thread: 2005-07-05 : Setting and Source Material
On 2005-07-07, Clinton R. Nixon wrote:
John (Harper), you're right in saying John (Kim)'s statements above are not right, but I think you've got it back'ards, too.John Kim's (I hope hyperbolic) idea that episodes after the original episode of a TV show fits the same model of fetishism Vincent brings up is nuts, mainly because the same people are writing the characters. (Yes, this isn't always true. If the creative team is substantially changed, this often makes bad TV.) Think of the writers of a TV as a game group. (In Whedon-land, this is probably true. I'm watching "Angel" on DVD, and it's so their fantasy detective game.) The characters on the show are their characters and they own them, in the sense that that's them up on screen. That is, again in the sense, that our RPG characters are us, as we made 'em, and we can't make something (good) we can't imagine or identify with.
(I'm making a lot of asides, but that last concept is important. If you don't buy it, then you and I can't talk.)
So, if we come in later and play a Buffy RPG and I say "I'ma gonna play Willow," I'm pretty much just displaying my fetish for red-headed lesbian witches out loud. (Like I am right now.) I can't play Willow - Willow is part Joss Whedon, part Jane Espenson, part Alison Hannigan - and she ain't me.
If we sit down and play a game where our fundamental tenets are something like:
* We play in California, and in California, there's always two faces to everything. It's sunny, too.
* The supernatural is rough, but the real world is rougher.
* Whenever something happens to our character's life, a supernatural metaphor for it will cover up the problem.
* Only solving the real problem will solve the supernatural metaphor.
* Even nerdy girls are attractive in our world. In fact, they're the most attractive. (Also see: Amy Acker, "Fred.")
Well, then, we've got a game with the same themes and a lot of the same flavor as Buffy, but it'll be our game.
