Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6397957" data-attributes="member: 42582">I don't think there is such a things as &quot;canon&quot; for AD&amp;D 1st ed. Greyhawk canon appears in various &quot;generic&quot; books (eg MM2) but is not thereby becoming &quot;official&quot;. Official, in 1st ed AD&amp;D, is about mechanics elements, and the mechanical aspects of story elements (eg there are official mechanics for beholders), but not about the setting aspects of story elements.For instance, a Greyhawk GM who uses the Quiver of Ehlonna but doesn't have Ehlonna as a deity in his/her gameworld is not departing from a default setting. The game doesn't ship with a default.I think the MotP has to be understood in this context.I noted this upthread, when I flagged the only appearence of the outer planes in the GH boxed set as being the homes of the deities.This is simply a consequence of following the DDG format for gods. Nothing turns on these planar details - a GM who ignored them would lose nothing from the Greyhawk experience. (Contrast, say, a GM who ignores Iuz as a presence on Oerth - that would be to lose something from the Greyhawk experience.)I'm aware of the phenomenon. My view is that, for a medium like RPGs which is about authorship rather than reading others' work, it is a problem. (I think it's a weird feature of commercial serial fiction, too, to be honest, but I think it has obviously less place in an RPG.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6397957, member: 42582"] I don't think there is such a things as "canon" for AD&D 1st ed. Greyhawk canon appears in various "generic" books (eg MM2) but is not thereby becoming "official". Official, in 1st ed AD&D, is about mechanics elements, and the mechanical aspects of story elements (eg there are official mechanics for beholders), but not about the setting aspects of story elements. For instance, a Greyhawk GM who uses the Quiver of Ehlonna but doesn't have Ehlonna as a deity in his/her gameworld is not departing from a default setting. The game doesn't ship with a default. I think the MotP has to be understood in this context. I noted this upthread, when I flagged the only appearence of the outer planes in the GH boxed set as being the homes of the deities. This is simply a consequence of following the DDG format for gods. Nothing turns on these planar details - a GM who ignored them would lose nothing from the Greyhawk experience. (Contrast, say, a GM who ignores Iuz as a presence on Oerth - that would be to lose something from the Greyhawk experience.) I'm aware of the phenomenon. My view is that, for a medium like RPGs which is about authorship rather than reading others' work, it is a problem. (I think it's a weird feature of commercial serial fiction, too, to be honest, but I think it has obviously less place in an RPG.) [/QUOTE]

Verification