Mixing Genres - How do you do it?

[TheMetal1]

So in Episode 99.96 Steve and I talk about bringing characters from one genre into another - like some Castles & Crusades characters finding themselves in a Star Siege game or High powered Rift OCCs in Palladium Fantasy. If you done it how did it work out? If you haven't how would you approach it?

[Iconoclast_]

Well, I've been gone a long time (Lot of OT at work right now) but I think I'll jump in here while I'm wired on sugar and not yet passed out or screaming at sugar-induced flying monkeys.

I feel the best way to do a cross-genre is to start at the beginning in your setting. That is, to start out with the intention of your setting being cross-genre. Decide what genres you wish to mix and then try to form a coherent universe out of the churning cauldron of world creation.

For example, lets say you want to play both a Fantasy game, and a Space Opera style game. You can't decide which one you want to play more, so you begin mixing them up. You start by deciding what elements you want to pull from each genre. I'll elaborate.

From Fantasy, you decide (hypothetically) that you want....

* Magic, since that's what defines a genre as Fantasy.
* Multiple Races, to add spice to character creation.
* Archaic Weaponry, stuff you wouldn't expect to find on a modern battlefield.

From Sci-Fi you decide you want...

* Exotic Settings; in fact, the "World" your game takes place on will be a Ring-World (with credit to Niven).
* Robots, who keep the world running and help explain why things still function.
* Advanced Technology, in fact, you want Hyper-advanced technology, beyond Star Trek even.

Now you have the bare bones to build up your world. Oh, who are you kidding, you only have the Calcium, you need to build the bones now.

You decide to set the game in the far future, 1,000,000 AD in fact. The game is set SO FAR into the future, that humanity, as we know it today, no longer exists. The "races" of the future are actually descended from humanity, having lost their knowledge of how to work the technology that created the world they live on. The "Church" of this world worships the long lost "Human Engineers" who built the wonders of the world the people live on and enjoy (or fear). The current inhabitants of the world are all descended from the ravers and party crowd that raged around the cosmopolitan cities until the government broke down and people were forced to enter the rural agricultural zones and learn how to make a living off the land. The "races" of the world are all based on genetic tinkering that was a fad during the "raves of yore" in ancient times. The races are...

Succubi: Along with Incubi, are a race of humans with bat-like wings, which was a popular fad among the gene-spliced crowds of the party scene at one time. These wings don't actually allow flight, but it allows a Succubus to control and slow their fall enough to glide a good distance safely.

Dryads: Part of the "hippie revival" and "sun worship" party scenes, these people have chlorophyll in their skin, which increases the nutrients they can absorb from food when they get enough sunlight, and for some reason, also allows them to manipulate plants to produce food when they normally wouldn't.

Kittens: The "cat-girl" fad lasted longer in the party scene than anyone expected it to, and now the descendants of those feline party animals are hunters living in the wild. They prefer the forests now, but often travel to large cities to trade furs and pelts for other supplies they need.

Aquarians: The "pool party" craze was really crazy, and maybe wasn't worth the genetic re-sequencing. Too late now, the Aquarians, descendants of these water-breathing humans, now inhabit the lakes and seas of the world, and tend to "farm" fish and sea-weed instead of wheat and chickens.

Titans: The Titans are actually soldiers who were sent in to quell the rioting in the cities, but when things really broke down, they also had to turn to the wilds for survival. Now, Titans tend to huge herds across the grasslands, and the 10-foot tall people are wanderers, traveling from city to city with their flocks.

Sparkies: These short people are descended from genetically engineered engineers, half the size of most people, but able to resist the kind of electric shocks that would kill most people, including Titans. Their ancestors were on R&R when the government broke down, and were stuck. Now their descendants are trying to re-discover the long lost technological knowledge and maybe get to fixing the robots that are starting to break down.

Now, with a mix of races to choose from, the game turns to magic. You decide you don't want the traditional "Wizards" of fantasy, but want to go for something that's more along the lines of Sci-fi and maybe a bit anime. You decide to make "magic" in your game dependent upon "Ghostmarks" that glow when you cast magic spells. Now you need an organization that can distribute these magical tattoos. That these "ghostmarks" are actually just hyper-advanced nano-technology is mostly flavor text, but it does give the idea that a tower of wizardry, originally a computer distribution network tower, can be where people go to train in how to operate these strange magical runes. The "Arch-mages" of the tower, descended from the computer programmers who kept the original network running thousands of years ago, now distribute the "magic elixir" (a glass of water filled with nano-robots that implant the cybernetic connections) to young apprentices, then train them how to "cast spells" (or program the cybernetic parts) that activate the Ghostmarks.

