How do you deal with canon fanatics?

[Vraille Darkfang]

V,

Bane wasn't "wussy". Just he appeared to be acting very non-LE. More like CE at times.

I was actually referring to Xvim, 'Godson of Bane' rather than Bane.

And Cyric.

Getting rid of Bane, Bhaal, & Mrykul & Replacing them with Xvim & Cyric was like...

Taking Vader, Hannibal Lector, and Stalin & 'Upgrading' to Marvin the Martian & Elmer Fudd as villians.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Never had the problem. Not a single fanatic. Okay, no one I play with knows nearly as much as I do, so if anyone, it would be me. And I respect the DMs interpretations, and also acknowledge that they don't know the whole story.

I received a similar response when asking certain questions about the Scarred Lands recently (much to my chagrin) and I'm starting to think that buying into the setting full tilt was a mistake if "Why would you ever change it? It's perfect as written!"

So you've met Nightfall?

One of the reasons I don't play Vampire nor FR nor DSA (German RPG).

The DSA part is obvious, but other than that, I prefer to not play with idiots, rather than not play certain games just because idiots play it, too.

 

[Hussar]

Just to take a dissenting point here, but, there is a point where, if you are changing large swaths of setting canon, it could be said that you aren't really playing in that setting anymore. Where that point is, I don't know, but, I can honestly say that if a DM said, "Hey, I'm running a Scarred Lands campaign" and then changed nearly every detail other than the maps, I'd be a bit surprised to say the least.

Vigil's of Vesh were mentioned earlier. Fun group - a bunch of fairly nice guys out to save the world. Great. However, if the DM decides that the Vigil's of Vesh are now demon worshippers out forcibly converting all and sundry to the worship of Orcus, then I wouldn't mind at least a heads up on this beforehand. If your Calastian army is roving around in air ships armed with mystic cannons, that's probably something that should get pointed out beforehand. If the council of 13 dragons in Albadia decides to invade Darakeen to remove the evil Lich Queen of Darakeen, then I'm going to wonder what's going on since SL doesn't have dragons and Darakeen doesn't have a Lich Queen.

If all of the above are true in your campaign (using the general "your" here), then I'm going to say that you are not running a Scarred Lands campaign. It might share the names and the map, but, it's not an SL campaign.

There is a happy medium here.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Because. . . ah. . . again, that's a pretty short-term solution that causes some very real long-term problems (notably, most sane people won't play with such a person).

I don't suppose that most sane people would so strongly object to deviations from canon, either. I would consider that reaction to be a symptom of larger underlying problems that would manifest themselves in other, perhaps game-destroying ways later on. The lack of ability to compromise is not a good trait in a potential player.

 

[Thunderfoot]

I shoot them with a canon cannon.

 

[Kahuna Burger]

The lack of ability to compromise is not a good trait in a potential player.

Nor in a potential DM, as demonstrated by the OP's lack of players in an area where he used the "you're an idiot, get out" approach.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Nor in a potential DM, as demonstrated by the OP's lack of players in an area where he used the "you're an idiot, get out" approach.

To be fair, the OP's approach was to say, "I want to run FR, with the following changes..."

To which he received the reply, "No no no no no! If you change even one iota, it's not FR, and we won't play it!"

And his purpose is to find a different response to the players than, "okay, fine. Don't play then." I don't see any indication that the OP is being overly difficult about things. He just wants to, to use his example, explore social issues in the Scarred Lands. This is hardly of the magnitude of, for example, replacing the FR gods with care bears. However, he is running into canon purists who would rather not play than play in a slightly modified setting, and he would like to know how he can get them to play. I say, if they're going to be that difficult about such little things, they're probably nuts, and this will manifest itself in more ways than simply a pathological adherence to canon, which means that they might not be the best choice of people to spend valuable recreational time with.

 

[maddman75]

I really like the approach Exalted has taken. The core book and all suppliments are all set at the same moment, five years after the Scarlet Empress disappeared. The big challenges of the setting - the impending Realm civil war, the invading Deathlords, the return of the Solar Exalted - these are all left for the PCs to deal with. They have never (and from what they said will never) release sourcebooks that answer these. There have been a couple of 'what if' adventures, but it is clear that these are not part of the canon and are not included in future products. White Wolf in general has abandoned the whole huge metaplot idea from what I can tell.

 

[painandgreed]

I've never had so much trouble with fanatics as much as players who knew the setting and would act on knowledge that they thought was true in mine. It wasn't because they were trying to metagame, but when a player has been in five campaigns in the last couple of years including ones they've run that all used the same canon setting, it's hard to remember the details that one DM has changed. When even players that are ok with changes have to be reminded of them all the time, it becomes too much work to deal with canon altered settings.

So, I developed a homebrew. I still have issues because since the PHB considers the Greyhawk world to be "default", everybody assumes that the Greyhawk gods are the ones to choose from. If the players aren't aware of FR, then they still assume that the "default" Greyhawk gods are the ones to choose from. Considering how the Greyhawk setting is supposed to be default, yet there ineffect, is no actual setting and nothing in the books except for the gods, that design decision reall has caused me trouble with no benefit.

Back in the old days, when the PHB was setting independant, there were much fewer problems and much more player expectation that each campaign would be different, even if using the same published setting.

 

[TheCrazyMuffinMan]

Work the deviation into the plot of the campaign. That way, everyone wins.