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Why the hell aren't there more "space opera" / futuristic CRPGs?

Louis_Cypher

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Joined
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Messages
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Update: added Babylon 5, Marvel Comics and Revelation Space.

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Our Milky Way Galaxy

There are 60 stars, of which 50 are red dwarf stars, in 52 star systems, within 16.3 light years of Earth.

There are approx 2,000 stars, in 1,400 star systems, within 50 light years of Earth.

There are approx 14,600 stars, within 100 light years of Earth.

There are approx 260,000 (visible) stars, within 250 light years of Earth.

There are approx 2,000,000 stars, within 500 light years of Earth.

The galaxy contains approximately 100,000,000,000-400,000,000,000 stars, and is 170,000-200,000 light years in diameter, counting newly discovered far regions of the disk.

Most stars seem to have planets, and thus the number of exoplanets is similar to the number of stars, at least.

85% of stars in the Milky Way are red dwarfs (minimum around 100 billion).

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Red dwarf habitable zones lie much closer to the host star, owing to their lower brightness, which may result in harmful radiation.

Planets close to the small red dwarfs may be tidally locked, producing worlds with narrow habitable bands at the terminator.

Most stars, perhaps up to 85%, are binary.

Half of exoplanet host stars are binary.

Around half a dozen new stars are produced per year.

Land or desert worlds may be predominant over water planets, in terms of potential habitable planets, because they have larger habitable zones.

Potentially habitable - pessimistic estimate: 6.4 billion potentially habitable.

Potentially habitable - middle road estimate: 40-80 billion potentially habitable.

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Star Trek's Milky Way Galaxy:

The entire United Federation of Planets exists within about a 250 light year diameter sphere of Earth, meaning it is within the small black dot on the map, within the 1500 light year white circle.

It has about 150 members in the 2370s, and more than a thousand planets in total, which may include small colonies, scientific research outposts, military outposts, and planetary Starbases.

The most inhabited known part of the local galaxy surrounds the Rigel system near Klingon space, where many ancient cultures such as the Orions have had colonies for thousands of years.

Within a 500 light year sphere surrounding the Federation lie many empires, including the Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire, Cardassian Union, Tholian Assembly and Breen Confederacy

Beyond a 1500 light year sphere that is generally known, the Federation has sent automated probes, to survey systems briefly, probably cataloguing them with numbers like HD 202772A.

Famous worlds:
  • - Proxima Colony (Proxima Centauri, distance 4.4 ly, 17.64 days at Warp 4.5 old scale)
  • - Vulcan (40 Eridani A, distance 16.2 ly, 64.93 days at Warp 4.5 old scale)
  • - Andoria (Procyon, distance 11.5 ly, 46.09 days at Warp 4.5 old scale)
  • - Tellar (61 Cygni, distance 11.4 ly, 45.69 days at Warp 4.5 old scale)
  • - Vega Colony (Vega, distance 25 ly, 100.0 days at Warp 4.5 old scale)
  • - Deneva Colony (Kappa Fornacis, 72 ly, 300.0 days at Warp 4.5 old scale)

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Mass Effect's Milky Way Galaxy:

The Mass Effect setting covers a much wider proportion of the Milky Way, but has far less inhabited worlds than Star Trek, because there huge unexplored spaces between mass relays.

Probably vast unexplored voids thousands of light years across are totally unknown, being outside the reach of non-relay FTL travel, creating tiny inhabited pockets around the galaxy.

The political capital of the Mass Effect setting, The Citadel, lies within the Serpent Nebula, and the human homeworld Earth, lies within the Local Cluster, both within civilized Citadel Space.

Several political regions exist, such as the frontier worlds of the Attican Traverse, home to many Prothean Ruins, and the Terminus Systems, which are home to antagonistic governments.

Famous worlds:
  • - Terra Nova, first human colony (population 4.4 million)
  • - Eden Prime, early human colony (population 4.2 million)
  • - Thessia, the Asari homeworld (population 5.5 billion)
  • - Palaven, the Turian homeworld (population 6.1 billion)
  • - Sur'Kesh, the Salarian homeworld (population 10.3 billion)
  • - Tuchanka, the Krogan homeworld (population 2.1 billion)

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Star Wars's "Galaxy Far Far Away":

It's not generally appreciated that the Star Wars galaxy is somewhat similar to Mass Effect, with huge voids of uncontrolled systems; except here civilized systems lie along hyperspace corridors.

