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<blockquote data-quote="Samnell" data-source="post: 3472936" data-attributes="member: 130">I use setting canon to the degree that it's useful to me. My Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil game has evolved from &quot;stop the evil cultists from destroying the world&quot; to &quot;because it's the only way to save the cursed halfling's sanity and soul&quot; to &quot;and also revive an ancient dwarven kingdom with the blessing of Moradin and the help of a de-aged, divinely-infused Rerrid Hammersong and a few dozen of his closest relations&quot;. and &quot;by the way, the paladin kind of swore to do it and has some political issues with trying to set up a base of permanent operations outside the fiefdom of his liege lord&quot;.In the course of that I've drawn deeply on FR setting information, especially the history of the realm in question (Shanatar, Sondarr specifically). I've put some of that information into the mouth of the Rerrid and used some of it to add a running, open-ended subplot about who should be the kind of this presumptive realm. The party wants it to be Rerrid, but Moradin's been a bit cagey in the communes and dwarven law leans towards the other claimant. Much of that is based on inferences I've drawn from what's in the books, but I've explained some things by swiping real-life historical practices (tanistry; multiple, simultaneous female inheritance of noble titles in some English peerages), swiped some things from message boards (the curse the halfling druid has is based on an idea off Monte's boards), and invented stuff entirely.I think I've more of used canon as a source of ideas and starting point than been limited by it. I'm presently ignoring a line in a recent FR book that puts a major artifact in the hands of the rival claimant to the dwarven kingdom because per the dwarven inheritance laws I've outlined that would render his prevailing in the power struggle a fait accompli. That's no fun. I really should make a story hour out of it one of these days. It's a nicely crinkly game and I'm cloyingly proud of it.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Samnell, post: 3472936, member: 130"] I use setting canon to the degree that it's useful to me. My Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil game has evolved from "stop the evil cultists from destroying the world" to "because it's the only way to save the cursed halfling's sanity and soul" to "and also revive an ancient dwarven kingdom with the blessing of Moradin and the help of a de-aged, divinely-infused Rerrid Hammersong and a few dozen of his closest relations". and "by the way, the paladin kind of swore to do it and has some political issues with trying to set up a base of permanent operations outside the fiefdom of his liege lord". In the course of that I've drawn deeply on FR setting information, especially the history of the realm in question (Shanatar, Sondarr specifically). I've put some of that information into the mouth of the Rerrid and used some of it to add a running, open-ended subplot about who should be the kind of this presumptive realm. The party wants it to be Rerrid, but Moradin's been a bit cagey in the communes and dwarven law leans towards the other claimant. Much of that is based on inferences I've drawn from what's in the books, but I've explained some things by swiping real-life historical practices (tanistry; multiple, simultaneous female inheritance of noble titles in some English peerages), swiped some things from message boards (the curse the halfling druid has is based on an idea off Monte's boards), and invented stuff entirely. I think I've more of used canon as a source of ideas and starting point than been limited by it. I'm presently ignoring a line in a recent FR book that puts a major artifact in the hands of the rival claimant to the dwarven kingdom because per the dwarven inheritance laws I've outlined that would render his prevailing in the power struggle a fait accompli. That's no fun. I really should make a story hour out of it one of these days. It's a nicely crinkly game and I'm cloyingly proud of it. [/QUOTE]

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