Do you REALLY run settings as "canon"?

[Richards]

I use published worlds as a skeleton, upon which I add, subtract, and change things as best fits my needs. For example, I'm currently running a nominal Greyhawk campaign because it was easier for me to tap into the pre-existing pantheon and world map, but I've changed things up as needed. My Greyhawk City, for example, is a coastal city, and I've used Oghma as a demigod of knowledge. I sprinkle in cities and towns from published adventures that I want to run wherever they fit best.

In 2E, I ran a Forgotten Realms campaign in the same manner. Fortunately, I've never had players who insisted that my version of the campaign world exactly fit the mold of everything published in that campaign world, so I haven't had any real problems.

Johnathan

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

No. I'll keep enough to keep it recognizable and cut down my work, but will change things where I see fit. Maps, names, and places mostly stay the same. People and histories get changed quite a bit sometimes.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

I have no problem with altering any published setting as I see fit, be it Krynn, Abeir-Toril, or The Demiplane of Dread AKA Ravenloft.

 

[DrunkonDuty]

I'm like Richards: I use the published setting as a rough guide and change what I want to change. Also, I like Greyhawk fo rthe reason that there's so much un-defined or only roughly defined material.

I mean, really, when you think about it, the whole point of playing the damn game is so that the players can DO things that have an effect on the game world around them. The instant that happens "canon" is changed.

cheers.

 

[Elf Witch]

I tend to use the canon as is when I start a game but once the game gets going then it becomes mine and my players world regardless of what happens in any books or supplements.

One of the reasons I love Kingdoms of Kalamar so much is that it has a static timeline.

You open the book and the world is reveled and that's it everything that happens in game becomes yours. You don't have to worry about a supplement coming along changing something major.

I also like that they don't stat out the important NPCs and the important artifacts. They leave it up to the DM to decide how or what to do.

 

[pawsplay]

For Star Wars, I'm a stickler for both trilogies canon, but I treat the EU far less reverently. Otherwise, it wouldn't be Star Wars.

In practice, I wouldn't fun a Faerun campaign. If I were going to use a published setting, I would want to juice all I could out of it, including all the world-building that goes into it. The moment I start fiddling with major elements of the setting, I start wondering why I don't just create my own setting, perhaps somewhat inspired by the published setting.

That said, when I do play in canon, I try to steer the "proper" history along, but when it gets down to bottom line, every game in a published setting is an alternate universe game, because I am completely loyal to my game, less so to someone's mediocre novel.

 

[Stormonu]

I try to stay close to the canon, so the world "feels" right, but I do play a little loose around the edges. I generally only use the core references and might pull in material from somewhere else if I'm called out on it.

About the only world I wouldn't do this with is DragonLance, perhaps because I have too much respect for the many novels I've read about it.

 

[Treebore]

The moment I start fiddling with major elements of the setting, I start wondering why I don't just create my own setting, perhaps somewhat inspired by the published setting.

In this case did you, or would you, at least use the maps? Or would you do everything completely from scratch? Or did you, if you have done this in the past?

 

[Treebore]

Stormomu.

You've reminded me of another thing I have had as my experience with using published settings. Such as Dragonlance, or any other. When I have used them "canon" rarely even came up. They never ran into anyone I didn't want them to. They never went to a location I didn't want them to go to. When they were in Waterdeep, for one example, and tried to force a meeting with Khelben or whatever her name is (the one that lives with him, and is darn powerful in her own right), they weren't there. I had a magic mouth go off saying something like, "We are off saving the world, try to enter at your own PERIL!!"

Its not that I never used Khelben, I simply didn't want them to meet him, besides, I didn't think he would take the time to meet some low level party off the street just "because". He does have far more important things to be doing.

I'm pretty sure the player, maybe even it was more than one of them, were getting alittle miffed at my refusal to let them meet him. I think I even then said something to the effect of, "Why the heck would he even want to meet you? Your nobody. Your not on his radar at any range. Earn some reputation and maybe, just maybe, he will find you worth seeing."

I do think they were the group, at a much later point, several levels, get approached by Khelben and get asked to take care of a problem that he thought they could handle, and that he really didn't want to take the time with, since he had more pressing matters with far more powerful enemies to deal with.

I am pretty sure they even asked who those more powerful enemies were, and I used the opportunity to paraphase a rather common movie line, "If you know about them, they will have to kill you."

So even when "canon" was around, it didn't get in my way. I side stepped it if I wanted, and used it when I did want to.

 

[pawsplay]

In this case did you, or would you, at least use the maps? Or would you do everything completely from scratch? Or did you, if you have done this in the past?

Most my campaigns start with a rough sketch of about the nearest 300 miles. It usually serves.

I don't see a problem with using the Faerun maps, major geographic divisions, and so forth, just as I said, it wouldn't be my inclination. If I had more of an emotional attachment to a setting I might do an Ultimate Campaign Edition. I might feel that way about Mystara, if I didn't have other projects on the back burner (which I do).