|
|
Post by scalydemon on Oct 30, 2013 19:02:43 GMT -6
In your existing campaign, or ideal campaign if you are not currently running one - do you/would you include Aliens and/or Robots?
edit: to clarify I am talking about your D&D campaign, or the closest thing you play to D&D
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2013 19:30:15 GMT -6
I would include them, and their sci-fi brethren: cyborgs, androids, clones, mutants.
I will remove the qualifier "ideal" from my reply, since I've been known to excise entire elements from the rules in one game or another. Certainly, however, their inclusion would not feel out of place to me.
|
|
Azafuse
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 245
|
Post by Azafuse on Oct 31, 2013 0:12:38 GMT -6
Both, with a science fantasy approach (IMHO replacing the demihumans)
Robots
Dwarves can ben seen as Scout Models, Hobbits as Sniper Models, Elves as Sheldon Cooper Models: they're all Fighting Men.
Aliens
MUs and Clerics can be seen as Aliens (so no human/elf can pick these classes).
Aliens can bend the Laws of Physics thanks to their superior knowledge, doing stuff that looks magical.
|
|
|
|
Post by jakdethe on Oct 31, 2013 2:05:15 GMT -6
I would not do it frequently, or as a permanent part of my campaign. However I have always wanted to run Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, because it included like material.
|
|
|
|
Post by inkmeister on Oct 31, 2013 6:44:12 GMT -6
Yeah, both. I would tend to prefer a sci-fantasy style over traditional (tolkien) fantasy, so I tend to prefer robots and aliens (and mutants!) in place of elves, dwarves, orcs, goblins, etc.
I go back and forth as to whether I would like to blend the traditional fantasy elements with more science fantasy elements - sometimes it seems ok, but generally probably not.
|
|
|
|
Post by scottenkainen on Oct 31, 2013 7:29:36 GMT -6
Granted, if I still ran traditional D&D, I would not use aliens and robots. But you said "the closest thing you play", so that includes H&H.  ~Scott "-enkainen" Casper |
|
|
|
Post by bestialwarlust on Oct 31, 2013 7:35:24 GMT -6
Very lightly sprinkled in my game if I use it.
|
|
monk
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 237
|
Post by monk on Oct 31, 2013 8:08:39 GMT -6
We've got aliens and robots, but mostly as NPCs. The robots tend to be of the "arcanotech" variety, like high-tech golems created by technology and magic. The aliens are a mix of time-travelers from the Lost Continent and true extre-terrestrials looking to help foil the evil plans of the time-travelers. PCs are Amazons, Pygmies, Cave Men, Old Vesternee, Aramites, etc. living between technological epochs and occasionally discovering usable relics of a tech past.
|
|
|
|
Post by kesher on Nov 1, 2013 9:24:57 GMT -6
I leave nothing off the table... |
|
|
|
Post by makofan on Nov 1, 2013 9:55:35 GMT -6
I have never used them. Maybe I should start...
|
|
tec97
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 157
|
Post by tec97 on Nov 1, 2013 10:54:48 GMT -6
Well, as my favorite setting is the Wilderlands, I'm a solid YES in terms of both robots and aliens!
|
|
joseph
Level 4 Theurgist
Posts: 142 
|
Post by joseph on Nov 2, 2013 13:48:16 GMT -6
My vote went to Aliens only... but really only Mythos stuff, which actually showed up last session. But that is in my personal homebrew, if I we're running a game in Hyperborea, Carcosa or something similar robots would certainly be possible.
Like another poster, i've always wanted to play Barrier Peak, but never had the opportunity. It seems like a great time full of strangeness!
|
|
Koren n'Rhys
Level 6 Magician
Got your mirrorshades?
Posts: 355
|
Post by Koren n'Rhys on Nov 4, 2013 9:07:59 GMT -6
Blech, no! Keep your sci-fi out of my fantasy, please. If I want modern or futuristic trappings, I'll play Shadowrun. My D&D is strictly fantasy.
|
|
|
|
Post by inkmeister on Nov 4, 2013 17:47:28 GMT -6
No wrong answers here of course, but I find your response interesting Koren. In particular, I don't really understand how we come to think of one thing as fantasy and the other as sci fi. To me, most things that are considered as part of sci fi are also fantastical. Granted, robots are increasingly a reality, but so too are swords and castles; why can't robots meaningfully be part of a fantasy world?
I recognize that there is an aesthetic at work here, but it is interesting to consider why we are OK with one thing and not another. I mentioned above that I'm not totally ok with elves and dwarves mingling with robots and aliens, and I'm not really sure why that is. I do like a lot of fantasy elements mingling with sci fi - I'm ok with the sorcerers and rituals and magic items and barbarian warriors mingling with bizarre aliens and ancient high tech, but for whatever reason, the elf/orc/dwarf thing doesn't conceptually fit with that, and I don't know why.
Thoughts on this subject?
|
|
Chainsaw
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
Posts: 303
|
Post by Chainsaw on Nov 4, 2013 18:11:16 GMT -6
Yes, both.
|
|
|
|
Post by Ghul on Nov 4, 2013 18:42:24 GMT -6
Both.
|
|
|
|
Post by Fattest Dragon on Nov 4, 2013 20:38:16 GMT -6
I used to back in my 80s/early 90s OD&D campaign, but not my current one.
|
|
Koren n'Rhys
Level 6 Magician
Got your mirrorshades?
Posts: 355
|
Post by Koren n'Rhys on Nov 5, 2013 10:26:28 GMT -6
No wrong answers here of course, but I find your response interesting Koren. In particular, I don't really understand how we come to think of one thing as fantasy and the other as sci fi. To me, most things that are considered as part of sci fi are also fantastical. Granted, robots are increasingly a reality, but so too are swords and castles; why can't robots meaningfully be part of a fantasy world? I recognize that there is an aesthetic at work here, but it is interesting to consider why we are OK with one thing and not another. I mentioned above that I'm not totally ok with elves and dwarves mingling with robots and aliens, and I'm not really sure why that is. I do like a lot of fantasy elements mingling with sci fi - I'm ok with the sorcerers and rituals and magic items and barbarian warriors mingling with bizarre aliens and ancient high tech, but for whatever reason, the elf/orc/dwarf thing doesn't conceptually fit with that, and I don't know why. Thoughts on this subject? It's certainly a valid argument that those two things are really one in the same. If you look at the literature that fills Gygax's Appendix N, then we see the mythological/fantastic, future/sci-fi, and eldritch/mythos (cthulhu) all mashed together. The early escapist fiction didn't clearly parse out those things, for sure. Still, while I have read a fair amount of that older stuff, my views on what is fantasy vs. sci-fi have been shaped by more modern influences. I'm 44, so grew up through the 70s watching Star Trek and Star Wars, reading Tolkien and the plethora of what we now call fantasy which he spawned. In my mind they are distinct genres. I can see the occasional cross-over (Barrier Peaks, etc) but don't want it in my D&D on a regular basis. Sci-fi, for me, is about fairly realistic tech (inclusive of phasers, warp drive, transporters, lightsabers, etc as "realistic, of course!) Magic, in the D&D sense is out, but psionics & Jedi I suppose are in. All shaped by the literature, TV and movies of my youth. I think that's the case for most of us. |
|
|
|
Post by havard on Nov 5, 2013 10:35:03 GMT -6
Both. Wouldn't be Blackmoor without 'em! -Havard |
|
