Sarah Palin: “John McCain tapped me.”
There’s an image for you.
(Although,
Opinionated Writers, and the Audience.
SF Writer John Scalzi, on the eternal question: Should a writer censor his actual opinions, for fear of alienating his potential audience?
As someone who’s had internet-based virtual poo flung at me for my opinions, even in the marginal-niche field of gaming, the situation he describes is sadly not unknown to me. (Hell, check out this post-2004-election post on this very journal for an example…)
Anyway — read Scalzi’s essay. I agree with his position whole-heartedly.
Money quote:
“The reader who believes a fiction author should keep his or her opinions to themselves is effectively (if generally unintentionally) saying “You exist only to amuse me. You are not allowed to do anything else.” To which the only rational response is: blow me.“
FAR WEST: Am I Crazy?
So, longtime readers will be aware that I was working on a Western/Wuxia Mashup setting called FAR WEST (link goes to all tagged entries, including this one). The game, originally using FATE, didn’t quite gell for me, so I back-burnered the RPG project.
I’ve still been working on FAR WEST as a novel, and it’s going well, albeit slowly.
Today, though, a thought struck me, completely out of left field. Unexpected, odd….but, as they old saying goes…just crazy enough to work.
Could FAR WEST work as a 4E setting? The powers structure in 4E is already pretty wuxia-riffic, and wouldn’t take much tweaking to push over the edge into full-blown kung fu awesomeosity. Add rules for steamtech and firearms….come up with a collection of FAR WEST-appropriate classes….
I mean, sure — no non-human races or magic (beyond the wuxia stuff, which is pretty “magical” to western eyes)….but damn if it doesn’t strike me as do-able.
At this point, I’ll admit: I’m teetering on the fence here. Either way, I keep working on the novel. But would this work? Should I do this?
So I turn to you, Oh Devils and Angels on my virtual Shoulder. Whisper your Influence in my ear.