The Flintstones's World's TL?

[warellis]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

It wouldn’t surprise me. Conversely, “The Man Called Flintstone” featured an intercontinental ballistic missile that was eventually launched into orbit with people on board.

How was it launched? Some sort of super animal or spring or something?

[dataweaver]

Nope; flames came shooting out of its base as it lifted into the sky.

Flintstones tech is modern tech with a stone-age aesthetic. Attempting to construct a logically consistent model of it on any basis other than that will not work.

[warellis]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Nope; flames came shooting out of its base as it lifted into the sky.

Flintstones tech is modern tech with a stone-age aesthetic. Attempting to construct a logically consistent model of it on any basis other than that will not work.

So essentially TL (0+7) then?

[Ed the Coastie]

Originally Posted by dataweaver

Flintstones tech is modern tech with a stone-age aesthetic. Attempting to construct a logically consistent model of it on any basis other than that will not work.

That's why I like playing with the assumption that the television show is sitcom parody of the "real" Flintverse, with the stone-age aesthetic grossly exaggerated for the sake of humor.

[dataweaver]

The thing is, the stone age aesthetic itself is there for the sake of humor. You will not find a Flintstones story that can’t be stripped of its stone age aesthetic without significant damage to the story; and some of them, like The Man Called Flintstone, are a heck of a lot easier to rationalize without the stone age aesthetic than with it.

As I said in one of my first posts here, I consider Flintstones to be plain old ordinary TL7, with an absurd look-and-feel for comedic effect, not TL(0+7).

Admittedly, the only time the distinction matters is when someone from outside the Flintstones universe interacts with it. Note that the only canonical examples we have of this sort of thing involve contact between times and places that have wildly different TLs: the difference between the Jetsons’ TL12^ and the Flintstones’ tech was already drastic enough that the differences between calling the latter TL7 or TL(0+7) were essentially moot: there were plenty of difficulties the Flintstones and Jetsons each faced due to the difference-of-5 between TL7 and TL12, but there were no indications that the presence or absence of the stone-age aesthetic added to the difficulties. (Of course, it helps that there weren’t any characters intimately familiar with the workings of technology involved on either side of the equation; George Jetson’s job amounted to pushing a button, while Fred Flintstone’s job was as a construction worker.)

And besides the Jetsons, the only other encounter between the Flintstones and someone not of the Flintstones aesthetic involved an alien who might as well have been from the Jetsons’ world in terms of the look, feel, and capabilities of his technology.

How would I handle someone from, say, Infinite Worlds visiting the Flintstones universe? I’d translate him into it: while there, his Parachronic Conveyor and offworld tech would take on the Flintstones aesthetic, and he’d view the world through the lens of said aesthetic as if it was a perfectly natural thing; it would only be when he goes home that his memories of the place would seem weird to him. That said, it’s more likely that I wouldn’t bother with such a crossover in the first place.

[Ed the Coastie]

It ultimately depends on what the GM wants to do with the setting. I personally get a kick out of the "rationalization" process...it's an entertaining way for me to pass the time when on a road trip or some such other time-consuming, mind-numbing endeavor.

I do the same thing with Gilligan's Island -- assume that the show was created as a parody of "real" events.