| 1 | %%% |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Take care to put your example in its proper place in accordance with Administrivia/HowToAlphabetizeThings! |
| 4 | %% |
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| 6 | |
| 7 | %% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1465321274097714400 |
| 8 | %% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 9 | %% |
| 10 | [[quoteright:349:[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_jcmarspic.jpg]]]] |
| 11 | [[caption-width-right:349:Welcome to Barsoom, better known as UsefulNotes/{{Mars}}.]] |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ->''"I wanted to write about imaginary worlds. Now that our whole planet has been explored other planets are the only place you can put them."'' |
| 14 | -->-- '''Creator/CSLewis''', ''A Reply to Professor Haldane.'' |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Stories, nominally ScienceFiction, set on an alien world described in lush detail. The world can be Earth in the far distant future, or an alien planet, but it is reached by science-fictional means, not magic. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | However, [[Mohs/ScienceInGenreOnly the science is largely handwaving]]. Visitors may arrive on the world by spaceship, and there might be items of LostTechnology present, but overall the world will feel like LowFantasy -- a {{feudal|Future}} society with small-scale magic but no BigBad -- and it will share most of the same tropes. Sometimes the genre is even called "Sword and Planet", in reference to SwordAndSorcery, although other authors have this as a different if often overlapping genre. Because the "romance" in the title stems from ChivalricRomance, a LoveInterest is not in fact required. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | May involve WeirdScience. SchizoTech may occur. Even if the planet has futuristic transportation, expect, however irrationally, large parts of it to be unexplored, and it to be easy to be out of contact with one's home, allies, and government. Prone to use MedievalEuropeanFantasy tropes, or feature a FeudalFuture. Overlaps heavily with the Dying Earth subgenre pioneered by Creator/JackVance's [[Literature/DyingEarth eponymous novel]]. Examples set in our solar system tend to involve now-discarded hypotheses about the environments and histories of other planets, such as VenusIsWet and OnceGreenMars. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | SpaceOpera is a closely related genre, but the action and adventure tend to take place more in space and on differing planets. Usually it is set within the context of a [[GalacticSuperpower galaxy-spanning civilization]] and involves at least some [[CasualInterplanetaryTravel travel between planets]]. One distinction is that Planetary Romances are essentially [[JungleOpera Jungle Operas]] in space whereas {{Space Opera}}s are essentially HighFantasy in space. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Contrast with SingleBiomePlanet. See also PulpMagazine, {{Swashbuckler}}, TwoFistedTales. The natural environment for an AlienPrincess. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Not to be confused with MarsNeedsWomen. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | ---- |
| 29 | !!Examples: |
| 30 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 31 | |
| 32 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 33 | * ''Manga/{{ARIA}}'': The series is set in the 24th century on a terraformed Mars, now named Aqua, and follows a young woman named Akari Mizunashi as she trains as an apprentice gondolier (known as Undines). |
| 34 | * ''Anime/{{Daltanious}}'' takes place in 1995.[[note]]For reference, this work was released in 1978[[/note]] By then, humanity has made contact with aliens, and Earth has been ravaged by the cruel Zaal Empire. When main character Kento uncovers a SuperRobot by accident, him and his war-orphan friends start fighting back, inspiring a [[LaResistance resistance]] across the galaxy. Many other aliens, from Planets like Marios, Helios and Proxia also visit the Earth. |
| 35 | * ''Anime/LastExile'' is set on the fictional world of Prester, where its inhabitants use aerial vehicles known as vanships as a means of transportation. On this world which is divided in eternal conflict between the nations of Anatoray and Disith, sky couriers Claus Valca and Lavie Head must deliver a girl who holds the key to uniting the two factions. |