Then there is the "Church of the Ancient Engineers" who instruct the populace in the worship of the Engineers of old. They perform Ceremonies of Thanks towards the robots, some of which are simple superstition, while others are diagnostic systems now wrapped up in religious ceremony. Poor farmers who need their agri-robots fixed before it's time to plant or harvest their crops often come to the church's Center of Proper Reverence (originally a robot factory) to have their robots repaired.

You also want a fast way for people to get around the world. You don't want actual teleporters, as this is too fast and too open to exploitation, but a massive sub-way around the length of the ringworld would work really well with the semi-feudal system you're aiming for. Cities would likely be built up around the sub-way terminals, with a "tax" imposed when people enter and disembark from the rail stations.

Next, you need monsters to populate your world. Aliens seem like an obvious choice, but they'd likely still be technologically advanced still, so you decide to have the "monsters" be alien critters that escaped from a zoo when society collapsed long ago. Also, common farm animals, maybe mutated by a leaking power reactor, can act as the "monster races" of your setting. Pigs can become Orks, Cows can become Minotaurs, Rats become Kobolds, Dogs turn into Gnolls, Chickens become Harpies, Goats become Satyrs, Pet Lizards become Lizardmen, etc.

Now you just have to compile a list of "monsters" and stat them up. Easy.

Of course, the monster races mean that society needs protecting from them, so you start building up organizations that offer that protection. The Order of Knights Errant, armored warriors who wander from land to land offering their services to the highest bidder, or just the closest village if they're running low on supplies. The Hunters of Killjoy, who offer the services of their Rangers and Bounty Hunters across the lands. The Swashbucklers, who sail the encircling sea, offering their services across the waters protecting merchant ships (or raiding them, if the pay is better). Along with various city watches and town guards (mostly NPCs).

Well, there's the Bare Bones of a setting. Just add a game system to play it in, and fill in a few more details in the setting, and you're ready to play. It's actually easier to do than most people realize.

Of course, that's not really the question you were asking, was it?

[Lord Z]

Thank you for starting a thread, Rob.

Ico, I look forward to reading your thick and juicy post soon -- but not tonight.

Mixing genres is something I enjoy, but I rarely do it. I tend to run games as they were intended because I introduce a lot of games to younger players. Most of these games are single-genre, so there you go.

I see genre mixing as happening in one of two ways. First, some games come genre-mixed by design. Some examples off the top of my head are Deadlands, TORG, Shadowrun, and Rifts. TORG is a very interesting example; I might expand upon that later. The second way is to craft them together yourself. The second method is more crwatively rewarding but trickier because you don't want one genre to shout down the other.

If mixing yourself, the choices break down further into another two methods. For one, the mix could be set up so that two genres are conflicting. This is the case in pre-mixed games like Deadlands (Wild West vs. Horror) and Rifts (sci-fi vs magic fantasy). The other way is harmonious mixing. Harmonious mixing allows characters to exploit the elements of two or more genres. Harmonious mixing usually involves defining one element in terms of another. For example, in Mage: The Ascension, technology is defined as a form of magic. This isn't always the case; Sen-Zar allows for both magic and tech toys to be used without conflict so long as both can be found in-game.

The best example I have of a genre mix I've done is the Project Chupa mod, Obsidian Continent. Ghengis Kahn's horde invades North America and runs smack into the Aztec Empire. It's a mystic martial arts vs supernatural monster horror scenario. It's in the Project Chupa Mods section of these boards if anyone is interested.

[Lord Z]

In regards to Iconoclast's post: wow!

You've been thinking about this setting for a while, haven't you? I love it. It's a perfect justifcation for fantasy tropes with a hard sci-fi background. The on-demand gene re-engineering, the nanite-based cybernetic technology, the ring world, the lost robot tech -- I love it all. Okay, the mutant animals are a little soft sci-fi compared with the rest of the setting, but that can be fixed (or not).

I suggest that you make a name for this setting and start a new thread in the World Creation section.

[Iconoclast_]

You've been thinking about this setting for a while, haven't you? I love it.

Uhmmm, no. Actually I just came up with it on the spot.

