How do you Retcon your Campaign Settings?

[Gwaihir]

I'd go with what BlackMoria suggests:

Even though people thought the planes were arrayed in the original configuration, they were actually not. The current paragon of thought on the planes is the "new congfiguration."

Happens all the time in the "real" world. As an example think about all the times the government retcons the nutrition standards.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

If your goal is to switch from static planes to mobile planes, I'd say they've always been mobile, but they've just been moving in the same direction/plane/in conjunction for a long time.

Nothing's changed, other than the planes' orbits are now taking them different directions.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

If your goal is to switch from static planes to mobile planes, I'd say they've always been mobile, but they've just been moving in the same direction/plane/in conjunction for a long time.

Nothing's changed, other than the planes' orbits are now taking them different directions.

Certainly, noticing that the planes are moving is really all you need. Maybe some Doctor of Magical Philosophy notices a trend and takes some measurements and figures out that the planes had been in a Grand Harmonic Convergence for eons, but now have started moving again. (Perhaps the PCs, in their last fight, interrupted some ancient wizard's experiment that was holding them there?)

Oh, and now you need to include some extra calculations for Plane Shift and Gate. But that's it.

Brad

 

[Finster]

I would not worry about it unless two things both happen. First, it has an effect on game play. Second, the players must express an interest in (and a way of) knowing why things have changed.

Once these two things have occured, then start thinking about why this is happening, in game. Other than that, you are creating more work for yourself than is absolutely necessary.

If it is necessary, I would suggest Blackmoria's line of retcon. It does not break your players' suspension of disbelief, and is expedient. There are also many historical analogies to this type of paradigm shift (Solar system, Thermodynamics, Bacteria, even the life cycle of house flies).

A trick I have used in the past is, once the players say the magic words, "why are things different than before?", you can buy yourself some time by responding with, "How are you going to find that information?". After that, get to work and make the reason a good one.

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I think it's easier just to say "it's always been that way" in most instances. I changed from using the map of Zazesspur in the Lands of Intrigue boxed set to the Ptolus map because I wanted to use Ptolus in my campaign. It was a bit weird at first but now it's as if Zazesspur has always looked like Ptolus.

Cheers


Richard

 

[painandgreed]

Either start a new campaign, or just used "poof" method and changed over without every worrying about how, why, or any other explaination.

 

[sniffles]

In my "Out of the Frying Pan" campaign, the final adventure dealt with a bunch of chronal anomalies - so, when the PCs finally fixed the problem - the powerful wizard/elementalist/hierophant they rescued explained that while the contradictions in the timeline would be healed by the nature of time, that some of the things they remembered before would be as if they never had been, and other that never were before would suddenly be.

I used this as an in-game justification to all the tweaks to rules I did based on my experiences of that 5 year long campaign.

We used something similar to adapt a campaign from 2E to 3E. The PCs went back in time to experience the Time of Troubles in the Forgotten Realms. When the GM was ready to convert he ruled that the PCs could remember a time when things like sorcerers didn't exist, since they'd been present at the crux of great change, but the general populace accepted the changes as if they'd always been there.

I'm wondering though - do the players know or care what cosmology you're using? It may not really matter to them if you change it. You could just tell them "I'm changing cosmology" and they might not bat an eye.

 

[el-remmen]

I think it's easier just to say "it's always been that way"

Richard

For the record, my explanation above was what was told the PCs while they were still temporarily outside "adjusting time".

When they went back into the world even their memories would change, and it was as if it had always been that way.

Hurgun (the guy I mentioned) said to them. . . well, best if I use a quote from the story hour:

“So, we have no worries about the pasts we visited?” Roland asked, changing subjects. “I mean, the world we return to will be as we remember it, despite what we saw happen back then that was different, and despite the loss of one of the items granted by Chochokpi?”

Again, Hurgun of the Stone took some time before responding.

“Yes and no,” he finally said. “It will affect things, though we can never be sure how. We think of time as linear, this moment follows one and is followed by another – but it is more like ripples in a pond, or the circular ridges in the ground when the earth explodes. Everything, from the forgotten bronze coin to the greatest knight of Neergaard is immersed in the liquid of time and no one of us can know how something or someone’s circles intercept that of others. It is impossible to predict. Things change more often than you would imagine, but to the world and in the records of sages it is as if those things had always been as they are. Some say the cosmos is in constant need of maintenance, that we only play the roles set to us by the gods to accomplish these changes and repairs, but the gods themselves are only pawns of some greater power; a power without form and whose reasons, if any, are unfathomable to us. Though I have erred on the side of arrogance and sought to know, and many have suffered because of it.”

“So. . .?” Roland began, but stopped.

“It is the nature of Time to repair itself,” Hurgun continued. “Even when flung out to the realms beyond reason, it seeks to cling to at least the illusion of order. Only those involved near the center of these events can remember these things, and even then the mind tends to try to make it fit and make it work, until the true memory becomes a hazy thing, a dream, if it is remembered at all. And then again, who is to say what the true memory is, for was not the world different before then? So these small items may make small changes, or they make big ones. There may be some that will be immediately obvious, and ones that may not come to light until you are old men, and ones you may never encounter at all. And chances are you will not notice anyway. I would council you to forget.” (6)

“Why?” Kazrack asked, growing blustery with anger once again.

“If you wish to keep your wits, surrender to your new memories,” Hurgun said. “The mortal mind cannot hold such disparate elements for too long without fracturing…”

 

[WhatGravitas]

Either start a new campaign, or just used "poof" method and changed over without every worrying about how, why, or any other explaination.

Yup. If your retcon is compelling and storywise enhancing the campaign (i.e. the PCs get into adventure AND have fun AND like these kind of paradigm-shifting adventures), do an in-world retcon... otherwise: "poof!".

Heck, PCs were retconned by the "poof"-way sometimes!

 

[Keldryn]

I prefer to just pretend it was "always like that."

In-story retconning is, in my opinion, a bad idea. Instead of just getting on with the game it focuses attention on the changes.

I agree completely, in most cases. No need to fall into the trap that licensed novels based on popular movie and TV franchises keep stumbling into. I'd bet that most of the time the players won't notice or remember anyway.