Let's create a high fantasy/space opera hybrid and set an RPG in it.

So, yeah. The title.

But I think I should go into detail. Anyone here who has played Warhammer40,000 has an idea of what I'm talking about. But whereas Warhammer 40k is MUCH more Darker and Edgier, I want to make a Space Opera with many of the elements of more classic, idealistic High Fantasy.

I came up with this when I thought "What if there was a work that was somehow on both ends of the Romanticism Versus Enlightenment Scale?

How about a reconstruction of those two genres?

That's what this thread is about. When it's finished, I'm hoping to set it in a Forum RPG.

This will be a Troperiffic setting that reconstructs as many tropes associated with space operas and high fantasy as possible.

This is a collaborative effort, and anyone can participate. I will have final say in what gets put into the final product, but I'm probably going to approve of most things, as long as they don't break the rules and they're not offensive/inappropriate/ect.

• Rules:
  • Contributions don't have to fit on one side of the Rv E Scale. As I said, this is a space opera/high fantasy hybrid.
  • This is not a darker and edgier deconstruction of anything. It's a reconstruction of high fantasy and the space opera after deconstructions like Battlestar Galactica and Game of Thrones. Not to say darker and edgier deconstructions are bad, of course.
  • Not all suggestions that can fit under a trope must be a Reconstruction of it somehow. But I would like for there to be as many reconstructed tropes as we can come up with.
  • This must be an Adventure-Friendly World. Contributions that endanger that won't be accepted.
  • The magic has to fit under Magic A Is Magic A and the science has to fit under Physics Plus.
  • Have fun. If you're not having fun, it's not contributing to your understanding of the world, and it's not keeping you alive, then what's the point of doing it?

So yeah. Those are the rules. I'll make a few contributions myself tomorrow.

edited 2nd Sep '14 9:26:26 PM by Apocalypt1cAssass1n

So, exactly how are you envisioning the balance between fantasy and sci-fi elements here? Are we talking about medieval fantasy cultures that make use of ancient starships that they don't understand, or straight-up Magitech spacefarers? Warhammer 40000, to the extent that I understand it, seems to fall mostly into the latter category.

Also, are you intending to use a more or less realistic cosmological structure for this universe (i.e. star systems, galaxies, superclusters, etc), or something more outlandish that permits space opera elements without really otherwise paralleling our own world? I guess there are also ways to kinda do both at once, if you really wanted to.

One idea that comes to mind is to have some parts of the universe more 'sci-fi-oriented' and other parts more 'magic-oriented'. That is to say, technology and magic literally become weaker and stronger in different regions (possibly in inverse proportion to each other, although this isn't strictly necessary). This is probably a bad idea that would overcomplicate things and draw too much of the focus, and I'm not saying you should use it, but I figured it would be pointless to throw it out anytime other than now.

I thought that we could make it more based around the "technomancy school" described on the magitek page. For example, a rifleman would have his laser gun enchanted by a mage so that it would deal extra damage. I think that would make for some interesting gameplay.

I was thinking it could contain every historical fantasy culture. One species would be more wuxia-style, and another would be more classical fantasy-style.

About your second question, I do think we should take Artistic License for the sake of good storytelling.

Hmm, yeah, I'm not sure about the third one. It could make things pretty complicated.

So... Along the lines of Macross Plus or Macross7?

An adventures guild is a must in this setting, the best examples of them in fiction in my opinion are the hunter's guild of the fantasy stat series and the one in hunter x hunter. I suppose that that heroes guild of fable could also be listed as example. But the inclusion of a heroes guild will be determined by how on the noses/meta you want to be.

I personally prefer the term hunter's guild, because when you get down to it adventures as often portrayed in fantasy RP Gs and the books derived from. Are a combination of bounty-hunter mercenary and item recovery specialist.

How Star Wars are we aiming for here? totally out the window, or anything that's not nailed down?