Essentially, the hyperspace corridors are like the Roman Empire's road network, with colonies springing up near where hyperspace travel is safe, and backwaters being further away from them.

There are probably quite a lot of non-member civilizations of the Galactic Republic that lie within what looks like Republic borders on most galactic maps, creating complex political relationships.

This means there may be many abandoned, forgotten, uninhabited, or uncontacted systems off major hyperlanes, and a lot of wild space or unknown regions within the borders of the Republic.

If you look at a population map of the Star Wars galaxy, most of the Republic's population is concentrated around Coruscant, making the hyperlane arms more like sparse colonial provinces.

Famous worlds:
  • - Coruscant, galactic capital and ecumenopolis, also known as Imperial Center
  • - Denon, prominent core world and ecumenopolis, second in size to Coruscant
  • - Alsakan, prominent core world and ecumenopolis, historical rival of Coruscant
  • - Alderaan, prominent core world, destroyed by the Empire
  • - Corellia, prominent core world and starship manufacturer
  • - Duro, the Duros homeworld, core world and early hyperspace pioneers
  • - Kuat, prominent starship manufacturer, orbited by massive shipyards
  • - Fondor, prominent starship manufacturer, orbited by dozens of shipyards
  • - Nar Shadda, the smuggler's moon orbiting the Hutt capital, an ecumenopolis
  • - Mon Cala, the Mon Calamari and Quarren homeworld, prominent starship manufacturer
  • - Ryloth, the barren Twi'lek homeworld located in the Outer Rim

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Babylon 5's Milky Way Galaxy

Babylon 5 was relatively hard science fiction at the time it was released, being the first to use Newtonian motion for spacecraft and the first (arguably best) to use a series-spanning story arc.

Although most positions of stars are unknown, Babylon 5 orbits Epsilon III, a planet around Epsilon Eridani, suggesting that most of the action takes place within 50 light years of Earth.

Famous worlds:
  • - Proxima III, Earth's first colony (Proxima Centauri, distance 4.24 ly)
  • - Orion VII, major Earth colony (Ross 614 B, distance 13.36 ly)
  • - Epsilon III, location of Babylon 5 (Epsilon Eridani, distance 10.47 ly)
  • - Minbar, homeworld of the Minbari (Chi Draconis, distance 26.3 ly)

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Stargate's Local Group of Galaxies

Stargate SG1 largely took place in the Milk Way galaxy, where the Goa'uld System Lords have their domains, and Stargate Atlantis in the Pegasus Dwarf galaxy where the Ancients migrated.

It is unknown from which galaxy the Ancients originally came, which would be today be called the Ori galaxy, this is where the invasion force of four Ori warships originated, arriving via wormhole.

It is also unknown where the Asgard originate, possibly from a galaxy outside the local group. Needless to say, the Stargate setting is extremely sparsely settled compared to all of the others.

Famous worlds:
  • - Abydos, first planet discovered by the US Armed Forces, domain of the System Lord Ra
  • - Clulak, home of the Jaffa of Apophis, domain of the System Lord Apophis
  • - P3X-972, location of the ruined Heliopolis library and knowledge repository
  • - Delmak, orbited by the prison moon Netu, domain of the System Lord Sokar

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Marvel Comics' Local Group of Galaxies

Marvel is hardly the most scientifically rigorous science fiction, but has a multi-galaxy backdrop spanning the local group of galaxies and beyond, similar to Stargate and Doctor Who.

The largest political entities are the militaristic Kree Empire located in the Milky Way's satellite the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Skrull Empire covering Andromeda, and the Shi'ar Empire.

The ancient Badoon Empire controls roughly a third of the Milky Way, which is also home to several small political entities such as the planet Zenn-La, original home of the Silver Surfer.

Famous worlds:
  • - Hala, capital of the Kree Empire (Large Magellanic Cloud)
  • - Tarnax IV, old capital of the Skrull Empire (Andromeda Galaxy)
  • - Tarnax II, new capital of the Skrull Empire (Andromeda Galaxy)
  • - Skrullos, homeworld of the Skrull (Andromeda Galaxy)
  • - Chandrilar, throneworld of the Shi'ar Empire (Shi'ar Galaxy, possibly the Triangulum Galaxy)

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Warhammer 40,000's Milky Way Galaxy

Probably the most populated setting on this list by far, even compared to Star Wars's Galactic Republic, the Imperium of Man has at least a million human settled worlds, including ecumenopoli.

