Fighting is for girls

[alias_sqbr]

Reading the feminist sff carnival which has lots of interesting links. Reading this one about how amateur RPGs are even more unimaginateively conservative than commercial ones I was struck by how deeply cool it would be to have a Tamora Pierce RPG ("The Song of The Lioness" or maybe one of the later ones with a party of young people whose powers work together(*)).

I've only managed to stop myself trying to make one by remembering how quickly my "The Colour of Magic" NWN module went up in flames.

On a related theme, Part 3 of this essay on "And we shall March" has some (imo) really cool ideas for how Alan Moore could have used the Golliwog in LoEG:The Black Dossier. Parts 1 and 2 talk about where golliwogs and minstrelry etc come from and their history (not a pretty place), part 4 is a bibliography and Part 5 talks about what Alan Moore actually did with the goliwog (bad things, apparently)

Something I am fascinated by is the idea of all the really cool stories that don't get told because our blinkers make us incapable of seeing they could ever exist. I have nothing but admiration (and envy) for the writers who tell these stories, as a reader I love that that moment of seeing the world from a different perspective you didn't know was there, like the best of science fiction or theoretical science (well, it's the same feeling to me :))

(*)Ooh! Or a Planeteers one! Ok, I'll stop now :)

Comments

[callistra.livejournal.com]

I read her lj. We could ask...
:-)
She could also be a fun swancon guest one day too.

[alias_sqbr]

The problem isn't permission (I'm sure she wouldn't object to some amateur RPG noone paid for, she's known to be ok with non-sexy fanfic) the problem is making it :)

[kadeton.livejournal.com]

Wait until Fourth Edition D&D comes out (June), then base it on the new d20 system. 90% of your work is done for you. Easy!

[kadeton.livejournal.com]

Having read the article you linked, I now realise that you were talking about a computer game, not an RPG. Argh! Damn those people that use 'RPG' to describe a genre of computer gaming in which no roleplaying occurs.

Aside from its misappropriation of terminology, that article was interesting, but not surprising. Indie CRPGs are generally made by geeks (duh) who have a tendency to be ultra-conservative, particularly when not widely socialised.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, sorry, should have been more unambiguous :)

I agree, it isn't that surprising, but it is kinda sad.