| 36 | * ''Anime/{{Simoun}}'' takes place on the earth-like planet Daikūriku. The people of Daikūriku are all born female. The theocratic nation of Simulacrum has a monopoly on the helical motor technology and as a result grew to prosperity. The two nations Argentum and Plumbum wage war against it in an attempt to steal the technology. |
| 37 | * ''Manga/{{Trigun}}'': Set on a fictional planet known as No Man's Land, the plot follows Vash the Stampede, a famous gunman who is constantly fighting bounty hunters seeking to obtain the immense bounty on his head. |
| 38 | * ''Anime/TheVisionOfEscaflowne'': Though it initially appears to be fantasy, all examples of "magic" in the series turn out to be highly advanced (read: reality-altering) technology, and no wizards or sorcerers appear, only super-scientists. |
| 39 | [[/folder]] |
| 40 | |
| 41 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 42 | * ''ComicBook/AstroCity'': |
| 43 | ** A major part of Starfighter's past adventures involve Illula, Seven-Fold Empress of Jarranatha. |
| 44 | ** Also a good part of the Astro-Naut's adventures, with Xalzana the space princess. |
| 45 | * ''ComicBook/{{Den}}'': A disenchanted office worker builds a machine that opens a portal to another world where a "deposed queen" beckons him to enter another world. Turning into a muscleman on the new world, he fights several monsters. |
| 46 | * ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': |
| 47 | ** The ''ComicBook/PlanetHulk'' storyline was essentially a planetary romance. |
| 48 | ** ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'': After the Hulk returned to Earth, his son Skaar received his own title, also a planetary romance... at least until Galactus showed up to eat the planet. |
| 49 | ** This wasn't the first time the Hulk had got a planetary romance; there were also his adventures in the Microverse in the 70s. The Hulk's other son, Hiro-Kala, visits the Microverse in a 2010 miniseries. |
| 50 | * ''ComicBook/TheMagnificentMsMarvel'': The first plot arc drops Kamala into a classic ''Franchise/FlashGordon''-style planetary romance story, complete with a RaygunGothic visual aesthetic, alien hunks with colorful skin and minimal clothing, and a whole load of SchizoTech. |
| 51 | * ''ComicBook/{{Starlight}}'': Tantalus fits this trope in flashbacks but in modern day it's more like Earth. Most fantasy creatures were wiped out and the population have turned into ApatheticCitizens who sit in front of their [=TV=]s while a dictator rules them. |
| 52 | * ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'': |
| 53 | ** In the Silver and Bronze ages, Superman, ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} and the ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes often travelled around the galaxy and visited and explored other planets, mingling with their inhabitants. |
| 54 | ** ''ComicBook/TheKryptonChronicles'' and the different ''ComicBook/WorldOfKrypton'' series delved deeply into Krypton's history, culture and even language. |
| 55 | ** ''ComicBook/SupermanSupergirlMaelstrom'': One of the two main subplots has Superman and Supergirl exploring a remote, strange and dangerous planet. |
| 56 | ** ''ComicBook/TheCondemnedLegionnaires'': The Legion visit weird and uncanny worlds during their journey: a quarantine world where medical robots take care of people who suffer from rare diseases, a planet hidden inside a humongous cloud of dark matter inhabited by spherical, bouncy aliens, a faraway planet used as a playground by the children of a race of giants from another dimension... |
| 57 | ** ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'': Supergirl lives adventures across the galaxy wherein visits different planets and cultures as learning about herself. |
| 58 | * ''ComicBook/{{The Warlord|DCComics}}'': The Vietnam veteran and SR-71 pilot Travis Morgan passes through a hole in the Earth's crust while flying over the North Pole and lands in the [[HollowWorld underground world]] of Skartaris, a LostWorld strongly reminiscent of Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' ''Literature/{{Pellucidar}}''. There Travis, wielding his [[HandCannon .44 [=AutoMag=] pistol]] and joined by scantily-dressed female barbarian Tara, becomes the Warlord and fights villains such as the EvilSorcerer Deimos and various kings. |
| 59 | * ''ComicBook/WarlordOfMars'', the comic book adaption of Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' by Dynamite Entertainment. The books were also adapted by Marvel at some point. |