This is still sparse settlement on galactic scale, and entire systems are known to be lost due to warp storms, exterminatus, or simple beaurocratic rounding errors made by clerks on Holy Terra.

The galaxy is divided into five regions; Segmentum Solar, Segmenum Pacificus, Segmentum Tempestus, Segmentum Obscurus, and the largest and furthest in extent, Segmentum Ultima.

The holy light of the astronomicon barely reaches the furthest stars of Segmenum Ultima, the Ghoul Stars, where once human colonies lay; they are beyond the God Emperor's grace now.

Famous worlds:
  • - Holy Terra, capital of the Imperium of Man (Location: Segmenum Solar / Classification: Hive World)
  • - Mars, home of the Adeptus Mechanicus (Location: Segmenum Solar / Classification: Forge World)
  • - Armageddon, prominent industrial world (Location: Segmenum Solar / Classiifcation: Hive World)
  • - Necromunda, prominent arms supplier (Location: Segmenum Solar / Classiifcation: Hive World)
  • - Cadia, watchman of the Eye of Terror (Location: Segmenum Obscurus / Classification: Fortress World)

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Isaac Asimov's Milky Way Galaxy

The original Galactic Empire that inspired Star Wars and Warhammer 40,000's Galactic Empire and Imperium of Man, with it's capitol on the planet Trantor, an ecumenopolis requiring food imports.

Over the course of the Robot Series (around 3000 AD), Empire Series, and Foundation Series (25000 AD), Asimov charted the rise and fall of the empire, from robotic labourers to galactic trade.

Through the science of Psychohistory, a mass statistical analysis of human behavior, Hari Seldon predicts the decadence and decline of the Empire, setting up a Foundation to preserve civilization.

Famous worlds:
  • - Aurora, earliest interstellar human colony
  • - Trantor, capital of the Galactic Empire
  • - Terminus, home of the Foundation

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Frank Herbert's Milky Way Galaxy

Dune's FTL travel consists of far jumps, similar to some of the other setting mentioned here, resulting in distant colonies, with scattered planets surrounding stars like Delta Pavonis and Canopus.

Similar to many other settings that take place in humanity's far future, Old Earth is a distant memory, no longer existing by the time of the assignment of governorship of Arrakis to House Artreides.

Famous worlds:
  • - Caladan, home of House Artreides (Delta Pavonis, distance 19.92 ly)
  • - Giedi Prime, home of House Harkonnen (36 Ophiuchi, distance 19.5 ly)
  • - Kaitain, capital and home of House Corrino (Alpha Piscium, distance 151 ly)
  • - Salusa Secundus, prison world (Gamma Piscium, distance 138 ly)
  • - Arrakis, aka 'Dune', source of the spice (Canopus, distance 320 ly)

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Alastair Reynolds' Milky Way Galaxy

Revelation Space takes place within a relatively narrow area, because it is scrupulously hard science fiction in which starships do not move at faster than light speed, but instead take years to travel.

Most of the stars in question exist within 20 light years of Earth, and often take decades to travel to, using sub-light propulsion on huge lighthuggers such as the Ultra-owned "Nostalgia for Infinity".

Famous worlds:
  • - Yellowstone, location of Chasm City, orbited by the rust belt, was once the pinnacle of human civilization (Epsilon Eridani, distance 10.47 ly)
  • - Resurgam, location of Dan Sylveste's settlement, homeworld of the extinct Amarantin (Delta Pavonis, distance 19.92 ly)
  • - Sky's Edge, location of a colony which Sky Haussmann reached first by jettisoning cryotubes (61 Cygni A, distance 11.41 ly)
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Battlestar Galactica's Twelve Colonies

It seems that the geography of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol in Battlestar Galactica are not detailed very much in the show, but it has been suggested they all orbit in a quarternary (four) star system.

After the abandonment of Kobol in ancient times, the colonists perhaps settled in the most fercund star system they could find, which contained multiple potentially habitable bodies or terraforming targets.

