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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 6423206" data-attributes="member: 12037">As someone who doesn't touch FR partially because of the massive amount of canon, I thought I could offer some thoughts.Since I don't know about FR, I'll use something I do know about as an example: The Dresden Files. I've run a few games in the Dresden universe, so I can try to use that as an analogy. In any setting that's been fleshed out like that, you have the opportunity to use those details to your advantage. For example, water acts as a magical neutralizer in DF. I was able to use rain in an adventure that involved a powerful summoned demon antagonist to the PCs. The rain acted as a way for the PCs to lure the demon out to help weaken it. That was a cool part of that particular game.Had I not known details about DF and had the rain included, the players may well have inferred something that was not present. When they had the brilliant idea to use water against the demon, there would have been a disconnect between expectations (foreshadowing if you will) and the DM's understanding of the world and cause/effect. A perfectly viable plan would have fallen down, and a major setting change (water neutralizing magic) would have made the whole thing fallen flat if the DM just said it didn't work that way in his game because he didn't know and was "making the game his own."This doesn't have to be a mechanical thing. It could be two major NPC groups working together in game when in canon they hate each other causing a disconnect between player expectations and DM plans. What would look like a wink-nod from the DM is just the DM not knowing how the setting works.And, if I don't know how the setting works, then why am I DMing a game set in that setting? (Say that three times fast). I'd rather stick with something that I'm comfortable with or something that is assumed to be more malleable like a homebrew setting. If I'm just going to prefix the campaign by saying "Don't use any knowledge of FR in this FR game," then why am I setting it there? Because, if no assumptions can be made, you lose the main benefit of a published setting. I play Planescape, and I know Planescape, and I know when to bend and shape it and when to use canon because I'm intimately familiar with it.</blockquote>

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