| 60 | %%* ''ComicBook/WednesdayComics'': Paul Pope's version of ComicBook/AdamStrange. (Not the mainstream version, whose Rann has too much high-tech stuff.) John Carter was his main inspiration for the series.%%ZCE. Why is this an example? |
| 61 | * A lot of the early, world-hopping stories in ''ComicBook/XMen'' and ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'' are like this, usually written by Chris Claremont and/or Alan Davis, and usually centering around Nightcrawler (and sometimes Shadowcat or Wolverine). |
| 62 | [[/folder]] |
| 63 | |
| 64 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 65 | * ''ComicStrip/FlashGordon'': The planet Mongo and its various moons are as much characters as the main cast. |
| 66 | [[/folder]] |
| 67 | |
| 68 | [[folder:Film -- Animated]] |
| 69 | * ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'': The movie begins as a Verne-like story of exploration, but its second half leaves the modern world behind focuses on the characters' stay in the isolated cavern-kingdom of Atlantis, among ancient, crumbling and overgrown ruins as they try to study its mysterious {{Magitek}} and the remnants of its society. By the end, most of the cast returns to the surface world, but the main protagonist stays behind as the spouse of Atlantis' new queen. |
| 70 | [[/folder]] |
| 71 | |
| 72 | [[folder:Film -- Live Action]] |
| 73 | * ''Film/{{Aquaman|2018}}'', while it technically takes place on modern Earth, is primarily set in the fantastical and technologically advanced five kingdoms of Atlantis at the bottom of the sea. Everything from [[PlasmaCannon plasma rifle]]-wielding stormtroopers backed by missile-spewing hovercraft to krakens and harpoon-wielding FishPeople to epic gladiator duels between kings is fair game. |
| 74 | * ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' is primarily an adventure set on the alien moon Pandora and completely unapologetic about the fact that it's all about a fantasy of [[MagicalNativeAmerican Magical Natives]] in a paradisal world. |
| 75 | * ''Film/JohnCarter'', naturally, an adaptation of the trope-codifying novel ''Literature/APrincessOfMars''. |
| 76 | * ''Film/{{Krull}}'' is a campy swashbuckling adventure pitting the residents of a StandardFantasySetting against a GalacticConqueror. |
| 77 | * ''Film/PrincessOfMars'', a {{Mockbuster}} from Creator/TheAsylum, is an extremely loose SettingUpdate of the ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' novels, with additional elements 'borrowed' from ''Film/{{Avatar}}''. |
| 78 | * ''Film/{{Stargate}}'': The original film. The [[Series/StargateSG1 subsequent]] [[Series/StargateAtlantis television]] [[Series/StargateUniverse shows]], however, follow the WagonTrainToTheStars format pioneered by ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', exploring strange new worlds and seek out new life forms and new civilizations. |
| 79 | * ''Film/StarWarsEwokAdventures'': While the ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise as a whole is a galaxy-spanning SpaceOpera, the ''Adventures'' movies are instead set on the isolated, wilderness moon of Endor and focus on what are functionally fantasy adventures as the characters contend against sci-fi versions of giants, orcs, and witches. |
| 80 | * ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' is a deliberate [[GenreThrowback throwback to the genre]]. Much of the action takes place on Sakaar, a chaotic LandfillBeyondTheStars ruled by a mad EvilOverlord, populated by countless alien species and located at a [[PortalCrossroadWorld nexus of wormholes]], all constantly [[SuperSargassoSea dumping the lost junk of the universe onto its surface]]. Director Creator/TaikaWaititi cited the cult '80s movie Film/FlashGordon1980 [[note]]''Flash Gordon'' itself is not Planetary Romance, but does have a similiarly kitschy aesthetic[[/note]] as a major influence on ''Ragnarok''. |
| 81 | * ''Film/ATripToTheMoon'' follows a group of astronomers who travel to the Moon in a cannon-propelled capsule, explore the Moon's surface, escape from an underground group of Selenites (lunar inhabitants), and return to Earth with a captive Selenite. |
| 82 | [[/folder]] |
| 83 | |
| 84 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 85 | !!!'''By Author:''' |