It is unclear whether the original Battlestar Galactica from the 1970s is also, or whether they are spread across multiple nearby star systems, and the show may take place in a single cluster without FTL.

Famous worlds:
  • - Aerelon
  • - Aquaria
  • - Canceron
  • - Caprica
  • - Gemenon
  • - Leonis
  • - Libris
  • - Picon
  • - Sagittaron
  • - Scorpia
  • - Tauron
  • - Virgon
 
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DraQ

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Chrząszczyżewoszyce, powiat Łękołody
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Pluto and it's moon Charon, orbit around a common barycenter. They are tidally locked. Charon is always above the same region of Pluto. The picture above shows a proposed space elevator linking the two bodies. You could actually build that structure, in real life. There is no physical law acting as barrier to doing so in reality one day. Science fiction allows wonders and terrors to be created... which could actually plausibly happen.

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Vatnik Wumao
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大同

tindrli

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Dragodol
Our Milky Way Galaxy

There are 60 stars, of which 50 are red dwarf stars, in 52 star systems, within 16.3 light years of Earth.

There are approx 2,000 stars, in 1,400 star systems, within 50 light years of Earth.

There are approx 14,600 stars, within 100 light years of Earth.

There are approx 260,000 (visible) stars, within 250 light years of Earth.

There are approx 2,000,000 stars, within 500 light years of Earth.

The galaxy contains approximately 100,000,000,000-400,000,000,000 stars, and is 170,000-200,000 light years in diameter, counting newly discovered far regions of the disk.

Most stars seem to have planets, and thus the number of exoplanets is similar to the number of stars, at least.

85% of stars in the Milky Way are red dwarfs (minimum around 100 billion).

if that's true then its no wonder that we cant encounter shit out there and it seems that we live in vermiform appendix of our galaxy.
 

Louis_Cypher

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Joined
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Messages
1,519
Everyone wants to explore Middle Earth as a great hero and make powerful alliances as the leading power broker in Westeros (politicking for the glory of your House). Nobody wants to be a helpless colonist on dystopian journey to a star that is millennia away, eking out a miserable existence on a cramped submarine inching its way slowly across the infinite chasm of the cosmos.

If you have been reading this thread you know a lotta people here would rather gladly choose the sci-fi :)

You give a deliberately narrow definition of what sci-fi is, in order to artificially turn people off, and still we want it. Imagine how much more we want the full non-butchered example of what a sci-fi RPG could be: glorious explorations of novel alien civilizations and the imagined future of our species. I will take submarine-like trials of the human spirit against the void any day, but our aim is set even higher.
 
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Unwanted

Sweeper

Unwanted
Zionist Agent
Joined
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Messages
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glorious explorations of novel alien civilizations and the imagined future of our species. I will take submarine-like trials of the human spirit against the void any day, but our aim is set even higher.
What the fuck is wrong with bugmen?
Go play with your Nintendo Switch faggot.

I'm gonna make it real easy for you faggots.
1821thwuyqkayjpg.jpg

Anyone who would pick the high tech city is a subhuman.
 

Morpheus Kitami

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Joined
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Messages
2,476
Everyone wants to explore Middle Earth as a great hero and make powerful alliances as the leading power broker in Westeros (politicking for the glory of your House). Nobody wants to be a helpless colonist on dystopian journey to a star that is millennia away, eking out a miserable existence on a cramped submarine inching its way slowly across the infinite chasm of the cosmos.
Bull, having a backdrop to your story be science fiction adds a new dimension to stories. Murder mystery? Spaceships guarantee that a named NPC is the killer. Shipwreck? Infinitely more interesting when the ocean is a million times larger. Conquest? Trading? Exploration? Archeology? There is literally nothing that can't be done in a sci-fi setting.
 

Cael

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Joined
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Messages
20,294
Everyone wants to explore Middle Earth as a great hero and make powerful alliances as the leading power broker in Westeros (politicking for the glory of your House). Nobody wants to be a helpless colonist on dystopian journey to a star that is millennia away, eking out a miserable existence on a cramped submarine inching its way slowly across the infinite chasm of the cosmos.
Bull, having a backdrop to your story be science fiction adds a new dimension to stories. Murder mystery? Spaceships guarantee that a named NPC is the killer. Shipwreck? Infinitely more interesting when the ocean is a million times larger. Conquest? Trading? Exploration? Archeology? There is literally nothing that can't be done in a sci-fi setting.
You can do the same in fantasy.

