Toltec" there seems to be little that is historical about it. But that's just from reading the back cover. I'm not familiar with the actual book. Was it any good?

Yeah, that's it. It has been a while and the GM probably took liberties, but I remember it was cool for the setting with obsidian clubs, flint arrows and such.

Gruntfuttock · January 02, 2014, 03:25:02 PM

The Strange Stones site has a faux MesoAmerican setting called Tlactoztlan. It's written up for Barbarians of Lemuria, but should be easily adapted to other systems. It's not complete, just sketches/notes really, but I view that as a plus (and I like BoL as a system). It's worth a look:

http://www.strangestones.com/tlactoztlan/

Gruntfuttock · January 02, 2014, 03:27:29 PM

And I may love Bol but most of all I love pulp games and I've never played any edition of D&D - no, not even once (although Backswords and Bucklers tempts me).

3rik · January 02, 2014, 03:45:23 PM

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;720216The Strange Stones site has a faux MesoAmerican setting called Tlactoztlan. It's written up for Barbarians of Lemuria, but should be easily adapted to other systems. It's not complete, just sketches/notes really, but I view that as a plus (and I like BoL as a system). It's worth a look:

http://www.strangestones.com/tlactoztlan/

But I don't want faux, I want something at least intended to resemble the real thing to a certain extent. GURPS Aztec is pretty good but, like I said, an Aztec Qin would be the ultimate option.

Quote from: Gruntfuttock;720218(...) I've never played any edition of D&D - no, not even once (although Backswords and Bucklers tempts me).

Me neither. I could probably be persuaded to play in something like Spears of the Dawn or Arrows of Indra, though. Ravenloft also seems like I would be able to enjoy it as a player.

Brander · January 02, 2014, 04:02:02 PM

Quote from: Endless Flight;719926Is there anybody else here that has similar views or maybe I'm just very much in a niche minority of gamers.

I'd say mine are:

1) Science Fantasy (40K-ish, but less grimdark, more Rogue Trader original, NOT Rifts)
2) Cyberpunk Fantasy (Shadowrun in flavor)
3) Gritty Sword and Sorcery(Conan with the Lovecraft bits)
4) Sixguns and Sorcery (but not Deadlands for some reason)
5) Modern or recent history Supernatural Horror (World of Darkness, Hellboy, Lovecraft, Monster Hunters)

I guess all of them are "fantasy" but none of them are "dungeon fantasy." All of them could carry some Lovecraftian horror themes and I would be happy, though more in an action style guns vs Lovecraftian horrors than "everyone goes insane."