Retconning
Ah, the famed retcon. What about it, asks this week’s Game WISH.
(For the non-gamer and non-comics-fan, “retcon” is short for “retroactive continuity,” the act of changing something that has already happened in order to justify whatever is happening now.)
Well, I see a false dichotomy in the question. Yes, retconning is a cheat, but yes it is a valuable tool also.
Some things that are called retconning aren’t. If there is a hole in a character’s history, filling it in later isn’t retconning unless the fill-in is an obvious bid for Godlike Munchkin Power. If it is—or, more mundanely, if it is a ploy to get out of a puzzle or predicament too easily—I still prefer that GMs deal with it in-game. So a player invented a long-lost cousin who just happens to know where the adamantine dragon is? She may know, but will she tell? Perhaps a long-buried family feud is about to rear its ugly head…
Particularly in larger groups, minor retcons involving the last few actions only are often the easiest way to get out of a situation that would otherwise devolve into rules-lawyering or who-said-what arguments. I have no problem with this practice. The six-second retcon is an immensely valuable tool.
Retcons to do away with inadvertent game-world inconsistencies are acceptable also. Stuff happens sometimes. Retcon it, make sure everyone understands the new reality, and get on with the game.
Like anything else in game mechanics, retcons can be abused. I don’t myself consider that a reason to ban them.
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