Monday, January 16, 2023

Science Fantasy Knights


I feel like knights in a post-apocalyptic setting is an under utilized setting in rpgs. The sort of thing where in the mid- to far future, human civilization has gone back to something more like the Middle Ages. Often magic will have returned or old science will seem like magic. There is some pretty good source material out there, but the only game I think can think of is Mutants in Avalon. 

Fiction-wise, we've got: Moorcock's History of the Runestaff, Christopher's Sword of Spirits trilogy, and Harrison's The Pastel City (less so the sequels), at least. Comics-wise there isn't an exact fit (beyond the adaptations of Moorcock's work), but Camelot 3000 is close. There is even an 80s cartoon and toyline in the form of Visionaries.

Stephen King's Dark Tower series does a bit of this, but also leans on Western aesthetic and tropes and does that a bit more. Into the Badlands likewise has an Western element, but also wuxia.

10 comments:

James Mishler said...

Hiero's Journey is also a major example of the genre.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiero%27s_Journey

James Mishler said...

There was also the short lived Hex series,a post apocalypse version of Jonah Hex.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah_Hex

Fits the theme a bit...

Trey said...

I dug Hex back in the day.

Dick McGee said...

The original 1960s version of DC's Atomic Knights are exactly what you're talking about. Explicitly post-nuclear apocalypse, actual armored knights, even ride around on cool mutant Dalmatian mounts.

texascheeseman said...

The Sal the Cacophony books by Sam Sykes fits this genre.

The Apocalypse Nyx books by Kameron Hurley too.

James Mishler said...

Huh, the Interwebs swallowed my first post...

Hiero's Journey, by Sterling Lanier, stikes me as being much in this vein. He does not wear shining armor, but he seems to be rather a paladin/ranger nonetheless.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiero's_Journey

semiurge said...

Can't remember the name of it, but read a story or something a while back that had a neat sort of nearer-future post-apocalyptic knight - basically the knights flew aircraft against each other in WWI/WWII-style dogfights, and kept them running with biofuel refined from crops harvested by their peasants.

Random Randomness said...

You almost apply this to Patrick Swayze's 1987 Steel Dawn movie.

Dick McGee said...

@James Mishler Can't recommend the Hiero books without warning people it's an eternally unfinished trilogy that only released two books before the author died. They're fun reads, but we'll never see all the plot threads wrapped up.

Tanner Yea said...

Deadlands: Hell On Earth has the Paladins that are basically post-apocalyptic knights