4 ms·

You could, but ultimately it would be harder. In cyperpunk nature is almost never a character or force, but in fantasy words it often is. Cyperpunk aesthetic

by nip180 6y ago

You could, but ultimately it would be harder. In cyperpunk nature is almost never a character or force, but in fantasy words it often is. Cyperpunk aesthetic is also largely about how today’s technology might change the world as it develops. It would be very hard to tell that story in fantasy.

theptip 6y ago
> It would be very hard to tell that story in fantasy. Perhaps Steampunk is closer to this, given that "steam" was part of the first industrial revolution. However there are some interesting ideas floating around that you could use to tell a pure-Fantasy cyberpunk story; I'm sure someone's tried a novel, but I am only familiar with the tabletop RPG http://cryptorpg.com/ http://cryptorpg.com/, where magic enables cryptography and messaging. From there you can recapitulate pretty much all of the dystopian power/narrative structures that make Cyberpunk what it is. Magic-as-technology is a surprisingly under-explored concept, with the right magic system I think you could easily tell a Cyberpunk story.
- nip180 6y ago
  > Magic-as-technology is a surprisingly under-explored concept This is a very common way to address magic when tradition sci-fi writers try to incorporate fantasy elements into their novels. It’s used in the Shadowrun universe, and in the novel The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O as two popular examples.
  - Grimm1 6y ago
    It's common outside of sci-fi as well one of the biggest fantasy RPGs Final Fantasy regularly incorporates "Magitech" as they call it into their worlds.
- edmundsauto 6y ago
  If you haven't read it before, the Foundation series has this as a theme. There is a priesthood of the atomics, who don't know how it works, just how to run the maintenance manual cargo culting.
- sjellis 6y ago
  Walter Jon Williams, author of the cyberpunk classic Hardwired, also wrote two books in a setting that fuses cyberpunk and fantasy: Metropolitan and City on Fire.
iterati 6y ago
The fantasy equivalent is talking about how their own magic systems can influence society. Brandon Sanderson's two Mistborn trilogies are good examples of this. They don't have that hook to our reality that cyberpunk does, but as a fan of both genres it does carry some of the same vibes.

by nip180 6y ago

theptip 6y ago

> It would be very hard to tell that story in fantasy. Perhaps Steampunk is closer to this, given that "steam" was part of the first industrial revolution. However there are some interesting ideas floating around that you could use to tell a pure-Fantasy cyberpunk story; I'm sure someone's tried a novel, but I am only familiar with the tabletop RPG http://cryptorpg.com/ http://cryptorpg.com/, where magic enables cryptography and messaging. From there you can recapitulate pretty much all of the dystopian power/narrative structures that make Cyberpunk what it is. Magic-as-technology is a surprisingly under-explored concept, with the right magic system I think you could easily tell a Cyberpunk story.

nip180 6y ago
> Magic-as-technology is a surprisingly under-explored concept This is a very common way to address magic when tradition sci-fi writers try to incorporate fantasy elements into their novels. It’s used in the Shadowrun universe, and in the novel The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O as two popular examples.
- Grimm1 6y ago
  It's common outside of sci-fi as well one of the biggest fantasy RPGs Final Fantasy regularly incorporates "Magitech" as they call it into their worlds.
edmundsauto 6y ago
If you haven't read it before, the Foundation series has this as a theme. There is a priesthood of the atomics, who don't know how it works, just how to run the maintenance manual cargo culting.
sjellis 6y ago
Walter Jon Williams, author of the cyberpunk classic Hardwired, also wrote two books in a setting that fuses cyberpunk and fantasy: Metropolitan and City on Fire.

iterati 6y ago

The fantasy equivalent is talking about how their own magic systems can influence society. Brandon Sanderson's two Mistborn trilogies are good examples of this. They don't have that hook to our reality that cyberpunk does, but as a fan of both genres it does carry some of the same vibes.