| 86 | * Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's [[ScienceFiction SF]] novels tend to steer this way: ''Literature/TheLeftHandOfDarkness'', ''Literature/RocannonsWorld'', etc. At least in the sense of having the planets be a pseudo-feudal setting -- she generally avoids the more magical elements. |
| 87 | |
| 88 | !!!'''By Work:''' |
| 89 | * ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfTomRynosseros'', featuring a [[SandIsWater sandship]] captain in a far future Australia, now [[PersecutionFlip reclaimed]] by the Aboriginal nations. |
| 90 | * ''Literature/BigPlanet'': The objective of the mission from Earth to Big Planet was to ensure that the whole world didn't fall under the domination of the tyrant Lysidder. But when the mission spacecraft crash-lands, the survivors are faced with a 40,000 mile trek across the vast and unknown surface of the planet. |
| 91 | * ''Literature/TheBookOfPtath'' by Creator/AEVanVogt: The god Ptath is flung into the far future by a deadly rival and given the mind of a 20th century man. Stranded in this alien world, he must fight to regain his powers before the rival goddess sends the world spinning into chaos and darkness. |
| 92 | * The ''Bunduki'' series by Creator/JTEdson. James Allenvale 'Bunduki' Gunn and his cousin Dawn Drummond-Clayton should have been killed when their Land Rover plunged into the Gambuti Gorge. Instead, Bunduki woke to find himself in a primeval jungle and armed with primitive weapons. Dawn came to her senses on a game-haunted plain. Guided by subconscious suggestion, they set out to find each other. To do so, they had to transverse terrain populated by many kinds of wild animals and savage people. Before they were reunited, both had to face danger and death many times. |
| 93 | * ''Literature/{{Coyote}}'' by Creator/AllenSteele (though it's technically a moon, not a planet. Lunar romance?). Set several decades in the future, ''Coyote'' presents a United States that has become an oppressive, dystopian nation. Its leaders decide to send colonists to a potentially habitable moon orbiting 47 Ursae Majoris, 46 light-years away. But just before the launch of the ship, a group of dissidents steal the ship and replace its crew, bent on starting a new life far out in space. |
| 94 | * ''Literature/TheDarkangelTrilogy'' is set in the distant future, when the Moon has long since been terraformed into a lush paradise complete with its own animals, plants, and races. |
| 95 | * ''Literature/{{Darkover}}'', by Creator/MarionZimmerBradley: Although nominally ScienceFiction, any of the novels set before the rediscovery are indistinguishable from fantasy. |
| 96 | * ''Literature/TheDiademSaga'' by Creator/JoClayton. Aleytys adventures from planet to planet throughout a galaxy equally inhabited by elemental spirits, InsectoidAliens, rogue psychics, hostile natives, corrupt {{megacorp}}orations, and TransplantedHumans of every kind. |
| 97 | * ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'' features [[OurDragonsAreDifferent dragons]] [[InSpace on an alien world]]. At the beginning of the series a prologue introduces the sci-fi aspects, but it is not until much later in the story that they become more apparent. Most novels remain firmly set in the medieval-level society that emerged after the original colony collapsed. |
| 98 | * ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' by Frank Herbert. The book, while perfectly serviceable as a straight example, is actually a DeconstructorFleet of the genre's conventions. [[Film/Dune1984 David Lynch's]] FilmOfTheBook plays the tropes much straighter. |
| 99 | * The ''Literature/DyingEarth'' series by Creator/JackVance is set in the distant future, at a point when the sun is almost exhausted and [[TheMagicComesBack magic has asserted itself as a dominant force]] and has, for the most part, displaced science. |
| 100 | * ''Literature/{{Gor}}'': Gor is a CounterEarth linearly opposed to the sun (essentially hidden by the sun) even while sharing the same orbit as earth. The planet of Gor is populated with cultures not unlike those of the Roman, Viking Greek and even native American, this presence of Earth-like cultures explained by the occasional transplantation of entire population groups from Earth to Gor. |
| 101 | * ''Literature/{{Helliconia}}'' is an epic chronicling the rise and fall of a civilisation over more than a thousand years as the planet progresses through its incredibly long seasons, which last for centuries. |
