I think you’re all beating around the bush. The setting isn’t the problem, but it suffers from the problem.
The genre-directive is only a small part of the problem. It’s not dystopic. That, itself, is not really a problem. A small part of the problem is that most people see it as a polar: If it’s not dystopic, it’s utopic (and vice versa). And, no, it doesn’t have to be either. And, well, as much as you want to disagree, Fenspace is a utopia, but I’ll get to that in a bit. Just because it’s not a dystopia doesn’t mean that exceptionally bad things don’t, and won’t, happen.
However, the actual problem with the Genre-directive is that you have declared that “There are still Big Bads, a shadowy conspiracy or two and plenty of mooks for the heroes to smack around of course, but they are defeatable.” [sic] You make it seem overcoming adversity is not only possible, it’s guaranteed. The white hats will beat the black hats and ride off into the sunset at the end of the day. I’m sorry to say, but, if success is guaranteed, then it is a utopia, and not terribly interesting.
Not all problems can be defeated. Not all problems are adversaries. Some simply are. And, honestly, a sad ending is sometimes more interesting than a happy ending. I’m not saying that “the world sucks, so the stories have to.” I’m saying “Not everyone gets a happy ending.” Sometimes, signor, the bull wins.
The major problem, honestly, is the ultimately altruistic nature of Handwavium. If there was a creator-level understanding of the in-universe reasons for this, it would be less problematic. The problem is that there is only a meta-level reason and it’s not something definable within the universe.
As an external writer/GM looking in from the outside, the rules read like they’re designed to keep people from tearing up your sandbox by forcing them to all wear straightjackets. Instead of allowing for authors to be creative and have their stories accepted or rejected by the community, you put rules in place to prevent people from exploring story ideas because you don’t want to deal with the potential implications.
All right, it’s been a bit: Fenspace is a Space Opera, so it’s, obviously, optimistic—and, in Fenspace’s case, extremely optimistic. The major point of it being a utopia is that millions of unskilled, untrained nerds (seriously, that’s what the majority of the Fen are) are able to survive and thrive in the most hostile of natural environments with no external support or training. Handwavium provides everything they need, including hyper-intelligent AI constructs willing to support them.
Anything the Fen do is successful. And they’re the only people doing it (which, as I’ve read this thread several times was its original purpose discussion). Sure, there are accidents, and sure some bad people get their hands on toys they shouldn’t play with. But, ultimately, as I said above, the white hats will stop the black hats and ride off into the sunset. The Fen have successful created interplanetary nations though none of them have ever had any training at doing so. This is coupled with the fact that they’re, generally, displaying near-psychotic levels of dissociative identity disorder. They have embraced fictional worlds and made them work when there is no reason they should (or, honestly, could).
This focuses the camera right back on Handwavium, and what it is—it wants this to happen. It is encouraging this behavior. If it isn’t, there is no, possible way that the Fen could have survived. Handwavium is creating a Fen-Utopia. That causes the problem that, without knowing Handwavium’s ultimate goal (or even that it has one), creativity is stifled. Especially from a role-playing perspective.
Because, let’s be honest, if an anime convention lifted off into space, they wouldn’t last as long as a keg of beer at a fraternity party.
The genre-directive is only a small part of the problem. It’s not dystopic. That, itself, is not really a problem. A small part of the problem is that most people see it as a polar: If it’s not dystopic, it’s utopic (and vice versa). And, no, it doesn’t have to be either. And, well, as much as you want to disagree, Fenspace is a utopia, but I’ll get to that in a bit. Just because it’s not a dystopia doesn’t mean that exceptionally bad things don’t, and won’t, happen.
However, the actual problem with the Genre-directive is that you have declared that “There are still Big Bads, a shadowy conspiracy or two and plenty of mooks for the heroes to smack around of course, but they are defeatable.” [sic] You make it seem overcoming adversity is not only possible, it’s guaranteed. The white hats will beat the black hats and ride off into the sunset at the end of the day. I’m sorry to say, but, if success is guaranteed, then it is a utopia, and not terribly interesting.
Not all problems can be defeated. Not all problems are adversaries. Some simply are. And, honestly, a sad ending is sometimes more interesting than a happy ending. I’m not saying that “the world sucks, so the stories have to.” I’m saying “Not everyone gets a happy ending.” Sometimes, signor, the bull wins.
The major problem, honestly, is the ultimately altruistic nature of Handwavium. If there was a creator-level understanding of the in-universe reasons for this, it would be less problematic. The problem is that there is only a meta-level reason and it’s not something definable within the universe.
As an external writer/GM looking in from the outside, the rules read like they’re designed to keep people from tearing up your sandbox by forcing them to all wear straightjackets. Instead of allowing for authors to be creative and have their stories accepted or rejected by the community, you put rules in place to prevent people from exploring story ideas because you don’t want to deal with the potential implications.
All right, it’s been a bit: Fenspace is a Space Opera, so it’s, obviously, optimistic—and, in Fenspace’s case, extremely optimistic. The major point of it being a utopia is that millions of unskilled, untrained nerds (seriously, that’s what the majority of the Fen are) are able to survive and thrive in the most hostile of natural environments with no external support or training. Handwavium provides everything they need, including hyper-intelligent AI constructs willing to support them.
Anything the Fen do is successful. And they’re the only people doing it (which, as I’ve read this thread several times was its original purpose discussion). Sure, there are accidents, and sure some bad people get their hands on toys they shouldn’t play with. But, ultimately, as I said above, the white hats will stop the black hats and ride off into the sunset. The Fen have successful created interplanetary nations though none of them have ever had any training at doing so. This is coupled with the fact that they’re, generally, displaying near-psychotic levels of dissociative identity disorder. They have embraced fictional worlds and made them work when there is no reason they should (or, honestly, could).
This focuses the camera right back on Handwavium, and what it is—it wants this to happen. It is encouraging this behavior. If it isn’t, there is no, possible way that the Fen could have survived. Handwavium is creating a Fen-Utopia. That causes the problem that, without knowing Handwavium’s ultimate goal (or even that it has one), creativity is stifled. Especially from a role-playing perspective.
Because, let’s be honest, if an anime convention lifted off into space, they wouldn’t last as long as a keg of beer at a fraternity party.