Re: No Good Guys?

But, as someone else has pointed out, just because there is no "Evil
Empire" or Nation of Goodness, doesn't mean there can't be any heroes
or villians.  True heros will perservere and fight for what is right,
even
if their government doesn't particularly give a rat's a$$.

Or look at the story in a different way.  The "official" histories are
written from a fairly neutral point of view. The facts are recorded, but
little is really said on the morality of the actions, or on who is in
the
right. Instead, you can think about your games from the point of view of
history books, written by your chosen country.	History books in the NAC
are sure to lay the blame for all three Solar Wars on the ESU. The ESU
are
filthy stinking commies, and the FSE are just a bunch of arrogant
Frenchmen. From this point of view, both you and your opponent can enjoy
the pleasure of "knowing" that they're firmly in the right. Your
generals
are the greatest of heros, your opponent's the filthiest of villians.

I think my problem is when you go trying to hang the title of "villian"
on
a whole country. A whole country full of "evil" people just seems to
unrealistic to me. Like another load of propaganda.

If you like the idea of the underdog hero, there is still plenty of room
in the GZG universe.  There are quite a few mentions of small minor
powers
scattered throughout the histories, who undoubtably have to continually
fight to not be swallowed by the "Imperialist pigs."

I think that's the charm of the GZQ universe, there's room there for
anything you want. Huge ammoral nation-states expanding for the sake of
expanding, heroic individuals leading valiantly for "right". Underdogs
fighting against the grips of oppression.

I've rambled long enough, back to lurking for me :)

On Tue, 21 Jul 1998, laserlight wrote:

> > It's a reflection of real life.  Almost every nation has an atrocity
in
> its
> > history or has turned a blind eye to a bad situation to protect its
> > interests.
> 
>   It may be realistic but it's lousy storytelling.  If you want the
grit
> and grime, you can have it; but don't you get enough in real life? 
When I
> play, I want villains and heroes and no confusing which is which.  The
> heroes are never perfect, and the villains aren't necessarily
completely
> evil--but you know who to cheer for.
>   Generally the hero is the outnumbered, outgunned little guy who
stands up
> for his principles despite the enormous potential cost (I grant you,
real
> life examples of nations that act this way are not just instantly
leaping
> to mind--although we might perhaps argue that Britain acted this way
in
> WWII ?).   The Napoleon of Notting Hill, by GK Chesterton, examines
this
> idea at more length and is considerably more interesting than my
writing...
> 

-----
Chad A. Lubrecht
lubrecht@udel.edu
http://udel.edu/~lubrecht