UTGM: notes on necessary coolness.

[roseembolism]

I'm taking a break from procrastinating on writing up the "breeds" in UTGM, to think about the cool things I need to have in this project. BEcause while I like the term "hard fantasy" for it, there just has to be outre things in it to excite the interest of the audience, whether game players, or readers. In some situations, coolness has to outweigh reasonability.

So, cool things:

Uplifted Animals: reasonably, it may be easier to genegeneer humans then give animals human intelligence. But intelligent animals are an inherently cool idea, even leaving out the "Ninja Catgirl" factor.

Living Blimps: there's all kinds of problems I'm going to handwave away in dealing with giant, hydrogen-filled flying animals.  But handwave I must, because they have to be in there.

Magic-powered Airships: they are probably stretching the Renaissance-level technology I"m thinking of, and I can only justify it with magic and materials left over from past civilizations (admittedly most likely tree-grown).  But airships are inherently cool.

Spring-wound Dart Guns. Technically crossbows wound by springs, but I quibble.  I've been enchanted by the idea ever since I saw  coiled spring clocks in the Leonardo exhibit.  I can only justify them by saying there's a lot of durable metal strips left over from the past, just waiting to be bent into springs.  Why?  So I can have those dart guns like they had in the Witch World series.

Ceramic or Glassteel or Neodiamond Chitin Swords: Because swords are cool, and swords made of rare materials are cooler.   And it emphasizes that with some materials being hard to refine, substitutes will be found.

Ancient Powerful Technological Artifacts: reasonably, nothing other than simple stone or wood construction should last thousands or tens of thousands of years.  And I'm going to do an end-run for most cases by saying most old artifacts are biologically based, or come from organic "factory" trees.  But there has to be the occasional crystal tower with a doomsday weapon, or ancient self-powered computer, or warbeast in stasis, or other items to get people engaging in dungeon crawls, nations scrambling for ownership, and to illustrate that messing with past knowledge can be dangerous.  
 
And that's it for now.  Any suggestions?

Comments

[mithriltabby]

I have airships in the Seas of Chaos game, and they hardly ever see Renaissance-level technology. Having living blimps is actually a good way for the citizens to get the idea of making artificial ones, and if magic can do the work of sorting out different gases, that could be yet another grunt-work task for apprentices: filling the blimp!

Make sure that catgirls are required to come with as many points in Odious Personal Habit as Attractiveness. Cat DNA, cat habits...

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

That's a good point about the blimps, especially given that they were originally created to be cargo carriers. As for creating the hydrogen, there's a couple of methods, such as using electrical control to make crude hydrolysis arrangements, or the Balloon Trees, or harvesting blimps...

As for catgirls I've always thought that the main improbability of their existence is, basically, WHY? Why would anybody who has any experience with cats WANT to give them thumbs and bipedal posture?

[mithriltabby]

They don’t. They want to give women the spinal flexibility and sensuous grace of (many) cats, and throw some indicators of this like kitty ears and tails.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

How about something really outre and futuristic, like gay marriage?

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I'm tempted to have a very androgynous race that can change genders at will, in a matter of a week or so. As experience with rpg.net has shown, people LOVE to talk about games with GLBT themes. And that can only lead to more publicity, the way Dark Dungeons led to publicity for D&D.

Seriously, I'll have at least a half-dozen major cultures, and there will be room for dozens of distinctive enclaves, kingdoms, demenses, and whatnot. So there's plenty of room for varying attitudes toward sexual orientation.

[palecur.livejournal.com]

You need more Witchaloks.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Oh, gag, it's Grimm Shado.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I don't get it. Are we talking Shado, Green Arrow's girlfriend, or SHADO the UFO hunting organization?

i am here to take it to the limit

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Grimm Shado is the creation of that utter hack and rip-off artist, L.H. Franzibald.

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/05/19/

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/05/22/

[yuusada.livejournal.com]

And Wolfoids! Don't forget the Wolfoids.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I've actually got yer Wolfoids covered.