What Canon Is. (Other than a Bombard +1)

Hi everyone, although I only recently got back on the list, I would like
to give the following suggestions on some things that seem to need
clarifying.
First of all, we need to define what canon is. In my view, the canon for
SJ should be the same as any other world, the official materials. This
is
the base which all home campaigns have in common and deviate from. It is
the de facto common ground. For example, lets say I run a Forgotten
Realms
campaign with tons of variant rules. If I wanted to share an adventure I
had written, I would convert it back to just the standard rules and
submit
it to Dungeon magazine or other such source. This way, everyone who
bases their home campaign on some form of FR could adapt it just like
they adapt
all the canon FR material. The same thing needs to be done for SJ: we
need to find a common ground, a formal continuity of things on which to
base
universal submissions. DMs are more than free to deviate from this in
their games, but if all of the offical (and most of the unofficial)
material
is written in the canon rules, it should be easy to adapt it for everyone.
So this leads to the question of how to determine what the canon is. I
think we should go with what we have.. we all have our own optional
rules but
they are all based on the standard original materials: Adventures in
Space, War Captains Companion, Complete Spacefarer's handbook, and the
two
monstrous compendiums. I think we should set this as the core canon and
synthesize it into one whole without any inconsitancies. For UHWII, we
could
have a separate canon of material, but that would still be based on teh
first, and would be a little freer. Basically, we need to incorporate as
few
"home rules" as we have to, as this would be getting further from the
common ground we all have and alienating players. As long as we have a
canon
based on teh core materials, there shouldnt be much of a problem with
alienated individual DMs since they can easily adapt from the canon. I
also
belive that the swashbuckling pirate feel should permeate, but not
overwhelm. The facet of SJ I like the most is the feeling of SJ, it is
unlike any
other campaign world, where beholder, illithid, tinker gnome, elf, and
human can all sit down in the same bar. As is said in one of the books,
and I
strongly think this is the best thing abotu SJ, "In Space, weirder is
better." Converting to 3e seems to make alot of sense with this in mind,
since
3e seems much more flexible in allowing monsters as PCs and unusual
combinations. However, we still need to keep it consistant to the core
products
of the original SJ.
As for the council, I think this is a good idea as long as tehy dont
each try to alter the core materials too much.. they should work on
clarifying
and converting to 3e, not changing. For the good of all, dont try and
throw in a bunch of home rules.If there is no inconsistancy in the canon
rules, dont change it, if there is, then remove it with the least
alteration necessart. I also wonder if we can get any WotC people in on
this who
are still SJ fans. I know Christopher Perkins (Editor of Dungeon
magazine) is a big SJ fan and told me recently it is one of his all time
favorite
campaign settings. Note how little SJ tidbits have crept up in Dungeon
adventures, and I am currently working on another one with SJ elements.
Lets
keep SJ alive and still percolating through D&D!