[Special Ops/Covert Ops] Equipment for Mercenary Operation in 1990-1991

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

There is more to it than that. They seized on tropes because it had narrative reasons which make them continue to be useful. The Italian mafia works because it had a weird combination of medieval tribalism and feudalism with the modern world-the Corelones basically were no different from Medici. It also works because of the cultish mysticism that in real life is descended from the guild system. Asian crime gangs (which are no doubt similarly accurately depicted) have a similar attraction.

Using wrong nationalities, wrong job descriptions or otherwise ignore the actual country, city and decade where you are setting your story in order to 'fit' in these themes merely demonstrates that the writer isn't very good and has confused the things that worked about The Godfather and the specifics of its setting.

You don't need to have your 2020s character to step through a time portal where they escaped half a century of fashion changes, gentrification, changing demographics and fundamental changes in the position of Italian-Americans when it comes to mainstream culture in order to portray a character torn between loyalty to family and their own sense of right and wrong.

Just like you don't need your character to be from Philadelphia and have a speech impediment if you're going to make a movie about a struggling boxer who goes the distance, and, in fact, you should probably not tell that story again.

There are themes, emotional struggles and contrasting values that resonate more or less universally. It's usually better to allow a character to be themselves and come from a real place, as a person of the time they are supposed to be from, if you want the audience to buy their emotional journey. If you just copy the outer trappings of the movie you're trying to be a lesser version of, well, I guess you'll have a job in today's Hollywood, but what you're doing is the cinematic version of writing pop music with an algorithm. You're just selling empty packaging.

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Likewise mercs as throwaway characters has the advantage that you do not have to name the enemy or give him a personality and no one will be offended by having someone they like in real life as the villain (a very great advantage in a time of factional politics).

If any character in my campaign feels like a 'throwaway character', then I've failed. I am certainly capable of failing, I have failed before, and I probably will fail again in the future. But I'm not going to set out with my heart firmly set on failure, aiming for a product that I would not buy if it were free.