The thing is, fantasy is familiar. Sure, we have magic and fireballs running around, but people have been talking about magic for millennia. Most of the weird races and stuff in fantasy have been around since the Ancient Greeks at least. Swords, chainmail, etc., did exist. A medieval city is a good basis for a fantasy city. You don't have to describe a castle or a wooden ship. Everyone knows what they are.

Sci-fi is not familiar. It is unknown. Even a ship can come in a variety of sizes and shapes (space being what it is). And then we have the mumbo-jumbo that some sci-fi delve too far into to explain things and you have a genre that people approach with caution and run away the second they see something they don't understand or like.

The fear of the unknown is a human trait.
 

Darth Canoli

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5,687
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What the fuck is wrong with bugmen?
Go play with your Nintendo Switch faggot.

I'm gonna make it real easy for you faggots.
1821thwuyqkayjpg.jpg

Anyone who would pick the high tech city is a subhuman.

Sure, the village even has lovely cascades ...

... Of shit coming out of the high tech city's sewers ...
 

Louis_Cypher

Arcane
Joined
Jan 1, 2016
Messages
1,519
The thing is, fantasy is familiar. Sure, we have magic and fireballs running around, but people have been talking about magic for millennia. Most of the weird races and stuff in fantasy have been around since the Ancient Greeks at least. Swords, chainmail, etc., did exist. A medieval city is a good basis for a fantasy city. You don't have to describe a castle or a wooden ship. Everyone knows what they are.

Actually, I'm not sure this is necessarily true.

Elves and Orks as they exist today were invented in living memory. Magic as it exists today is not present in ancient tales. Real the Iliad and it barely resembles modern fantasy. Read the Icelandic Sagas and they barely resemble Tolkien. Tolkien, I realize more with literacy, was no pagan, even though he loved the Dark Ages. He was a Catholic in an aesthetic sense; the Elves for example have an otherworldly beauty that is more in line with Plato's theory of forms, or a hidden heavenly perfection, than a pagan race of spirits, even though some people have suggested barely remembered Irish myths as containing similarity. Take 'the Shadow' that creeps across the land - 'the Enemy'; there was no real malignancy built into Norse myth, they just had a fire giant with a hard-on for smashing Asgard, and it had no real personality that has survived to the present. Melkor and Sauron are completely fallen angels. There is no charismatic Lucifer in pagan myth, nor a moral system that supports someone like Loki or Typhon being a villain on that order. I think the true beauty of Tolkien's work lies in philosophy, and imitators miss this. Babylon 5 more successfully evokes Tolkien than 99% of high fantasy does. More modern authors sometimes replace Tolkien's insights with psychological insights of their own, taken from various systems, such as Jungian or clinical psychology.



One could just as easily claim that since the natural world has existed for 13.7 billion years, the Earth for 4.5 billion years, and hominid progenitors for 15 million years, we have had millions of years of evolutionary experience of the natural environment for science fiction to draw upon. People have been intuitively familiar with concepts like 'combustion' and 'convection' for a long time, and have exerted their will over nature for eons. We literally cannot survive at European latitudes without extensive 'life support systems', and the utilization of technology. People take in analytical data through their senses from the moment they are born, building up decades of familiarity with natural processes subconsciously. It's actually fantasy that can start to look dodgy, when high medievalism exists side by side with matter transformation and fire projection, with no industrial revolution.

Looking deeper at the meaning of myth, Jungian archetypes may be present in every culture on Earth, but they do not require a fantasy platform to express. The Jungian influenced monomyth of Joseph Campbell works just as well in a setting with spaceships, as we have famously seen in Star Wars, as it does in ancient tales. Babylon 5 so successfully feels like a Tolkien-scale epic, not because of it's battles, but because of what they represent, and their meaning. So I think honestly people miss the point of myth; superficial trappings vs. underlying meaning. Science fiction can do anything that fantasy can, you can have heroic adventures, clearly, or Luke Skywalker would not be as well known as any name on the planet.
 
