Anyone Else Tired of The Tyranny of Novelty?

[Lanefan]

I doubt that [WotC are] publishing "novel" scenarios simply in pursuit of critical acclaim!

What, you mean their every thought isn't bent on winning more ENnie awards? Surely you blaspheme, sir!

 

[aramis erak]

Nothing is really original, and writers and musicians who realize this know what's up. As someone who studied jazz arranging for big bands, there are only so many chord progressions. In fact most pop music is just the same 4 chords in a different key or order. Nothing is really original.

Modern bands sometimes do, like the beatles, go to 5 or 6 chords (adding 1-2 of iii, VI, vii° ), and/or key shifts (often x/ii or x/V, sometimes x/iii, and very rarely x/I#)... and some are even using non-major modes. SOme even go beyond Major and Minor modes... and some, stick to I-IV-V-I in infinite repetition...

much the same way that many games add minigames or special processes to emphasize certain aspects that many others don't feel need mechanics for, or mixing various seldom used but non-novel mechanics to create a novel combination. And some want the same thing, again, again, and again, ad nauseam.

 

[Gnarlo]

If I didn’t like unique takes on a common theme, I wouldn’t own 36 Godzilla movies and 7 Tremors…

 

[doctorbadwolf]

If I didn’t like unique takes on a common theme, I wouldn’t own 36 Godzilla movies and 7 Tremors…

And yet, if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard those movies lambasted for “not being original”, I’d be able to buy another Beadle and Grimm’s box.

 

[Northern Phoenix]

For sure i am. Nothing annoys me more in the media space than subversion for the sake of subversion, or contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

For sure i am. Nothing annoys me more in the media space than subversion for the sake of subversion, or contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism.

Yeah seriously. It’s okay, your Superman movie can tell a classic Superman story. There is no need to “reinvent” Superman just to do it.

 

[TheSword]

Yeah seriously. It’s okay, your Superman movie can tell a classic Superman story. There is no need to “reinvent” Superman just to do it.

Robin Hood is one of those stories that improved the closer people cleave to the core recognizable story.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Robin Hood is one of those stories that improved the closer people cleave to the core recognizable story.

Up to a certain point, but yeah. You can do a lot with that story, but change too much and it gets weird. Also, when novelty becomes the motivation, you get really weird Robins Hood, wherein Robin isn’t even actually Locksley, or whatever other dumb twists.

And gods above I’d love to see a good Arthur movie or show. Last good one was what, BBC Merlin? Before that…Sam Neil Merlin movie? Before that…does Excalibur even hold up?

 

[pemerton]

does Excalibur even hold up?

Yes. It's an amazing film.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Yes. It's an amazing film.

Yeah, I HAD to make my wife watch it, she's never seen any US or British/European movies made before the early 90's. She had a pretty hard time following the plot, since she's got no background with Arthur stories, but she thought it was pretty exciting. She really liked Merlin too, which is of course quite far from the story line of L'Morte, but she just liked the dragon a lot. That one really had some good writing though. The plot was fun.