Sci-Fi vs Fantasy

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary Fantasy Fiction is described as the following:

While Science Fiction is described as:

So, by using these definitions you could actually place the popular book Harry Potter or the movie Star Wars into both genres of writing.

Actually, there is. The expandable board game HeroScape by Hasbro takes both the fantasy and science fiction genres and mixes them quite well in my opinon. To have a game that merges these two genres, though, I believe you would need to have a good narrative or backstory that tells why space marines are fighting along a dragons side, or why the elves now have star cruisers. This is where I believe HeroScape fails. The backstory given does not tell you enough about the land of Vahalla and why these creatures are fighting for a land that is not their own. Do this and I think you could a winner on your hands!

Good Luck!
Justin

The problem with mixing sci-fi and fantasy is to create a ruel system generic enough to manage any unit what ever it`s origin.

This was the original goal of GURPS role playing system which made any setting fit together. But if you take a look at AD&D 2nd edition, the system was made for a medieval fantsy setting, so adding sci-fi stuff would mean change many stuff to balance the system.

Hero scape seems to have made a generic system good enough to manage any unit. In fact, people on the net are taking any miniature and import it easily in the game. I even saw a `Bill Gates` miniature as a heroscape character.

Phantasy Star somewhat mix sci-fi and fantasy too. The world is sci-fi but there is magic and fantasy creatures. I really like the setting of Phantasy Star. Attacking a dragon with lazer riffles is just so cool.

(edited) Whoops, pointless post. I thought I was the first to bring up Heroscape, but I've since read the thread.

Carl

It seems, from the posts above, that the scifi + fantasy bridge has clearly been crossed (successfully or not). It is also clear that you were truly excited that you may have stumbled onto a bit of the ever elusive originality. But I wouldn't be discouraged by this: Look now at the opportunity to cross pollinate two OTHER genres. Scifi + Fantasy seems fairly vanilla + chocolate as far as originality. Think more chocolate + peanut butter (who knew?!?)

For example, take the success of the TV show/ Movie Serenity (cult following success nonetheless, but who is your market again?!!?). It combined the Old West with SciFi, elegantly, IMO.

So that is what I am challenging you to do. Don't think mechs v. dragons, think dragons v. soccer moms. Or space marines v. pirates. Or slimy green creatures from the underworld v. politicians…oh wait… (Insert joke here.)

Anyway, I hope you get what I’m trying to say. And I’m not suggesting to just re-chrome your game either, but think about the X v. Y and brainstorm- brainstorm- brainstorm.

John

Funny, the very first boardgame I ever created pitetd a fantasy army against an SF army. Taught me plenty about how unbalanced having hundreds of unique powers can be. Interestingly, it also revealed one reason why it's perhaps not a very effective boardgame subject, and works better in literature, where it's very old hat, really.

The main issue is this: When placed together in a boardgame context, the mix of SF and fantasy is perfectly reasonable and doable in a mechanical context. The problem is that the presence of the two are guided by the same rules sets, more or less (to ensure they can interact in the same game), and this tends to make the actual mechanics very apparent, and break the suspension of disbelief.

Somehow, in my opinion, when firing a tank round and lobbing a fireball both use the same basic procedure, it feels more like just rolling dice. They become jsut an attack, rather than a super-sonic depleted uranium round, or a vortex of energy binding a pinhole-gate to the elemental plane of fire. For some reason, going back and forth between technology and fantasy strips the glamour from either one, and the mechanic that allows them to co-exist is left behind, unadorned.

Perhaps this is just my thinking on the subject, but I feel that in most cases, the combination of the two doesn't work because the immersive quality of the theme and setting disappears in a strange way.

can't stop laughing...:)

I think so. You're suggesting taking either SF or F and pitting it against something in the real world? I'm interested to understand where you're coming from so please correct/inform me if I'm just not getting it.

I’m not suggesting specifically taking SF or F and pitting it against the something in the real world, more suggesting pitting two things together that really shouldn’t be put together, yet somehow work together. I gave the example of the Sci-Fi Western just because I had an easy ‘real world’ example of it being a success.

By ALL means pit things together that should not be together and aren’t necessarily from the real world. Off the top of my head, try a Fantasy Western…what would that be like? Or what about Sci-Fi pitted against Fairy Tales…what would that be like? Or Killer Clowns From Outer Space against Secret Agents from Atlantis… I guess that’s what I’m saying, ask a really outlandish question and try and answer it…ask enough of them and you will have something…is this making any sense?!!?

John

Whilst not quite Fantasy v SciFi - there was 'High Crusade' in Ares #16 - a strategic level simulation game of Poul Anderson's High Crusade novel in which knights battle an interstellar empire.