The problem with inspiration

My current pre-writing project has the working title of Empire & Rebellion. It's not based directly on Star Wars, despite the title. After listening to Deathstalker in its full dramatized glory from Audible.com, I realized the "rebellion against the Empire" theme was just the hook I was missing in the science fiction setting Karen and I started designing years ago.

Now E&R is swashbuckling space opera, which is a little different from the Babylon 5 -inspired setting my wife and I had been working on. The problem I'm having is that I'm pulling in elements from other science fiction left and right, furiously filing off serial numbers as I go. I shouldn't be reading science fiction when I'm writing this... I want to steal too much.

I've been thinking about what makes a science fiction setting appeal to gamers. Or any setting, for that matter. This meshes well into the "[[http://www.livejournal.com/users/mearls/97347.html|core story]]" issues that Mike Mearls brought up a few days ago. I agree with Mike that to be successful in the marketplace, a setting needs to have an obvious story for the characters to participate in. That is, when someone picks up the book and looks it over, they have to get a good idea of what kind of stories the characters will participate in.

But there's something beyond "core story" that I think is very helpful. Not only does a player need to feel he knows what kind of stories he'll participate in, but I think he needs to get a immediate feel for what kind of character he wants to play. I think that's why character classes and strong archetypes are so popular.

It's what's shaping Empire & Rebellion. Many of the elements I'm throwing into it call up some kind of archetype. Hot pilots, hard-as-nails captains, contemplative warrior-priests, mysterious AI robots left behind by a vanished race, gypsy traders on the rim, smugglers, escaped clones, psionic fugitives. Rebels looking to throw off the shackles of an oppressive Empire and bring about the dawn of a new era of peace and freedom. And everyone has names like Owen Deathstalker, Hazel D'arc, Investigator Frost, Captain Silence, Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Flash Gordon. Just like they should in a proper space opera.

This ain't hard SF. "I'm a writer, Jim, not a physicist." I find what I'm trying to do with E&R is paint a vivid picture... one in which the potential player easily sees themselves as a main character. Not one where they say, "Oh, that could be fun to play," but one where they say, "Ooh, ohh, I want to play a smuggler out on the rim, with his own moral code an a heart of gold under a hard exterior."

I'm still pre-writing. Taking notes, letting ideas mill about in my skull. Wishing to heck that I'd gotten up the other night and written down that dream, because I know I dreamt some really great idea for E&R, except I haven't the foggiest idea what it was.