To Canon Or Not To Canon (Damn The Canon! Full Speed Ahead!)

Three guests, me, and wife-unit will be gaming. Two of the guests are "canon-whores" and the rest of us are "open minded" sorts who could care less of the details and care more for a good Star Trek story, "damn the canon make something up" sort of people.


I prefer to explore new ground and take things in different directions rather than rehash the same old and limit myself to "established" facts and figures. Of the two guests one is much stricter than the other, believing that only what has been on screen is fact and any attempt to deviate from "canon" is wrong.

Got a few ideas to pander to both sides of the equation, I'm looking for suggestions though. How have other people handled this sort of schism in a gaming group?

Long term, I'm hoping to attract more like-minded people but the only ICON gamers in the area at the moment is this bunch so I'm "stuck" with them for a moment.

Just refer to the episode Parallells, and mention that your universe is not the same as the show is run in. So by default, as long it feel Trekish, it is canon ;) Then toss in at least one session where you put in an obvious and intentional deviation from the canon.

Even if it is possible to keep everything 100% canon, how fun would it be if everything was guaranteed to happen a certain way? Or forgetting about a certain technology that they used in one episode. "Well, that works that way in that multiverse, but there is some slight differences, so that won't work in this one." :D

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Originally Posted by Cpt. Lundgren

Just refer to the episode Parallells, and mention that your universe is not the same as the show is run in. So by default, as long it feel Trekish, it is canon ;) Then toss in at least one session where you put in an obvious and intentional deviation from the canon.

Even if it is possible to keep everything 100% canon, how fun would it be if everything was guaranteed to happen a certain way? Or forgetting about a certain technology that they used in one episode. "Well, that works that way in that multiverse, but there is some slight differences, so that won't work in this one." :D

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"Who? Oh James R Kirk. Where the hell did you get 'T' from anyway?"

:D

I've never really had a problem with "canon whores" in a gaming session. Although I'm something of a stickler for maintaining consistency in official shows/movies, its generally understood that if the player characters matter, they will be able to (and in fact should) have an impact on history.

I mean, if the player characters actions lead to peace with the Klingons before the Praxis, so be it. And if they precipitate a full-scale interstellar war, well thats the way the galaxy crumbles I guess.

Give your canon-eers a chance to dabble in a little history altering, they'll probably be okay with it.

I think that a good way to set it up would be to very upfront with them, and start at a time after the movies, or so far from the movies it would not matter. Such as the era of Pike, or 20 minutes after Nemesis, or the last episode of Enterprise.

That way, they won't have much to say about canon, well, except for the use of technology, but consistency in your game will solve that.

Or, you can be blunt about it, and start the game with some thing like the Enterprise has just come out of refit and Captain Pike is begining his 2nd five year mission.

Something like that.

Good luck, canon junkies can be great in a game, or a hinderance. You can probably get a really good game out of them.

Canon should complement a game, not detract from it. Use canon to your advantage, but never be afraid to depart from it when the story you're telling calls for such. I liken canon to history: we are always learning new things about it, as fresh discoveries are made. Unless your players are portraying the crew of Enterprise (doesn't matter which one), it's not like they are bound by canon. Different inertial reference frame. Heisenberg, Schrödinger and all that quantum indeterminacy / phase state stuff. Confound them with treknobabble, in other words. :D

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Originally Posted by RaconteurX

Confound them with treknobabble, in other words. :D

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Oh no problems there, I have a degree in Advanced Complicated Stuff from the engineering college up the street. :D

One way to cover both bases is to have some event in the game deliberately alter the timeline. This is a common theme in Trek, and was a focal point for ENTERPRISE.

You could have the characters involved in sothing that makes a minor change in the past that has several unforseen "side-effects" that results in minor (and perhaps major) departures from Canon.

One example could be to have the NCC-1701 Enterprise get damaged early in TOS (or even pre-TOS). This could have the Enterprise being repaired rather than being somewhere else and start a cascade effect. Just how severe the effect is up to you. THe effect could even be so sublte as to resulting in some minor character being transferred. FOr example, just think of some of the ramificationas if Helen Noel didn't get transsfered to the Enterprise and instead Capt. Kirk had actually "picked up" Yeoman Rand during the Christmas party.