| 102 | * ''Literature/ThatIrresistiblePoison'': Set on the planet Calluvia, where the inhabitants are telepaths. This is an LGBT-friendly society, where same-sex couples are common and accepted. We see many technologies on Calluvia, such as transporters, holograms, genetically modified babies, and artificial wombs for same-sex parents. Even their telepathic abilities have neurobiological explanations. |
| 103 | %%* ''Ivory'', Doris Egan.%%ZCE |
| 104 | * ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'': One of the genre's definers. Mars is depicted as having loads and loads of alien races and strange life-forms (with a very cheerful disregard for any sort of biological plausibility—Red Martians are fully human-like in appearance, including having beautiful princesses, who lay eggs but are nonetheless fully capable of interbreeding with Earthmen) and swords co-exist with "radium pistols" and flying machines. The planet is divided into many independent kingdoms and city-states, along with mysterious enclaves of beings with ancient super-science. The entire setting serves as the arena for swashbuckling heroes to have exotic adventures (and woo the aforementioned beautiful egg-laying princesses). |
| 105 | %%* ''Kregen'', Alan Burt Akers%%ZCE |
| 106 | * ''Literature/TheLastGuardian2001'' while being a religious story, utterly glories in the alien world of Noron, the people and culture, the dinosaurs. |
| 107 | * ''Literature/TheLordsOfCreation'' series by S. M. Stirling is set in a present day AlternateHistory where Mars and Venus, thanks to the intervention of AncientAstronauts, are similar to the worlds portrayed in Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs' novels. |
| 108 | * ''Literature/LumbanicoTheCubicPlanet'': The setting is a bizarrely-shaped alien planet, located very far away from Earth, with their own different cultures and societies, each featuring their own calendars and set of beliefs, and a complex history that stretches back several centuries. |
| 109 | %%* ''Literature/MajipoorSeries'', Creator/RobertSilverberg%%ZCE |
| 110 | * Creator/LeighBrackett's Mars, Venus, and Skaith series (often featuring the recurring character Eric John Stark), which are essentially LowFantasy DarkerAndEdgier versions of Burrough's series. |
| 111 | * The ''Literature/NovelsOfTheJaran'' start this way, but become more sci-fi as the series progresses. |
| 112 | * ''Old Mars'' and ''Old Venus'' are two anthologies edited by Creator/GeorgeRRMartin and Gardner Dozois homaging old planetary romance stories set on Mars and Venus. |
| 113 | * Creator/MaryGentle's ''Literature/{{Orthe}}'' series. Slightly different in that Orthe is an alien world, populated by a race who apparently destroyed the high-tech and highly advanced race who once ruled it, and deliberately regressed to a much less technologically advanced state. |
| 114 | * ''Literature/PlanetOfAdventure'' by Creator/JackVance, featuring the adventures of Adam Reith, a spacer from Earth, who crash-lands on the newly discovered planet Tschai. Tschai is inhabited by four alien species. |
| 115 | * ''Literature/{{Radiance}}'' is a combined homage to this subgenre and to the roughly-coincident [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood Golden Age of Hollywood]], set in a solar system in which all worlds are inherently hospitable to Earth-like life and colonised by humans. |
| 116 | * In Mark Hodder's ''A Red Sun Also Rises'', a doubting priest and his hunchbacked sexton are taken by a tribe of cannibals and transported to an alien world which starts their adventure. |
| 117 | * Most of ''Literature/TheSpaceTrilogy'' by Creator/CSLewis, including ''Literature/OutOfTheSilentPlanet'' (set on Mars) and ''Literature/{{Perelandra}}'' (set on Venus) but not ''Literature/ThatHideousStrength'', which takes place on Earth. |
| 118 | * Ray Cummings' ''Tama of the Light Country'' is a surprisingly feminist work for 1930. It also zilches the one-culture-per-planet rule. Earthman Guy Palisse lands on Mercury in an experimental rocket. His friend Tama is a very young woman who leads a revolt of "winged virgins" and male allies against a long-established law that women must have their wings amputated (sans anesthesia) upon marriage. |
| 119 | * ''Literature/TerminalWorld'' by Creator/AlastairReynolds, is set in the far future on a planet hinted to be a terraformed Mars. |
| 120 | %%* Gary Poulsen's ''Literature/TheTransallSaga'', although it has no magic.%%ZCE |
| 121 | %%* Creator/SheriSTepper's ''Literature/TheTrueGame'' series.%%ZCE |
| 122 | * Creator/LSpragueDeCamp's ''Literature/ViagensInterplanetarias'' series is an attempt to do a semi-Hard SF version of Burroughs. |
