What is Traveller “canon” and why do some people care so much?
Cruise most any Traveller discussion forum and you’ll hear a reference to “canon,” as in “if I recall correctly, that thingamabob was twice mentioned in The Traveller Adventure, and is clearly canon!”
What are they talking about? I’m here to help.
First, a relevant definition of the word from Dictionary.com. “Canon” is:
12. established or agreed-upon constraints governing the background narrative, setting, storyline, characters, etc., in a particular fictional world: It’s accepted as canon that vampires are harmed by sunlight.
So if something is canon in Traveller, it is part of the officially accepted narrative of the system and setting. Let’s unpack that.
Who decides what’s canon?
The term “officially accepted” here means a kind of loose assignment of “officialness” that can either be pronounced by the game’s creator Mr. Marc Miller, or generally accepted as canon ( and not contradicted by Mr. Miller ) by an inner circle of advisors to Mr. Miller that form a de facto official working group for the game.
If Marc Miller says something is canon, it’s canon. If it’s in his novels or the supplements he puts out tomorrow, it’s canon.
Beyond that there’s a complex, shifting probability cloud of sources and bits & pieces that are considered canonical in the “Official Traveller Universe.” There are excellent breakdowns of this on the Traveller Wiki and the CotI boards.
If a company or individual has a live/active “license” from Mr. Miller to create Traveller material, the commonly accepted idea is that this material is canon. Until someone loosely defined above decides it’s not.
This is far from a perfect system.
There are many, many instances of published Traveller material that is soundly not part of the canon. Or that is just partially canon. This came about by a series of retroactive-tweaking and decisions as time passed. In the early days, everything was canon. Some 40 years later, only some stuff is. Like html, some material is depricated, apocrypha, or just remembered with an embarrassed smile.
-cough- Primordials -cough-
Why might you care?
There are only two reasons you might care about canonicity in Traveller.
1. You’re writing fiction or game material expressing things/places/events in the Official traveller Universe. Mr. Miller has decided that all “official” renderings are “bound by canon,” that is, should not contradict with the letter or spirit of other canon material.
2. For some other reason you’re trying to “keep” canon, meaning you’re trying to discuss or create a ship or whatever within the canon rules, relate a world’s “official” description, and so on. Or you’re trying to speak on a matter of canon and accuracy is important.
When running your game, the canonicity of a certain item, place, culture, ship, whatever, is not important. This is a big deal, and bears repeating:
When running your game, the canonicity of a certain item, place, culture, ship, whatever, is not important.
You’re the Referee; you can put anything in your game you like, or tweak any of the “canon” materials as you see fit. The game is meant for your enjoyment, and you are in no way “bound by canon.”
Don’t let anyone ever say or imply your Traveller gaming shit is less cool because it’s “not canon.”
Sure. But it seems like some people care an awful lot about this canon thing…
Well, yes. There are the real reasons, as described above, then there are some silly, aggravating reasons.
Some people just enjoy arguing, or shitting all over things others say in an attempt to grab or hold some sort of conversational power. You know the type. These people might use the idea of Traveller canon like a club in some thread, looking to verbally beat some poor sap over his obviously empty head because clearly, he’s got canon wrong.
Also, some people just revel in details, in minutiae. They have a lot of time, investment, or maybe a dash of sociopathy, and they feel very strongly about Traveller canon. Just ask them.
A slightly less zealous group of canon fans simply see it as the way to assign “good” or “acceptable” to a particular fact.
“Is that canon? Ah, okay. Cool.”
Then there are the actual guardians of the Traveller brand, the people officially charged with telling the stories, building out the settings, and making the worlds come to life for us. Sometimes people from the above groups self-deputize to this last group. For the most part you can tell the actual guardians apart from the Barney Fifes by how polite and chill they are.
“Well, while J-6 is the mass-available maximum in jump technology in the Third Imperium, there’s always a chance that in some lab, forgotten alien vault, or some pocket empire there’s something better waiting to be discovered. There’s always the case of the Annic Nova…”
A self-deputized guardian of Traveller canon is often rude, tense, and way too eager to get in your face. Avoid such people.
In the spirit of Traveller
Some people just crave definition, they need to know what’s “official” in any system they participate in, even games. Star Wars has a canon; Lando is canon, while fan-favorite Grand Admiral Thrawn is not. JJ Abrahms and his posse decided this, as they are now the keepers of Star Wars canon. All the people who wrote Star Wars material in novels, videogames, and RPGs as part of the Extended SW universe have seen all their stuff de-canonized.
Fans of Thrawn wept openly.
But no one should ever stop playing with Thrawn in their game. Or stop talking about how completely badass he is.
The same thing goes with Traveller canon. If you’re not writing something “official,” don’t let it bother you so much. Maybe try to stay “in the spirit of Traveller” in these things, where there’s a bit more wiggle room and it’s harder for people to conversationally push others around.
