We already have the perfect vehicle for "generic" stories, just use the
names of the Ranma cast and write whatever you feel like.

Take for example: "Ill met by starlight", a gripping tale that has nothing
to do with Ranma other than the names of the characters.  Akane never
cooks, Ranma never morphs, Ryouga has been replaced by Project A-ko's
Mari-chan and all the personalities are different.

Why use the Ranma cast?  It saves ink on character descriptions.  ("Yes,
this is Ranma.  Sure, he doesn't act like Ranma, but he looks just like
him, and you know what he looks like, OK?")

Really I don't know which is worse, the Ranma stories where the author
thinks he hasn't changed anything or the ones where the author points
loudly to one thing and says "This is the change, everything else derives
from this".  It just reminds me of my own work.

So gang let's all use the [Ranma] warning tags, t'cha?

	Henry J. Cobb	hcobb@slip.net          http://www.io.com/~hcobb