I’m less worried about people coming into the Fen world then
Fen going out. Going into the Fen
world, they’re a decent set of folks (hence the warning “Your world is a
paradise”) who are going to be willing to help lost travelers, even annoying
ones. However, they should be ready for
a lot of “whoa, that’s not natural” comments.
I’m more worried about Fen going out.
Visiting worlds where their Handwavium makes them take chances the world
isn’t forgiving about, or worlds where Handwavium
doesn’t make sense and is negated by the laws of those
realities.
Rose does not want to have to stop by every so often and ask
“Have you lost any out-bounders? Where
did they go?” And then go rescue
trapped/lost Fen. She’d do it, but she’d
be annoyed about it, she’s busy enough.
Rose once met an anthropomorphic cat man (Ryan “Rakasta”
Black) who claimed to have spent time in the Disney-verse working for Scrooge
McDuck. As proof, he gave her a copy of
The Junior Woodchuck’s Guide Book. Nothing wigs Rose out after that (especially
since it’s fairly accurate, though she’s had to make notes correcting its
section on temporal/quasi-spatial vehicle operation).
Edited to clean up and add:
40k is actually a
great example of what I’m talking about, the more I think about it.
Terminator Armor is, according to canon fiction, tough
enough to survive plunging through the heart of a star while keeping its wearer
alive and comfortable. That’s freaking
impressive.
If a Space Marine in Terminator Armor showed up in Fenspace,
would you generally accept and portray them as the God-of-Death on two legs
that the
40k canon fiction
demands? Or would you tone them down
into working within the Fenspace conventions.
You’d tone them down.
Duh.
Why?
Because the canon facts don’t mesh with your world. Since it’s your world, you can make those
changes. It’s
your world.
That’s the important thing.
I wouldn’t dictate how something works
in your world. If an idea is contradicted by the Fen, then,
it doesn’t get used—common courtesy: I’m playing in your sandbox. However, if the Fen told me that, in SSD, the
Necros
couldn’t have attacked in
1987, because Handwavium was discovered in that year (made up example), or that
‘waved armor would fully resist Necros weaponry, I’d politely tell them to get
their hand out of my world and leave its workings to me. There’s more going on there then you know.
Now, if someone wanted to borrow the Necros and asked “how
would Necros weaponry interact with ‘waved armor?” I’d give an answer on how
Necros weapons worked and why both Ancient and Hellion armor resisted them so
well (ancient magick, in the former, and the Hellions discovered energy that
was anathema to the Necros in the latter).
I’d work with them, but recommend
not
using the Necros as they’re supposed to be scary-tough, resulting in an 85%
loss of super heroes on the world.
Quote:Y'know, everything I've heard about Rose so far - patronizing, condescending, supercilious - would make her the number one target on the Bureau's Chastisement List. The Osama bin Laden of annoying multiversal travellers, if you will(1).
(The question of course is, "what is the Bureau for Interdimensional Chastisement?" Well, it's a little side project put together by players who will remain unnamed - and whose initials are HS and MF - when the density of irritating wanderers gets too high. The Bureau exists to seek out those various Mary Sues who behave badly in Fenspace and chastise them. With grandmotherly kindness. Also, big sticks.)
(1) I jest, but only a little. Skysaber is of course #1 with a bullet on that list. Rose would make the top five pretty easily, though.
Which, in turn, turns them into worse Mary Sues. I'm used to dealing with characters like them. Everyone has them and thinks they're the first. Gummi calls them "The Rosary." Other people call them "Men in Black," "Navel Contemplators," "Justice League" or other equally "scary" names. They're not. They're simply a construct that people create to try to keep their sandbox clean. But, like I tell Gummi, and many others, that their construct is the greatest evil in their universe and, so long as it exists, it will fester. They're the literary equivelant of a shojo mallet, and I take them just as seriously.
I don't use them. My sandbox doesn't need police. Sure, people like Rose and the Quorum might track down some extremely annoying perps, but, they're
busy and, unless you're threatening universal stability, it's not something they need to worry about. But, if you're playing a game, or writing a story about someone capable of threatening universal stability, then they need opponents capable of dealing with them. And, no matter how well written, people will always call them "Mary Sues."
And, the reason Rose is patronizing and condescending is usually because people are patronizing and condescending to her.