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So ive managed to pull my self away from my lair and stop play Dark Souls and Halo 4, because while playing, ive had a though, which was probably planted in ym mind from the Lore of the Halo universe.
Has anyone ever done fantasy setting (you know standard dnd, LotR, etc, not d20modern, etc) where theyve incorporated high technology of some form?
For example from Halo. The human race as once technologicaly on par witht he fore runners, but were running from the flood parasite, which caused us to push into fore runner territory and the ensuing war. after which we were basicaly bombed backt ot the stone age with them reworking our genetics or some such etc. Now im not asking if anyones has done anything like that, because here is my train of thought.
There are alot of diffrent planes, and along witht hat, even other worlds, as the stars int he night sky would be a testament to...so why COULDNT there be or have been, some space faring race(s). (hell i think there was a game like this before...star ocean or something along those lines, i dont know never played.)
Any ways, has anyone done anything like where the ruins of some "long lost civilization" had started to be dug up perhaps. Maybe there was some legend about some great star or object falling from the sky, except it wasnt some falling meteorite but a crashed ship, or anything else along these lines, etc.
I saw a movie called "Star-something" or "Something-Wars". Not sure...
Anyway, it's about this farm boy who goes to see a wizard and the wizard gives him a magic sword that used to belong to the boy's father. Then they meet up with a cowboy and his talking dog. The cowboy flies them in his flying ship to go raid a flying castle to rescue a princess from the dungeon. Then they fight the black knight and destroy the castle. It was pretty cool. Spawned a few sequels, I think.
Any ways, has anyone done anything like where the ruins of some "long lost civilization" had started to be dug up perhaps. Maybe there was some legend about some great star or object falling from the sky, except it wasnt some falling meteorite but a crashed ship, or anything else along these lines, etc.
This trope is so common that you barely notice when it's used anymore. When it occurs in settings, most people mistake it for a kind of magic (or it is magic, just better than anything your average hedge mage can work out). Check it out: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...LostTechnology
__________________ "...I worry that modern gaming is gradually shrinking the wide spectrum of gameplay mechanics into a single narrow red bar with "KILL" written on it sideways. Exploration, navigation, puzzles, platforming, all gradually shrinking away until only one thing remains, being taken by the hand from room to room, moving on only when nothing remains alive in each one." - Yhatzee Crosshaw
is it wrong that ive started to bring my dnd questions to reddit for more reliable answers?
Let me answer your question more directly then. High technology as it appears in Sci-Fi settings IS magic. There is no difference in actual practce.
Sci-fi: "Aliens built this gateway that allows instant teleportation by transporting matter through hyperspace/subspace/quantum flux fields."
Fantasy: "Wizards built this portal that allows instant teleportation by passing through the realm of shadows/astral plane/deep ether".
One of the original D&D settings featured a crashed spaceship with laser guns and robots. If you want "high tech" in your fantasy, just pick which magic items and spells you want to be hyperscience instead of magic and say that they run on batteries instead of arcane charges.
Wasn't it Arthur C. Clarke who said that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic? Same thing as pretty much everyone else.
I've run a couple campaigns with high magic/tech themes, and they're generally well-received. One was where I made magic widespread enough as to mimic modern tech (life insurance that'll actually resurrect you, teleportation rapid transit networks, etc), and another one was where I broke the material plane into "bubbles" with the astral plane in-between them, and had magic propelled ships fly between them. If you're looking into this, check out the spelljammer campaign. AD&D, but there's a 3e fan version.
Wasn't it Arthur C. Clarke who said that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic? Same thing as pretty much everyone else.
Pretty much. As the great Clarke tells us, the only difference between "mundane technology" and "crazy hoodoo witchcraft" is one of cultural context. We've just been trained by media to think there's a divide at all while the only real difference is aesthetics.
I'm working on a setting called Shadelight which has something like this--an ancient civilization with advanced magitech that everybody covets since they were wiped out. Also, if anyone's ever played Infinity Blade, that world actually has high-tech instead of magic, just pretty much everybody thinks it's magic 'cause they don't understand it. It's pretty cool the way they handle it (plus, Infinity Blade might have been the first game world I've ever seen to make Fighters seem awesome).
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