thread: 2005-07-05 : Setting and Source Material
On 2005-07-07, John Harper wrote:
Here's an example of what I mean.Let's say you're a writer on Firefly. You work with the other writers in a collaborative creative environment to break the story. Something to do with Inara's dark secret and Kaylee's past and how both of them grew up too fast.
The writers have used certain tools to collaborate and contribute ideas and criticize each other and do all that business of *creating* an episode of Firefly.
Now it's our turn, as RPG players, to pick up the Firefly RPG and create a new story. What tools do we get? Do we get *anything* even remotely like what the writers were using? No. Instead, we determine things like how strong Jane is, on a scale of 3-18. And how many hull points Serenity has. And how many days travel it is from Persephone to Cheyenne. And how much "damage" an Alliance stunner does. And, gods perserve us, what River's "carrying capacity" is.
The writers didn't need any of that crap to create new Firefly material. And yet, RPG books are full of it. Filled to bursting. THAT'S fetishistic. It's obsession over the trappings of the thing rather than the thing itself. In this case, powerful, character-focused action/dramas, as westerns, in space.
