February 22, 200718 yr All Science Fiction depends on something that does not yet exist in fact but may well exist in theory.I think the show "Sliders" is a good example of traditional, "hard" sci-fi. The show is about parallel realities and travel between them....has nothing to do with space ships, aliens, or even time travel. Only for the first 2 1/2 seasons. :fear:
February 22, 200718 yr All Science Fiction depends on something that does not yet exist in fact but may well exist in theory.I think the show "Sliders" is a good example of traditional, "hard" sci-fi. The show is about parallel realities and travel between them....has nothing to do with space ships, aliens, or even time travel. Only for the first 2 1/2 seasons. :fear: well, the box set I bought doesn't have anything beyond Season 2.
February 23, 200718 yr I have to admit I was one of the instigators of said event " Got you, you swine! Stand still while I deploy this entirely fantastical planet destroying superlaser. "It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"." -Elwood Blues tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp.
February 23, 200718 yr Overdone? NEVER. One can never have too many dwarves. Never too many elves. Hades was the life of the party. RIP You'll be missed.
February 23, 200718 yr Darque, she still uses dial up. r00fles! Edited February 23, 200718 yr by Dark_Raven Hades was the life of the party. RIP You'll be missed.
February 23, 200718 yr All Science Fiction depends on something that does not yet exist in fact but may well exist in theory.I think the show "Sliders" is a good example of traditional, "hard" sci-fi. The show is about parallel realities and travel between them....has nothing to do with space ships, aliens, or even time travel. Only for the first 2 1/2 seasons. :fear: well, the box set I bought doesn't have anything beyond Season 2. Count yourself lucky. Though the first half of season 3 was darn good too... then it went off into lala land.... ....we'll not bring up seasons 4 and 5
February 23, 200718 yr Well, apart from the fact that the poll really does suck, I have to agree that I might go for a Call of Cthulu bases CRGP. Not the FPS crap, either. I'm talking stats and character development and finding new items and talking to NPCs and such. The poll puts the question between fantasy and ALL others. Lumping every else against fantasy is just stupid. Fionavar's Holliday Wishes to all members of our online community: Happy Holidays Join the revelry at the Obsidian Plays channel:Obsidian Plays Remembering tarna, Phosphor, Metadigital, and Visceris. Drink mead heartily in the halls of Valhalla, my friends!
February 23, 200718 yr Maybe Big Huge Games are working on a CRPG in the RoL universe now? Well the lead designer of Oblivion has just started work at BHG on their first RPG so I'd say the chances are high. The best flash game ever!
February 23, 200718 yr We need more steampunk. And I'm talking the crazy steampunk like in the Steampunk comic book or Rise of Legends, where we have crazy huge clockwork robots and giant towering cities of industry with davinci-style flying machines and steam powered cyborgs and such. Not the wussy steampunk lite that Arcanum was. (not that Arcanum wasn't supercool) See, this I agree with. Me too! I don't have a problem with fantasy, as it were, I have a problem with the fact it's the same thing over and over again. Forgettable Realms OBSCVRVM PER OBSCVRIVS ET IGNOTVM PER IGNOTIVS OPVS ARTIFICEM PROBAT
February 24, 200718 yr This might also be why I like Dark Sun and Planescape... but loathe the Forgettable Realms and Greyhawk. well, if it's going to sell, it has to have some pizazz. That is why I don't think we'll see anything like PST from a major dev house anymore. both Greyhawk and FR are meant to be "generic" settings, as in non-epic, do-whatever-you-want, etc. and, yes, it is hard to see another major CRPG based in the FR setting. IMO, it is the whole Drow thing that gives the FR a major advantage (in terms of it being interesting) over Greyhawk but the setting has just been used to death. I really think that a well-designed Dragonlance CRPG might be good. It would have the advantage of being for next-gen platforms and could be a very cimematic game. Alot has been said about post-Apocalypse as a setting. Well, Dragonlance is the Apocalypse itself and would allow for alot of interesting devices not found in other settings. I mean, imagine starting off as a Paladin and then becoming a Knight of Solomnia and working your way up through the 3 different orders of that faction. And, because your character is a Knight of Solomnia, he can take the dragon-rider feat (while no one else can). Or, in the case of Wizards, once a Wizard reaches a certain level of ability, he must join one of the official orders of magic or be considered outlaw. Gully Dwarves, Tinker Gnomes, Clerics of the lost gods, etc. Wow, I'd love to see that come to life in the hands of Obsidian.
February 24, 200718 yr Dragonlance would be a good setting. Hades was the life of the party. RIP You'll be missed.
February 24, 200718 yr On reflection I don't care what it is provided it has Minsc and Jan Jansen in it. Although I'm thinking they'd make a great film noir detective duo. "It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"." -Elwood Blues tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp.
February 24, 200718 yr Jan?? Now I know you lost it. Hades was the life of the party. RIP You'll be missed.
February 24, 200718 yr Wow, some people are now putting Fallout into the Fantasy area? :crazy: It seems every RPG is now fantasy except Teudogar and the alliance with Rome....oh, thats right, thats fantasy too because you can change history! Postmodernism has won....
