Forgotten Realms "Canon Lawyers"

[Nymrohd]

Ehm I am an FR canon Lawyer. But I only DM so it's not a problem. And yeah if I played in the realms I'd be a sun elf loremaster and I would be horrid!

I need to dig out Ed's full description of the marital rites of Sharess . . .

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

Well I have had one. I knew she was and at the start said " This is my realms there are many this one is mine. Unlearn what you know because fallowing wild tells from some volo guide often gets one killed"

So she wanted to make a bard , mostly so he could spout off her vast setting lore it seems. Lets just say she makes to many "well I know this is there as it was in book x type remarks and dies alone in a deadend sewer ally eaten by wererats looking for a secret door she "knew "was there. She whinned she cried she said I "cheated" WE yelled , she cussed I cussed told her she had been warned she got off mad and left.

Last time I had that issue.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

The other players knowing me dropped it and did not go with her. She dies alone in a dead in sewer ally eaten by wererats with no secret door to be found. She whinned she cried she said I "cheated" WE yelled so she cussed iI cussed told her she had been warned she got off mad and left.

Last time I had that issue.

great story...but what do you do if that player happened to be eaither your best friend or your roommate??? You know becuse I can't treat them that way...I can't tell them to leaave my game, heck one of them lives where I run my game...

It is easy to handle problem players of any type when you can just throw on a game face and be impartial DM...when they are people close to you who you need to still have a good relationship with after game...not so easy

 

[Dausuul]

Sunforgotten Darkrealms. The Dragon Elminster stalks the desert sands of Faerun, collecting his annual tribute of maidens from the seven city-states ruled by the Seven Sorcerer-Queen Sisters.

Personally, I think Darkdragon Sunlance, in which cannibal kender discover defiling magic and launch a world-ravaging genocide against all the other sentient races, has the better metaplot.

Dude. You win.

 

[Midknightsun]

great story...but what do you do if that player happened to be eaither your best friend or your roommate??? You know becuse I can't treat them that way...I can't tell them to leaave my game, heck one of them lives where I run my game...

It is easy to handle problem players of any type when you can just throw on a game face and be impartial DM...when they are people close to you who you need to still have a good relationship with after game...not so easy

To throw out my 2c, in that situation you make it very clear that your FR is not going to always, or maybe ever follow cannon. Ask your friend if they understand and are willing to accept that. If they say no, then you may want to look at a different campaign setting for your group. If they say yes, I would also conditionally add that if it becomes difficult for them to accept down the road anyway, the campaign may need to end--and don't be afraid to do so if they can't keep to the agreement.

That, or start a homebrew campaign setting called "Absent Minded- Provinces" that bears a striking similarity to a certain other fantasy setting. . . . but different

 

[Hunter In Darkness]

well she was, but she does not play in our games. I tell my players that it is my version. Kinda like sliders if you will. while the players may know of it I will be changing stings to suit my version. Just go with the flow and if they want to use what they know is right ask me, but do not assume it is right

I told her this she was mad at me for a long while over it, but she was warned. I gave her many ways out before her death but she just "knew" that damned door was there.


The best thing I can tell you is sit them down and let them know it's not as written and what they know may be wrong, place and poeple may be vastly different. It normally helps

 

[AllisterH]

Heh...I guess someone has to stick up for the canon lawyers...

If you're going to say "I run the Forgotten Realms" and pretty much change stuff around, why not at the outset simply say "This is a homebrew that I took elements from FR" or take the 4e approach "This is a FR over X years into the future, everything is the same but different"

This way the canon lawyers don't necessarily feel like the DM is against them but also they can get more enjoyment as they notice the differences and hell you can even incorporate it into the story

"Wait, there used to a small village of halflings by this lake. There's now an entire forst infested with formorians? What the hell happened to the hallflings...I got to find out"

- adventure seed that both the canon and DM get to enjoy

 

[Nymrohd]

Also a canon lawyer that allows his character information he should not have in game is not a problem because he is a canon lawyer, he is a problem because he is a bad player.

 

[thecasualoblivion]

All in all, I find the Mary Sue DM to be a more common problem in FR games than the canon lawyer, though when it happens a canon lawyer is much worse.

 

[Obryn]

For my Star Wars game, I took the alt-universe approach, more or less, and ran my game as "What if the Empire pulled in R2 and 3PO's escape pod with a tractor beam?"

It was a pretty satisfying campaign and pretty much vanquished all canon-lawyering.

It'd only work with a setting I'm vaguely familiar with, though. I don't even know enough Realms to figure out a good point of divergence.

-O