Anachronism in RPGs

[mondblut]

Bows don't "fire."

Neither do arrows, for that matter. It takes firearms to fire, duh. Archers "loose".

And don't get me started on when yon denyzenes of ne'erlande begin sipping from china and wearing burgundy coats.

 

[PompiPompi]

I have decided to add a helmet where you can have two modes for the visors if they are put down or retracted.

It's not like you're an AAA company who has to stay conservative because you sell millions or go bankrupt, so do as much crazy shit as you want with your game. It would be way more attractive than a basic roguelike about a boy with a piss fetish tbh.

The issue with that, is that your game becomes an incoherent mess.
You have a lot of indie games like that. I don't think people care for the game when there is a ton of BS items in the game.
It just become generic cess pool like game.

 

[octavius]

If you would read books instead of watching flicks you'd know better than that. Before the space age what is now perceived as two genres were one. Many like to namedrop Jack Vance because he was in the appendix N but more people need to read his books.

His novella The Miracle Workers is a good example.

 

[Gargaune]

Bows don't "fire."

Neither do arrows, for that matter. It takes firearms to fire, duh. Archers "loose".

That's what I was getting at. "Loose" and "shoot" are correct, though the latter's what these writers mistakenly keep trying to avoid. "Fire" is only correct if your work e-mail ends in @larian.com.

 

[Gregz]

I can think of very few fictional universes in which magic and technology are mixed in equal parts successfully.

If you would read books instead of watching flicks you'd know better than that. Before the space age what is now perceived as two genres were one. Many like to namedrop Jack Vance because he was in the appendix N but more people need to read his books. Or take Gene Wolfe with his Book of the New Sun. The Pastel City by John Harrison. Not to mention that just about any early science fiction included fantastical elements. Even after Mars was discovered to be barren stories continued to be written about martian civilizations.

I never cared for Vance, specifically for the reasons I mentioned ITT. Give me sweet, or give me savory, please don't mix them.

 

[JarlFrank]

I can think of very few fictional universes in which magic and technology are mixed in equal parts successfully.

If you would read books instead of watching flicks you'd know better than that. Before the space age what is now perceived as two genres were one. Many like to namedrop Jack Vance because he was in the appendix N but more people need to read his books. Or take Gene Wolfe with his Book of the New Sun. The Pastel City by John Harrison. Not to mention that just about any early science fiction included fantastical elements. Even after Mars was discovered to be barren stories continued to be written about martian civilizations.

I never cared for Vance, specifically for the reasons I mentioned ITT. Give me sweet, or give me savory, please don't mix them.

Sweet-sour sauces are pretty damn good tho

 

[Spukrian]

This one time I was annoyed when in one of the Avernum games Jeff Vogel used the word "quisling". Really took me out of the mood.

 

[MF]

Mount & Blade is one of the few games that has realistic prices for books. They should cost a fortune because a monk would have to copy that shit by hand.

There is always some anachronism because writing strictly from a past paradigm literally impossible. We don't know everything. As long as it's internally consistent you're fine.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

This one time I was annoyed when in one of the Avernum games Jeff Vogel used the word "quisling". Really took me out of the mood.

Stranger that an American would even decide to use the word. Don't think I've ever heard it used IRL. Most Americans probably don't even know what it means.

 

[Arrowgrab]

How would you call in English like a metal sheet you put on your eyes, but with a slit to see through?

If you're thinking of the movable part of a helmet, it's a visor; but if you're thinking of the sort of thing the Inuit used, those are snow goggles (but made of organic materials rather than metal).

 

[PompiPompi]

How would you call in English like a metal sheet you put on your eyes, but with a slit to see through?

If you're thinking of the movable part of a helmet, it's a visor; but if you're thinking of the sort of thing the Inuit used, those are snow goggles (but made of organic materials rather than metal).

-10 Chrisma for wearing those.

 

[Raghar]

The problem with this discussion is fantasy can be AFTER end of technical civilization, and in times when everyone knows that firearms pollute environment, industry required to high technical civilization causes massive changes in nature, typically harmful.
Basically there is a special literature genre: a medieval fiction which is about a special type of stories, while fantasy is about different worlds than Earth or having certain different rules.

