LNH/META: Legionnaires and the Authors Who Love Them

Tom Russell milos_parker at yahoo.com
Fri Jun 23 07:54:49 PDT 2006


martinphipps2 at yahoo.com wrote:
> Okay, here's the combined list.  To simplify things, let's just have
> three categories: cameo (by default, combining the not-reserved, cameo
> and problem categories as the distinction between them is quite
> arbitrary), deceased and (very) reserved.  The latter two categories
> amount to "don't ask" and "cameo" means "ask", preferably by posting
> here on the group since there are no e-mail addressed provided below.
> Does that sound fair, Tom?

Well, it hardly matters if it sounds fair to me or not. :-)

The reason why I designated so many statuses was because I was giving
permission for people to use WikiBoy, Haiku Gorilla, and Namedropper
Lad in a gag/cameo appearance (as opposed to a story built completely
around those characters, which would then require permission)-- a
different situation, then, than an unreserved or reserved character.

Really, if we're going to simplify it, I say have a NOT RESERVED
category (for such stalwarts as Mainstream Man, Master Blaster, and
Ultimate Ninja), with the implicit knowledge that one really shouldn't
alter these characters; a CAMEO category, which allows for stories like
Martin's excellent NET.HEROES ON PARADE tie-in story, but prevents
someone from going hog-wild and hi-jacking another's creation (perhaps
"problem characters" could be folded in here; and RESERVED, which would
encompass "very" reserved, deceased, and just plain reserved.  Because,
really, you can always _ask_ someone to use the character, and they can
always say _no_.  So, in that respect, there's no difference between
Tyler Bridge and Rebel Yell.

This does remind me of something, though-- I remember a while back when
someone bit someone else's head off for _mentioning_ a reserved
character in a story.  The character didn't appear in the story-- and
it wasn't the same as when I attributed some off-screen action to Kid
Citrus, for which I should have asked permission-- but was only
mentioned.  Now, I think that's a little _stringent_, and it seems
antithetically opposed to the concept of a community/shared universe.

I'd like to get the general consensus of the group on this, just so
that it's clear: is it acceptable to merely mention a reserved
character/recent event?  I'm not talking about stepping on someone's
toes (say, someone discovering the truth about Ripping Dancer), but
rather just acknowledging that a Ripping Dancer exists (though she's
not reserved, anyway, but you get my drift), and thus cementing her
further in continuity.

Are there any authors with us who definitely, definitely, definitely
NEVER want any events or characters from their stories even mentioned?

--Tom




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