The Fanstastic Ms. Fox

Denman Island chocolate bars are awesome, and I want to buy them in the future, but I had some questions. So I emailed them.

I really enjoy this application of the Internet. I think I might even like it more than Desktop Tower Defense. It takes less time, and is more satisfying.



Dear Denman Island Chocolates,

I enjoy your chocolate bars but am reluctant to buy them over Camino and other brands because while your product's chocolate content is organic (which is great), I'm not sure what labour practices it is made under. The bars say "product of Canada," but I assume that the cocoa is grown elsewhere. I couldn't find your company green-lighted here, and this site only looks for slavery in chocolate manufacture, not overall economic fairness. So I thought I should email you.

Can you tell me what labour (or community economic development) standards are in place in the sourcing of your raw materials? Have you made any plans to use fair-trade certified chocolate?


Sincerely...

Dear Managing Editor, Steve Jackson Games,

I am interested in working on the title “Locations: Suspension Bridge.”
Suspension bridges interest me as they are a technology that changes the way cities look, function and feel. They are modern engineering marvels, hotbeds of political rivalry, icons of civic identity, and centers of local culture. I believe that flexible location books can be a part of Steve Jackson Games' tradition of giving players not only the room to interpret its material, but inspired and detailed suggestions to this effect.
I plan to begin with an sensory description of the fictitious Hallis River Suspension bridge including short segments of flavor text tied to characters and plot hooks to be developed later. This will be followed by a quick historical overview, developing the bridge as both story and structure, while introducing particulars that will play a significant role in later chapters. I will introduce characters such as city councilors whose careers were and are made or broken by the Hallis bridge, corporate and mob figures who played a role in its construction, the people who take shelter under its deck, and persons from urban legend – hapless workers said to lie entombed somewhere within its span. I will discuss how and by whom the bridge is built and maintained and how this can afford characters an opportunity for scuba diving, rappelling or free-climbing.
I will approach the bridge from three genre perspectives. First, for Horror or Cabal, where the bridge is a site of suicides, mob hits and tragic accidents. I will show how the bridge could play a role as a home to a malevolent spirit, a fog-shrouded gateway between this world and the next, or as an imperfect guardian spanning and perhaps binding a hungry river that has drawn down souls for centuries. Second, for Illuminati/Conspiracy, Espionage and Supers campaigns, I will show the bridge as shining symbol of progress, the greatest project of the half-mad Dr. Havel, whose pillars and deck might conceal submarine base, serve as a mystical anchor designed to tap the feng shui of the river, or function as a massive Tesla weapon. In the third version, suitable for Infinite Worlds, Autoduel, Y2K or Cyberpunk, the bridge has been damaged by a bomb blast and left to rust. Now it serves as an effectively self-governing squat, home to hundreds of homeless people, criminals in hiding and the odd street prophet. I will tie these versions together to explain how the cursed river could be responsible for gremlin effects in a submarine base, or how the squatters and their prophet can serve the guardian spirit of the bridge, or how Dr. Havel schemed to bomb his own bridge rather than let it serve as a weapon for the wrong people.
My interest in the interaction between technology, urban forms and society has lead me to complete a degree a degree in sociology and contemporary anthropology as well as an urban studies certificate at Simon Fraser University. I recently finished a short internship in COPE, a Vancouver municipal political party, during an election wherein bridge use, bridge construction and homeless squats were of issue. I discuss structural engineering with some of my more physics-oriented friends and have also toured, studied and photographed public works projects in Eastern Europe. I have had some instruction in art and architecture and am able to produce informative diagrams of structures as well as perspective-accurate images.
Though lacking professional writing credits, I edit for Bevan Thomas, who has been published in Pyramid four times and who is working on “Locations: Subway.” I have also engaged in deadline-heavy creative writing through two student election campaigns and one provincial election campaign.
I hope you will consider my submission and I look forward to developing it in more detail.


Sincerely,
Graham Fox