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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Mr. Death on December 06, 2012, 10:22:17 PM

Title: Adjusting to Canon
Post by: Mr. Death 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.

Title: Re: Adjusting to Canon
Post by: Haru 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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I kind of thougth that everything I would do in any game would be meak in comparison. Because of that, I think I will mainly ignore the things revealed in CD, if I am not actually going to play an outsider based game. But for the most part, I don't think it will change that much. The only thing that will actually change is, that I will probably be thinking "Oh well, they are fighting against another warlock, but whatever, if the Outer Gates fall, none of this will even matter."
So yeah, it's probably best to keep the powerlevel down a bit. Your plain old apocalypse will do fine, destroying all reality might be a bit much.

DETONATE THE REALITY BOMB!!!

Damn, now that's stuck in my head.  :P

Title: Re: Adjusting to Canon
Post by: FishStampede 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.

Title: Re: Adjusting to Canon
Post by: Ophidimancer 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.

Title: Re: Adjusting to Canon
Post by: Keliren 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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Our story takes place in Portland, Oregon. Which is mentioned as being in communications black out during Ghost Story following Fomor attacks. I really want to play with that, but I need to know more about Fomor first.

Title: Re: Adjusting to Canon
Post by: Richard_Chilton on December 07, 2012, 05:39:45 AM

About that bit:

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Read the short stories Even Hand and Aftermath - both cover them.  In Even Hand you see one of their nobles go head to head with Marcone - who discovers that his anti-Dresden trap has less of an effect on Fomor than they would on a mortal wizard.  Since the short story is set before Changes it's pretty clear who wins that battle.

Richard

Title: Re: Adjusting to Canon
Post by: JDK002 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.

Title: Re: Adjusting to Canon
Post by: HumAnnoyd on December 07, 2012, 07:54:50 PM

I feel like I need to put everything in spoiler tags...

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Luckily our campaign was set several years in the past so we haven't even seen the events in Changes at this point.  And strangely the revelations in CD jived completely with what I had done in a previous scenario dealing with a huge Outsider threat to Seattle.  Even the Gatekeeper's true purpose was in keeping with what I had done.

Title: Re: Adjusting to Canon
Post by: DFJunkie 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.

Title: Re: Adjusting to Canon
Post by: Tedronai 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).