Nobody is arguing that you cannot go against canon in your HOME GAME! What they ARE arguing against is taking the Star Wars RPG rulebooks and inserting Vulcans and the TARDIS into it, and thus forcing it on people who just wanted vanilla, canonical Star Wars. Want your Jedi character Toth Rendan to blow up the Death Star instead of Luke Skywalker? Fine - in your HOME GAME. Just don't insist that the core Star Wars rulebooks be re-written to credit YOUR Jedi character with the feat.
Actually, the argument most certainly is about canon in a home game. Is this an "authentic" Dragonlance character or not? Is my Vulcan Jedi an "authentic" Star Wars character. Why not?
And, additionally, the argument has always been, if you can ignore canon when it suits you, why does it matter what changes they make to supplements? If canon is malleable in a home game, then use whatever canon tickles your fancy. Instead, we have people losing their collective minds over some changes while letting other changes pass without comment. And the only difference that I can see between the two is that people
like some changes and not others.
IOW, change to canon is only bad when people don't like the change.
Now, [MENTION=2067]I'm A Banana[/MENTION] is arguing something somewhat different in that changes to canon make it more difficult to play an "authentic" character. True enough, I suppose. Although, to be honest, in this specific issue, the biggest issue I have with this character don't really come from any changes to the lore of the setting but rather what I see as a character that is set up in opposition to the setting conceits. It's not like gnomes have changed in DL. They have always been the mad-tinker gnomes setting up Rube Goldbergesque contraptions and speaking at high speed. To me, that's an "authentic" DL gnome.
So, I do disagree that it's changes to canon that make it harder to play "authentic" characters. Playing an "authentic" DL character is pretty darn easy. It may just be me, but, playing a DL gnome is a lot like playing a DL Kender. They come with some pretty specific behavior. If I play a DL Kender and never steal anything, am I playing an "authentic" DL Kender? In my mind, not really. If I play a Kender Cleric during the War of the Lance, would you say that's an "authentic" DL character? I wouldn't.
I mean, good grief, if "authentic" character was what you were looking for in a Dragonlance game, there's some pretty low hanging fruit here. Kender thief. Solamnic Knight. Wizard of High Sorcery. Cleric. Minotaur. Irda. Silvanesti or Qualinesti Elf. To me, THOSE are "authentic" DL archetypes. How is Generic Rock Gnome Wild Mage with a social disorder and a hate on for the gods an "authentic" DL archetype?