Canon Hacking, Hand Waving and Hermeneutics.
Canon.
Game Designers Workshop (GDW), the publishers of 2300AD, refer to the background for each of their games as its "canon". For 2300AD the primary canon sources are game rulebooks, sourcebooks, scenarios, and articles in Challenge magazine.
Articles published by Digest Group Publications (DGP) in Travellers' Digest magazine may be considered secondary canon where they do not contradict GDW sources. DGP collaborated closely with GDW on 2300AD, providing the task system and background such as disposable stutterwarp drives.
Where canon contradicts itself the most recent GDW source is assumed to be correct.Problems With Canon.
If the background of a game does not allow players to suspend their disbelief it will intrude on gameplay. As games featuring magic and dragons or cartoon animals prove, suspension of disbelief does not require that a games' background be believable . It does however require internal consistency and faithfulness to the source material or genre of the game. Internal or external contradictions in break suspension of disbelief.
Canon is internally consistent for the most part. Internal contradictions can be solved using the "most recent source" rule. Most problems with canon are contradictions with its source material. 2300AD is a "hard" science fiction game, its background is meant to be faithful to what we understand of our own universe. In the fifteen years since 2300AD was published canon has come to contradict what we know and believe regarding the universe.
Whilst canon culture, alien life and technology are often questioned, this is usually a matter of personal taste. The universe of 2300AD differs provably from our own in two major areas: its history and its stellar cartography.History.
The background for 2300AD was created by GDW from 1985 to 1986 in a detailed socio-economic-political simulation known simply as "The Game ". The Game began with the aftermath of the Twilight War of 1995-2000AD. History has diverged from the scenario that led to the Twilight War, and continues to differ from 2300AD's timeline.
Stellar Cartography.
The 2300AD boxed set includes a list and map of stars within 50 light years of Earth. This was compiled by GDW from the most accurate source available in 1986: Gliese's Catalog of Nearby Stars, Second Edition (1969). A third, more accurate, edition of Gliese's catalog was released in 1991 listing many more stars than the 1969 edition. Transcription errors in GDW's original list add to the differences between the stars in canon and our own universe.
Canon Hacking And Hand-Waving.
The two most common ways of dealing with problems in canon are canon hacking and hand-waving.
Canon hacking deals with problems in canon by re-writing or removing them. This makes any materials generated incompatible with canon and less useful to other players. It also changes the feel of 2300AD. For these reasons, canon hacking should be attempted only when it cannot be avoided.
Hand-waving hides or excuses problems in canon through rationalization or explanation. Hand-waving is preferable to canon hacking as it attempts to maintain canon, but at the expense of adding extra, non-canon details.Hermeneutics.
The easiest way to resolve any contradiction between canon and the real world is to accept that 2300AD describes an alternate universe. If that is unacceptable, canon hacking or hand-waving may not be as productive as taking a hermeneutic approach to canon. "Hermeneutics" simply means working constructively with and maintaining the meaning of existing texts. Three techniques are useful for this:
Work Backwards From Published Sources.
Assume that canon is correct. If 2300AD contradicts what we know now, there must be a valid reason within the game setting. Check canon sources for useful information to expand on or draw from. There is likely to be a background detail that can be exploited. This will increase the coherency of canon rather than undermining it.
Animate Problems Within Gameplay.
Animating social or technological issues within adventures or background materials is more constructive than canon hacking. Many companies, political organizations, social movements, government departments and terrorist groups are dissatisfied with the state of the universe in 2300AD. They have the means to do something about it, which will bring them into conflict with the PCs and create dramatic scenarios.
Blend New Material Into Canon.
Working backwards from canon and animating problems within gameplay allows new details and ideas to be be used without contradicting canon sources. These new materials can be combined with canon sources to create new background and scenarios. They can also be shared with other players and referees more easily.
Solutions To Specific Problems.
Stellar cartography.
Hand-Waving.
The presence of brown dwarves in greater numbers than in canon means that they are usable for stutterwarp discharge, but not for fuel cracking or refuelling. They are useful for military or exploratory missions, but not for routine civilian traffic. Stars being closer together than in canon can extend the arms of human space travel beyond their canon limits and open up new territories for human exploration. These have not been exploited due to the logistics of supporting the arms as they stand. If not for the Kafer War, humanity might have been at the start of a new golden age of exploration.
Canon Hacking.
2300AD is meant to be a realistic, or "hard" science-fiction game. Working with an outdated and inaccurate map of the local galaxy does not support this. A revised near-star list and map are included in this edition of JIEX. Both have been generated from an electronic version of the Gliese 3 data by custom software.
