D&D General The Purple Dragon Knights are tied to an Amethyst Dragon (confirmed)

[Scribe]

I assume you have never argued with a cannon purist who tried to correct you with "ackshually..." When your discussing your campaign. You're doing it right now. You're literally claiming my version of Drizzt is wrong.

That's why "official = correct" needs to die in a fire.

All of these things can be true.

1. Drizzt being a murderer is only as true as far as your table exists.
2. Anything (ANYTHING) can be changed at your table.
3. There is an official character bio/definition/whatever for Drizzt, to provide for a shared experience and discussion.

Official is not 'correct' it is official. Correct, is defined by and at your table, for you and your players alone.

 

[Remathilis]

This was a headache that TSR jumped into with both feet. From the Dragonlance adventures that were literally a railroad retelling of the novels to the Waterdeep trilogy of adventures - they loved to make sure that PCs were never quite as powerful or important as the precious IP characters.

Exactly.

Ravenloft is another good example. Per the old cannon, no one survived the events of I6 (or it's 2e remake). No matter what your PCs did, the cannon answer was always that they died by Strahd. How depressing to know that if you want to be accurate to the lore, you cannot win I6.

I understand there is a lot of complaints about 5e Ravenloft, but the fact that it's possible there are multiple versions of each domain lost deep in the mists (or crumbling like Darkon is) where PCs win against Strahd and where they lose is appealing. All the different groups that have faced Strahd can all exist. Strahd has lived and died countless times vs them. Sometimes as a Bella Legosi knockoff, sometimes as a woman (seriously, check out She is Ancient, it's neat). They all exist simultaneously.

THAT is a shared world!

 

[Remathilis]

All of these things can be true.

1. Drizzt being a murderer is only as true as far as your table exists.
2. Anything (ANYTHING) can be changed at your table.
3. There is an official character bio/definition/whatever for Drizzt, to provide for a shared experience and discussion.

Official is not 'correct' it is official. Correct, is defined by and at your table, for you and your players alone.

I'm not asking for my take to be official. I'm asking it be given the same respect as the official. Which you have failed to do. Official means nothing except as a baseline. It has no greater legitimacy than yours or my takes. And the community needs to get it though their skulls that things that aren't the official take are not badwrongfun. I can't explain this more plainly. You don't have to like my take on Drizzt, but you have to at least accept my take isn't a wrong one or that I'm not Forgotten Realmsing right for making that change. If we can't agree on that, then the whole concept we even play the same game is invalid.

 

[Parmandur]

The funny thing about enshrined "official canon"...nobody woth sny "authority" over canon cares.

The whole multiverse echoes thing also gives WotC a get out of jail free card on retcons.

Literally everyone wins.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

Sammaster is dead AND destroyed though!

He became a Lich and then his Phylactery was destroyed during his scheme to use the Dracorage to force Dragons to become Dracoliches or die, it was specifically stated that he was gone for good because otherwise the Rage of Dragons would have kept going!

Bringing him back goes against all established lore and is just plain stupid since it was his destruction that led to the final splintering of the Cult of the Dragon that let Tiamat seize control of it.

Sammaster had more than served his purpose as a villain by founding the cult and setting off the Rage of Dragons, there's no reason to bring him back other than a refusal to just let characters stay dead.

I dunno, Necro. Nothing is perma-dead. A wish spell can undo a lich's destruction. So can a God or time travel. We're even getting a time-travel adventure DLC. As a DM, I bet you can imagine 3 more ways you could bring a lich back from destruction.

IMO, Sammaster is too cool and iconic for new players to not be able to face him in a new incarnation. Bringing back NPC villains is fine. Bringing back NPC heroes, however, can muddy the waters for PC heroes, and should be much more rare.

 

[Scribe]

I'm not asking for my take to be official. I'm asking it be given the same respect as the official.

Why? It has zero relevance for discussion?

"Where was Drizzt in year X and what is he doing?"

There is only one valid answer to that.

 

[Necropolitan]

IMO, Sammaster is too cool and iconic for new players to not be able to face him in a new incarnation.

Make a campaign set during the Rage of Dragons and have the PCs replace the party who took him down in the books then.

The climax is fighting Sammaster and trying to destroy his phylactery because he's tied it directly to the Dracorage Mythal.

Bringing Sammaster back after his final destruction cheapens him as a character.

D&D should not become DC or Marvel where it's impossible to kill off established characters permanently.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

I disagree. There was little climax for the RPG players, as most FR tables never faced or defeated Sammaster. He was mostly written about in lore.

I don't like that Sammaster was killed off-screen in lore. I want the players to be able to fight him.

If you and your players killed off Sammaster, that is your awesome story! Reskin the new Sammaster stat-block as Sammy Master Jr., the Scion of Sammaster, and create your own lore as to how he is now in power in the Cult of the Dragon.

 

[Parmandur]

Make a campaign set during the Rage of Dragons and have the PCs replace the party who took him down in the books then.

The climax is fighting Sammaster and trying to destroy his phylactery because he's tied it directly to the Dracorage Mythal.

Bringing Sammaster back after his final destruction cheapens him as a character.

D&D should not become DC or Marvel where it's impossible to kill off established characters permanently.

D&D started off as DC & Marvel, literally copying the art. Hell, the Forgotten Realms was literally a DC Comic book line.

 

[TiQuinn]

Exactly.

Ravenloft is another good example. Per the old cannon, no one survived the events of I6 (or it's 2e remake). No matter what your PCs did, the cannon answer was always that they died by Strahd. How depressing to know that if you want to be accurate to the lore, you cannot win I6.

I understand there is a lot of complaints about 5e Ravenloft, but the fact that it's possible there are multiple versions of each domain lost deep in the mists (or crumbling like Darkon is) where PCs win against Strahd and where they lose is appealing. All the different groups that have faced Strahd can all exist. Strahd has lived and died countless times vs them. Sometimes as a Bella Legosi knockoff, sometimes as a woman (seriously, check out She is Ancient, it's neat). They all exist simultaneously.

THAT is a shared world!

Yeah, I never had a problem with Ravenloft on this score. It always felt like a setting that could “reset” itself and feels like it doesn’t betray any lore than might have been put in place. It lives outside of normal time in my mind. Dracula dies and is resurrected multiple times in movies, and so is Strahd. I actually felt the timeline never really fit the vibe of Ravenloft. Whether a domain appeared a hundred years ago or last year never really mattered.