Modern Elements in Fantasy Worlds

[DRD1812]

If you’ve ever heard of Saonuihun’s Speeding Sphere Game, then you’re already familiar with this principle. Take a modern concept, ram it into the secondary world, and see what weirdness comes out the other end. The trick is finding the balance between the gag and the integrity of the fiction. A literal freaking pinball machine might be a bit much, but the concept of fantasy world real estate or dealing with tax season can inspire some fun storylines.

I've got a few other examples up on today's comic (http://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/con-con), and this is a technique that's worked for a couple of my own module designs. I'm curious to hear from the rest of you guys though. Have you ever inserted a modern concept into a fantasy setting? What was it? How did it work out?

[TripleD]

I've been toying around with a world that is a completely stereotypical fantasy world, but everyone has a "smartphone". A cheap, widely available magical tablet that does everything a modern smart phone can.

Haven't had a chance to implement it, but thinking it through its kind of amazing how many fantasy plots fall apart when everyone can take photographic evidence and immediately contact any missing person.

[Anderlith]

Read some Terry Pratchett he does this a ton. It's pretty fun.

[Incanur]

the concept of fantasy world real estate or dealing with tax season can inspire some fun storylines.

Real estate and taxes aren't remotely new things. Lots of ancient and medieval societies had them.

[Mutazoia]

This reminds me of watching "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys" back in the day. So many pop culture references in a show that took place in ancient (mythical) Greece. We had a drinking game just for that show. Every pop culture reference, take a drink. Every time Iolaus kisses some one, take a drink, chug if its Gabrielle (Xena)...

[Martin Greywolf]

Most of fantasy worlds have a thing or two like this - it's a very tricky thing, creating a medieval society that has place for adventures all the while not offending modern sensibilities, and things get infected.

A great example of this is a paladin class and its code of conduct. While ostensibly based on the medieval monastic orders, it is very different in spirit from those.

It's easier to do this and make it look cool with modern technology, but again, there already is some of that - a full plate armor is a 200-year future technology to the medieval knight.

Now, for the more useful advice, if you give people something that speeds up communication, expect an industrial revolution to come around really damn fast. One of the most important contributing factor behind our modern tech boom is improvements in communication, we can throw many, many more people at a problem than we could ever before. Even the most powerful people like the Pope could historically gather maybe a dozen top scholars in one place to deal with a thing, improved comms essentially means that all the top scholars are working on it if it is interesting enough.

A new weapon, well, it really depends on what kind of weapon. Something big like nukes will not change all that much (you need a really big trebuchet or really suicidal squad to use them), something comparatively smaller like rifles will (no more shield walls for you, and possibly no more armor).

Medical tech would change a massive amount of things, but none of those are in the spotlight of PCs, so this could be one of the least interesting things to do.

Social advances are potentially the most interesting ones to do, but also the hardest to execute - medieval Europe but LGBT is legitimized is an interesting concept, but how do you make it into a compelling story?

[AceOfFools]

Real estate and taxes aren't remotely new things. Lots of ancient and medieval societies had them.

You can say that again.

Know what wasn't as common as it's often portrayed in fantasy? Professional police forces, at least as er know them today.

Law enforcement obviously existed in some form, but the role of protecting citizens was generally shared between local aristocracy (i.e. the military) and the people themselves.

Peasants in some places even paid what amounts to taxes in the form of labor: men had to spend a certain number of days each year serving in what we might now call the militia. There was even something of a roll-over if the local lord didn't feel the need to ride into battle in a given year.

[Beleriphon]

You know a world with weird modern sensibilities, but also brutally medieval? The Witcher has it in spades. There are mutants, evolution, magical science, functioning alchemy and all kinds of stuff. That's for the people that can afford it, or are part of that stratum like wizards, sorceresses and witchers. Peasants are still dirt farming idiots that believe in stupid superstitions, life is cheap, they have 10 kids because half of them die before age 2, and law enforcement seems to be performed by whoever is ruling a village this week and it vacillates between brutal repression and slightly less brutal repression.

