Are you gaming against Canon and if so how?

[Falenthal]

Well, dragons are known for slumbering for centuries after great efforts and conquests. Raenar could just limit himself to hunting some goats and the ocasional traveller/adventurer on the northwestern parts of The Waste for the next 200 years.
But of course, gamewise it is faaaaar more interesting to have a killing machine at the door.
Some people might even question Bard why he doesn't go there himself, being called "the Dragonslayer". Just the dragon being there, even without having to attack Dale or the surrounding farms, might cast a shadow of doubt and mistrust towards King Bard in the region.

You know, the "Laughter of Dragons" and all that...

[Rich H]

Well, dragons are known for slumbering for centuries after great efforts and conquests. Raenar could just limit himself to hunting some goats and the ocasional traveller/adventurer on the northwestern parts of The Waste for the next 200 years.
But of course, gamewise it is faaaaar more interesting to have a killing machine at the door.
Some people might even question Bard why he doesn't go there himself, being called "the Dragonslayer". Just the dragon being there, even without having to attack Dale or the surrounding farms, might cast a shadow of doubt and mistrust towards King Bard in the region.

You know, the "Laughter of Dragons" and all that...

Nice point Falenthal, I've started a new thread for this so I'm going to quote this there.

[torus]

I just ask because depending on what happens I could be on the verge of this in my campaign: although the PCs defeated the Gibbet King in the last adventure of Tales from Wilderland, they failed to deal with Raenar who now resides in the watchtower and his planning his next conquest. A dragon of such power could really shape the future of the north which could ripple out to other areas, unless he is defeated.

I agree about filling in the gaps. And TBH, there's so little in canon about Rhovanion (and indeed most regions) for most of the time, even something like this feels like filling in the gaps to me. Unless the dragon actually kills a named character from the Appendices or narrative of LotR (e.g. it lays waste to Lorien), I doubt it would actually contradict anything.

[mirdanis]

I just finished a “Ruins of the North” campaign with a final battle that had a potential to go against canon: an attack on Rivendell.

SPOILERS FOR RUINS OF THE NORTH AHEAD. CONTINUE AT YOUR OWN RISK.









After facing Mormog the Ogre Captain in the second or third adventure of RotN, my players had the definite feeling that they would be seeing him again. After all, they reasoned, why go to the trouble of rallying an army of Trolls if you have no plans to mobilize it? So how could I fail to oblige them? Throughout the campaign, especially after Gandalf’s revelation of Sauron’s return to Mordor, I made the signs of an impending attack on one of the strongholds of Eriador harder and harder to ignore. Two of the characters had been in the game since we first started playing, 3 1/2 years ago, and they were pretty powerful. I told them all that after RotN, they would all be making new characters, because it was becoming difficult to challenge them. I said, “after the last of the published adventures, we’ll be off the edge o’ the map, mate; here there be monsters!” One of my players asked, “is this going to break canon?” I answered very demurely: “Not if you succeed.” Fortunately, they succeeded.

[Falenthal]

One of my players asked, “is this going to break canon?” I answered very demurely: “Not if you succeed.”

Greatest of answers!
That's a wonderful way to use canon to ADD to the story. The fact that some players know canon can be, in many ways, a hindrance to their surprise and expectation. If they go orc hunting with Aragorn, and he is wounded, players will surely know that Aragorn can't die. And canon will substract from the suspense of the adventure.
But if you put the characters in a junction where you make clear that canon depends on their actions, well, it happens that players suddenly feel a double pressure: that of the adventure and that of canon.

I don't like to do it often, maybe once or twice in a campaign, and I tend to make (almost) sure they can succeed. But it's interesting to see how they feel the stress of having to do it right even more than when their character is about to die. Their character can die a heroic death, and another hero can be created in an afternoon. But Aragorn/Balin/Legolas/etc? They CAN'T be replaced.

I just made this once, were Balin was badly poisoned after the events of The Marsh-Bell, and the company had to rush for a cure in a limited time. The fact that it was Balin (my players knew about the Moria quest) really added to the tension of the adventure, much more than Frár or any other "out of nowhere" dwarf could have.

[Mim]

One of my players asked, “is this going to break canon?” I answered very demurely: “Not if you succeed.” Fortunately, they succeeded.

I'm going to chime in and agree that this was simply brilliant!