Author's notes
"Yes, just as the show’s theme song implies, you need not worry about how the ship’s sole human occupant “eats and breathes and other science facts” because the show’s sheer power to ignore reality is so immense that it’s rendered The Satellite of Love as a vessel of unlimited life support, power and provisions; that’s something none of the other of the fancier ships with their “deflector shields,” “transporters” and “warp drives” can truthfully say. " -- on the Satellite of Love" from MST3K
On the Setting of the Suburban Senshi RP:
Over the course of years there has been a distressing trend on injecting an increasing amount of "realism" into the play. Now while I will admit there is nothing more satisfying than managing to unify the outlandishness of the Suburban Senshi with the grittiness of the "real" world, there's a point where _too much_ realism detracts from the enjoyment of the play experience.
Take, for example, The Hotel, which is supposed to be the home base of our heroes and place for them to relax and chill out. Epic fights have always happened there, because that's where our characters have always hung out and been ridiculous. It's predecessor, the house, was always getting blown up.
But now, people keep trying to find ways to wreck the setting, presumably in the name of adding stakes and keeping things interesting-- trying to find way to menace and destroy it permanently.
This is good for the one off plot, but when it is a constant overhanging threat, how can anyone have fun there? When every moment is a fight for survival? When the defenses meant to protect the non participating characters are just constantly poked at and prodded to the point where the HOTEL has to be upgraded so much it resembles more of an over-bloated, over-armored, unfriendly product of a Warhammer 40k game than it does a cool relaxing livingroom where you can chill with your friends as was the intention? There's a reason the main plotty action usually happens outside or in such a way as to allow there to be _danger_ without making it horribly existential to everyone all the time.
This has led to certain characters and players becoming very worried about the safety and security of their characters, because the defenses I as a GM put in to protect them are just being constantly eroded. Not every character is here to fight or be set on a path of bloody evolution; some just want to be here for the Seinfeld-like "RP about nothing" slice of life slow burn evolution.
I am still working out how to reconcile these tensions. If I were to be blunt, I would say in a way SS is the "Casual Game" mode of RP, as opposed to the "Hardcore Game" of DnD.
More as I think of it.