I was just showing the way in which you can create a new setting by going through the process which I use to create new settings. Which, sadly, I am actually better at creating than actually GMing games in.

I have actually developed a process I typically go through to create new settings. I have several dozen settings sitting on my hard drive, most of them only half completed. This is a variation on the Dyson Sphere setting I'd created a few years back. (provisional title, "world of endless sun") Though this time I had the races origin be as they descended from the party scene craze, with genetic engineering common enough that people could clone new bodies and transfer their mind to the new body for whatever fad was popular at the time. I never got into "raves" myself, but I can imagine what they'll be like in 10,000 years.

Femtotechnology, which is about the same thing as "magic" as far as I can see, is what "wizards" in the setting use. The problem with Femtotech is that a society that can develop this level of technology is on the verge of converting their essence into pure energy to avoid the destruction of the universe when all matter is pulled apart by the expansion of the universe (at around 50 billion AD). That's WAY too technologically advanced for me. So I needed society to collapse so they didn't have access to the tech in-between Flintlocks and Black Hole Detonators. The GM is welcome to have whatever tech (s)he wants (robots, hover-cycles, Holo-Vid projectors) appear in the game as relics of a long lost civilization.

Nano-Cyber implants are just a way to access the technology of Femtotech. You need a group to guard it's secrets, and distribute the Nano-Robots that implant the cyber-connections. Then they can teach people to create "spells" (programing the implants) and make sure people don't abuse the tech they've been given. The "ghostmarks" are actually system diagnostics that are displayed on the skin, so a skilled technician can make sure the implants are working properly. Or in fantasy terms, you need to visit your mentor once a year to make sure you are still in the proper "alignment".

As a side note, the implant of Nano-cyber implants consumes a small amount of power from the user's own body, so a "wizard" needs to consume more carbohydrates than a normal person, but still has a weaker physique, as more energy is going into their "magic" than into body development. If you're using a level based system, you can use this to justify charging more for food with each level and the wizard getting fewer points towards developing their physical stats.

The same system could work if you want a modern fantasy setting where Dragons developed magic and distribute it to "mortals" that are willing to follow their teachings and display proper reverence towards their "draconic masters".

It's a perfect justifcation for fantasy tropes with a hard sci-fi background. The on-demand gene re-engineering, the nanite-based cybernetic technology, the ring world, the lost robot tech -- I love it all. Okay, the mutant animals are a little soft sci-fi compared with the rest of the setting, but that can be fixed (or not).

Well, a Fantasy setting needs "monsters" and I wanted an array of familiar creatures for the setting. As the various races were all once used as food-stock by the humans, they would have a natural grudge against the races descended from the humans, so there's the Barbarian animal people fighting the human-descended Civilized races. You can easily downplay that if you like.

As for the power station mutating the animals, it's possibly justifiable if the energy that leaked from the reactor is "teratogenic radiation" that causes strange mutations rather than radiation poisoning. Sci-Fi is filled with "Tachyons" and "Nadions" and "Chroniton Radiation" and assorted other ridiculous energies and particles, so this is keeping in the genre. On the other hand, 70% of the universe is made up of "Dark energy" which is both unknown to science and undetectable to any instrument we have yet devised, so there is a bit of wiggle room with regards to energy physics.

Also, a strange energy inhabiting the bodies of the mutated animal people will give a justification for "shamanism" based upon the manipulation of these energies by the "savage races" that make up the monster tribes.

I suggest that you make a name for this setting and start a new thread in the World Creation section.

How about "Party like it's 999,999!"?

I think I'll leave the setting for someone else to play with. I've got enough to do with Panthus and Chupapocalypse right now. I haven't posted anything on my Project Chupa conversion of my Rifts in d20 alternate setting. (I got into a conversion thread once, and just said "Why not just make a new setting for Rifts d20 then?" and drafted a proposal, but it never went anywhere. I'll see if you guys like it.)

So if anyone wants to take what's here and put some flesh on those bones, go right ahead.

[TheMetal1]

Icon,

In regards to Iconoclast's post: wow!

1 on the 'Wow' of this world your creating, on the spur of the moment too!

Of course, that's not really the question you were asking, was it?

