Firing the Canon

It’s a common problem: what happens when your actions counteract official canon for the setting your using? Your players kill Vader, wipe out a dragonmark house, or sink Waterdeep into the sea.

As the comic above illustrates, your players may be confused by what’s real and what isn’t in the world. Who do you differ to? The DM or the setting?

Me, I always refer to the DM. If the DM changes things, he’s doing it for a reason, and now this world is a different continuity than the books/movies/comics or whatever they’re based on.

In the campaign you run (or play in), canon is whatever the DM says it is. Period. Everything else is just there to support the DM’s vision.

Now, that’s not to say that things can’t be changed back to the way they were.

Look at the recent Captain America storyline: it was a big huge deal when Cap was killed two years ago. It was on CNN! But now, it turns out he’s not dead after all! Everything’s fixed! While half the comic community breathes a sigh of relief, others cringe that no one can just let sleeping dogs (or genetically modified supersoldiers from World War II) lie.

This is never a method I’m a fan of. If you sink Waterdeep into the ocean or blow up Serenity, it’s gone. No questions asked. Let’s move on and see the consequences from there.

Remember: You are the master of your own canon. Anything else is just distraction.

Heh… space wizards…