I have a strange relationship with my game shelves. I like to keep them clean and unpacked, and I am huge on organization and displaying books on display stands. If a shelf gets too packed, it turns into clutter, and I don't want to pull a book out and play with it. I keep them loosely packed, display dice in clear plastic candy containers, and make the "display" a reflection of my hobby and interests.
I will put classic science fiction, crime, and horror comics on my shelves next to my GURPS books, as if they were GURPS supplements, and say, "Look, play me with GURPS!" This is another part of my hobby, taking inspiration from outside of gaming, before the days when everything was turned into a role-playing game, and "going back to the source." I have a story, art, and inspiration. Now, turn this into a story that can be explored using GURPS.
GURPS is my key to unlocking infinite stories in these worlds.
This is also why I am careful around conversions and sourcing ideas from role-playing games into GURPS. Yes, I have a BX game going where I do conversions, but D&D already draws from so many original sources; it is so many generations removed from those inspirations that the ideas have gone through several stages of change and rounds of aligning with the D&D ideal.
Even Star Wars is a retelling of many original stories, remixed in a new way, but we are at the point where even these stories are endlessly pulling "from themselves" and adding nothing new. Stranger Things can be seen as a show inspired by many of the great movies and TV shows of the 1980s, a "tribute show" in a way. Still, it needs that source material of dozens of pieces of 1980s media, arguably all of it better than the remix, to maintain relevancy.
The best quality metric with remixes is always, "Are you adding something new?" The moment a remix starts pulling more from itself than from its sources, or adding the magical "something new," it begins to fall into a self-referential trap of irrelevance. You need to know "the old show" to understand "the current show." The nostalgia trap begins feeding upon itself.
There is nothing wrong with Star Wars as a storytelling framework for science fiction. Just as there is nothing wrong with superhero stories as a framework for many genres, from exploring empowerment to watching the Rome-like fall of those seen as gods. Where I am careful is around elevating the current characters and stories into a god-like mythology, where there are no other smugglers than Han Solo, and no other supersoldiers than Captain America. The fact that player characters exist in role-playing games means there can always be another, and they can be greater (or not) than the ones that we already have.
Captain America, Han Solo, and Batman are just one example of an archetype. Role-playing games differ from media properties that elevate their "licensed IP" as the paragon of the ideal, all for profit. Role-playing games are typically centered around the players and their ideas, with their characters taking center stage. Yes, a player could play Captain America, but they would diverge from the Hollywood version almost immediately. I will always encourage a player to use them as inspiration and to do something new, from their imaginations.
I prefer superhero games where all the heroes and villains are new, original ideas, and not tied to any IP. There is nothing wrong with the licensed ones; it is just my preference, as I have more freedom to explore a character when it is not tied to decades of history. If "America Man" rises or falls because of his actions, that is his story, and it won't be second-guessed or contradict a story from an issue back in 1972. The character can even die in my game, and his story will end there.
Captain America is a zombie, doomed to be retconned, recast, and resurrected for all of time. The idea is strong, the character is iconic, but a part of me likes to "live and let live" and let the human underneath tell a complete story: live a life, have an arc, succeed or fail, and pass on the legacy or tarnish it forever. That is just me, I like stories, and I am more of a humanist who likes generational stories.
There are times when I prefer to go straight back to the original stories and sources, and pull the ideas in without them being filtered and translated several times, losing the original magic that made them special and new. Yes, what I am doing with GURPS is "remixing these stories," but there are as few generations of retranslation as possible between me and the original idea. The "telephone game" of translations and retellings can twist and warp the original idea into something completely alien.
Also, there is a trap of seeing a monster in the D&D context rather than the one in your head. Orcs always have one hit die and are thus weak. A bugbear is a three hit die monster with the following abilities. Those were the original interpretations by the D&D designers back in the 1970s. Should they be your interpretations? Do you have your own feelings on how challenging a particular monster should be? Or do you defer to the D&D numbers and abilities?
One way is not correct or wrong, but I do want people to ask themselves that question before adopting the "D&D version as the definitive standard for all of fantasy." It is good to question assumptions.
My GURPS shelves are currently feeling packed and cramped, and I don't have room for my inspirations. GURPS to me is more than just one game, or "the game you play other games with." I guess this is what makes GURPS different for me, rather than "just another game." With a game like Rifts or Palladium Fantasy, I am playing in their universe with their stuff.
With GURPS, I am telling my own stories with my own stuff.
I go back to the original sources for inspiration. I am careful around second-generation or deeper resources, retellings, and reinterpretations. I question other designers' work and ask myself, "Is this what I feel is right for me and my stories?"
I make room on my shelves for my inspirations. I reduce clutter and remove distractions that detract from the story I am trying to tell.
For me, GURPS is my storytelling tool and I surround it with the stories I want to tell.
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