| 123 | %%* ''Jane Carver of Waar'', intended as a DistaffCounterpart to ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars''.%%ZCE |
| 124 | * Terry Dowling's ''Wormwood'', a compilation of short stories taking place on a future Earth, which explore the place of humans in a world long since conquered by -- and modified to suit the needs (whims?) of -- a [[HigherTechSpecies technologically-superior alien race]], as well as several client species. |
| 125 | [[/folder]] |
| 126 | |
| 127 | [[folder:Live-ActionTV]] |
| 128 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': Some stories fit this genre, particularly in the early years when the show was more heavily influenced by Burroughs-like fiction: |
| 129 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks The Daleks]]": The crew land on the post-apocalyptic jungle planet Skaro, and go to explore the gleaming city in the distance to find a vital component for the TARDIS. They accidentally spark war between the NobleSavage Thal race, and the LittleGreenManInACan Dalek race, and lead the Thals into the Dalek city to attack them for good and get the TARDIS back. |
| 130 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E5TheKeysOfMarinus The Keys of Marinus]]", written by the same writer as "The Daleks": The crew land on the planet Marinus, with seas of acid and strange hostile aliens called the Voord. An old man blocks off the TARDIS and [[TheChooserOfTheOne tasks them as heroes destined]] to return four [[PlotCoupons Keys]], which they have to explore four different areas of the world to retrieve. There's a LotusEaterMachine city, an ice city, a jungle, and a KangarooCourt culture... |
| 131 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS2E5TheWebPlanet The Web Planet]]": The TARDIS is ensnared in a web and when Ian and the Doctor leave to investigate, Barbara becomes possessed and the TARDIS console is stolen, seemingly by giant ant creatures the Zarbi [[BeePeople under the instructions of their Queen]]. The [[InsectoidAliens Menoptera]] save Barbara and befriend the rest of the crew, and they set off on a journey exploring their planet, encountering various different kinds of insect people, and battling the Animus (a sinister [[PlantAliens Plant Alien]] that has taken control of the Zarbi). Has lots of very dreamlike imagery such as the Menoptera flying in space through an AlienSky, the surreal sounds made by the Zarbi and their larva that they use as weapons. |
| 132 | [[/folder]] |
| 133 | |
| 134 | %%[[folder:Music]] |
| 135 | %%* The Sword's ''Warp Riders'' is this as a ConceptAlbum. |
| 136 | %%[[/folder]]%%ZCE |
| 137 | |
| 138 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 139 | * The ''WebAnimation/{{Artifexian}} Podcast'' features regular worldbuilding segments set in a solar system where the three inhabited planets are based on different worldbuilding paradigms, one of them being a planetary romance. It has .6 earth gravity, meaning that humans who grow up there are much taller, humans who reach there from other worlds are comparatively far stronger, and [[CoolAirship airship]] technology is much easier to develop with pre-industrial technology. |
| 140 | [[/folder]] |
| 141 | |
| 142 | [[folder:TabletopGames]] |
| 143 | * ''TabletopGame/BluePlanet'' from Fantasy Flight Games is set on the [[SingleBiomePlanet water world]] of Poseidon and exploring it and surviving its inherent dangers are major parts of most campaigns. As a twist to its obvious "new colony" setting it's actually [[spoiler: inhabited by SufficientlyAdvancedAliens.]] |
| 144 | * ''TabletopGame/D20Modern'': "The Iron Lords of Jupiter" setting posits that, beneath Jupiter's cloud cover, the planet is solid just like Earth and home to hundreds of alien cultures with Iron Age-level technology, and the player characters are either natives or stranded humans. The reason for Jupiter having the same force of gravity as Earth is left as an exercise for the game-master. |
| 145 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': The ''TabletopGame/DarkSun'' setting has a fair bit of this flavour, with its DyingEarthSubgenre-inspired desert setting, emphasis on psionics over conventional magic, and preference for [[OurMonstersAreWeird weird, alien-seeming monsters]] over the more iconic ''D&D'' creatures. This was also the setting most commonly associated with the mantis-like thri-keen race, whose [[MultiArmedAndDangerous four arms]] were a common feature of the ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'' series. |