Another fantasy stories are simply about different technical development. When countries skip muskete based square combat, and move from crossbows directly to tanks, autoloaders, and machineguns, they typically have much more per soldier efficient army. Missiles and thermobaric are also efficient multiplier for a country that is forced to move from crossbows to efficient defense against muskete based armies.

Now of course gunpowder weapons forces enemies to invent and manufacture tanks. Tanks force big industry. Big industry allows bombing people with firearms safely from airplanes. The rest of development inevitably leads to nukes, and then they would start flinging nukes. And advanced societies might want to stop people from using weapons that require minimal skill and training. Just to prevent random assassinations, or worse.

So if worldwide council decided on stopping using firearms and other technical weapons just to prevent WWXI, they typically do enforce no firearm rule.



Funnily Japanese had rule that made cannon transport difficult. Muskets were not able to kill target on 600+ m distance, thus a precaution was sufficient, but cannons could murder bodyguards AND leader of the local government. Oda Nobunaga escaped by hair when they transported cannons on theirs back, camouflaged them, and shot them when he moved on the road. Massive laws against firearm production worked well until they were coerced by west into for Japanese EXTREMELLY HARMFUL treaties, and they were forced to remilitarize.

 

[FreeKaner]

Whole of "medieval" fantasy isn't medieval.

 

[PompiPompi]

There needs to be internal logic.
If a character finds modern sunglasses, there is a lot of advanced technology behind it.
So all the technology leading to this product, and all the technology around it, should have exist in the society those glasses were created.

You can always say it's from a mysterious culture or society that left their artifacts in the world.
But if the shop owner suddenly sells you a very modern product that is based on decades of real world technology. It needs to put in the setting, how this item ended up in the world.
You could explain those glasses were created with "magic", but then the design of the glasses would more likely make it look like a magic item, rather than ray bans aviator sun glasses.

I think even legend of Zelda has like this sort of iPad in it... but they don't just give link an Apple iPad, they give him a tablet that looks like it is was made in the world he lives in.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Another anachronism that is pervasive in games and also in movies, is how computers are depicted in sci-fi settings. No matter how futuristic the technological advancement are, computers still display one character at a time, doing beep-beep-beep-beep-...

 

[mondblut]

When countries skip muskete based square combat, and move from crossbows directly to tanks, autoloaders, and machineguns, they typically have much more per soldier efficient army. Missiles and thermobaric are also efficient multiplier for a country that is forced to move from crossbows to efficient defense against muskete based armies.

Every african soldier must be worth a paratrooper division, then. They moved to tanks and machineguns directly from sticks and stones, skipping everything else.

 

[Raghar]

When countries skip muskete based square combat, and move from crossbows directly to tanks, autoloaders, and machineguns, they typically have much more per soldier efficient army. Missiles and thermobaric are also efficient multiplier for a country that is forced to move from crossbows to efficient defense against muskete based armies.

Every african soldier must be worth a paratrooper division, then. They moved to tanks and machineguns directly from sticks and stones, skipping everything else.

That's like saying Russia moved from feudal society directly into socialistic society, skipping market economy middle step.

While Africa soldiers can have as high bullet expenditure per kill as western soldiers, the actual situation looks quite different. Experienced soldiers can't understand why that topless muscular African male who is shooting automatic fire COMPLETELY DRUGGED managed to hit so few targets at 30 m. And they don't understand why nobody killed him within first 15 seconds.
But these are realities of REAL Africa warfare. While there are professional soldiers that know what they are doing (within African limit), these are isolated groups, and they can disappear into primordial Africa background within 15 years.

Great Africa war was interesting, from point of view of external observers, the whole war was random attempts by people who didn't know what they are doing. But, detailed look into it shown they tried quite sensible tactical maneuvers, the problem was both sides were about the same tactically skilled, and enemy preempted it. Which resulted in quite embarrassing situations.

But to theirs credit, they were well aware of theirs security needs, and downsized airforce relatively quickly after the war. In comparison NATO countries are acting far less sensibly, they are wasting money by trying to mimic US playing with soldiers.