Y'know, it's funny you should mention Getaway Special, 'cause I've been kicking around an RPG setting loosely based on that book for a bit now... but yeah, there really isn't all that much in common between the two ideas.
Anyway, moving back to Fen In Space:
I'm starting to get an idea or three on what kind of a story could hang off this structure. The pitch unfolding in my brain is sort of a pisstake of the classic UF/Serendipity kitchen-sink-SI space opera. It's not an 'oooh, realism' deconstruction or anything, more like... well, kind of like The Tick's The City.
Picture it: The story begins with a group of eager young space cadet fans who get their hands on a Plot Device. Being fans with a strong interest in space travel, they decide to build a spaceship with their Plot Device and go travel the stars being all heroic. So they build a spaceship out of whatever's handy (possibly incurring the wrath of local Authority Figures for nebulous reasons) and take off.
When they get into space, our heroes find that they're not the only ones out there by a wide margin. Other fan groups had the exact same idea and got there first. Crushing disappointment! Angst! Woe! But wait! The collection of fen and their Star Defense Forces and Frankly Magnificent Starships are banding together, an alliance that's part Starfleet, part trade union...
And that's about where the thought trails off so far. Consider that an opening sequence, or backstory for something beginning in media res.
As for the Plot Devices themselves, I don't think they should be detailed to any huge degree. I'm resisting my fiddly gearhead urges to say it, but the story works better if the Plot Devices remain fairly black-box and in the background. They exist to build a mundane utopia on Earth and provide power/lights/gravity/air/what have you to the Frankly Magnificient Starships and that's it. ---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Anyway, moving back to Fen In Space:
I'm starting to get an idea or three on what kind of a story could hang off this structure. The pitch unfolding in my brain is sort of a pisstake of the classic UF/Serendipity kitchen-sink-SI space opera. It's not an 'oooh, realism' deconstruction or anything, more like... well, kind of like The Tick's The City.
Picture it: The story begins with a group of eager young space cadet fans who get their hands on a Plot Device. Being fans with a strong interest in space travel, they decide to build a spaceship with their Plot Device and go travel the stars being all heroic. So they build a spaceship out of whatever's handy (possibly incurring the wrath of local Authority Figures for nebulous reasons) and take off.
When they get into space, our heroes find that they're not the only ones out there by a wide margin. Other fan groups had the exact same idea and got there first. Crushing disappointment! Angst! Woe! But wait! The collection of fen and their Star Defense Forces and Frankly Magnificent Starships are banding together, an alliance that's part Starfleet, part trade union...
And that's about where the thought trails off so far. Consider that an opening sequence, or backstory for something beginning in media res.
As for the Plot Devices themselves, I don't think they should be detailed to any huge degree. I'm resisting my fiddly gearhead urges to say it, but the story works better if the Plot Devices remain fairly black-box and in the background. They exist to build a mundane utopia on Earth and provide power/lights/gravity/air/what have you to the Frankly Magnificient Starships and that's it. ---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"