Fanon Discontinuity/Tabletop Games: Difference between revisions

Sometimes, even [[Game Master|DMs]] get railroaded by the publishers who make their cherished games. When the canon plot is going south, nothing works quite as well as taking an entire RPG world off the rails. It's hard to pinpoint what sorts of things people will accept in Tabletop RPGs, but rest assured whenever there's a rules change, ''someone'' is going to be unhappy.

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* On that subject, it's worth noting that a number of Warhammer 40,000 fans (who might be considered "extreme purists") simply disregard large portions of [[Dan Abnett]]'s books as "him getting high on his own popularity".

*** Inversely, some fans will take ''only'' the Abnett books as canon, especially given his reputation as 'the one good 40k author'.

** Similarly, most people declare CS Goto (aka CS multilaser) non-canon.

*** This has reached the point that things that were cannon before Matt Ward wrote a codex also get lumped in. Notably the importance of the Ultramarines and the ridiculous [[Mary Sue]] status of the Grey Knights, both established pretty much from the start of the lore have detractors that pin both solely on Matt Ward.

**** The [[Mary Sue]] status of Grey Knights wasn't controversial prior to Matt Ward though, only because they weren't packing the auto-win rules and the fluff for them was limited to a glimpse of heroic figures fighting in the shadows rather than the nun-killing, pimp-slapping warpgods filled filth printed in the 5th edition codex.

** While never [[Word of God]], it was a fairly well-known open secret that ''Dirty Secrets'' was created without official approval by a disgruntled writer as a [[Take That]] against [[White Wolf]] management; and it's status in canon was never full accepted.

*** This is more a disconnect between the illustrations and the text. A lot of the text seems to suggest that Mummies have their own little version of the Masquerade and look just as human as non-Nosferatu Kindred. Meanwhile the art depicts them as dessicated corpses wrapped in bandages.

** ''Gypsies'' is also seen as a dark mark for the period and the pinnacle of the Old World of Darkness's tendency for well-intentioned-but-not-well-thought-out multiculturalism. It was all about secret bloodlines of [[Roma]] with powers based on deception and trickery. Oh, and it had a power stat called "Blood Purity."

** Many players were so upset about the Avatar Storm in ''[[Mage: The Ascension]]'' that they sent writer Jess Henig ''death threats'' (even though he was only ''following the goals already set out by his immediate predecessor'', Phil Brucato), and still have flame wars even today. Not only were these ridiculous ''temper tantrums'' [[Serious Business|completely insane from the point of view of any normal human being]], but White Wolf ''had'' to revise the line because they were ''[http://forums.white-wolf.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1211814#post1211814 losing money]''. But that's gamers for you: damned if you do, damned if you don't. It's just a goddamn ''[[MST3K Mantra|game]]'', for chrissakes!

** A large faction of the CCG players considered the game to have ended after it was picked up by [[Wizards of the Coast]], particularly since their first post-aquisition expansion set, "Scorpion Clan Coup", and in particular the Hidden Emperor arc, was seen to have effectively destroyed the game balance. Re-aquisition of the game by Alderac, and the [[Retcon]] and banning of the Hidden Emperor factions with the release of the Four Winds sets, effectively restoted continuity.

** That's just the tip of the iceberg. There was wholesale deicide that saw not only Mystra killed but a slew of other deities, some of which were also fan favorites, many by virtue of [[Idiot Ball]]. The demihuman pantheons received the worst culling, most notably the Drow pantheon, which got whittled down to Lolth and saw [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Ensemble Darkhorses]] Vhaeraun and Eilistraee get killed off in a trilogy of poorly-received novels (the former was killed ''off-screen'', and what became of the latter's followers was rife with [[Unfortunate Implications]] surrounding race). Bear in mind that there's ''still'' a loud but vocal minority in the FR fandom that consider the first, comparatively less severe deicide that happened between 1E and 2E discontinuity. And that's before getting into the [[Time Skip]] that ensured a number of beloved NPCs were killed off-screen. 4e Realms is a [[Base Breaker]], to put it mildly.

** For that matter, there are fans who disregard the existence of any ''Dungeons & Dragons'' development past AD&D second edition...

*** There are fans who prefer to pretend that Thief class introduced to the game in Supplement 1: Greyhawk never existed.

**** For a work with no actual narrative to it, simply rules content, The Fiend Folio Tome for AD&D can attract something like Discontinuity sentiments. Or maybe everything in it except the Drow and Githyanki. Almost definitely the Flumph. I believe I read somewhere, that if AD&D had gotten to a second edition with Gygax at the helm, the Folio would have been canon discontinuity.

** Psionics has a similar effect as well. Simply put, only trolls start threads to discuss its pros & cons since neither camp will ever move, or even just agree to disagree.

** Well, this isn't as big a difference as some other examples, since there isn't actual canon for the D&D game, just the campaign settings.

* Don't even MENTION the ''Champions of Darkness'' Arthaus supplement on a [[Ravenloft]] fan forum, unless you want to kick off a [[Internet Backdraft|three-day slam fest]].

* Many Greyhawk fans claim that the Greyhawk Wars never happened, or at least happened in a much different way than official TSR canon describes it. Others also declare that the sci-fi elements introduced in modules like ''Adventure to the Barrier Peaks'' don't exist and are not part of the setting.

** Something that nobody ever seems to understand... the S series modules (Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, White Plume Mountain and '''especially''' [[Tomb of Horrors]]) were never ''intended'' to be actual adventure modules. The books told you that in the front. They were special convention modules where you were handed a pre-made set of characters and the idea was to live as long as you can. They really are ''not'' part of the actual setting.

** Similarly, ''no one'' liked the 1st edition Lunars book, mainly because it painted the entire group as a bunch of rampaging barbarians dedicated to tearing down civilization. Which is why they got a radical reboot in 2nd Ed; the whole "tear down civilization" bit is limited to a few batshit crazy members, and most of the Lunars are dedicated to making a ''new'' civilization outside of the models of the Solar Deliberative and the Realm.

*** ...Which is, in turn, on its way out due to an [[Gambit Pileup|oversaturation of secret masters of Creation]] and the 2e history of the Lunars being written to make everyone seem like an [[Grimdark|asshole with no redeeming features at all]], number one case in point being the presentation of the Unconquered Sun as a tyrannical maniac with regard to Solar Bond (though the lack of other, similar accounts in the manuals for Dragon-Blooded and Sidereals, and the origin stories of the Incarnae in Glories of the Most High point to a more benign origin). The aforementioned problems may be slow to motively anger the readers on account of the second edition lacking a massive, ugly Lunar Charm cloud with a perfect dodge based on Charisma.

** At one point in Compass of Celestial Directions: Malfeas, there's a piece of background that badly strains the "no resurrections or time travel" rule. The fans ''immediately'' took this down to the back paddock and shot it, [[Canon Dis Continuity|and the writers later dug its grave]].

* There are more than a few gamers that insist that West End Games never lost the [[Star Wars]] license.

** Of course, the printing of plane cards referring to the Homelands setting and creatures like "Barony Vampire" in the base set indicates that Wizards isn't quite done with Ulgrotha yet - they just wanted to get it the hell away from any ''other'' Magic settings.

** [[Canon Dis Continuity|UDE would]] ''[[Canon Dis Continuity|like]]'' [[Canon Dis Continuity|to convince duelists that there is no such thing as the OCG or Konami, and Konami vice-versa]], but most intelligent duelists are ignoring them and drowning out their perpetual feud with campfire songs around YVD.

** Don't forget the people who completely ignored the banlist.