Fanon vs Canon

[Gowi]

A good subtitle for this would be “the nuisances of alternate universes in roleplay”.

Fanon. Fanon is a user-made setting loosely based on a world to that user decisions change the world due to whims.

Canon. Pre-made lore that stands as the roleplay setting’s backbone and where events in the canon do not change.

What I’ve seen on this website in my very short time here I’ve come to know several roleplay strategies and techniques that are employed in quantity and the big one I’d like to discuss is the idea of using alternate universes to make canonicity irrelevant. Canon is not a dirty thing we have to turn our backs on when doing a fandom roleplay, and some of my favorite roleplays in my time include a Naruto roleplay in 2007 where the player characters are ninja before the events of Naruto Shippuden unfold. This is a canon roleplay that played off events that happened in the canon lore and didn’t attempt to dismiss or twist them. It was about a gaiden—or a side-story. Here, I don’t notice these sort of things though perhaps I am blind to them. What I do see is the overuse and sometimes misuse of the alternate timeline cliché. Now, I am nowhere near negative towards alternate timelines as I am a huge fan of time theory as well as domino/butterfly effects amongst a timeline. “What if Aang was killed by the Fire Nation instead of going into stasis?” is one of my examples in the concept called Flames of Azulon.

But what I notice is not really an interest to make dynamic domino or butterfly effects but rather: “I want to wipe all of the lore in this setting to its barebones” and that’s fine, I did the same thing with Sonic the Hedgehog ten years ago to make a diverse and radically different setting. But the thing is I don’t ten to see diverse, radically different, or generally ambitious differences. It just seems like the approach is either “FANDOM in name only” or “this is different but it plays out exactly the same”. Why do you think this is?

I’m not sure why it’s in large capacity myself, but I can’t help but wonder how the roleplay’s could benefit if they tried to make the roleplay taste a little different instead of taste exactly the same despite holding no canon characters. Perhaps it’s an overthinking thought and it’s just due that people want to play the setting exactly like they’ve seen without strings attached.

I’m rambling, but I’d like to see thoughts about “alternate timelines” and “fanon vs canon” either way.

[DruSM157]

I wonder who wrote that amazing roleplay in 2007. Probably some dumb nerd.

I love fanon/gaiden stories where there are canon rules and world, but you don't roleplay characters. That falls in my own inability to roleplay canon characters due to my lack of creator agency; I feel that I have no right writing as a character that I have never designed, though I see the ease for those who are fans of a work to do so.

Man, now I wish I still had all that Resident Evil tabletop info saved somewhere. That'd make an okay roleplay.

[Ellri]

We like taking a part of an existing universe that isn't covered in detail, then follow canon as much as possible, but avoiding the use of Canon characters, simply because they're harder to get into the minds of. That is at least what we did in the RP we GM, as well as what was done in the RP we're participating in.

[Dinh AaronMk]

Generally my experience in playing with RPs set in a pre-engineered universe - such as say: Fallout - that it's often set after the events of the current situation in the series. In one such instance I was involved in an RP set ten or twenty years after the Battle of Hoover Dam and we were charged with exploring the Fallout world. And for the most part we were charged with writing within the canon of that RP's expected setting, which was based on one of the endings of the actual game; I think after an NCR victory at the dam.

Meanwhile I managed to get to dick around on the East coast alone, with plans to meet up with a friend of mine to merge stories and later find a reason to kill all the weak characters on the west coast. But that plan stretched longer than the RP lived and I think it died. But all of what we were written was built on the pretense that what is canon happened and all we really had to do was figure out and project the consequences of what the Vault Dweller or Courier did onto a future canvas.

That at least has been my experience.

[TheEvanCat]

Dinh AaronMk said
Generally my experience in playing with RPs set in a pre-engineered universe - such as say: Fallout - that it's often set after the events of the current situation in the series. In one such instance I was involved in an RP set ten or twenty years after the Battle of Hoover Dam and we were charged with exploring the Fallout world. And for the most part we were charged with writing within the canon of that RP's expected setting, which was based on one of the endings of the actual game; I think after an NCR victory at the dam.Meanwhile I managed to get to dick around on the East coast alone, with plans to meet up with a friend of mine to merge stories and later find a reason to kill all the weak characters on the west coast. But that plan stretched longer than the RP lived and I think it died. But all of what we were written was built on the pretense that what is canon happened and all we really had to do was figure out and project the consequences of what the Vault Dweller or Courier did onto a future canvas.That at least has been my experience.

Also MCF went to shit before we could do our thing. Maybe we can reboot it here.