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Technobabble in RPGs
A staple of writers, particularly those in the Science Fiction genre, has been the use of technobabble, the stringing together of words with the intention of conveying believability without getting into specifics.
Done well, this allows the audience to focus on enjoying the story, and not focus too much on the technological or scientific aspects of the story which are either impossible, too complicated to go into, or simply not understood. Done poorly, technobabble can become an incoherent string of jibberish which can destroy any story it is a part of.
The difference between the two is often that good technobabble makes sense, both in context of the story and in its internal references. This kind of technobabble is often very nonspecific, for instance: Many science fiction writers employ Faster Than Light travel, and many will describe the process by which it happens as “warping space” in a “higher dimension” bringing “two points in our space closer together.” This line of thinking is consistent with both itself and many types of String Theory and other physics models.
When dealing with technobabble, it can be helpful to remember that the phrase or words used can describe the end result of the technology, and not the process actually employed. For instance, “inertial compensators” most likely do not affect inertial forces directly, but instead they may introduce a counter forces such that the inertial forces are sufficiently balanced out.
Why does bad technobabble, which is little more than scientific sounding jargon, not work as well? No one can begin to understand the technobabble, or even what it is supposed to represent. In normal stories, this means that the audience is being fed, for at least a time, content which is absolutely meaningless. Additionally, in games, players can become dissociated and discouraged from attempting to solve problems based on an in-game model for how things operate.
Use it carefully because technobabble can make your game run more smoothly and more enjoyably.
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