Can Fantasy turn into Sci-Fi?

Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by FifthofAscalante, Feb 25, 2018.

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  1. Vandor76

    Vandor76 Senior Member

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    Sorry for the late answer to this comment but this is exactly what I'm doing in my WIP and I wanted to add a few things to consider here:
    - If this virtual reality is a game, then some things are added only to help players (magical artifacts, healing locations, etc), make them struggle or amuse them (mini quests or games)
    - Some of them know each other from the real world and communicate there as well
    - They spend time outside of the VR world and this should be somehow hidden from the artificial characters (if any)
    - There could/should be moderators who show up from time to time when things get out of control
    - Even if all players agree that they keep the existence of the real world a secret, some information may leak to the others and artificial players start speculating about this "higher level of existence"
    - You can't avoid the "common language" trope. Real players won't learn some made up language just to be able to talk to the habitants of a small fantasy kingdom
     
  2. Safety Turtle

    Safety Turtle Senior Member

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    Don't see why not, Star Wars and Star Trek does it and most people consider them sci-fi.
     
  3. Ksenia Tomasheva

    Ksenia Tomasheva Member

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    I'd say they are blending the genres from the start. A more precise example would be Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern. I personally love that feeling when characters living in a seemingly fantasy world start exploring it and discover its sci-fi nature. Actually, that's what humans did, isn't it? ;)
    But you need to plan for this transformation in advance to make sure you put enough clues in front of reader's eyes, so that when the truth is revealed he or she can exclaim "I should have known that! Why didn't I think about such an obvious explanation?" Not sure, if there is a similar metaphor in English... we say that one of the worst things that kill your story is "grand piano in the bushes". It's when you add some big feature that changes everything at the end of your story without preparing the reader for it with some clues and hints incorporated into earlier parts of the text.
     
  4. Unique

    Unique Member

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    Lots of people learn "English". England is an increasingly minor/decreasingly major country with delusions of grandeur on the edges of Europe.

    If you play any of the big online games you'll find that communities do cluster into language groups - I mainly see Russian, Chinese and English. Lots of Europeans play in English clans/guilds and some do so specifically to improve their English.
     

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