| 146 | %%* ''TabletopGame/EmpireOfThePetalThrone''%%ZCE |
| 147 | * ''TabletopGame/GURPSSettings'': ''Planet Krishna'' adapts Creator/LSpragueDeCamp's ''Literature/ViagensInterplanetarias'' series, and ''[[TabletopGame/GURPSSettings GURPS Planet of Adventure]]'' is based on Creator/JackVance's ''Literature/PlanetOfAdventure'' series. |
| 148 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Numenera}}'': Many of the worlds presented in ''Into the Night'' are intended as inspirations for this sort of storytelling. Travel to these worlds is difficult, and can happen just as easily as a result of being flung halfway across the galaxy by ancient {{Precursor|s}} tech as by deliberate starship travel. As a result even simply returning to Earth can take most of a campaign and the story is assumed to focus on exploring a new and alien environment, with its own bizarre native dangers and societies. Notable examples include the dying world of Naharrai, once known as Mars, which was terraformed in the ancient past but now grows drier and colder every year; Urvanas, once called Venus, where a society of humans and aliens inhabits ancient, self-replicating floating cities whose origins none now recall; Perelande, where societies of aliens and machines descended from ancient castaways live on a calcareous crust that covers a global ocean; Xeobrencus, a sunless ocean world home to strange aquatic beings; the Swarmstar, where a human culture lives among the vine-like filaments hanging from creatures that swarm around an alien sun; and the Gloaming, an Alderson disk home to a scattered confederation of alien cultures amides worlds' worth of wilderness. In most of these cases, the societies of the alien worlds are similar to the Ninth World Earth's in being largely medieval, with only scattered access to ancient fragments of advanced technology. |
| 149 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': |
| 150 | ** The setting is set up to facilitate this. The elves are actually of alien descent, and their ancient portals to other planets still exist. Some creatures such as nightgaunts can fly through space. Spells which allow this kind of travel are listed. The ''Distant Worlds'' sourcebook exists to flesh out the rest of the solar system as well, which generally consists of a mix of earlier ideas of the solar system mixed with eldritch horror. Aballon (Mercury) is a sun-baked world inhabited by robots with scattered habitable ice caverns, [[VenusIsWet Castrovel (Venus) is a jungle]] with dinosaur-riding amazons and is the homeworld of the elves, Akiton (Mars) is a dying world covered in ancient ruins and is home to expies of [[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars Green and Red Martians]] and a colony of [[Literature/AtTheMountainsOfMadness Elder Things]], and so on. The outer planets are even stranger, such as TidallyLockedPlanet Verces, Triaxus and its generations-long seasons, and NightmareFuel incarnate Aucturn. |
| 151 | ** ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'' promotes the setting to a full SpaceOpera, as it takes place centuries later and involves more advanced technology and frequent space travel. |
| 152 | %%* ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'': A major inspiration, especially Mars. |
| 153 | %%* ''TabletopGame/SkyrealmsOfJorune'' has an overwhelmingly complex alien world setting that also incorporated AfterTheEnd. |
| 154 | * ''TabletopGame/Space1889'' is UsefulNotes/{{Victorian|Britain}} colonial adventures on carefully described planets with a heavy dose of SteamPunk. Unlike most planetary romances, the science (particularly the one which is based on different natural laws and thus doesn't really work in our world) is carefully described. |
| 155 | [[/folder]] |
| 156 | |
| 157 | [[folder:Toys]] |
| 158 | * ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' is ambiguous at first when there is only a single island, then becomes a clear example as an underground alien civilization is uncovered (actually the body of a downed HumongousMecha). A new planet that's later introduced is an archetypal example of this trope. |
| 159 | * ''Franchise/MastersOfTheUniverse'', mostly in the early minicomics where Eternia was an ScavengerWorld. |
| 160 | [[/folder]] |
| 161 | |
