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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7582039" data-attributes="member: 29398">No, the problem is that you HAVE to retcon things to allow for the presence at the time of the (permanent-in-the-fiction) new element being introduced out of the blue right now so as to allow for things that would, could, or might have been done differently in previous play had that element been known about at the time.The only way to avoid the evil these retcons represent is to not allow major elements to be introduced out of nowhere...which is pretty much my whole point.  If your PC didn't have a noble background at char-gen and the run of play hasn't given it one in the meantime, then no noble background for you.  The same constraints apply equally to the GM, of course: if the town didn't even have a defensive wooden palisade two weeks ago when the PCs last were here it can't* suddenly have centuries-old feet-thick walls now.* - barring the vagaries of wishes etc., but it would soon be obvious by the behaviour of the townsfolk that those walls came out of nowhere.And this also sums up much of my issue with the 'no-myth' type of games where everything is made up on the fly: sure it can work great for a while when there's little-to-no established fiction, but the longer the campaign goes and as more and more fictional elements get established (and thus locked in), the more care has to be taken that things introduced now aren't invalidating things established earlier; all in the name of internal consistency.  This puts a ton of work on the GM's shoulders** to keep everything straight; and as nobody is perfect it's inevitable errors will happen.  Minor errors can usually be smoothed over.  Major errors (of which I'd count my wagon example as one) wreck the game.** - nothing at all says it can't be a player doing most or all of the recordkeeping; but I call out the GM specifically here as someone has to be the final arbiter should disagreements arise in the collective table memory regarding something bit of established fiction, and that would usually be the GM.And the inevitable corollary question: if someone introduces a fictional element that might cause these sort of consistency problems, is anyone else (be it the GM or another player) allowed to veto it then and there on those grounds?</blockquote>

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