Ok, I've just started an rp, which is based/inspired by the TV show Supernatural. I was wondering, should I have a canon list up? I'm not talking about the canons for the show, because I don't really want this to go into the direction of the actual show. I'm talking about original characters for the plot. Are those type of canons necessary to get the rpg starting?

If it is a completely original story, but just based on the themes of the show I would say no to a canon list, unless you actually wanted those characters to be played.

If you have a certain story line planned maybe you could come up with some adoptables for people who find creating characters hard. Having a list to chose from that have a list of names, etc can go a long way to getting members.

Moving this topic to Managing Your RPG- the Support Center is for technical questions, such as a problem with coding.

If they're not characters from the show, then they're not canons and it's not a canon list. What you're aiming for is a 'Needed Characters' or 'Wanted Characters' list. Not that there's anything wrong with such a list, I'm just picky about terminology.

A canon character is a character that belongs to a certain fictional universe, and thus, in an original RPG, a list of premade characters can be referred to as canons, as they belong to the fictional universe of the game, just like Ron Weasley belongs to the Harry Potter universe. That's my opinion anyway.

But I digress...

For the sake of premade subplots, canons are good, but other than that, they're not really necessary. However, in my experience, a lot of players want to play canons, so if you only allow originals, that might put some potential players off.

WOO! Another one for the bench!

<3

The fact that you had to explain what you meant by a canon list means that you haven't found the right terminology for it. What you're talking about are premades, or Wanted Characters, or Blue Peters ('here's one I Made earlier'...geddit? Well, Brits will, I'm sure >>;;) or whatever.

In your case it's especially important to make this distinction, otherwise people will come to your game thinking, 'oh! I can play my favourite character here!!' and then they find out they can't, because in your particular case, you don't allow canon characters at all, you just robbed the term.

Basically, no they're not necessary if you have an open plot where any OC characters can take the spot, or if you have them. If you want specific character types for specific things then yes, you will probably need them but be careful, because it can be a hard sell, because people feel weird about taking on a character not 100,000% their own.

Thank you all, this was really helpful for me.

What I generally tend to do on my RPGs instead of getting a 'Canon List'. Is a list of either positions I need characters in, or something called 'limited or restricted originals'. The latter I'm gonna include in my new RPG. Restricted originals are a mix between a canon character and an original character. Basically I need such characters to draw some restrictions, but give my members a chance to get a position which otherwise couldn't be taken. There would be a few restrictions like age, gender, maybe some minor personality traits/experience. But other then that everything is up to the member, personality, appearance, history etc. etc.

I could of course create full blown 'canons', with names, face-claims, thought out history, but that's not much fun for my members who then play with a completly pre-made character. Using restricted originals makes sure that the admins can draw some lines in what's allowed and not allowed, what's needed, but it still gives members a lot of freedom in creating their character based on those very few facts.

I do the same thing actually. I can't stand canon lists, but I find that some people like the "restricted originals" and it gives them some structure and yet the freedom to do what they want with the character.

It was really interesting to see what kind of canon lists/wanted characters lists are out there. I've been thinking about starting up a board, and it's been so helpful to see what other people do.

For my two cents, with your particular board...I'd maybe go with a wanted character list as opposed to a canon list, for most of the reasons listed. A lot of people do want to play cannons and might be sorely disappointed to see a canon list and then find out it's not quite what they thought.

I find that when I go to a site that has a canon list already up, its harder to get in and stay active, because the canons are already taking up all the good action. I would prefer having an all original character rpg because then the newer members can come in anywhere without worrying about messing with someones history. (:

Show the Colours doesn't have a canon list, because we accept characters from more than one series. What we do have is a list of sources for characters, which is actually quite long, so that everyone can play a canon character if they want.

Most of the interesting stories so far have involved original characters, with canons there as almost incidental characters, to get or keep things moving. Our best bad guy is a canon, but only shows up occasionally, as any more would be overkill.

One NPC is actually a canon, but only by virtue of his name appearing in print a couple of times in one of StC's character sources, as an 'extra'!