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Cael

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Joined
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Messages
20,294
The thing is, fantasy is familiar. Sure, we have magic and fireballs running around, but people have been talking about magic for millennia. Most of the weird races and stuff in fantasy have been around since the Ancient Greeks at least. Swords, chainmail, etc., did exist. A medieval city is a good basis for a fantasy city. You don't have to describe a castle or a wooden ship. Everyone knows what they are.

Actually, I'm not sure this is necessarily true.

Elves and Orks as they exist today were invented in living memory. Magic as it exists today is not present in ancient tales. Real the Iliad and it barely resembles modern fantasy. Read the Icelandic Sagas and they barely resemble Tolkien. Tolkien, I realize more with literacy, was no pagan, even though he loved the Dark Ages. He was a Catholic in an aesthetic sense; the Elves for example have an otherworldly beauty that is more in line with Plato's theory of forms, or a hidden heavenly perfection, than a pagan race of spirits, even though some people have suggested barely remembered Irish myths as containing similarity. Take 'the Shadow' that creeps across the land - 'the Enemy'; there was no real malignancy built into Norse myth, they just had a fire giant with a hard-on for smashing Asgard, and it had no real personality that has survived to the present. Melkor and Sauron are completely fallen angels. There is no charismatic Lucifer in pagan myth, nor a moral system that supports someone like Loki or Typhon being a villain on that order. I think the true beauty of Tolkien's work lies in philosophy, and imitators miss this. Babylon 5 more successfully evokes Tolkien than 99% of high fantasy does. More modern authors sometimes replace Tolkien's insights with psychological insights of their own, taken from various systems, such as Jungian or clinical psychology.



One could just as easily claim that since the natural world has existed for 13.7 billion years, the Earth for 4.5 billion years, and hominid progenitors for 15 million years, we have had millions of years of evolutionary experience of the natural environment for science fiction to draw upon. People have been intuitively familiar with concepts like 'combustion' and 'convection' for a long time, and have exerted their will over nature for eons. We literally cannot survive at European latitudes without extensive 'life support systems', and the utilization of technology. People take in analytical data through their senses from the moment they are born, building up decades of familiarity with natural processes subconsciously. It's actually fantasy that can start to look dodgy, when high medievalism exists side by side with matter transformation and fire projection, with no industrial revolution.

Looking deeper at the meaning of myth, Jungian archetypes may be present in every culture on Earth, but they do not require a fantasy platform to express. The Jungian influenced monomyth of Joseph Campbell works just as well in a setting with spaceships, as we have famously seen in Star Wars, as it does in ancient tales. Babylon 5 so successfully feels like a Tolkien-scale epic, not because of it's battles, but because of what they represent, and their meaning. So I think honestly people miss the point of myth; superficial trappings vs. underlying meaning. Science fiction can do anything that fantasy can, you can have heroic adventures, clearly, or Luke Skywalker would not be as well known as any name on the planet.

This is where you are wrong. Analogs of elves and orcs were in old European tales for a long time. The dwarves (a staple of fantasy which you conveniently ignored) have been around for millennia. As have centaurs, manticores, chimera, etc. The knight in shining armour, the bow, arrow, sword, axes, etc., have all been around for centuries. In fact, King Arthur's legends were fantasy, as are tales of Hercules, Achilles, Odysseus, etc.

Even the magic has been around for a long time. Flame Strike, for example, is based on the Biblical column of fire that led the Israelites out of Egypt (which is why, incidentally, it is a divine spell). Lightning bolts and fireballs are from forces of nature that Man wish he could throw around on command. Transformation magic (Polymorph, etc.) is in every myth and legend.

These are based on tales that familiar.

What is recognised as sci-fi today is basically to chart unfamiliar territory served with a side of pseudo-hard science, and it is the latter that generally fouls things up, not only for the audience but also for the author. It is simply easier to come up with a fantasy setting than sci-fi because everyone knows what a sword generally looks like. Try explaining a bat'leth to the uninitiated.
 

Darkzone

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Joined
Sep 4, 2013
Messages
2,323
Fantasy > Sci Fi.
For an cRPG ? Probably but not necessary.

