Re: Anti-technology gamers - Was: WoW - I wonder....

In <URL:news:local.spelljam> on Thu 07 Sep, David Shepheard wrote:
> From: "Dreamer" <dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk>
> Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2006 7:33 PM
> Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] WoW - I wonder....
> 
> > Some people won't play in games which are too 'off genre' - I
> > know a number of players who refuse to involve themselves in
> > fantasy games with tech elements, even if it is an integral part
> > of the setting, because they say that it makes them feel that it
> > is not a 'real fantasy' game.
> 
> Maybe the people who don't like tech in fantasy are Lord of the Rings fans.
> 
> LotR shows technology as a something that destroys the environment and 
> traditional society and is only used by evil doers.

Maybe...  Tech is something that you'd better have a firm grasp
and control of, or it can really mess you up.  But, the same
really applies to most powerful things.


> I'm tempted to say that a limited amount of technology might be appropriate 
> within certain crystal spheres, but that enviromental and cultural impact of 
> technology would need to be a feature of the game.
> 
> The Defilers of Athas show us how magic can damage a world. Technology would 
> have a bigger impact as there is much less to limit the amount of technology 
> a society can create.
> 
> I would think that the safest thing to do with tech is to leave it out of 
> the core SJ setting and make it an optional extra. Crystal spheres with tech 
> using societies could be written up. DMs that like tech can then use these 
> crystal spheres and DMs that hate tech can choose to avoid them. That way 
> everyone gets to run the type of SJ game they like.

Sounds reasonable enough, in particular if you remember Clarke's
Law ('Any sufficiently advanced technology is industinguisable
from magic').

The big mistake I think is that people forget that human society,
SJ level and before, depends heavily on technology - arguably
once any race starts using anything not simply found unmodified
in its environment, it's using technology.  Waterpower and
windpower is quite advanced!

One reason that I stopped work (for the moment) on Dyson Space
was that I realised there was a definite risk of it not being a
SJ setting - start running games there and you could easily have
enough things going on that you never need to SJ again - and that
was definitely a setting where you likely couln't tell the high
tech from the magic!


> > Is that maybe a reaction to this post-modern stuff (not that I
> > claim to really understand what 'Post-Modern' is! [grin] )?
> 
> The d20 Future game is "Post Modern"! Arf-arf!

Ha!

'Fraid you'll have to do a bit better than that, for a definition
that makes sense to me! [grin]


> David "Big Mac" Shepheard
> Virtual Eclipse Role Playing Club
> http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/links/d20_system_001071937434/Spelljammer_001071430476
> http://virtualeclipse.aboho.com/ 

-- 
Dreamer
dreamer@??????.?????.??.uk
http://www.romsys.demon.co.uk/