Jonathan Linneman jacks into the 'net once again with Question #11
Do you find that some [technological] elements of your games are actually retro-futuristic at this point and if so, do you embrace that or try to keep modern tech in mind?
I view all genre fiction in the way one might imagine a piece of period fiction, it's simply that the period in question might be the present or the distant future. You wouldn't add cellphones to the era of the Vikings or give Victorian England streaming television now would you? Of course not. The attraction of playing in a different time and place is partially that it features the props of some other time and place.
In my opinion, the worlds of ALIEN, Cyberpunk 2020, Star Trek, and Traveller are no different. They need not line up with our current, real world technological developments but rather they should be internally logical and consistent.
All too often I see writers and GMs trying to make their game settings 'realistic' even though they deal with elves and wizards, superheroes flying unaided across the sky, and fleets of FTL starships. Realism? Sorry Captain, that boat has sailed. The universes of Sci-Fi and Fantasy need not line up with ours but they must absolutely, positively line up with themselves.
So yes, one could say the Star Trek TOS Communicator or the MUTH/R computer interface of ALIEN is anachronistic but only to us, to our knowledge of current technologies. To them, those in that setting, it's not just advanced but more importantly, perfectly normal.
This is, I think, the best approach. Otherwise, every genre quickly becomes cyberpunk. That may be realistic, but that doesn't mean it is what you want to play.
ReplyDeleteExactly.
DeletePretty straightforward and makes sense. Thanks Adam! I wrestle with the issue a lot more than you do, it seems, although that's mostly just in my head as I rarely actually run or play in games set in the future...so maybe if I just quit worrying and played the darn games, it'd "bother" me less... ;)
ReplyDeleteIt might help if you look at it this way...you are not running or playing a game 'set in the future' - that implies an extrapolation of real world technological progression.
DeleteYou are playing a game set in 'The original Star Trek television series' or 'The 56th century of Traveller's Known Space' or 'The One Year War of Japan's seminal Mobile Suit Gundam universe'.
You are creating a game that takes place in A future, not THE future.
Hmm. I like that. It reminds me of...I think it was an Onion article, in which Trek fans were freaking out because the canonical birthdate of one of Kirk's ancestors had come and gone without them being born, and the fictional future was now thrown off because the present no linger fit. I suppose that's pretty much how my worries sound... :)
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