[MUD-Dev] Expectations of in-game reality

[Travis Casey]

Monday, November 12, 2001, 10:44:18 PM, Lars Duening wrote:
> Travis Casey wrote on Friday, October 26 2001, 10:35:30:
>>Thursday, October 25, 2001, 4:40:26 PM, J C Lawrence wrote:

>>> A 50 tonne dragon with wings the size of postage stamps flying
>>> is not logically internally consistent, not unless you can also
>>> fly by wiggling your ears.  It makes good story however.  Why?

>> Can you point to any serious fantasy that has such a thing,
>> though?  The only flying dragons with wings smaller than their
>> body length that I've seen depicted are either (1) in children's
>> fantasy, where they're trying for a silly appearance, or (2)
>> Oriental dragons, who don't have wings at all.

> Well, Erroll in Terry Pratchett's "Guards! Guards!" manages to fly
> with his stubby wings by using them like airplane wings and
> achieving the necessary lift through speed from his 'jet engine'.

I don't consider the Discworld books to be "serious fantasy",
though... they're humorous fantasy.  I did forget to include
"humorous fantasy for adults" as a third category they show up in,
though.  :-)

> Otoh, the book features another dragon of the stereotypical 50 ton
> kind, and the fact that she can fly despite her aerodynamic flaws
> becomes part of the plot.

Yep... but, even then, that dragon seems to have wingspan of its
body length or better.  And the other swamp dragons, leaving out
Errol, have decent wingspan as well in proportion to their size --
and even with that, are described as flying "like chickens" (i.e.,
not very well or very far).

--
Travis Casey
efindel at earthlink.net

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