Line #31 AnachronismStew/TabletopGames


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2	* Even ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' and its derivatives have this. Many settings (and many more [=DMs=]) [[FantasyGunControl don't allow firearms]], but will gladly allow many weapons that, in real life, came about after, and sometimes as a direct consequence of, the invention and proliferation of guns in real life. Rapiers, a longtime standard of Bards and Rogues, are just one example.
3	** Armour also falls into this, with all types of armour being portrayed as available in the same time period and simply being a matter of personal choice to balance weight and protection. In reality, full plate armour did not exist until around the 15th century, by which time many other types of armour were obsolete (particularly scale), at least in Europe. In addition, most armour has historically been a mix of various types, frequently mail or scaled on limbs with plates or scales covering the torso, which is rarely represented in such games at all. Helmets are possibly even worse, generally all being treated as identical despite a huge amount of development over thousands of years.
4	** An oft-overlooked example is the fact that one of the standard units of currency is the platinum piece (worth more than the [[GoldSilverCopperStandard gold, electrum, silver, and copper pieces]]) but platinum wasn't seen as anything but an impurity in gold until the eighteenth century.
5	* ''TabletopGame/{{Space 1889}}'' well, it is Victorians in Space meeting canal Martians which have a pre-industrial society with some leftover technology from a much more advanced era, stone-age Hill Martians and High Martians on Mars and stone-age lizardmen and dinosaurs on Venus.
6	* ''King Arthur Pendragon'' takes a mix of all the main Arthurian myths, mostly Malory, and sets it in sub-Roman Britain. The appearance of medieval technology later in Arthur's reign is [[AWizardDidIt explained by magic]] and it all fades away after the Battle of Camlann with history re-asserting itself.
7	** ''Pendragon'' is not above {{shout out}}s to later history either, including Merlin prophesying that the Pope would live in Avignon, and Myth/KingArthur quoting UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy "ask not what your country can do for you..." before the Battle of Badon Hill.
8	* Parodied in the TabletopGames ''[[Series/XenaWarriorPrincess Diana: Warrior Princess]]'' and ''[[Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys Elvis: The Legendary Tours]]'', which take the AnachronismStew approach to modern-day pop-culture.
9	* Quirkily {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d by the {{Sourcebook}} ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Middle Ages''. Its opening chapter includes a sidebar that actually explains the concept of Anachronism Stew by pointing out all the historical mismatches in its own cover art.
10	** Also acknowledged in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Camelot'', the Arthurian sourcebook. There are ''three'' Arthurian settings mentioned - the Mythic one (Geoffry of Monmouth style, with plenty of anachronism), a Realistic one (as close as research can get us), and the Cinematic one (based on movies, with chrome armor and French castles and all the other goodies - not so much Anachronism Stew as an Anachronism Smoothie).
11	* ''Mythic Russia'' has a few that are [[LampshadeHanging pointed out]] and {{justified\|Trope}} in the book. The Russians drink vodka even though it hadn't yet become popular historically, because "what is a game in Russia without vodka?" The Mongols are Tengrist pagans even though the Golden Horde had converted to Islam by the time it was set, partly because it's easier to handle in the game's ReligionIsMagic system and partly because of plain old RuleOfCool.
12	* The ''Pirates Constructible Strategy Game'' by Wizkids is a naval combat game set sometime before, during, and after the American Revolution/War of 1812 era. When the first set came out, things were fine, but with each new expansion, they seem to be intent on adding a new crazy mechanic. They get alright justifications/{{Handwave}}s most of the time, but it is still silly. They are currently halfway between this and FantasyKitchenSink. Some of these include:
13	** Sea Monsters/Titans
14	** Cursed pirates
15	** Submarines (based off Creator/JulesVerne)
16	** Vikings ({{Handwave}}d as being northerners who believe Myth/NorseMythology)
17	** Bombardiers (Ships with long-range and ''flame cannons'' attached to their decks)
18	** Turtle ships (which at least existed around the time)
19	** "Switchblades" (metal ships with giant pincers attached to the sides)
20	* ''TabletopGame/VisigothsVsMallGoths'' is anachronistic by nature, due to TimeTravel bringing some antiquity-era Barbarians to 1990s Los Angeles. That aside, most of the references are true to the time period, but some of the names are more modern references for the RuleOfFunny. For instance, the store Big Disc Energy plays off [[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/big-dick-energy a 2019 meme that also has the acronym BDE]].
