UTGM: Some Thoughts on Hard Fantasy

[roseembolism]

This was actually originally a reply to an rpg.net thread on "Hard Fantasy".  I'm putting it here as a nice quick definition of what I mean by "Hard Fantasy".

II've been using the term "Hard Fantasy" to describe my WiP, "under the green Moon". The characteristics of hard fantasy as they apply to this setting are:

• Set on Earth (really, can you think of anything more fantastical than a different realm with completely different geography...and yet humans are there, and more than that, humans with a pseudo-European background?
• Set in the Far Future There's no real evidence for massive civilizations in the distant past, so instead, i'm setting it 30,000+ years in the future.
• All "races" are human descendants: the various "Breeds" (for various reasons I hate to use the term race to define biological differences) were created over the past eaons for various reasons.
• Magic is an addition to the laws of physics, not a replacement. In fact, given the presence of long-vanished technological civilizations in the past, I'm justified in leaving hints that "magic" isn't necessarily magic.

That said, there's some other characteristics of the world that follow from the above.

• There have been many vanished civilizations: Our era is almost entirely forgotten, and there's been at least six major world-spanning civilizations, and hundreds of regional ones. This gives plenty of scope for layers of history, cities built in the ruin of greater cities, and mysterious artifacts waiting to be discovered.
• Humanity is an elder race: in this game, Old Humanity is a race on the wane, ancient, fading, and mostly content to live in peace. Not too surviving, given that the humans alive are the ones that DIDN'T get involved in various calameties, ascensions, singularities and apotheosis. The world is more or less dominated by the "childer breeds" created by mankind in the past.
• Culture trumps biology. Different Breeds of Humanity may have huge variations in appearance and abilities, and different Breeds may be stereotyped as behaving in certain ways, but there are no "racial personalities". Two members of very different Breeds from the same social class in the same empire, will have much more in common than two members of the same breed from different cultures. Also, cultures will meet, mingle and merge, making things even more complicated.
• Most artifacts are biological: after tens of thousands of years, metals will oxidize, plastics rot, and silicon chips will decay. Thus nearly all artifacts surviving are biological- either engineered living creatures themselves, or produced by engineered living creatures.
• Though magic exists, it is more similar to classic psionics; force of will controlling an impersonal force. There are no ghosts, gods, demons or spirits, outside of the ones humanity creates to worship at temples.
• The cultures and cities may be familiar enough to understand, but they are also exotic. In short, the cultures will not look particularly like Western Europe. Aside from the cultural differences there's the remnants of salvaged knowledge and materials, and the fact that most cities will be built on earlier cities, thousands of years old.
• People may work on an epic scale, but the are still mortal. People may gain great power, but they do not become demigods. Death is always a certainty at the end of a life's adventure.

There's a bunch of other notes, but these are the main ones for me that define the "hard fantasy" element

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

This continues to sounds exceptionally cool.

Culture trumps biology

You are my hero for this. In both gaming and in public discourse I am always very pleased to see this sort of attitude replace the biological determinism that seems to infest our culture's assumption set.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Never liked the lazy assumption of "if you are X race it means you have Y behaviors," even if you're from an entirely different region and set of circumstances than other members of your race.
"What do you mean you don't like rap? You're black! You have to!"

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I really appreciate the kind words!

Race in rpgs has really bugged me for quite a while, especially with the idea of "racial personalities". One thing I liked about Shadowrun is it started to break away from that- you could theoretically have an Orc assistant VP...though he would have had to struggle like hell to get to his position.

One of the things I'm looking for in systems is almost like "templates" for both physical and cultural elements. As in, this are the typical physical attributes of a Daemon encompassed in a Daemon template, while the Ocean Nomad template would include the typical skills and possibly attitudes of people in that culture. I'll also have to leave flexibility for customization, of course.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

OTOH, consider a species where females had sex only in heat, as in most species. Or that produced litters or was otherwise r-selected for at least part of childhood. Or was parthenogenetic. Or could live on any plant matter, if slowly. Or had an oxytocin difference like in meadow or prairie voles, such they didn't pair-bond, instead raising children in bands of sisters and aunts (like elephants?) Or, conversely, pair bound permanently, like some animals are said to. Not to mention differences in what's sexually attractive, feeding into differences of what's aesthetically attractive.

It's not "I'm a dwarf, therefore I'm a short hairy Scotsman", and culture and class might cut across biology, but conversely differences of this order wouldn't necessarily be trumped by culture.

Also, if they're full species, then "who can I mate with" and "who is my relative" would cut heavily across culture, for both "who can I trust" and "who thinks like me".

(Though conversely the Queen of the Hyena People can trust humans not to mate with her male harem.)