Poll

When a new book comes out, do you...

Adjust your plans to account for the changes revealed in the book?
11 (64.7%)
Ignore the changes revealed in the book and keep going as you'd planned?
6 (35.3%)

Total Members Voted: 16

Author Topic: Adjusting to Canon  (Read 2881 times)

Offline Mr. Death

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Adjusting to Canon
« on: December 06, 2012, 10:22:17 PM »
So, like many of the rest of you no doubt did, I bought Cold Days and swiftly devoured it to gain its power. As a GM, though, some revelations in the book threw a Kong-sized monkey wrench into the ideas I had for future scenarios (my main game is currently taking place around the same time as Ghost Story, for reference), meaning I've got to decide if I want to adjust those future scenarios to account for it, or to break off and go full-on Alternate Universe, ignoring the changes it brought to the status quo.

So I'm curious as to what others do in the same situation.
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Offline Haru

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Re: Adjusting to Canon
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2012, 10:49:07 PM »
I believe this would be better placed in the DFRPG spoilers bin.

That said:
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Offline FishStampede

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Re: Adjusting to Canon
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2012, 11:34:34 PM »
I have an uncanny ability for my ideas to flow into the cracks in existing canon. I've written fanfiction before and had later episodes entirely validate my ideas. It's pretty useful. So far, I've kept what exactly my Spring and Autumn courts are up to a secret, and some of the new revelations could be very interesting depending on which side I apply it to. My only problem is their entire reason for existence is now in question, but that's not something the players would know about so I'm gonna leave it unanswered.

Offline Ophidimancer

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Re: Adjusting to Canon
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2012, 11:35:51 PM »
It kinda depends.  If I can incorporate the new information into my storyline without making huge changes, I will.

Offline Keliren

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Re: Adjusting to Canon
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2012, 05:32:22 AM »
There are some story hooks I for sure want to play with, but it might be a while before we get to them so people can get a feel for 'standard quo' first.

Especially:

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Offline Richard_Chilton

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Re: Adjusting to Canon
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2012, 05:39:45 AM »
About that bit:
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Richard

Offline JDK002

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Re: Adjusting to Canon
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2012, 03:58:12 PM »
I'm fairly ambiguious about when my campaign takes place (after Grave Peril, before Changes), so no it doesn't really affect my scenario ideas.  I can slide the canon into my game pretty easily thus far thankfully.

Offline HumAnnoyd

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Re: Adjusting to Canon
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2012, 07:54:50 PM »
I feel like I need to put everything in spoiler tags...

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Offline DFJunkie

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Re: Adjusting to Canon
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2012, 08:39:57 PM »
I fall into the camp of “incorporate anything that doesn’t require a painful change.”

Our group structures the story arcs like the book does, a few days/weeks of action separated by long stretches of down time.  That has allowed us to incorporate the end of Changes without any real stress, no one had any hooks with the Reds and Harry hasn’t shown up on screen.  On the other hand, if Lara Raith manages to get offed in a future book I’ll probably elide that as long as possible since one of my PCs has an important relationship with her.
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Offline Tedronai

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Re: Adjusting to Canon
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2012, 09:29:37 PM »
I generally prefer my games to exist in some form of 'alternate universe' relative to ongoing canon, due in part to some of the difficulties expressed here, as well as others.
As a player, one of the most compelling motivators in this has been a perceived tendency among GMs I play with to grant undue 'plot shields' to canon characters when attempting to maintain cohesion with ongoing canon, possibly so as to avoid difficult questions when the next book is released (sometimes because the GM is personally convinced that that character should be sufficiently far above the PCs as to be effectively untouchable (regardless of the PCs' personal power or preparation efforts).
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