What is Canon?
- Thread starter Tiikeri
- Start date
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
Canon is what it has always been: what the writers have to pay attention to, and what Marc Miller says it is.
Beyond that it can get harder to pin down, and it is best to not obsess over it too much.
Broadly speaking, no edition is 100% Canon down to the rivets, because every edition uses different rivets. The nuts and bolts of ship building and world generation change with every edition, specifically. There are enough people who obsess over the differences in the nuts and bolts already.
While T5 represents Marc's current thoughts on the subjects of ships and planets, it remains an "approximation for game purposes" of what is really going on.
For the broad strokes of history, the editions which spell out the Canon progression of the timeline include GURPS Interstellar Wars, Marc Miller's Traveller (aka T4), T20, Classic, Mega, TNE, the add-ons of 1248, and a few hints in T5. You can find an integrated timeline at Don's site ( http://dmckinne.winterwar.org/pdfs/TravellerIntegratedTimeline.pdf ) that boils that all down.
Beyond that, a lot of the little details are more variable than some people want to accept, some past attempts at details are no longer Marc's thoughts on the matter, and the hand, as it were, is still writing.
Charted Space is under revision, but the present state of the worlds can be found on any given day at the Traveller Map site. It gets updated, so if that type of detail is your cuppa, keep an eye on it. Unless a sector is specifically labeled as unofficial, it is the present Canon.
The Major Races have mostly been visited several times each. You can't go too wrong with the CT modules on them, though the Vilani and Aslan were, IMO, improved upon by DGP, and the Mongoose version of the Zhodani shows development and unifies prior material.
All that said, let me reiterate what I started with: Canon is for writers. As a Referee, your Traveller Universe is what you decide it is.
Beyond that it can get harder to pin down, and it is best to not obsess over it too much.
Broadly speaking, no edition is 100% Canon down to the rivets, because every edition uses different rivets. The nuts and bolts of ship building and world generation change with every edition, specifically. There are enough people who obsess over the differences in the nuts and bolts already.
While T5 represents Marc's current thoughts on the subjects of ships and planets, it remains an "approximation for game purposes" of what is really going on.
For the broad strokes of history, the editions which spell out the Canon progression of the timeline include GURPS Interstellar Wars, Marc Miller's Traveller (aka T4), T20, Classic, Mega, TNE, the add-ons of 1248, and a few hints in T5. You can find an integrated timeline at Don's site ( http://dmckinne.winterwar.org/pdfs/TravellerIntegratedTimeline.pdf ) that boils that all down.
Beyond that, a lot of the little details are more variable than some people want to accept, some past attempts at details are no longer Marc's thoughts on the matter, and the hand, as it were, is still writing.
Charted Space is under revision, but the present state of the worlds can be found on any given day at the Traveller Map site. It gets updated, so if that type of detail is your cuppa, keep an eye on it. Unless a sector is specifically labeled as unofficial, it is the present Canon.
The Major Races have mostly been visited several times each. You can't go too wrong with the CT modules on them, though the Vilani and Aslan were, IMO, improved upon by DGP, and the Mongoose version of the Zhodani shows development and unifies prior material.
All that said, let me reiterate what I started with: Canon is for writers. As a Referee, your Traveller Universe is what you decide it is.
For a sane and digestible synopsis of the Major Races, you can't go wrong with MegaTraveller's Imperial Encyclopedia. I've used it for all versions of Traveller I've ever run.
Thanks for the responses. I ask because of Hans' comments about MgT Sword Worlds, and I was wondering if there are any other publications I need to look out for, such as MgT Solomani.
One of my projects is to make an info packet for players about MTU so they have a something they can easily refer to to understand how MTU is different from the OTU. I wanted to know what are the official MWM approved baseline canon materials that I would use to keep MTU consistent with canon except where I specifically wanted to change it.
One of my projects is to make an info packet for players about MTU so they have a something they can easily refer to to understand how MTU is different from the OTU. I wanted to know what are the official MWM approved baseline canon materials that I would use to keep MTU consistent with canon except where I specifically wanted to change it.
