Okay people, before this goes any further, let me just note that Mark ran his post by me before putting up here, and did so at my encouragement. I think he has some good points, and dismissing them out of hand with "that's not what we wanted" is disingenuous and possibly self-deceptive, because as Mark points out, we have some of what you don't want already. And as I said to him in private mail:
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
I Wrote:I can't say I disagree with you -- there really ought to be/to have been a few more accidents and tragedies during the early days of Fenspace. We all know the obssessed, obnoxious fan who can't be told anything and can't get along even with others of his fandom (hell, some of us are that fan, more often than we'd like, I'm sure). That guy is far more likly to die from the combination of overconfidence and aggressive ignorance, especially if he insists the real world has to work like his personal quantification of his fandom says. There should be some instances where even all the power and good intentions of handwavium aren't enough to save someone with the right combination of smart and stupid. As long as they're not a "main character" or the point of a depressing little story, I can't see as how that would violate the "non-dystopia" directive; it would, in fact, inject some realism and verisimiltude into the setting.-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.