Actually it is. Just a different perspective on it. I initially was thinking how to bring in one character from a particular genre and then having them some how end up in another. Like Steve's example of finding a crashed space ship in a fantasy world, but then due to their prowess in battle, they end up being asked to join an inquistor retinue and then enter the universe of warhammer 40k's Dark Heresy. That being said, what you and Z bring out is a great point about the blending of Generes like Deadlands with Horror and western or Rifts with Sci-fi and fantasy, and of course this most recent example with Icon's new setting which I vote for being called, "Ravers Inherit the Earth"

Next, you need monsters to populate your world. Aliens seem like an obvious choice, but they'd likely still be technologically advanced still, so you decide to have the "monsters" be alien critters that escaped from a zoo when society collapsed long ago.

Since you mentioned aliens and have escaped alien critters as 'monsters' that would imply contact with alien species. I wonder why they never intervened? Maybe the planet has become more akin to a predator hunting planet. They didn't particularly care for humanity in the galatic council or their contact with them, and simply left them to their own devices. They offer forays to earth though billed as adventure packages. If you were playing the reverse, a Sci-Fi setting wanting to come to a fantasy world, well then something goes wrong with the tour and they're stuck. Now they have to wait a few years until they are noticed missing, etc. Since they have tech and magic is really tech on this planet, then you end up with the Harmonious mixing like Z was talking about. How would you all handle this?

[Lord Z]

You've given us a lot to consider, Big I. I will get around to posting some more in the Panthus thread soon also.

Rings have the advantage of consistant gravity that Dyson Spheres don't. Rings, however, are vulnerable to space debris strikes even on the ring's interior. A third option is a ring which is slowly building itself into a full sphere. Reaching a new and undamaged ring could be a long term goal that might potentially save the human population.

Other than the Dyson Sphere vs Ring World change, what are the differences in the two settings? Your settings strike me as being much more interesting than the similar Septimus world by Bill Coffin.

The rave party gone too far is a great creation legend. It gives the inhabitants of the world a cultural context tied to their heritage. Are they no-nonsense hard workers because of the sins of their ancestors? Or do they take seriously the tradition of wild parties like the French take eating seriously? It's also just a fun concept.

Names for the creation event could be The Rave, The Celebration, The Kermis, or the Bash. But what exactly happened? Here are a few possibilites. One, in preperation for the ascention to a higher level of existence (as mentioned as becoming energy beings), a thousand year long party was thrown. Someone didn't want the ascention to happen, so a vital piece of equipment was sent away into the sun. Theme: pride before the fall.

Two, the failure of the ascention was inevitable like Skynet in Terminator 3. The future is preventing the ascention from happening by manipulating events in the past. It's high weirdness, but two scientists involved in the Hadron Collider project suggest that this exactly what is happening to them. They suggest that the god particle is preventing its former self from being found, and they have written papers on the subject. The very theory that the project is attempting to prove makes this time of backward time mnaipulation possible. Theme: Accepting the inevitable.

Three: The aliens got them. The aliens perceived this star and its ring as wandering into their territory, so the aliens seized control of the most powerful technologies like flight control, interstellar communication and cloning facilities. The aliens destroyed enough key cities to collapse the local human culture and bring the population to governable numbers. Now the aliens pose as the gods of this world or else they are the demons who drop in to hunt from time to time as suggested ealier. If the aliens are ultraterrestrials, they will manifest in whatever form the local culture expects them to be. Theme: fear of the unknown.

The aliens could simply be limited animal-intelligence creatures. Intelligent aliens coming to visit could be reserved as a plot hook for later. That's a matter of preference. Similarly, what happened to the rest of the human civilization? Or maybe the other humans completed the evolution and now they are the ultraterrestrials.

The reason why raver species resemble mythical creatures so much is because the gene-splicing craze was part of a larger revival of Earth Culture. The geneticists might have even been using copies of gaming books as references.

[Iconoclast_]

Sorry to correct you, but actually the material needed to make the shell of the Dyson sphere would have to so dense that it would generate it's own gravity, even without the use of centrifugal force.
The big problem for a dyson sphere would be that it would absorb too much energy from the star it's surrounding, which your eventually irradiate the sphere and make it unlivable. You could make giant radiation sinks to absorb a lot of that radiation, but this would create giant radioactive fields of death surrounding the radiation sinks.

The two settings have as many similarities as differences. They are both fantasy based games set in a man-made would, with the "races" being human descended beings. Beyond that, they diverge greatly, in origin, circumstances, the "races" I used, and the reason I create the game world. (the Dyson world was supposed to be by attempt at a d20 synnabarr, sans copyright infringement)

As for the setting, "Ring around the Ravers", or whatever you want to call it, I prefer to leave the "fall of man" to the GM's discretion. I don't want to put a canonical "this is why they fell" explanation in the setting, as the GM running the game would likely want to create their own reason, and there would likely be 20 or so different stories around anyway, as the tale is told and retold, often started by people with different experiences of the event.