A couple of minor alterations could justify any further departures from Canono, and making it part of the campaign also helps to justify it to the players, who can be made to feel somewhat resposnsible for the changes.

IMO tonyg made some very good points here.

I might consider implementing some of those in my campaign, sometime.

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Originally Posted by tonyg

One way to cover both bases is to have some event in the game deliberately alter the timeline. This is a common theme in Trek, and was a focal point for ENTERPRISE.

You could have the characters involved in sothing that makes a minor change in the past that has several unforseen "side-effects" that results in minor (and perhaps major) departures from Canon.

One example could be to have the NCC-1701 Enterprise get damaged early in TOS (or even pre-TOS). This could have the Enterprise being repaired rather than being somewhere else and start a cascade effect. Just how severe the effect is up to you. THe effect could even be so sublte as to resulting in some minor character being transferred. FOr example, just think of some of the ramificationas if Helen Noel didn't get transsfered to the Enterprise and instead Capt. Kirk had actually "picked up" Yeoman Rand during the Christmas party.

A couple of minor alterations could justify any further departures from Canono, and making it part of the campaign also helps to justify it to the players, who can be made to feel somewhat resposnsible for the changes.

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I just saw this after I wrote up my Minos idea in the Ready Room.

Prehaps an alteration could be made...

The Farpoint Mission was to see the Enterprise exploring past the Frontier, but the mission was called off with the loss of the staging Starbase (damn thing just up and left!). The Enterprise was called back to "known space' and puttered around there and the "near frontier" that's the basis of TNG.

What if... the Farpoint Mission had gone ahead? The Enterprise was "way way out there" leaving other ships to have the Enterprise's adventures closer to home... imagine for example how different the political landscape would have been without Picard dealing with the Klingons for example! Imagine Jellico, or prehaps DeSoto or some unknown and the variables that would have changed.


Hmmmmmm...... the possiblities... :confused:

On the subject of canon, one should probably review the origins of the term.

In short, canon is an after-the-fact organization that is as much about leaving things out as making everything fit inside (although mediaeval scholars spent just as much time reconciling Platonism and scripture as we do reconciling Trek inconsistancies...) and is, as such, a creative act in and of itself. Taking things that are not real and not dependent upon continuity as our immediate lives are and extrapolating a reality behind it is a natural process of reading anything; the creation of 'canon' is just one step further than the connection one makes after watching a jump cut from the bridge to the transporter room. Inconsistencies and boom mikes in the corner show up from time to time, but ignoring or modulating them is a natural part of the process.

I am religious myself, I go to church every Sunday. That's why I find the concept of Star Trek Canon amusing. Especially coming from people who take the show so darn seriously yet mock people for going to church. :D That's neither here nor there though.

Agreeing with Brian K set the series after Nemesis, no canon to deal with. Or if you want a earlier time set, state that the canon events are fixed only to that point and no further.

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Originally Posted by spshu

Agreeing with Brian K set the series after Nemesis, no canon to deal with. Or if you want a earlier time set, state that the canon events are fixed only to that point and no further.

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That's what we ended up doing. Story is moving along now.

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Originally Posted by The Tatterdemalion King

On the subject of canon, one should probably review the origins of the term.

In short, canon is an after-the-fact organization that is as much about leaving things out as making everything fit inside (although mediaeval scholars spent just as much time reconciling Platonism and scripture as we do reconciling Trek inconsistancies...) and is, as such, a creative act in and of itself. Taking things that are not real and not dependent upon continuity as our immediate lives are and extrapolating a reality behind it is a natural process of reading anything; the creation of 'canon' is just one step further than the connection one makes after watching a jump cut from the bridge to the transporter room. Inconsistencies and boom mikes in the corner show up from time to time, but ignoring or modulating them is a natural part of the process.

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Blame TV and film creators rather than fans for this. Most shows have a series "Bible" that explains a show and it'S format to prospective writers. Likewise series "canon" came about to differentiate what appears on TV and film from all the "spin-off" stuff. The term "offical" is no good anymore, studios are too eager to liscence just about anything as "official" if someone is willing to pay the liscicing fee.

Star Trek fans may use the term more often that others, but there is a lot of Star Trek stuff out there, and it is not all consistient.

Basically TV show creators have big egos.