An observation...
Mar. 20th, 2004 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesTodya I was browsing Guardians of Order's message board, and was watching the fans talk about GoO's recent announced plans to make an Evangeleon Fan Guide/RPG suppliment.
Someone brought up what one would rolpelay in the Eva-verse, and I got to thinking on the nature of worldbuilding.
Take something like Slayers. Even if you are not Lina Inverse and co., you can still have a lot of fun in the universe. There are plenty of minor and moderate menaces in the universe for you to clean up -- no need to go face down Deep Sea Dolphin or Chaotic Blue. Heck, for most groups of adventurers Triggerypuff* the Low-Level Mazoku No Dark Lord Will Owe Up To Creating is a pretty serious menace. And there are plenty of bandits to teach the meaning of fear, magical artifacts to plunder, feuding kingdoms to negotiate peace with and all-you-can-eat buffets to celebrate afterward.
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uncreativity
Now, consider something like X. Unless ou are a Dragon of Heaven or a Dragon of Earth, or connected to one of them, you don't know squat about what's going on. And even if you do know something, you probably can't do much of anything to contribute. It's like playing Sherlock Holmes in a supers game -- yes, you may be brilliant, but when Lex Luthor/Magneto/insert supervillain of choice shows up, the most you can do is hide in a corner and maybe take a few shots wiht your pistol.
Basically I think a lot of it depends on the type of heroes for the show. Lina, Gourry, Zel and Amelia are only different in degree from the normal adventurers -- sellcasters and men-at-arms are not unusual for the Slayers world. The same wiht the cast of Pokemon, or Harry Potter. The Dragons of X (or the Sailor Senshi,
or the Suzaku Seven, or the Eva Children, or etc.) are unique not only in degree but in nature -- they have powers the normal mortal has no hope of accessing. That's bad for an RPG world, at leats one where you expect to allow OCs.
Now, I'm not saying that an adventure can't be run in these worlds -- you can do it in a place/time where canon is less rigidly defined (Say a Crystal Tokyo where young Sailor Senshi are activly being recruited, or playing with the Byakko or Genbu Seishi from Fushigi Yuugi). However, the world is much more defined by the characters. Take away the DC heros and villains and you pretty much have ordinary Earth, with little means to creating new heros (at least beyond that of any garden variety modern setting). Take away the main cast of Slayers, and you still have a set of species, a beastiary, a magic system, unique places, a history, gods and demons, etc. That's what you need for an RPG world.
Someone brought up what one would rolpelay in the Eva-verse, and I got to thinking on the nature of worldbuilding.
Take something like Slayers. Even if you are not Lina Inverse and co., you can still have a lot of fun in the universe. There are plenty of minor and moderate menaces in the universe for you to clean up -- no need to go face down Deep Sea Dolphin or Chaotic Blue. Heck, for most groups of adventurers Triggerypuff* the Low-Level Mazoku No Dark Lord Will Owe Up To Creating is a pretty serious menace. And there are plenty of bandits to teach the meaning of fear, magical artifacts to plunder, feuding kingdoms to negotiate peace with and all-you-can-eat buffets to celebrate afterward.
*copyright
uncreativityNow, consider something like X. Unless ou are a Dragon of Heaven or a Dragon of Earth, or connected to one of them, you don't know squat about what's going on. And even if you do know something, you probably can't do much of anything to contribute. It's like playing Sherlock Holmes in a supers game -- yes, you may be brilliant, but when Lex Luthor/Magneto/insert supervillain of choice shows up, the most you can do is hide in a corner and maybe take a few shots wiht your pistol.
Basically I think a lot of it depends on the type of heroes for the show. Lina, Gourry, Zel and Amelia are only different in degree from the normal adventurers -- sellcasters and men-at-arms are not unusual for the Slayers world. The same wiht the cast of Pokemon, or Harry Potter. The Dragons of X (or the Sailor Senshi,
or the Suzaku Seven, or the Eva Children, or etc.) are unique not only in degree but in nature -- they have powers the normal mortal has no hope of accessing. That's bad for an RPG world, at leats one where you expect to allow OCs.
Now, I'm not saying that an adventure can't be run in these worlds -- you can do it in a place/time where canon is less rigidly defined (Say a Crystal Tokyo where young Sailor Senshi are activly being recruited, or playing with the Byakko or Genbu Seishi from Fushigi Yuugi). However, the world is much more defined by the characters. Take away the DC heros and villains and you pretty much have ordinary Earth, with little means to creating new heros (at least beyond that of any garden variety modern setting). Take away the main cast of Slayers, and you still have a set of species, a beastiary, a magic system, unique places, a history, gods and demons, etc. That's what you need for an RPG world.