| 162 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 163 | * ''VideoGame/{{Albion}}'' kicks off with the heroes crash landing on a planet. They first arrive in an alien world inhabited by cat people who use magic and OrganicTechnology, but later regions accessed in the game could easily look like medieval Europe, complete with Celts as inhabitants who worship ancient Veltic deities. |
| 164 | * ''VideoGame/DarkScavenger'' describes the species and cultures of the world in detail. |
| 165 | %%* ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}''%%ZCE |
| 166 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'': While the individual games are mostly just HighFantasy, the franchise as a whole indicates that it is this via its CanonWelding. It has been established that all of the worlds of ''Final Fantasy'' are part of a shared multiverse separated by a nothingness called the Void, something that occasionally spawns (or defeats) villains and can be crossed by characters with sufficient magical or technological means. Space travel between the worlds is theoretically possible and has happened once or twice, or has been part of villains' plots (e.g. Sephiroth's plan to use the Planet as a spaceship to find another planet in ''Anime/AdventChildren''). ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' in particular involves travel between different planets via meteorites. |
| 167 | * ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'' is an example of this trope set on post-apocalyptic Earth, where a FeudalFuture society of Nordic- and Celtic-inspired clans battle enormous robot dinosaurs and each other. |
| 168 | %%* ''Videogame/IronGrip'' is sort of a subversion, since it averts MedievalStasis (in favour of timeless SchizoTech) and combines PlanetaryRomance with the [[DuringTheWar War Drama]] genre.%%So how does it fit this genre? |
| 169 | * ''VideoGame/JourneyToTheSavagePlanet'' is all about exploring a, well, savage planet, fighting the wild animals left after the local {{Precursors}} vanished aeons ago. |
| 170 | %%* ''VideoGame/LesbianSpiderQueensOfMars''.%%ZCE |
| 171 | %%* ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'': The first two games have protagonist Samus exploring a single world each. She is tasked with saving each world from sheer destruction and can find in-depth information about the planets' rich history and wildlife through scanning lore, research and creatures. The third game becomes more of a space opera with the ability to explore and travel between multiple planets.%%Being set on a single planet is not enough to qualify for this trope%% |
| 172 | * ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}'' is set on the titular planet of Oddworld. Oddworld is an exotic planet populated by many bizarre alien species, each with their own unique culture. It is a Dystopian story about the environmental destruction of the planet caused by industrialized species and the effects that out-of-control business excesses with no morals have on the more vulnerable races. There's plenty of [[SlaveRace Slave Races]] and LastOfHisKind to go around with a heavy GreenAesop. |
| 173 | * ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'', in contrast to the other games in the series, takes place on a singular planet inhabited by sentient dinosaurs, and relatively few straight sci-fi elements. It does have satellital areas (previously separated from the planet) that stand in for offworld destinations, however. |
| 174 | %%* ''VideoGame/StarOcean''%%ZCE |
| 175 | * ''VideoGame/StarWarsJediFallenOrder'' has elements of this. Although multiple planets are visited, the focus is on the [[{{Precursors}} Zeffo]] and their long-dead civilization. |
| 176 | %%* ''VideoGame/UltimaWorldsOfAdventure2MartianDreams''%%ZCE |
| 177 | [[/folder]] |
| 178 | |
| 179 | %%[[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 180 | %%* ''[[http://www.perilsonplanetx.com Perils on Planet X.]]'' |
| 181 | %%* ''Webcomic/{{Pibgorn}}'' [[http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2003/02/05/ Drue is dropped in one.]] |
| 182 | %%[[/folder]]%%ZCE |
| 183 | |
| 184 | [[folder:WesternAnimation]] |
| 185 | * ''Animation/FantasticPlanet'' (''La Planète sauvage''), the bizarre, surreal French animated film. |
| 186 | %%* The ''Den'' and ''Taarna'' segments from ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal.''%%ZCE |
| 187 | %%* ''WesternAnimation/TheHerculoids''%%ZCE |
| 188 | %%* ''WesternAnimation/ThundarrTheBarbarian''%%ZCE |
| 189 | [[/folder]] |
| 190 |
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