21	* The old ''Atlantean Trilogy'' by Bar Games mixed AnachronismStew with AllMythsAreTrue, and came up with an alternate Earth where Atlantis coexists with Avalon, Amazons rub shoulders with gypsies, and you can sail from Hyperborea to Nazca. Never mind it's supposed to be set in 15,000 BC, and the continents' geographies are radically different?
22	* The defunct trading card game ''Anachronism'' was built on this trope. The idea was that you could play as, say, Ivan the Terrible while wielding a claymore, wearing Japanese armor, and with Aphrodite on your side.
23	* The TabletopGame/YuGiOh OCG name for the Chronomaly archetype, "[=OOPArts=]", is an acronym for "Out-of-Place Artifact", a term used to describe artifacts that make no logical sense given the technology available at the time they were created. The TCG name, "Chronomaly", is a portmanteau of the word "chronology" which is the sequential order in which past events occur and "anomaly" as in an irregularity or something odd. Put together these monsters are "chronological anomalies" or "chronomalies" since these objects deviate from what would have been possible to create given the resources and technology available at that time.
24	** Note that this isn't even the most notable example. From the very start, there were magicians, knights, dragons, and the like along side stuff like tanks, military infantry, and both [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot ridiculously human]] and {{Super Robot}}s.
25	* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}''
26	** The one most people have pointed out in Fantasy Battles is Bretonnia, which is an Arthurian-style Feudal Kingdom with your traditional knights, bows, and trebuchets, right next door to the Empire, which is nearly 2-3 centuries ahead with cannons, guns, and ''tanks''.
27	*** In fact, the Empire has knights and archers (and crossbowmen!) of its own, deployed right alongside the cannons, guns and tanks.
28	** Other examples in the game (there are many) include the Skaven, who have access to Gatling- oh wait - ''[[{{Pun}} Ratling]]'' guns and ''Lightning cannons'', while other races, such as the Elves or the Tomb Kings, still use ballistae, bows and chariots.
29	** Note that these are actually justified in the lore- the Bretonnian elite are protected by the Lady's blessing against firearms, while Bretonnian law forbids the use of "cowardly" gunpowder weapons on their soil (and as a result, have the most guns on their ''navy''), because the Lady they worship is actually worship a Wood Elf goddess who deliberately keeps them at a pre-industrial level so they won't start massively chopping down her forests.
30	* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has this as well, with many troops (especially Orks) being armed with bladed melee weapons such as swords, axes, and [[CarryABigStick warhammers]], while others have machine guns, lasers, automatic bazookas, and space ships.
31	** A prime example being the Imperial Guard, where you can have tribals with axes & bows, horse cavalry, World War I-style tanks, {{Chicken Walker}}s and {{Future Copter}}s all in the same force. And a whole line of 20th-century weaponry classified as stubbers & autoguns like M1911, Uzi, AK-47, & M2 Browning are still in service with them.
32	** Characterized even farther by the fact that the lore states there are planets that have slid back technologically to a MedievalStasis from being cut-off from other worlds, which may have been used at one point in early source books to try and incorporate the ''Warhammer Fantasy Battle'' universe into that of 40k.
33	* ''TabletopGame/HoylesRulesOfDragonPoker'': The author never bothers to explain why a game played at ancient Pompeii has rules for surge protectors and Weird Al.

Context AnachronismStew / TabletopGames