Hermeneutics.
The 2300AD Director's Guide explains how player characters can tune stutterwarp coils to delay radiation discharge an extra day. Doing so allows ships to travel a day further than they otherwise could. Working backwards from this, worlds that are too far apart if revised star data is used must have teams of tuners working to ensure that they remain in contact with the rest of human space. Fixers, from the article "New Organizations for 2300AD" in the last issue of JIEX, can provide this service for a fee of lv12000. Where distances between colonies are longer than un-tuned stutterwarp drives can manage, journeys and starports will be tense. Each ship that comes in has cheated misfortune, each ship that leaves is tempting it. Worlds that are close to exploitable or habitable systems that have been bypassed must either be of greater interest than the surrounding worlds, or unsuitable as a base of operations due to politics or logistics.
The Twilight War.
Hand-Waving.
"They just call it Twilight: 2000 because it sounds good. It was actually Twilight 2006/7/11/20/25". Schoolchildren who are taught the dates of the war soon only remember that it was around 2000AD. Nightwatch are involved in education programs to keep Twilight War Awareness on the curriculum.
Canon Hacking.
The effect of the war on the culture of 2300AD is considerable. Removing World War III from canon or replacing it with a natural disaster does not have the same impact. Leaving the war in 1995-2000 moves 2300AD into an alternate universe, breaking the hard science-fiction feel of the game. A revised timeline for the Twilight War of 2020 is included in this edition of JIEX.
Hermeneutics.
The Twilight Revisionists and Nightwatch from the article "New Organizations for 2300AD" in JIEX Janvier 2301 emerged from an online discussion of the Twilight War. The Revisionists claim the war has been mis-represented, Nightwatch exist to ensure the nuclear holocaust is never repeated.
Cultural Contradictions and "Silly Name Syndrome".
Hand-Waving.
The Twilight War and 300 years of social development make it very difficult to predict what a culture will be like in 2300AD. Naming traditions and conventions change over time. So do spelling and grammar within a given language. Whilst a canon name may be nonsensical to a contemporary speaker of a language, their speech would sound archaic and quaint in 2300. People intermarry with members of other cultures, take new names and emigrate to different countries. This and fashions for foreign or traditional names can leave members of a society with an incongruous name. And accidents do happen. Kangaroos, Nome in Alaska on Earth and the planet Kormoran all got their names through misunderstandings.
Canon Hacking.
Correcting mis-spelt words or incorrect cultural assumptions makes 2300AD more believable to players with experience of the culture in question. Corrected names should reflect the originally intended meaning of canon names.
Hermeneutics.
The Native American word "squaw" is being struck from place names on American maps . Early settlers thought the word referred to a man's wife, but in fact it is less polite and more anatomical. Conflict could emerge in 2300AD from a similar misunderstanding. If the names of people or places are seen as incongruous by the community the player characters must be careful to use the correct or local forms of names. This can make encounters more or less difficult as the group learns local culture and customs. NAXR, Nightwatch, the Anti-Monarchists and other groups from the article "New Organizations for 2300AD" in the last issue of JIEX were all created by animating problems with canon. NAXR in particular support groups attempting to reclaim their culture and language.
Technology, Colonization and Commerce.
Hand-Waving.
We don't know all the details of Stutterwarp, starship construction or the interstellar economy of 2300AD. It may contradict what we know now, but dot-com finance and playing "snake" on wireless PDAs would have made no sense to a citizen of 1700.
Canon Hacking.
Changing starship construction rules, interstellar financing, laser or computer operation or other details of how things work in 2300AD is a dangerous process. Each change will create ripples that affect the whole. Internal consistency is paramount, and Canon Hacking can wreak havoc with technology and the structures of human space.
Hermeneutics.
Dropping colonists onto garden worlds is only possible if you can boost their immune systems and tackle new infections. This has clearly worked on every colony world so far, but the existence of Orbital Quarantine Control on Earth shows that humanity has not dropped its guard. Some worlds can barely afford to buy the supplies they need to stay alive. Their importance to the nation that owns them must be high, but the politics of colonization can be cruel, and when each ship going to a world costs more than the goods it brings back, those politics can be very cruel indeed.
Conclusion.
Taking a hermeneutic approach to canon generates ideas for scenarios and background that will entertain, challenge, and maybe even educate players. It also allows materials to be shared more easily with other referees. After over a decade without new material for 2300AD, it is much better to build on canon rather than to try to tear it down.
Notes.
The naming of the planet Kormoran is explained in the module "Ranger".