Its also a reason why I don''t like scrolls that you can cast easily. You should have a certain ability that goes up that allows you the power to cast a scroll spell... Fortunately I have only seen games that force you to be good enough before scroll-casting... Just thought I''d make the point though

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

Yeah, as far as magic, I like the idea of having to actually go to great lengths to get the knowledge of magic. Like go seek out some wizard in a remote location...


"All you touch and all you see is all your life will ever be --Pink Floyd
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
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Any fictional world needs to have its own rules and consistency to be believable. Believable worlds are generally better than unbelievable worlds. The main thing that separates science fiction and fantasy, is that SF is about what might be while fantasy is about what could not be. There is reams of possibility for crossing over the two, because the only thing that ''speculative'' fiction must have is rules and consistency. So you can include things that could be true as well as things that could not be true as long as the rules in your world remain the same throughout.

One thing I read in Stephen King''s Danse Macabre, was that fantasy is about *GAINING POWER*, AS OPPOSED TO ALREADY HAVING IT.
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Ie, that the characters are learning how to use whatever powers that they have been born with, or maybe how to influence people politically (I''m making this one up), or how the world works.

To Me (Ketchaval) good science fiction is about the implementation and exploration of concepts and ideas, ie. the effects of longevity, the problems of linguistic misunderstandings, or what have you. Good Sci_Fi tends to take these concepts and then develop them in a logical and consistent way, AND combine it with a entertaining story (be it happy, tragic, funny, interesting or what have you) (duh!).

I don''t consider Star Wars to be science fiction, considering it to be FANTASY in a "Futuristic" setting (oh, yeah? a Long long time ago?- see fairy story intro !). Where aliens are infact just monsters / funny looking humans - ie. Jabba the Hut is nothing more than a fat mobster, the concept of his "alienness" is not in the least explored! Star Wars is about Luke Skywalker learning how to use his inherited powers!

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I believe that it is possible to combine Science-Fiction "concepts" and with fantasy structure, ie. that the hero/s come to power.

Quote: "Magicians are supposed to be scholars who are so
intelligent that they can conjure up spells, and the only way
to do that as well is to learn yourself... Which is why I don''t
like the ability for just anyone to pick up that super-blaster
and wipe out the anyone who stands in their way."

Thus the magicians quest to learn the spell would be part of their FANTASY voyage of discovery (including self-discovery -mind , rites of passages. etc?). The actual spell - concept could be a clever (Science-Fiction) style effect based on "science".

Thus we see that many fantasy games often forsake the gaining of power concept ie. if you can just pick up a spell...

The term ''Science Fiction'' has kind of lost its real meaning - people now associate it with anything connected with spaceships or robots or whatever - anything set in the future.

There are very few SF films which are actually real SF - most I would say are fantasy. Trouble is that SF makes good books, but relatively boring films. There are exceptions of course, but the vast majority of so called SF films are not SF.

A good sf book (& film.. though it was a little crapper than the book) with fantasy aspects was Sphere (Michael Criton[sp?] - the guy who wrote the book ''Jurrasic Park'' - good book, crap film [again]). Sphere is sci-fi in the sense that it is about advancement in technology (to the point of there existing a space-ship) and fortunately the setting is on our own un-technologised earth (so basically, in current day). The fantasy elements come in the form of halucinations which can become objectified. Anyway... Good book

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - Site:"The Philosophers'' Stone of Programming Alchemy" - IOL
The future of RPGs - Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche
          

Example number 1 of the merging of Sci-Fi and Fantasy..
Shadowrun:Futuristic cyberpunk setting...complete with magic,elves,dragons, AND dwarves(;P dwarfsoft)
#2...
also, most of the Final Fantasy series involved alot of this merging...but in a more sci-fi industrial/fantasy way...



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