Re: OT Genres & Backgrounds was GW

At 09:31 AM 1/25/02 -0800, you wrote:
>I think the biggest problem *I* have with the background material for
game 
>systems like WH40K (whick I've never played but watched a lot of games)
and 
>Battletech (Which I played WAY too much) is not how dark or evil the
forces 
>may or may not be - it's how little say I have over what the background
is 
>like.	It's constricting.  That's the beauty of the generic nature of
GZG.  
>Whether you play your take on a canon power, a non-canon power, or not
even 
>in the Tuffleyverse, it's UP TO YOU.  The tone can bew as dark or light
or 
>as many shades in between as you like.  You can fashion your power as 
>despotic, enlightened, heroic, villainous, and as idealistic,
optimistic, 
>realistic, pessimistic, or Mystic as you want.  I grew tired of having
to 
>decide if I wanted to be a merc, a Davion, a Clanner, etc.... Now I can
be a 
>Cascadian, and define what that means, or a NAC loyalist, or a Cylon,
or a 
>Klingon, or a Moron...... OK, that one may be unavoidable.  But the
rest is 
>up to me.

Ah, it's not that bad.	I don't much 'bout Battletech, but back when we
actually used semi-GW rules and background, we cheerfully made up our
own
forces.  We usually had Marines of some sort (our own Chapters, nothing
"official") against rebels of various sorts.  It worked, it was fun, and
that's what mattered. 

Oh, and we used 15mm figures, too.  Lots of scratchbuilt vehicles.  Made
us
Heretics of many different sorts, really.

(I have thought that it would be a lot of fun to set some games -- RPGs,
perhaps, as well as miniatures -- in the aftermath of the death of the
Emperor and the collapse of the Imperium.  The death of the big guy
would
have a catastrophic effect upon much of the setting, and provide lots of
room for playing around with the remaining bits.)

John Crimmins
johncrim@voicenet.com