Mark Skarr Wrote: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.
It's adventure fiction. The good guys triumph in the end, the bad guys either get wrapped up or vanish into the night with a fist-shaking vow of revenge in the next exciting episode, etc. As you note, these things are part and parcel of space opera, and it's been that way since the days of Hugo Gernsback. I don't get why you get your nose out of joint that - holy shit! - Fenspace maintains the genre traditions.
Mark Skarr Wrote: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.
You're right that the rules exist to keep people from tearing up the sandbox; that's because people keep trying to tear up the sandbox. We like the sandbox, why shouldn't we take steps to protect it from people who think shitting in it is awesome? You're a DM, haven't you ever had to deal with a That Guy who refused to play by the campaign's accepted conventions?
Mark Skarr Wrote:HANDWAVIUM
... Yeah, okay, I don't get it. You've spent a lot of words talking about the inherent altruistic nature of handwavium (which is a reasonable position, more or less) and the mysterious and poorly-defined nature of its possible agenda (which is a more reasonable position) and then you say it stifles creativity.
Why? You never actually give a reason why the combination of altruism and ambiguity stifles creativity, you just say it does and expect us to take that as fact. So give us a reason. Spell it out. Use small words if necessary.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
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"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"