thread: 2005-07-05 : Setting and Source Material
On 2005-07-07, John Harper wrote:
John Kim: Vincent's point is moronic? Wow.Anyway... building on another creative work IS a creative process. Of course it is. You take what has come before, and you add something new. This is what Joss and Co. did with Seasons six and seven, and this is what you can do with a Buffy RPG.
No one is saying otherwise. I don't see it in Vincent's post. He says that RPGers need tools for the start of the creative process. Like, HOW do I add on to this other cool creative work? Or, HOW do I begin Explore, given this Situation, Setting, Color, and System?
What Vincent is slamming is the fetishization found in most fanfic. Not all. Most. And the same fetishization found in most (not all) of RPG materials based on existing creative works. Materials that give you an obsessive catalog of every detail of a setting, and zero tools with which to start adding your own creative input.
Those are the tools we need! Because playing an RPG is *about* creating that new stuff, as you rightly point out. The obsessive catalog is not only not sufficient, it can (sometimes, for some players) be a huge obstacle.
