(no subject)

[bzarcher]

Ghr.

I didn't think I'd be as frustrated about this as I am, but....I am.


I wrote a TP for M3 back in November/December. People liked the idea a lot. It was called 'Et Choro Angelorum'. The Choir of Angels.

It was about faith. Good and bad.

It was about how good men make bad choices for the best of reasons...and how those felt to be the most evil can be good. It had several twists and turns, and a fairly good twist ending.

Then Canopus turned it into shit. Some of the most powerful characters were removed or rewritten so that they'd not "potentially offend anyone." An entire subplot was killed.

To make it even worse, he chose to insert a totally unneccessary element, the Irregulars, without even consulting anyone, and destroying much of the seriousness of the plot.

I was never consulted. Neither were most of the staff.

And then I was called in halfway through by him to 'save it', because it was totally out of control and failing badly, thanks to Canopus. I -think- I managed to. At least by the end several people understood what it had originally been about, and could see how I'd tried to save it.

But I still wept for what I'd orginally written. For what people saw, and had wanted to see acted out.

I swore I'd never write another TP while Canopus was on staff. EVER.

So I got hired at M3.

And after no-one else could think of decent ideas for some very important TPs, I sighed. And so I started writing.

It was good. It had a lot of human choices, it helped showcase the personalities of the intro'd characters....and it didn't feature any of the things that Canopus felt were essential. No berzerk insanity. No "plauges." No horribly overdone cliches. No terribly tired personalities. In fact...almost nothing like the game. At all. With several twists and turns to keep players interested. No Nightmare Virus. We already -had- the nightmare virus with our theme, and the way the Maverick Virus worked. We didn't NEED to reinvent the wheel!

The X6 TP......well, people liked it. It was settled almost immedately that we'd run it.

I had a lot of hope for it. Especially when I was asked to meet with Rigel, a TP staffer, to co-ordinate how we wanted to do it, and how to incorporate the idea for a new IC area that people wanted to bring into the grid.

So we added. We changed a little. We nipped here. Tucked there. Came out with something I felt was very good. procyon8 agreed that it was workable, and asked us to put it into the database and ready to go.

So we did.

And because of some other stuff going on, it sat. And sat. And sat.

And tempest56 asked what was going on with it. And Rigel and I said "It's ready to go."

But Canopus decided it wasn't good enough, and wrote a counter TP. And gee, it was overdone cliches. And plauges. And lots of unneeded shit to distract from the plot and divide (or remove) player interest.

So tempest56 said "Get me something, ready to go, by the end of the week. Work together."

I don't blame him. He's the director, he needs people to do their jobs. He needs things to provide his players. He needs us not to let him down.

But I look at the Frankenstein's monster that TP has become, and I get angry. I get sick.

Because we're replacing thought with fluff. We're justifying horrible actions with "Well, he was insane, but he's better now," rather than doing something -really- scary, by showing that you don't have to be a loony, or a dictator, to be evil.

That, god forbid, average people exist.

And because my plot is in there, it hurts. The pieces of everything I wrote sit there, like shards of glass in an open wound.

Because Canopus has killed another one of my ideas because he cannot do anything that isn't over the top. Because he can't let anything be too serious, or too much like "something that could happen in the real world."

Yes, he told me that last part, once. Right alongside "we can't have you use a Christian character as a villan. Even if you have a Christian hero, too. It'll offend too many people."

I'm sorry. I thought the job of TPs were to tell good stories, that got players involved and made them think. Not to keep from offending people!



So. I've got one other TP that I wrote for this summer. People may not even know it when it happens. But I'm looking forward to it, because it will be small, and it will be cute. And it will have real motivations. And perhaps it will make some people think.

And because I will resign from staff before I let Canopus touch it, or any of my other work, again.

I trusted him with my work once, and he shit all over it.

I trusted someone else with my work, and he shit all over it again.

Even if I have to run the 3rd TP myself, I'm not going to let him get a 3rd opportunity.

Because I love my work too much to put up with this any longer.