From Tor.com - A Harry Potter Article with particular parallels to Forgotten Realms and D&D Fandom

[Hussar]

Interesting little editorial post (well, ok, not so little, it's pretty darn long) from over at Tor.com. Find the post Harry Potter and the Canonical Paradox.

Her basic point can be summed up with this:

There are plenty of fans who would prefer if Rowling left the Potter-verse alone. She got Harry’s story out, and now they want room to roll around in her sandbox without her continued input. The idea is that fandom has been filling in the information gaps with their own ideas for years now, their own creations. Every time Rowling puts her stamp on another piece of Potter media, or makes an announcement via Twitter, she’s drawing more lines for the fandom community to color inside. And some people wish she would just stop adding lines, stop making harder to color, stop ruining the beautiful pictures they had already put so much love and time and creative energy into.

The article is a pretty good read, so, don't just stop at that one quote. But, the obvious parallels to D&D and various settings thereof are clear. Any time WotC or anyone else tries to change, amend, retcon, whatever any setting, there's a signficant fight brewing.

So, where do you draw the line? Should content providers simply leave well enough alone, moving on to new and different projects or do you want content providers to change or add to your favourite setting as they see fit?

 

[Kramodlog]

DC and Marvel have been doing it for a long time with Batman, Superman and Captain Murika. Sometimes you get good stuff out of it, sometimes not so much.

I have to say that I find stories with an end (Akira, Watchmen, Lord of the Rings, etc) to be more enjoyable than having stories forced to continue just to make a buck. Bad books seem to taint the memory of the original.

A great book like Ancillary Justice was ruined because the editor wanted a trilogy, so the story of Breq couldn't end with Ancillary Justice. Dune was a great read and should have ended there. Herbert wrote five too many books after the first and his son is just writing crap with Kevin J. Anderson. Can you imagine the LotR sequels that will come out when it enters the public domain?

Harry Potter went on a bit too long, so I'm no touching what Rowling is writing in that world no more.

For the FR, I enjoy the new regions that never were covered, but right now it seems to just be a old stuff over and over again.

 

[Hussar]

Heh. Yeah, it's a case where there really isn't one answer. Should an author let go? Well, sometimes.

 

[Alzrius]

I doubt this will ever happen, but I think it'd be great if there was a blockbuster series of novels where the author publishes the very last book under a Creative Commons license, so that anyone can write and legally sell derivative works.

Since it'd be the last book in the series, the author would already have made a killing, so there'd be very little money lost (especially since people would want to buy the "official" book anyway), and there'd be a lot of budding young authors who could get their start in an established series, bypassing the daunting effort of having to establish the entire setting and cast of characters on their own.

Sort of like a DM's Guild for fiction, essentially.

 

[Tonguez]

NO, in a Novel like Harry Potter it is the creators right to define every aspect of it as they see fit and audiences just need to accept that is what the author intended and any fan interpretation are put aside

Game worlds however are intended to be shared mediums where the players (DMs in particular) are expected to create and recreate things. In that case it is best that authors act to minimize their impact or at least to reply to and incorporate fanon.

I doubt this will ever happen, but I think it'd be great if there was a blockbuster series of novels where the author publishes the very last book under a Creative Commons license, so that anyone can write and legally sell derivative works.

Since it'd be the last book in the series, the author would already have made a killing, so there'd be very little money lost (especially since people would want to buy the "official" book anyway), and there'd be a lot of budding young authors who could get their start in an established series, bypassing the daunting effort of having to establish the entire setting and cast of characters on their own.

Sort of like a DM's Guild for fiction, essentially.

That would be awesome

I wonder though isn't this essentially already done via 'Thieves World' model anthologies? such a shared world targetting new author anthologies could be fun I suppose or will it just be a paper-format fanfic community?

 

[delericho]

NO, in a Novel like Harry Potter it is the creators right to define every aspect of it as they see fit and audiences just need to accept that is what the author intended and any fan interpretation are put aside

Game worlds however are intended to be shared mediums where the players (DMs in particular) are expected to create and recreate things. In that case it is best that authors act to minimize their impact or at least to reply to and incorporate fanon.

This is a key distinction, IMO. Rowling has always been very wary of allowing other people to play in her sandbox (one of the reasons there isn't an HP RPG), and that's absolutely her prerogative, and it means she maintains full control. That's fine.

Conversely, TSR and WotC designed and marketed the various settings specifically so that DMs could and should add their own material. Having provided the foundations for others to build on, they can expect pushback when they try to change those foundations.

The article is a pretty good read, so, don't just stop at that one quote. But, the obvious parallels to D&D and various settings thereof are clear. Any time WotC or anyone else tries to change, amend, retcon, whatever any setting, there's a signficant fight brewing.

So, where do you draw the line?

There's a difference between adding new material or clarifying existing material; and changing, amending or retconning existing material - it's the difference between expanding knowledge versus replacing it. For me, that's the line.

(I should perhaps note that I don't consider a retcon to be an absolute deal-breaker, and some retcons are worse than others. However, the moment something is retconned is the moment I start to lose interest, because what's the point in investing the time and effort to follow a story if it's clear that anything and everything I've learned can be overturned on a whim?)

 

[delericho]

I doubt this will ever happen, but I think it'd be great if there was a blockbuster series of novels where the author publishes the very last book under a Creative Commons license, so that anyone can write and legally sell derivative works.

Since it'd be the last book in the series, the author would already have made a killing, so there'd be very little money lost...

Two weaknesses of this leap out at me:

1) The author may very well change his/her mind about that "last book", in the same way Rowling has decided to revisit Harry Potter years after "Deathly Hallows".

2) Doing so may well impact the potential for licensing for movies/TV shows/whatever.

 

[Hussar]

But, look at 5e. The monster manual is chockablock with changes. Not just clarification but outright changes. Orcs are no longer nocturnal for example. Kobolds serve dragons. Umpteen different races are now slave races. Dragons only come in four sizes. There's a boatload of changes. But people have been largely positive about these. Compare to the midden hitting the windmill with 4e.

It's gotta be extremely frustrating for material producers. It seems like such a shot in the dark. Lucas is pilloried for his changes but whatshisface gets kudos for changing Blade Runner.

 

[delericho]

But, look at 5e. The monster manual is chockablock with changes. Not just clarification but outright changes. Orcs are no longer nocturnal for example. Kobolds serve dragons. Umpteen different races are now slave races. Dragons only come in four sizes. There's a boatload of changes. But people have been largely positive about these.

Are you sure they're positive about the changes, rather than being positive about the book? Because I remember a very long thread of people complaining when the new Medusa was previewed.

 

[Hussar]

That might be.