[Max_Killjoy]

You know a world with weird modern sensibilities, but also brutally medieval? The Witcher has it in spades. There are mutants, evolution, magical science, functioning alchemy and all kinds of stuff. That's for the people that can afford it, or are part of that stratum like wizards, sorceresses and witchers. Peasants are still dirt farming idiots that believe in stupid superstitions, life is cheap, they have 10 kids because half of them die before age 2, and law enforcement seems to be performed by whoever is ruling a village this week and it vacillates between brutal repression and slightly less brutal repression.

Very true -- finally gave in and got Witcher 3 on sale, and the blend / juxtaposition is really odd but actually well-done mostly.

[Kitten Champion]

One area which I find works well translating into a fantasy world is professional sports. The content of the sport in question is whatever you want, but the anachronism which makes it fun is the sort of culture and broader fandom aspect -- like A Knight's Tale.

In the lite dungeon-punk sandbox setting we're going to be playing in until the end of the summer, the city is obsessed with its professional duelists whose personas are somewhere between matadors and pop-idols and every major-league duel has commentators, fans cheering their lungs out, and a cleric from a small sect who do almost nothing but provide objective officiating and healing for the participants.

I've seen similar ideas brought up in D&D settings like Eberron and more colourful worlds like The Adventure Zone's.

[DRD1812]

Real estate and taxes aren't remotely new things. Lots of ancient and medieval societies had them.

I think I failed to explain myself. Here's the back cover blurb from the module (https://adventureaweek.com/shop/pathfinder/pathfinder-adventures/b20-rent-lease-conquest/) I wrote on the real estate premise:

"There comes a point in every adventuring career when a guildhall becomes a necessity. After all, where is the fighter going to hang his trophies? Where is the wizard going to perform his arcane experiments? Fortunately for the PCs, Edgewaith Manor is free for the taking. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a fixer-upper. There’s some really bad mold in the bathroom, the furnace is temperamental to say the least, and the whole place is infested with interplanar ants. Such are the joys of homeownership."

The fuse box goes out, the appliances don't work, the bathroom is gross... These are the kinds of modern headaches I'm referencing when I say "real estate." The ideas are transformed by the setting, but still recognizable. Same deal with the duplicitous elven real estate agent clutching her clipboard on the cover. The concept of real estate is not new, but the modern trappings are.

[DRD1812]

One area which I find works well translating into a fantasy world is professional sports

I riffed on that concept a little bit in this one: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/182305/B24-Young-Minds

The sport is "hurly," and it's basically dodgeball. The interesting bit comes from the setting. In a cosmopolitan city, how can halflings enjoy sports when they're expected to play against giants? My solution was enchanted "hurly stones." They give the user stone throwing / stone catching, and rather than dealing damage turn you bright red if you get tagged. It was a lot of fun imagining what high school sports would look like in this kind of setting, especially when the other team was full of centaurs.

[Max_Killjoy]

I think I failed to explain myself. Here's the back cover blurb from the module (https://adventureaweek.com/shop/pathfinder/pathfinder-adventures/b20-rent-lease-conquest/) I wrote on the real estate premise:

"There comes a point in every adventuring career when a guildhall becomes a necessity. After all, where is the fighter going to hang his trophies? Where is the wizard going to perform his arcane experiments? Fortunately for the PCs, Edgewaith Manor is free for the taking. Unfortunately, it’s a bit of a fixer-upper. There’s some really bad mold in the bathroom, the furnace is temperamental to say the least, and the whole place is infested with interplanar ants. Such are the joys of homeownership."

The fuse box goes out, the appliances don't work, the bathroom is gross... These are the kinds of modern headaches I'm referencing when I say "real estate." The ideas are transformed by the setting, but still recognizable. Same deal with the duplicitous elven real estate agent clutching her clipboard on the cover. The concept of real estate is not new, but the modern trappings are.

None of that is entirely new, either, just the particular technological trappings.

There are records of commercial real estate "listings" in ancient Rome, for example.

[Beleriphon]

None of that is entirely new, either, just the particular technological trappings.

Their are records of commercial real estate "listings" in ancient Rome, for example.