The underlying trope in RPGs is the Monomyth (Hero's Journey) and this belongs to the domain of Fantasy. Star Wars alone based on this is a Science-Fantasy. The problem is that difference between of the tropes, underlying philosophies and good story telling concerning this both genres, which in my opinion makes it hard to make a true good Sci-Fi RPG.
-Sci-fi is about what the human encounters after facing the unknown. And that is what the human always brings along on his journey in to the unknown and that is: himself. Therefore Sci-Fi is always about the human and what makes us human and the unknown is like a mirror of truth for the stripped ( deprived of surrounding protective and familiar systems and environment ) human.
-Fantasy is about what the person encounters on his journey towards a fulfillment of himself (inner quest) and becoming the hero (growth of the person) that can overcome the trigger for his journey.

Naturally therefore Fantasy has a higher recognition factor and speaks louder to us, because it is a tale that is engraved in our genes and is told over and over again. While humans try to hide (and from) their nakedness (their true nature).

I will take submarine-like trials of the human spirit against the void any day, but our aim is set even higher.
Only as a voidborn-masterbuilder-psionic ascendant i can concur.
 
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Ashigara

Educated
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Dec 25, 2019
Messages
65
This is where you are wrong. Analogs of elves and orcs were in old European tales for a long time. The dwarves (a staple of fantasy which you conveniently ignored) have been around for millennia

Dwarves were probably nature spirits like Dryads and probably related to Elves originally. Goblins were just malicious house spirits and not a race or warriors or related to Orcs. Sorry to say this if it means a lot to you, but it's still cool without having to be exaggerated.
 

Louis_Cypher

Arcane
Joined
Jan 1, 2016
Messages
1,519
Anyone here watch Gundam? I wanted to give it a try because it has space habitats, O'Neill Cylinders, etc. But I'm not a huge fan of the giant robot genre, as humanoid robots just seem a little redundant. Is it worth a go? I know one of the main political events is that a miles-long O'Neill Cylinder colony gets used as an orbital kinetic weapon and dropped on Australia or something:

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Legend of Galactic Heroes is very decent 'big history' military space opera.
 

Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,294
This is where you are wrong. Analogs of elves and orcs were in old European tales for a long time. The dwarves (a staple of fantasy which you conveniently ignored) have been around for millennia

Dwarves were probably nature spirits like Dryads and probably related to Elves originally. Goblins were just malicious house spirits and not a race or warriors or related to Orcs. Sorry to say this if it means a lot to you, but it's still cool without having to be exaggerated.
Dwarves were outright in Nordic mythology... I don't think you really know what you are talking about.
 

J_C

One Bit Studio
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Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
Anyone here watch Gundam? I wanted to give it a try because it has space habitats, O'Neill Cylinders, etc. But I'm not a huge fan of the giant robot genre, as humanoid robots just seem a little redundant. Is it worth a go? I know one of the main political events is that a miles-long O'Neill Cylinder colony gets used as an orbital kinetic weapon and dropped on Australia or something:

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Legend of Galactic Heroes is very decent 'big history' military space opera.
There are so many Gundam animes, it's one of the longest running franchises. I'm not an expert, I've only watched one series (Gundam SEED), but I loved that one. But I assume there good and bad series' among them.
 

Darkzone

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Sep 4, 2013
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This is where you are wrong. Analogs of elves and orcs were in old European tales for a long time. The dwarves (a staple of fantasy which you conveniently ignored) have been around for millennia
Dwarves were probably nature spirits like Dryads and probably related to Elves originally. Goblins were just malicious house spirits and not a race or warriors or related to Orcs. Sorry to say this if it means a lot to you, but it's still cool without having to be exaggerated.
Dwarves were outright in Nordic mythology... I don't think you really know what you are talking about.
The Prose Edda describes the dwarves as the maggots of Ymir's flesh. While the Poetic Edda states that they are made out of Ymir's (Blainn) blood. But since they are noted as denizens of Svartalfheim they are associated with the Svart Alf (Svart (black) alf (elves)). But then again in slavic mythology dwarf like entities are helpful beings of spiritual nature. On the other hand the etymological meaning of dwergaz is associated with harm. Nevertheless Tolkien referred to the germanic "norse" understanding of dwarves from the Eddas as crafty and skilled smiths and brewers that are living inside the earth like maggots in Ymir's flesh.
Note: Svartalfheim = Svartalfarheimr
 

Ashigara

Educated
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Dec 25, 2019
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It's not worth it man, he already misinterpreted what two people said, acted aggressive/defensive..... ..his ego is up and he won't back down now
 

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