roseembolism (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
roseembolism) wrote2009-02-02 05:09 pm
roseembolism) wrote2009-02-02 05:09 pm
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UTGM: notes on necessary coolness.
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?
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?