February 24, 200718 yr Curse you, postmodernism! I'll get you next tiiiiiime... *ahem* Anyway, Jan Jansen is great. I've never laughed so much at a computer game. "It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"." -Elwood Blues tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp.
February 24, 200718 yr Wow, some people are now putting Fallout into the Fantasy area? :crazy: People are crazy, I tell you. NWN2 is a FPS with swords! Hades was the life of the party. RIP You'll be missed.
February 24, 200718 yr Curse you, postmodernism! I'll get you next tiiiiiime... *ahem* Anyway, Jan Jansen is great. I've never laughed so much at a computer game. He's one of those characters that I stripped their armor and weapons and let them have a go at it in combat with the enemy. Hades was the life of the party. RIP You'll be missed.
February 24, 200718 yr Wow, some people are now putting Fallout into the Fantasy area? :crazy: It seems every RPG is now fantasy except Teudogar and the alliance with Rome....oh, thats right, thats fantasy too because you can change history! Postmodernism has won.... Nah, we're already into hypermodernism. OBSCVRVM PER OBSCVRIVS ET IGNOTVM PER IGNOTIVS OPVS ARTIFICEM PROBAT
February 24, 200718 yr It's tom foolery. Fionavar's Holliday Wishes to all members of our online community: Happy Holidays Join the revelry at the Obsidian Plays channel:Obsidian Plays Remembering tarna, Phosphor, Metadigital, and Visceris. Drink mead heartily in the halls of Valhalla, my friends!
February 24, 200718 yr I suppose it isn't a matter of whether I like Fantasy or the alternatives, for me. After all, virtually all RPGs are some variety of fantasy. Consequently, it's instead a matter of whether I like High Fantasy or Low Fantasy. And, as of late, I suppose I'm inclined to choose low fantasy. The reason for that is, it seems to me that the traditional province of High Fantasy, which is allegory, isn't its province at all in recent years, and is virtually never its focus in RPGs. While Low Fantasy continues to imagine possible worlds, alternate histories and future dystopias in order to stimulate thought on what could have been, might be, or will be, High Fantasy, abandoning its interest in allegorical commentary on what is, or what was, has largely persisted as an excuse for the creation of simple, unrealistic, and unconvincing characters, and highly contrived (usually epic) plots. After all, when you, for example, create your own fantasy race who can tell you you're wrong, when you portray them as a dull, cartoonish caricature totally lacking in variety or nuance? High fantasy is useful as a basis for pen and paper RPGing because the group of players is not expected to have a particularly subtle or well-developed aptitude for characterisation (though some may), and because neither any player nor the DM has full control over the direction and development of the narrative, even if they happen to be a narrative genius. Transferring the same principles of characterisation and story-telling to a more controlled medium (like games) or an entirely controlled medium (like books) is idiotic. But I don't blame games for that entirely. Lazy, unconvincing high fantasy authorship preceded lazy, unconvincing high fantasy game narratives by some time.
February 24, 200718 yr I think "fantasy" (the stuff with tree hugging elves and such in it) ranks a shared third space from the bottom of what is my list of preferred genre for crpgs. Competing very hard with Star Wars about who gets second and who gets third. Probably because of the similarities (jedi really feel like multiclassed mage/ranger, mage/fighter and and pure mage). The bottom position is things set in the "real", modern world. Above that... a lot of different genres and settings (bladerunner/syndicate wars, Worlds of Darkness, Warhammer 40K, Cyberpunk, etc.) “He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein
February 25, 200718 yr Competing very hard with Star Wars about who gets second and who gets third. Probably because of the similarities (jedi really feel like multiclassed mage/ranger, mage/fighter and and pure mage). Just blame KOTOR. Star Wars has some honestly good RPG promise away from Jedi. They just haven't been properly explored in video or computer games. "Show me a man who "plays fair" and I'll show you a very talented cheater."
February 25, 200718 yr Fantasy is a very ambigious term, traditional Lord of the Rings type fantasy is definitely old. Surreal fantasy like in Planescape or more realistic fedual fantasy like in Song of Ice and FIre can be very interesting. "For ourselves, we shall not trouble you with specious pretences- either of how we have a right to our empire because we overthrew the Mede, or are now attacking you because of wrong that you have done us- and make a long speech which would not be believed; and in return we hope that you, instead of thinking to influence us by saying that you did not join the Lacedaemonians, although their colonists, or that you have done us no wrong, will aim at what is feasible, holding in view the real sentiments of us both; since you know as well as we do that right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
February 26, 200718 yr Competing very hard with Star Wars about who gets second and who gets third. Probably because of the similarities (jedi really feel like multiclassed mage/ranger, mage/fighter and and pure mage). Just blame KOTOR. Star Wars has some honestly good RPG promise away from Jedi. They just haven't been properly explored in video or computer games. I do. It's the only SW CRPG I know Even if I could have played a non-jedi, I think I might prefer some of the other types of settings I mentioned. “He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein
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