Quote from: FierceKitty on 05 August 2016, 10:33:00 AM
If "Game of Thrones" is about a better time, we're REALLY in trouble (apart from the naked lassies).

The men are handsome, the women are beautiful, heroes are noble (and stupid), baddies get their come uppance, being smart trumps being strong and women get their kit off ... surely it's every nerds dream!

Good SF, they say, is about people. Good fantasy, I would offer, is also about people.

We love Firefly because Mal is a preening pillock, but cunning and resourceful. We love the Lord of the Rings because Gandalf is wise and Frodo is determined and Sam is loyal.

Quote from: fsn on 05 August 2016, 03:20:18 PM
Good SF, they say, is about people. Good fantasy, I would offer, is also about people.

Agree!  I thing everything is about telling stories about people - even if they look like a tree, a bug, or an orc.
Seems like Sci-fi sets the stage with reality extrapolated to the future and fantasy with an alternate reality entirely,
But as long as it is an engaging human story, it don't* matter a wit about the stage.

Of course, I could easily be wrong.

* I like talking like Flashman, etc

Quote from: fsn on 05 August 2016, 07:28:47 AM
I don't see the difference between fantasy, Sf and historical except that with historical there's usually some more consistent backgorund information.

What's the difference between Gandalf casting a firebolt spell, a German stormtrooper helfting a man-portable flame thrower and a Dark Chaper Death-Hawk with a blazer gauntlet? How do you differentiate between an elm with a mighty greenwood bow and a doughty English Yeoman archer at Crecy? Between an Apache attack helicopter and a light grav assault craft? The model.

I don't play fantasy. But take away the magic and an elves vs man is a bit similar to a medieval scrap. A struggle for possession of a star-destroyer is very similar to street fighting in Stalingrad.

Ah! But what about the dwarves and the Klingons! +1 strength -1 attractiveness.

When I game ancient Greek warfare, I sometimes add in a rule that certain heroes can call upon certain gods. Have I transgressed into fantasy? If someone plays 1946 with E25 tanks, is that SF?

I think sometimes we can get a little purist about our hobby, and find reasons to look ascance at other facets of it, for no good reason.

As one of out more illustrious members says "give me another pint for the love of the Dark Lord's calloused thumbs! I'm starting to see reality."
 


Clearly Alexander mounted his Dragon and blasted the Persians with his mk4 Blasorgian cannon. Jeez, I give up. Goodnight scifi/fantasy.

Mais non, mon Brave!

Alexander should stay atop Bucephalus. My point is that fantasy and sf are equally valid genres of the hobby, and that the boundary between historical and sf/fantasy is thin. If you game the "Soviet Invasion of West Germany in 1984" then that is not history. It is not historical. So what is it? We're currently enjoying the battle reports of Hakuna-Matata. My atlas admits to no such places, so we're indulging in a I plan a Bavarian 1814 division and a British 1814 division. If they confront each other on the table I have, in a way, tossed historical accuracy out the window.

So I'm all for historical gaming, but realise that there is an element of playing with history, however accurately it is presented. 

Arguably, all wargaming is fantasy. My idea of Fantasy is of a world that involves magic spells and creatures and races that do not all exist in our present world. Sci-Fi is also a form of fantasy but substitutes magic with a level of technology that does not currently exist in our present day world and creatures and races that exist on other worlds.  If I was to attempt to define Historical, then I would say it involves the human race only and civilisations, societies and technology that currently exist or are known to have existed in mankind's past.   

I say that if it's fun it's a wargame.

That's good enough for me 

Was that really blue touch paper I thought it was just some scrap paper that needed burning

For the record I did not intend to disparage any form of wargaming

While I agree with the spirit of Peter's comment

Quote from: petercooman on 05 August 2016, 07:57:47 PM
I say that if it's fun it's a wargame.

and strongly believe that all forms of wargaming can and should be fun

I can think of a few things that are fun that are not wargaming

Quote from: paulr on 05 August 2016, 09:49:06 PM


I can think of a few things that are fun that are not wargaming

You mean boardgaming don't you?

Or modelling?

Quote from: paulr on 05 August 2016, 09:49:06 PM
I can think of a few things that are fun that are not wargaming

Curling?

Quote from: d_Guy on 06 August 2016, 01:37:44 PM
Curling?

He said fun,not sleep inducing 

Quote from: petercooman on 06 August 2016, 06:23:02 PM
He said fun,not sleep inducing 

Depends on whom you are curling up with 

To Kitty: I couldn't figure out how to say the above without ending on a preposition or, in one case, letting my participle dangle! 

Quote from: d_Guy on 06 August 2016, 07:03:38 PM
Depends on whom you are curling up with 

To Kitty: I couldn't figure out how to say the above without ending on a preposition or, in one case, letting my participle dangle! 

Depends with whom you are curling up?

Quote from: Ithoriel on 06 August 2016, 07:06:09 PM
Depends with whom you are curling up?

True, but I couldn't decide if "up" was a preposition or a particle.

Quote from: d_Guy on 06 August 2016, 08:27:54 PM
True, but I couldn't decide if "up" was a preposition or a particle.

I thought "curl up" was an intransitive verb but, as FK will attest, I know nothing about English grammar