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General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
D&D Canon - why is it important and how does it affect your game?
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<blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 9185139" data-attributes="member: 7023840"><p>I think that this actually identifies the problem with canon. By this analysis, every single time you start a campaign in FR, then it suddenly respawns with Drizzt, and guess what? He's there to kill again.</p><p></p><p>"Hey guys! Guess what. It's time to kill Drizzt again."</p><p></p><p>Or, for that matter, someone read a novel that places X item in a certain place. Well, if they really want X item, does that mean that they get to go there and get X item (say, an artifact?) and take it, because canon?</p><p></p><p>Fundamentally, the very nature of "strong canon" (in the sense of literature, or film) is anathema to a campaign of D&D. Because D&D is not film or literature- instead, every single game is in its own game world unless there is some type of explicit shared campaign world with other DMs (this is something that used to be handled by the Gygaxian multiverse of infinite variety within the prime material planes). Or, to put it another way, the Greyhawk I am running is not the same world as the Greyhawk you are running. The FR that Sarah is running is not the same as the FR that Emily is running is not the same as the FR in the novels. </p><p></p><p>That's not to say that there isn't some shared gestalt. Names of countries and cities. Organizations (Scarlet Brotherhood, Red Wizards of Thay). And so on. But demanding fealty to a strong canon is, IMO, wrong ... because it restricts the freedom of play and events that is the magic of emergent play within a TTRPG.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Snarf Zagyg, post: 9185139, member: 7023840"] I think that this actually identifies the problem with canon. By this analysis, every single time you start a campaign in FR, then it suddenly respawns with Drizzt, and guess what? He's there to kill again. "Hey guys! Guess what. It's time to kill Drizzt again." Or, for that matter, someone read a novel that places X item in a certain place. Well, if they really want X item, does that mean that they get to go there and get X item (say, an artifact?) and take it, because canon? Fundamentally, the very nature of "strong canon" (in the sense of literature, or film) is anathema to a campaign of D&D. Because D&D is not film or literature- instead, every single game is in its own game world unless there is some type of explicit shared campaign world with other DMs (this is something that used to be handled by the Gygaxian multiverse of infinite variety within the prime material planes). Or, to put it another way, the Greyhawk I am running is not the same world as the Greyhawk you are running. The FR that Sarah is running is not the same as the FR that Emily is running is not the same as the FR in the novels. That's not to say that there isn't some shared gestalt. Names of countries and cities. Organizations (Scarlet Brotherhood, Red Wizards of Thay). And so on. But demanding fealty to a strong canon is, IMO, wrong ... because it restricts the freedom of play and events that is the magic of emergent play within a TTRPG. [/QUOTE]
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D&D Canon - why is it important and how does it affect your game?
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