Challenge Magazine?

[RN7]

Are the Twilight 2000 articles in Challenge Magazine considered to be T2K canon or a version of it?

[StainlessSteelCynic]

I was given to believe that they were not considered canon. I thought that material submitted to any sort of support magazine is fan material and thus not canon (unless officially endorsed as canon by the game designers themselves)

However I think some articles in Challenge were written by people who were also contracted to write canon material for the official game supplements so I must admit to some confusion on the matter. I don't think we will ever have a correct answer unless one of the GDW staff supplied an answer.

[kato13]

By any definition some challenge articles certainly became canon later. The target list in the Big yellow book (and Howling Wilderness) was in one of the first few challenge articles (along with the USSR and Canadian lists IIRC).

I honestly don't care about canon but I think if an article was written by one of the original creators/authors it would probably be canon. Actually if I am remembering correctly only the last challenge T2k article ("Rockets Red Glare"?) was a pure fan submission (and I choose to fully ignore it). I believe the rest were either by GDW staff or commissioned articles.


Edit Added howling wilderness reference. As that would make the challenge article both v1 and v2 canon.

[RN7]

Originally Posted by kato13

By any definition some challenge articles certainly became canon later. The target list in the Big yellow book was in one of the first few challenge articles (along with the USSR and Canadian lists IIRC).

I honestly don't care about canon but I think if an article was written by one of the original creators/authors it would probably be canon. Actually if I am remembering correctly only the last challenge T2k article ("Rockets Red Glare"?) was a pure fan submission (and I choose to fully ignore it). I believe the rest were either by GDW staff or commissioned articles.

I am asking as I now have Challenge Magazine #25 to 77. I'm reading through them at the moment and there are some very good Twilight 2000 articles.

Many of them were written by Loren K. Wiseman and other well known names, and they certainly could be used to expand information on what we already have in Twilight 2000 from the source books. A lot of additional information on parts of the US and Canada, the Soviet nuclear target list, and some locations in Europe and the Middle East. One good article on what happens to the space shuttles and Soviet shuttle and space stations. I'll type some of it up if I can find some time if anybody interested

[Draq]

I will qbsorb it all

[WallShadow]

Originally Posted by Draq

I will qbsorb it all

Resistance is Futile....

[The Dark]

Originally Posted by kato13

By any definition some challenge articles certainly became canon later. The target list in the Big yellow book (and Howling Wilderness) was in one of the first few challenge articles (along with the USSR and Canadian lists IIRC).

I honestly don't care about canon but I think if an article was written by one of the original creators/authors it would probably be canon. Actually if I am remembering correctly only the last challenge T2k article ("Rockets Red Glare"?) was a pure fan submission (and I choose to fully ignore it). I believe the rest were either by GDW staff or commissioned articles.

And some of the articles were written under house names. "Karl Johnson" (who did Rifle River in issue #39) is Charles Gannon.

[WallShadow]

I think most of the articles were well done and integrate smoothly with the game; one might take them as "canon, if so desired", or modify or ignore the hell out of them. They are a fuel-source to your game, and, of course, YMMV.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by kato13

By any definition some challenge articles certainly became canon later. The target list in the Big yellow book (and Howling Wilderness) was in one of the first few challenge articles (along with the USSR and Canadian lists IIRC).

I honestly don't care about canon but I think if an article was written by one of the original creators/authors it would probably be canon. Actually if I am remembering correctly only the last challenge T2k article ("Rockets Red Glare"?) was a pure fan submission (and I choose to fully ignore it). I believe the rest were either by GDW staff or commissioned articles.


Edit Added howling wilderness reference. As that would make the challenge article both v1 and v2 canon.

I never concerned myself with Cannon either. If I like it, I use it. If I don't, then I imagine an alternative to replace it.

[kato13]

Originally Posted by swaghauler

I never concerned myself with Cannon either. If I like it, I use it. If I don't, then I imagine an alternative to replace it.

When I was young I was obsessed with Bruce Lee (hence Kato) and his main philosophy in martial arts was to break out of the chains of rigid styles that could never fit every practitioner and every situation perfectly. Therefor you study everything and...

"Absorb what is useful. Reject what is useless. Add what is uniquely your own." -Bruce Lee

So I think we are of a similar mindset.

[swaghauler]

Originally Posted by kato13

When I was young I was obsessed with Bruce Lee (hence Kato) and his main philosophy in martial arts was to break out of the chains of rigid styles that could never fit every practitioner and every situation perfectly. Therefor you study everything and...

"Absorb what is useful. Reject what is useless. Add what is uniquely your own." -Bruce Lee

So I think we are of a similar mindset.

I wish I had your mastery of computers. Then I could type up my house rules and post them like all the cool "guides" (I'm looking at James here) and "sourcebooks" (oh where to start here) in this forum.

I know you've heard it before, but I'll say it again... You, sir, are a GREAT forum admin and the collective knowledge gathered here is an irreplaceable gaming aid.

[RN7]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

I was given to believe that they were not considered canon. I thought that material submitted to any sort of support magazine is fan material and thus not canon (unless officially endorsed as canon by the game designers themselves)

However I think some articles in Challenge were written by people who were also contracted to write canon material for the official game supplements so I must admit to some confusion on the matter. I don't think we will ever have a correct answer unless one of the GDW staff supplied an answer.

Fair enough.