GypsyComet
SOC-14 1K
MGT Solomani isn't bad, IMO.
A note: Hans' GURPS Traveller: Sword Worlds book is canonical, and should be on the "accepted" list of canon for any version of Traveller.
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
A manufacturer of cameras.
Also, established doctrine and standardized teachings in a religion.
Take your pick.
Also, the material accepted as part of the story in an individual fictional universe. Pick that.
(Also more than two dozen other things.)
Hans
BlackBat242
SOC-14 1K
The way many on CotI apply the term, my #2 definition is more accurate.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
The way that I view it, Traveller has multiple canons, which in many cases do not agree with each other. Each version has its own canon, and that canon should not be used to evaluate another version. It gets more confusing when you have two different possible canon, specifically High Guard 1st Edition and High Guard 2nd Edition, for the Classic Traveller version. I try to stay focused on what is considered canon for Classic Traveller, to include Starter Traveller and The Traveller Book.
When it comes to 3rd party publications, in 2014, I cannot consider early materials as canon, as it ranges from extremely difficult to impossible for players to find them. I have most of the Environment Books by the Keiths, and a couple of the Digest Group publications, and somewhere in my garage I have some Judge's Guild stuff. The fact that I have it does not make me consider it as canon when running a game. Useful ancillary material, but not canon.
Lastly, I will go with canon up to a point, and then either ignore it, modify it, or proceed as how I think it should be, within my own universe.
When it comes to 3rd party publications, in 2014, I cannot consider early materials as canon, as it ranges from extremely difficult to impossible for players to find them. I have most of the Environment Books by the Keiths, and a couple of the Digest Group publications, and somewhere in my garage I have some Judge's Guild stuff. The fact that I have it does not make me consider it as canon when running a game. Useful ancillary material, but not canon.
Lastly, I will go with canon up to a point, and then either ignore it, modify it, or proceed as how I think it should be, within my own universe.
That's true enough, but it's not what is usually meant by the use of the term. 'Canon' without a qualifier usually refers to the overarcing material accepted as part of the story in the universe currently being written about. Not the CT canon or the TNE canon or any other canon but the OTU canon.
I try to stay focussed on the sum total of all material published for the Third Imperium universe over the last 35 years. To discount anything published since GDW switched to MT seems to me to be a terrible waste. You can do what you like for your own TU, of course, but for practical reasons I'm going to keep my TU as close to the OTU as I can.
They don't have to. If Marc Miller says a publication is canon, someone with access to it can usually be found over the Internet. And if no one can be found, well, MM will just have to tell us what the canon bits are, or we can't know how to stick to them, can we?
I'm not sure that MM has declared any 3rd party publication to be canon, though. I know he has explicitly decanonized some of them.
Me too. I don't know any other reasonable way to treat canon.
Hans
Atlas of the Imperium explicitly decanonizes the Judges Guild sectors in 1984... and overwrites another landgrantee publisher without explicit notice.
Here's something from the Official Guide to MegaTraveller (1989?):
and
What's the canonicity of the GT books? We've mentioned Hans' edition of Sword Worlds (and thanks for writing that book; it gave the Sword Worlds the in-depth treatment they deserved. I'd like to see a similar book for the Solomani, written from a value judgement neutral perspective. Most of the races in Traveller are ethnocentrics or raging xenophobes but only the Solomani get taken to task for it).
and
What's the canonicity of the GT books? We've mentioned Hans' edition of Sword Worlds (and thanks for writing that book; it gave the Sword Worlds the in-depth treatment they deserved. I'd like to see a similar book for the Solomani, written from a value judgement neutral perspective. Most of the races in Traveller are ethnocentrics or raging xenophobes but only the Solomani get taken to task for it).
Marc hasn't publicly stated their canonicity in years. The last public statement by Marc that I've seen predates the first volume for GT... stating that the whole line was to be non-authoritative.
That said, he does require checking against it, so it's not non-canonical; it's probably about the same level as TD or MTJ.
