Forgotten Realms: Do players care about canon?

[JoeGKushner]

switch this arguement to Greyhawk. was there a Greyhawk War?

for most of us(grognards), that event never occurred as TSR claimed it to be.


for FR... did the gods fall from the sky? was there a time of troubles?

Interestingly enough, the whole Time of Troubles thing has either fallen into four camps in my experience. None of them really effecting game play.

1. It's cannon and helped transition the game between 1st and 2nd edition.

2. It's cannon but a lot of things happened that weren't covered and are still slowly being unveiled allowing the GM to add his own touches (kinda like that 2nd ed module where the characters rescue one of the gods)

3. The setting is before the Time of Troubles.

4. Time of Troubles? What time of troubles?

 

[diaglo]

Interestingly enough, the whole Time of Troubles thing has either fallen into four camps in my experience. None of them really effecting game play.

1. It's cannon and helped transition the game between 1st and 2nd edition.

2. It's cannon but a lot of things happened that weren't covered and are still slowly being unveiled allowing the GM to add his own touches (kinda like that 2nd ed module where the characters rescue one of the gods)

3. The setting is before the Time of Troubles.

4. Time of Troubles? What time of troubles?

that's exactly my experience too almost.

trouble for me has been 2 or more of those camps meeting at the same table. and then we played in a different setting altogether due to a compromise. and none of them budging on their initial take on 1,2,3,or4.

 

[JoeGKushner]

that's exactly my experience too almost.

trouble for me has been 2 or more of those camps meeting at the same table. and then we played in a different setting altogether due to a compromise. and none of them budging on their initial take on 1,2,3,or4.

Interesting.

Now seriously, what does a player say to his GM when the GM informs him that the campaign is set chronologically before the time of troubles?

"Dude, this campaign is unofficial. I can't play."

To be honest, in my experience, I haven't had that happen. As is it now, I can't see myself telling that player I understand his feelings and hope the door doesn't hit him on the way out.

 

[Alensande]

My partner and I both run Realms; his campaign started before mine and has been through three groups over the last seven years. My campaign is set in the same version of FR as his, within the same timeline, and we have used this to our advantage to cross NPCs and settings on occasion.

We've kept canon up to the starting point of the campaign (1371 DR) just to make it easier on us in designing background material. After that, we've got our own plotlines going, and we use those. For the players, this has meant very little, except that our descriptions and plots are a bit more detailed than they might have been otherwise, since we had all the background to use. Aside from one old FR campaigner who is also a GM in his spare time, and myself, my partner's groups have had little interest in the background of FR except how it affected them directly. I enjoy it both as a player and as a GM, and will make good and frequent use of it in character, but have no problem going off on my own and rearranging things to suit myself (I have completely redone the Marsh of Chelimber, for instance, dropping its entire history except as an occasional red herring). The only problem this causes is in making sure he and I use things the same way (especially NPCs) and don't get information crossed. It is a lot of fun to 'co-create' aspects of the world this way.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I've never had a player worry about canon, FR or otherwise. The people that would've worried about that sort of thing were too busy trying to figure out what rules they could take advantage of.

 

[Nightfall]

Not recently but I know of a few that were like "Hey I wanna be a cleric of Finder!" And I was like "Finder's dead." They were like "Nynahh! He's alive!" "I SAID FINDER IS DEAD!! I hate stupid gods! Finder is stupid. Therefore he's dead!"

You see where this went...

Anyway that was my last time GMing/DMing in FR.

 

[diaglo]

Interesting.

Now seriously, what does a player say to his GM when the GM informs him that the campaign is set chronologically before the time of troubles?

"Dude, this campaign is unofficial. I can't play."

To be honest, in my experience, I haven't had that happen. As is it now, I can't see myself telling that player I understand his feelings and hope the door doesn't hit him on the way out.

player who wants time of troubles included: d00d, this campaign is sooo gonna totally suXX. i wanna play a PC that can do like Cyric and become a gawd.
DM: uhmm... well if you get high enough level we can work that into the campaign.
player: but i wanna talk to Cyric and ask him how he did it. so i can tell him how much kewler my idea is and how it would make him look like a
diaglo: (gets up from table)...


edit: Joe, you really need to meet more gamers. the stories you gain are truly worth it.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Well I'm gaming with three groups on and off right now consisting of many people I've never gamed with before and yet those things haven't happened to me in quite the methods that have been described.

I get people more worried about the rules and relying on me to tell them what's going on in the setting then them trying to tell me what's going on in the setting.

 

[Khairn]

When playing in FR, I always try to use canon for my stories first, but I don't let the question of canon get in the way of a good story. If changes to canon have to be made, then so be it.

 

[diaglo]

diaglo: (returns after having gone and gotten himself a stiff drink) so what are we playing?
DMShayne: Ryan is gonna GM now instead.
DMRyan...aka DMAngelsboi: we are gonna use 42 point buy. and you get an extra feat at lvl 1.
diaglo: what lvl are we starting at?
DMRyan: lvl 1. each session will be called an [fingers in air quote] Episode[/fingers]
diaglo: Oookay. i want to be an Evoker then.




3 Episodes later...

DMRyan: so the Kobold sorc hisses at the party.
playerGlen: i say we kill the kobold.
DMRYan: (pouts)
diaglo: i jump off the cliff 240 ft into the boiling pool of molten lava.
DMRyan: the kobold saves you with a new spell of reverse feather fall.
diaglo : (heavy sigh)