This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Copied from YKTTW Chrome Newfie: Another one for the "I'm surprised it's not here already" file... I've seen plenty of entries dealing with aspects of normals, e.g. Invisible to Normals, Muggles, Weirdness Censor. So, where's Weirdness Magnet? To reference the GURPS disadvantage:
So, have I missed the proper entry?
Harpie Siren: Isn't that a Cosmic Plaything?
Chrome Newfie: Not quite. Cosmic Plaything relies on the character having "something" causing things to happen to them, or at least believing that this is so with some justification. A Weirdness Magnet may not even think the weirdness is weird. Phoebe Buffet on Friends and Kramer on Seinfeld would be Weirdness Magnets; some of the most surreal things on either show had them as the focus. Alternatively, on Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuutsu, Haruhi is for the most part the Cosmic Plaything and Kyon is the Weirdness Magnet.
Harpie Siren: Oh... could a person be a Weirdness Magnet and a Cosmic Plaything at the same time?
Chrome Newfie: Definitely. Rincewind. Q.E.D. Definitely some relationship between the two and I suspect they should reference each other.
Ununnilium: Haruhi's not a Cosmic Plaything, everyone around her is. Otherwise, I agree.
Chrome Newfie: Agreed, but up until the near-climax she is presented as one, in that all we the viewer really know is that she is the focus of forces unknown. IMO, of course.
- Revised opinion: given a quick review, and noting that it isn't that Haruhi herself feels singled out by whatever, as she views the makeup of the world differently, she's a Cloud Cuckoo Lander, if anything. At least until later....
Looney Toons: I am amused. I wrote that disadvantage for GURPS, way back in, oh, geeze, I guess 1988, I think. Just to see it pop up here, verbatim... <grin> (Moments later) However... quoting the whole thing in the actual entry might run us into some copyright trouble. We might want to find a relevant quote from the early 1980s run of DC's Blue Devil
comic book, from which I originally lifted both the concept and the term.
Seven Seals: Well, I've got nothing in the way of resolving the problem; I'd just like to give you kudos for that disadvantage. It's great; you get a hundred ideas for stories just reading the description.
Looney Toons: Thanks!
Chrome Newfie: If it helps, I'm fairly sure we're extremely safe within the boundaries of Fair Use law. It's nonprofit usage, intended for instruction and comment, of an extremely small portion of the completed whole. In that vein, I made sure to actually omit the rules-specific part. Unless Steve Jackson Games has a specific claim to the term "Weirdness Magnet", we should be safe.
Gods left eyeball, sometimes I love being a bit of a polymath... ;)
- Addendum: That thanks is seconded - one of my favorite GURPS disads, to read or play. I owe you a beer if you're in Vancouver anytime. ;)
Looney Toons: You're welcome. I sometimes make it as far as Toronto; that's been my furthest penetration into Canada, sadly. Maybe someday in the future. Back to the topic at hand, no, we can certainly use the term "Weirdness Magnet" — if anyone has a claim on it at all, it's DC Comics, not SJG. But the full text of the disad — that's on shaky ground, I think. Besides, it just duplicates what the body of the entry ought to say. Having it twice is just wasteful. Anyway, I'm still looking for a good Blue Devil quote to substitute, but I haven't had much time to search so far today.
Chrome Newfie: Respectfully disagreed. Let's have a brief rundown on the Fair Use guidelines as set by US Law (which, I assume, applies here):
- Purpose and character, including whether or not for commercial use: the website does, I believe, generate revenue from ads, though not a large amount; probably enough to cover running costs. The purpose, however, is to exemplify the nature of the trope with an existing quote from an external source, not to create a game resource. This is a highly transformative use.
- Nature of the copyrighted work: a copyrighted game material. No argument that the original work deserves the full protection of copyright due under the law.
- Amount and substantibility taken: a few lines from one column of a 250 page, one- and two-column book. The excerpt includes no game rules or context within the mechanics.
- Effect on market for protected work: arguably negligible; there is no reasonable way for someone to take the excerpt and produce a gamebook that would in any way compete with the original system. Furthermore, the quote already exists online.
The difference in usage, combined with the extremely small, edited-for-game-detail portion used, argues for fair use, in my opinion. For further analysis, this web page, particularly the last section, is useful, as is this.
Finally, of course, my understanding is that Steve Jackson and company are fair, non-insane people. We could always ask if they mind, or remove it if asked... ;)
Looney Toons: Indeed, Steve and gang are cool people in general, tho' he does have a bit of a temper at times. Anyway, I just wanted to play it extremely safe. An entire lecture on fair use was really unnecessary.
Chrome Newfie: Wasn't meant to be a lecture so much, just wanted to offer up my reasons for believing as I do,especially now that I had time to do so. Sorry if it came off on the pedantic side. To roughly quote from Dale Carnegie's excellent text, "I thought otherwise. I may be wrong. I frequently am. And if I am wrong, I want to be put right; so, let's look at the facts."
Ununnilium: "I wrote that disadvantage for GURPS, way back in, oh, geeze, I guess 1988, I think." Oh, awesome. o.ov
Looney Toons: I'm glad you think so. <grin> It was originally for a thread of joke advantages and disadvantages on the old SJG Illuminati BBS. Then when I got involved with GURPS Supers First Edition, I pointed it (and some of the other "joke" entries) out to the author of the book, cited their relevance to the genre, and he added them to the manuscript.
Ununnilium: Ahhhh, interesting. Yay for creators who interact with the fans.
Looney Toons: Well, I am both Fan and Creator. I find I save quite a lot of time that way. <grin>
Chrome Newfie: ...Smaller delay in delivering the restraining order against obsessive behaviour? (j/k)
Looney Toons: <grin>
Tabby: *eyes the Troper Accounts Discussion* The restraining order would explain why you edit from two different locations...
Kizor:While we're on the subject, a somewhat cleaned quote:
- "That's exactly my point," said Verily. "You don't know what's going to happen, and given what's happened to you your whole life, it is unreasonable— indeed it is unconscionable— for you to presume that any task you set out on will proceed without dangerous and fascinating consequences!""So what's your solution?""Always take me with you, dammit!""Even when I have to whip it out and pee into a bush?""If I allow any exceptions, then sure as you're born, there'll be a talking badger in the bush who'll clamp his jaws on your pisser and won't let go till you give him the secret of the universe."
Ununnilium: Gregarious: Social, outgoing. Egregious: Glaring, flagrant.
Guesss Who: Keep the quote. I like it.
Seth: I had words, words that could have described that - they were light and fluffy and explained some yet unnamed emotion. But they are gone now, fluttered away damn words.
Wareq: This article needs a Troper Tales page. J Chance: I'd make one, but I really need to go to bed, and some of the things that were cut for being more appropriate to one were responses, and would need context added. Maybe soon—and, also, I have to ask, _please_ make a Tales page if you're weeding such material out.
Kizor: I'm wondering if we should count USS destroyer William D. Porter, which accidentally fired a torpedo at president Roosevelt's ship, and was thereafter greeted with "Don't shoot! We're Republicans!". It was eventually sunk by an underwater kamikaze plane attack. (We have no idea how the plane made that work.) No lives were lost, except for the kamikaze. I think it could use a third event between those two, there was a lot of sanity.
Kizor: Ah. It was stationed at a military base and fired a 5-inch shell into the base commander's front yard. Anecdotal sources tell me that a drunk had wandered onboard and that the commander was having a party.
