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Originally Posted by Olefin
and there is that comment right in the manual about timelines as well in 4e - the problem is that you dont get a cohesive world for those who wish to expand the world - but again the creators of 4th edition apparently dont care about a cohesive timeline or world - versus V2.2 where Marc told me that I had to make what I wrote fit in the timeline and world events to be considered canon
4e really is more like the canon and timeline is what you make of it in a lot of ways given the statements that the creators made in the official released manuals
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This is something that actually excites me about the game, and why I’ve gone to the effort of splitting the canon timeline apart. The community right now has an opportunity before it to create the Twilight 2000 world that
we want, rather than having a generated world thrust upon us. We can make the changes we feel will better fit the narrative. We can attempt to drive toward a more realistic depiction of the apocalyptic third world war, so long as we include the incredibly narrow depictions that FL has included for us (or hell, we can even rewrite that depiction should we so choose). We can include New America as being an emergent threat if we liked the concept from the original. We can make sure Mexico never takes the southwest (that one still gets me). We can even incorporate a lot of the community works that folks here have toiled away on over the years. Etc etc etc.
Indeed, maybe there won’t be any interest in this kind of dialogue. Maybe everyone will argue about what they think would have
really happened, and the whole thing will fall apart. If that happens, so be it. But, if a new community-crafted timeline does take root, if it does get embraced, it could change the direction of the game and how the community interacts with it. Content creators in the community program will have a default setting they can use to craft new adventures and modules around. Not all of them will, but some will choose to if the timeline is crafted well enough. And over time, that community created timeline and the modules that work inside of it will make for a better resource for new Refs, and ultimately help drive more players to the game.
I realize that all sounds a bit starry-eyed, and that there have been attempts in the past to do this kind of thing that have fallen apart. I recall reading about a DC project at one point that never seemed to come to fruition. But the alternative in my mind is that we just sit around playing the existing stuff, and FL will release modules over the next few years that will slowly build a more complete narrative, while still leaving it to new refs to do a lot of the heavy lifting themselves. To me at least, that just seems like it would be such a wasted opportunity.