Too many categories for me to lump it all together.
Derivative works of fairy tales, fables, and myths? Hey, sure, that could be an interesting hook. Even a derivative spin off of Victorian heroes as if they were members of some sort of a legion of remarkable heroes would be cool ... except, in my humble opinion, I really don't like the way it was actually done by a certain author.
Taking Star Trek, Harry Potter, or whatever, and imagining pairings of this and that character, or marching a Marty Stu or Mary Sue across the stage? Not my cup o' tea, not even getting into copyright issues. I suppose half of it is because the creator is still around and might take issue with someone doing twisty things with his creations, and I can sympathize with that. Half of it would just be personal experience at how it usually actually turns out.
I haven't much trouble with derivation at all when it comes to RPGs. That is, when running a campaign, I freely "rip off" various popular sources. I need my players to be familiar with the gist of the setting, rather than inventing a new and bewildering mythos from whole cloth, and requiring them to do some intensive reading.
This is one reason that right now I'm running a "Savage Ghostbusters" game (though it doesn't involve the movie characters at all), and why in the past I've based campaigns off of "simple genres" such as 1920s pulp, basic sword-swinging fantasy, etc., and then introduced the "twist" over the course of the campaign, or introduced a "new world" piece by piece. But, hey, at least I won't pretend to impress anybody with my ORIGINAL CREATION when it clearly isn't.
I can understand that someone has the same intent when writing fan fiction. The world is already established. Things happen, and as you read the story, you might imagine what happens next, or even HOPE ... and it doesn't. "What if?" can spark ideas for a new story. Maybe someone else will sympathize. If it's a popular enough story, you might have an audience already up to speed because, hey, they read the original book.
I can UNDERSTAND it. However, a lot of the time it just becomes a shortcut to wanting to latch onto the magic someone else created, this really well-developed character, etc., and the only real addition is, "... and my alter-ego character shall therefore be awesome, because watch as he/she/it OUTDOES THEM ALL!"
Anyway, it's not something I get terribly worried about. Maybe one of these days, I could write some "fan fiction" set in the Deadlands universe ... and actually find a place to print it (with permission from the original creator). I've just been too busy, and I don't know enough about the old west to feel comfortable doing a quasi-historic piece, unfortunately. (Last time I attempted such a thing, it got shot full o' holes by someone who knew more basic history than me, pronto!)
I couldn't imagine running a setting as weird as "World Tree," because my players wouldn't take well to reading assignments before they can even start playing.
For a "Slipstream" game (retro sci-fi), I would be more inclined to introduce the game with the heroes either being from something resembling REAL Earth circa the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s or all of the above (people from different time periods), who get sucked into this bizarre setting, OR I'd play it up as being inspired by the 1980s Flash Gordon movie (wouldn't take long to get everyone "up to speed" and extrapolate from there), etc. I would be reluctant to use the official setting and details and expect everyone to be NATIVES of the Slipstream and knowledgeable about the rest of their "universe" from the get-go. Too many alien races to explain, too many factions, too many weird rules. It would be easier to do the Flash Gordon approach and have "ordinary Earthman sucked into new world" with the PCs being normal humans and let them switch to aliens midway once they're more acquainted.
I think the same thing happens with story-writing sometimes. Uhm ... continued in another note.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-05-18 07:11 pm (UTC)Derivative works of fairy tales, fables, and myths? Hey, sure, that could be an interesting hook. Even a derivative spin off of Victorian heroes as if they were members of some sort of a legion of remarkable heroes would be cool ... except, in my humble opinion, I really don't like the way it was actually done by a certain author.
Taking Star Trek, Harry Potter, or whatever, and imagining pairings of this and that character, or marching a Marty Stu or Mary Sue across the stage? Not my cup o' tea, not even getting into copyright issues. I suppose half of it is because the creator is still around and might take issue with someone doing twisty things with his creations, and I can sympathize with that. Half of it would just be personal experience at how it usually actually turns out.
I haven't much trouble with derivation at all when it comes to RPGs. That is, when running a campaign, I freely "rip off" various popular sources. I need my players to be familiar with the gist of the setting, rather than inventing a new and bewildering mythos from whole cloth, and requiring them to do some intensive reading.
This is one reason that right now I'm running a "Savage Ghostbusters" game (though it doesn't involve the movie characters at all), and why in the past I've based campaigns off of "simple genres" such as 1920s pulp, basic sword-swinging fantasy, etc., and then introduced the "twist" over the course of the campaign, or introduced a "new world" piece by piece. But, hey, at least I won't pretend to impress anybody with my ORIGINAL CREATION when it clearly isn't.
I can understand that someone has the same intent when writing fan fiction. The world is already established. Things happen, and as you read the story, you might imagine what happens next, or even HOPE ... and it doesn't. "What if?" can spark ideas for a new story. Maybe someone else will sympathize. If it's a popular enough story, you might have an audience already up to speed because, hey, they read the original book.
I can UNDERSTAND it. However, a lot of the time it just becomes a shortcut to wanting to latch onto the magic someone else created, this really well-developed character, etc., and the only real addition is, "... and my alter-ego character shall therefore be awesome, because watch as he/she/it OUTDOES THEM ALL!"
Anyway, it's not something I get terribly worried about. Maybe one of these days, I could write some "fan fiction" set in the Deadlands universe ... and actually find a place to print it (with permission from the original creator). I've just been too busy, and I don't know enough about the old west to feel comfortable doing a quasi-historic piece, unfortunately. (Last time I attempted such a thing, it got shot full o' holes by someone who knew more basic history than me, pronto!)
I couldn't imagine running a setting as weird as "World Tree," because my players wouldn't take well to reading assignments before they can even start playing.
For a "Slipstream" game (retro sci-fi), I would be more inclined to introduce the game with the heroes either being from something resembling REAL Earth circa the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s or all of the above (people from different time periods), who get sucked into this bizarre setting, OR I'd play it up as being inspired by the 1980s Flash Gordon movie (wouldn't take long to get everyone "up to speed" and extrapolate from there), etc. I would be reluctant to use the official setting and details and expect everyone to be NATIVES of the Slipstream and knowledgeable about the rest of their "universe" from the get-go. Too many alien races to explain, too many factions, too many weird rules. It would be easier to do the Flash Gordon approach and have "ordinary Earthman sucked into new world" with the PCs being normal humans and let them switch to aliens midway once they're more acquainted.
I think the same thing happens with story-writing sometimes. Uhm ... continued in another note.