Likewise, I feel what happened to the rest of humanity in the galaxy, and what the story is with the aliens in the setting, are also best left in the GM's hands. Though the idea of aliens "coming down" and scaring or abducting people for whatever alien reason is a good one. But that just serves as an example of why I should leave it in the GM's hands.

As for the people of this world, people will always be people. Some will take the "fall" as a lesson on the need for thrift, prudence, and a strong work ethic, while that person's neighbor will decide it's time to start the party up again, in celebration of their ancestors, if for no other reason. The history of religion has been the long, drawn out battle between the perverts and the prudes, and I don't see this changing anytime soon. Not even because of the "end of the world".

What did I miss? I'll have to get around to it later.

[Lord Z]

Bachelor Party at the End of the Universe. Okay, I was trying to come up with some ring-pun, but I've got nothing.

Maybe, the ring wasn't a perfect ring but a mobius loop Hen there would be a name for the world. There is no practical reason for that, it would just look cool. Maybe the twist isn't on purpose at all but a reality-twisted side effect of the collapse event.

The part about the mutant animals with human traits still bugs me. There are harder sci-fi ways of getting the same effect. For example, maybe a last failed attempt at restoring order involved released infective viruses into the life support systems that were supposed to mutant the riots back to standard human genome, but it wasn't strong enough. Instead, the virus spead to feral animals. Over the generations, the human genetic materials began making their presense known. Or perhaps the humans were uplifting animals just before the fall. When their caretakers died, the upgraded animals devolved into brutal monsters. They are in the process of slowly returning to their native forms.

I do like the setting a lot. I didn't know anything about Synnibar until your reference, I-ball. I think I had heard the name in passing. That's another good example of a cross-genre game like I was namedropping earlier.

I am perfectly cool about being wrong, especially concerning Dyson Spheres.

Back to the original topic, I can see what Glinbog was expecting now. I suspect that mixing genres the other way, bringing a character from one setting to a completely different setting, would be dangerous. It seems potentially unbalancing to me, to the pioint where it could wreck a campaign. I would try it for a one-session game, but for an established campaign, I would want to keep the genres stable.

[Iconoclast_]

The part about the mutant animals with human traits still bugs me. There are harder sci-fi ways of getting the same effect. For example, maybe a last failed attempt at restoring order involved released infective viruses into the life support systems that were supposed to mutant the riots back to standard human genome, but it wasn't strong enough. Instead, the virus spead to feral animals. Over the generations, the human genetic materials began making their presense known. Or perhaps the humans were uplifting animals just before the fall. When their caretakers died, the upgraded animals devolved into brutal monsters. They are in the process of slowly returning to their native forms.

So, is it the idea of animals becoming the monster races that you don't like, or just the origin story I wrote for them that doesn't agree with you?

I do like the setting a lot. I didn't know anything about Synnibar until your reference, I-ball. I think I had heard the name in passing. That's another good example of a cross-genre game like I was namedropping earlier.

Imagine, if you can, Rifts set in a Dyson-sphere, that is also a space ship. And at level 50 you start to ascend to god-hood (that is actually taken into account in the game mechanics and setting).

On balance, I don't have a copy of the Sen-Zar. I suspect they both share the "I'm a Munchkin player who wants to write RPGs" origin story.

[Iconoclast_]

I am perfectly cool about being wrong, especially concerning Dyson Spheres.

And I, likewise, am willing to accept that I spend way too much time thinking about such things.

Back to the original topic, I can see what Glinbog was expecting now. I suspect that mixing genres the other way, bringing a character from one setting to a completely different setting, would be dangerous. It seems potentially unbalancing to me, to the pioint where it could wreck a campaign. I would try it for a one-session game, but for an established campaign, I would want to keep the genres stable.

There are some ways this can balance out. Wizards, generally, are designed to balance with Knights and Swashbucklers in a Fantasy setting. If you take the Wizard out of the fantasy setting and put them in a Far Future world with giant mechs and robot soldiers, than many of the mechanics of the class introduce for balance (low HP, limited spells per day) become unnecessary, and can be taken out.