That and they had the same problems, at least in so far as our ancestors still had shoddy deals, and poor built structures that looked nice but were money pits.

[AceOfFools]

One area which I find works well translating into a fantasy world is professional sports...

Also fun because of the existing historical precedents: Rome's bread and circuses, Constantinople's chariot races, arabic horse and camel races, the first nation game that is a predecessor to lacrosse, the unrelated sorts of Spanish and Indian bullfighting, Indian kite fighting, the ball game played by one of the MessoAmerican empire, the original Olympics, and, yes, medieval European tournament jousts.

There's a ton of underutilized history to draw on, considering how diverse the environment around even those sports is, and how many other sports were played throughout the world's vast history.

[Anderlith]

Most of fantasy worlds have a thing or two like this - it's a very tricky thing, creating a medieval society that has place for adventures all the while not offending modern sensibilities, and things get infected.

A great example of this is a paladin class and its code of conduct. While ostensibly based on the medieval monastic orders, it is very different in spirit from those.

It's easier to do this and make it look cool with modern technology, but again, there already is some of that - a full plate armor is a 200-year future technology to the medieval knight.

Now, for the more useful advice, if you give people something that speeds up communication, expect an industrial revolution to come around really damn fast. One of the most important contributing factor behind our modern tech boom is improvements in communication, we can throw many, many more people at a problem than we could ever before. Even the most powerful people like the Pope could historically gather maybe a dozen top scholars in one place to deal with a thing, improved comms essentially means that all the top scholars are working on it if it is interesting enough.

A new weapon, well, it really depends on what kind of weapon. Something big like nukes will not change all that much (you need a really big trebuchet or really suicidal squad to use them), something comparatively smaller like rifles will (no more shield walls for you, and possibly no more armor).

Medical tech would change a massive amount of things, but none of those are in the spotlight of PCs, so this could be one of the least interesting things to do.

Social advances are potentially the most interesting ones to do, but also the hardest to execute - medieval Europe but LGBT is legitimized is an interesting concept, but how do you make it into a compelling story?

Social progressive fantasy is the norm, pretty much every rpg book either expresses this in an aside in one of their rulebooks or gives many character examples of things like woman warriors, LGBT friendly characters, etc. Heck even true history had things like a Catholic ceremony akin to a marriage that would join two bros together.

Communication is good for destroying borders, but not really all that useful for developing technology. For developing technology you need one thing & one thing only, Education. Give every person knowledge & they will invent all kinds of things.

[Max_Killjoy]

Communication is good for destroying borders, but not really all that useful for developing technology. For developing technology you need one thing & one thing only, Education. Give every person knowledge & they will invent all kinds of things.


In the context of invention and science, education and communication are effectively the same thing -- ways for ideas to spread to as many individuals as possible, and for individuals to get access to as many ideas as possible.

[Lacuna Caster]

Most of fantasy worlds have a thing or two like this - it's a very tricky thing, creating a medieval society that has place for adventures all the while not offending modern sensibilities, and things get infected.

...Social advances are potentially the most interesting ones to do, but also the hardest to execute - medieval Europe but LGBT is legitimized is an interesting concept, but how do you make it into a compelling story?
To be fair, I'm not sure why it should specifically bother people if a setting fails to accommodate women or LGBT interests when it's equally non-accomodating of commoners, foreigners, unbelievers, the environment, rule of law or empirical science.


You know a world with weird modern sensibilities, but also brutally medieval? The Witcher has it in spades. There are mutants, evolution, magical science, functioning alchemy and all kinds of stuff. That's for the people that can afford it, or are part of that stratum like wizards, sorceresses and witchers. Peasants are still dirt farming idiots that believe in stupid superstitions, life is cheap, they have 10 kids because half of them die before age 2, and law enforcement seems to be performed by whoever is ruling a village this week and it vacillates between brutal repression and slightly less brutal repression.
Yeah, case in point.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

And of course we can't forget that the Romans had their own fast food restaurants, complete with drive-thru windows you could get your food at without leaving your wagon!

http://historybuff.com/even-ancient-romans-loved-fast-food-4rLwAwkAl0zE