Re: [HoE] Derivativeness of HoE

["Steven Nelson" <sdnelson@advancenet.net>]

I have to agree.  At times I read things in a Deadlands book and I just roll
my eyes and groan, but then again I do that at the six o'clock news at times
too.

The Killer Tomatoes would have wound up in one of my games sooner or
later... so no harm done.  Plus there are lots of terrific original ideas
presented as well.  Things like S-Mart are a homage to the original idea, in
one fell swoop showing respect for something cool, putting a twisted spin on
the idea, and encouraging marshals to find other like inspiration around
them.

Sometimes it's fun to be reading along and then catch the little inside
jokes (like the Wizard's Tower in Seattle) and snicker at it, and get a kick
out of the spin they put on the original concept (virtual gaming...) and in
this particular example even a portal to run other game systems without
really leaving the game as a nice distraction... (games like Hunters, Inc.
and Paranoia would be perfect for short term mini adventures here...)

While understanding some people's frustration with what they consider
"excessive" unoriginal material (what was the other book you threw across
the room anyways???) I also like to see things like this from time to time.
I would be upset if an adventure or dime-novel borrowed too heavily from pop
culture (though having a modern day event become the core of a futuristic
ruins or be the first in a line of events that lead to some unseeable horrid
future...) because I expect original concepts from those, but to have just
one page or two out of an entire sourcebook dedicated to porting in some pop
reference into the game world I don't see as "unforgivable" or "excessive"
or "an impeachable offense... whoops... where did that come from?"...

After all, everyone on the list serve that has ever thrown out a wacky or
unorthodox idea (and don't deny it, they pop up on a daily basis) gets mixed
responses... probably half the people are thinking "Cool!" or proposing
additional or alternate takes on the idea and the other half of the people
are thinking "What a bunch of spanks..."  And we've all probably been on
either side at some given time... (professional wrestlers in HoE? What
the... ) and we are all entitled to our own personal take and have the right
to use or not use any ideas presented to us in any manner.

To sum up... I just wanted to voice my own two cents and blather my thoughts
on the topic...

Now... I've been thinking... Pamela Anderson Lee as a Doomsayer in HoE...
what could we do to represent the effects of radiated silicon...


Steve "just funnin' with ya" Nelson
sdnelson@advancenet.net

-----Original Message-----
From: IronPen@aol.com <IronPen@aol.com>
To: hoe@gamerz.net <hoe@gamerz.net>
Date: Thursday, March 04, 1999 12:47 PM
Subject: [HoE] Derivativeness of HoE


>I haven't read CoTA or Road Warriors yet, but I have to say I'm perfectly
>content with the HoE material I've seen so far (Brainburners, Wasted West,
>main book).  I agree that some of the material we could do without, and the
>space could have been put to better use, but at the same time most of it is
>still the same PEG quality stuff.  The thing is, do you ever really use
most
>of the information in the published books?  I sure don't.  I like to write
my
>own adventures, and I think the books are just fun to read and lend flavor
to
>the game.  That is, they give oyu an idea of what HoE is supposed to be
like.
>I mean sure there's occasionally something too good to pass up, but most of
>the material is just there for flavoring purposes.  (Is 'flavoring' a
word?)
>Anyhow, I personaly think that, used sparingly, references to things we all
>know and love (or love to hate) are kinda neat.  As long as I'm kept up to
my
>neck in useful material (new spells & rules, a killer storyline, great
flavor
>material), I could almost care less about useless extra stuff.  I mean, I'd
>rather be ab;e to laugh it up over a cheezy stab at WotC then be told about
>the inner working of some obscure biker gang I'll never use in my
campaigns.
>Additionally, the HoE library on the PEG website is constantly expanding,
and
>I can pull ideas off of the listserver pretty often.  As long as I don't
run
>out of fresh material, I really can't complain.
>
>-jesse
>
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