In reverse, when you take the Mech-Pilot, and plop him in a fantasy world, then you have to make his 25' tall battlemech balanced for that setting. Some of this can be accomplished with RP appropriate mechanics, like making the player track ammo and energy usage, as there is no longer a space station full of mechanics to make sure this is taken care of for him every time he goes out on an adventure. However, there is still the problem of one player having the power to level a castle in one Duratanium encased "indestructible siege engine".

Perhaps if you have the mech be attacked by a dragon who was menacing the village you need the PC to use as a base of operations, then have the "dragon slayer" use up all his ammo taking out the monster, that's a start in balancing your game. The PC exchanges all his village-leveling weaponry for the gratitude of the village he just saved, which the player may not think is an appropriate trade, but that may be a necessary evil. Then there is the question of how long the Mech can continue to function until it's reactor runs out of fuel. This can be a race against time for the PC, learning as much about the world as he can before the protective armor becomes non-function and has to be abandoned.

Some archetypes are easy enough to transition. A Warrior from a fantasy world that's thrown into your far-flung Future setting just needs to learn how to shoot a laser and pilot power armor. But what about the Demon-summoning Warlock? Do the powers he relies on even work? Will he be able to keep his powers or end up trading his "magic" for the ability to use "psionics" appropriate to the setting? The same questions apply to the Elemental-using Conjurer and the naturalist Druid, to say nothing of the holy Cleric and Paladin, who rely on the power of "gods" that may or may not be able to reach the Sci-fi world they are on.

However, going from high-tech worlds to settings that are medieval (or even less advanced) will require problems of balancing. Again, tracking ammo, which will quickly become in limited supply, and energy usage, the amount of "juice" left in the robots and high-tech devices the sci-fi characters use, will be an important tool in keeping the balance. Some devices may be able to be "recharged" if the PCs can find a Wizard able to cast Lightning Bolt on a battery or capacitor, while some devices (computerized binoculars, radio headsets, translator cubes) will just use so little energy this won't be an issue for years of game time.

Cyber-punk settings have their own game balance issues, typically tied, very closely, to the game mechanics. Outside of the cyberpunk setting, they can either be overpowered, or vastly underpowered. Likewise, a character from another Genre, thrown into the universe, will either be overpowered for that world, or will simply get cybernetic parts to balance their character out.

A Post-apocalypse setting is based around survival in a ruined world, so pulling the PCs from this world into another will result in them always being underpowered. Oddly, this is something the genre deals with, so they'd be used to this and would adapt quickly. Anyone thrown into this world, unless we're talking under-geared Barbarian warrior, would be overpowered for the setting.
Mages, able to make food and water appear out of nothing, would be practically gods, and seen as saviors by the populace for this one spell. Characters from fantasy games, Druids, Elemental Conjurers, Clerics, and other magic users, could literally re-shape the world into a fantasy setting, while Far-Future sci-fi characters could terraform the world into whatever they wished it to be.

Cuthulu-style horror games don't have to worry about balance, as the creatures you're fighting are immune to whatever you have to throw at them anyway.

Most Superhero games already have these elements built in to them. The setting has to account for Mutants, Super Soldiers, Aliens, Espers, Magicians, Cyborgs, Powered-Armor pilots, assorted Martial Artists, and gadget-using Vigilantes. All aspects of balance are automatically built into the mechanics, so there's no need to worry there. So maybe the solution to those who do want to play a cross-genre game is just to play a Superheros system, like Champions or Mutants and Masterminds.

[Lord Z]

That is a brilliant observation about the horror genre, Icon. I should interview you some time after the Project Chupa Netcast is up and running. I am planning on buying home interent access again after a move in January of 2011, so maybe then...

Thinking about Steve's fish out of water suggestion again, it could be a lot of fun. It would be wacky fun if it were played to all of the fish out of water jokes. Perhaps a modern or sci-fi character goes into a fantasy game. Most fantasy settings are based loosely on Dark Age Europe. The fish character might have a romanticized idea of this time based on Hollywood movies and Ren faires. After getting there, she finds bad hygene, rats everywhere, the black plauge, and those shimmering moats around the castles are actually open sewers. Conversely, a wizard from that fantasy setting might go to the present day and be the fish now. The wizard doesn't know that he isn't supposed to use fireball spells at gas (petrol) stations. Maybe he insists on sitting on top of a truck inside of inside it, and whips it to make it go faster.