Retcon

From FiranMUX

"Retcon" is short for retroactive continuity, a crazy phrase which means to go back and change how things happened in the game. For example, if we discover a player has been doing something really egregiously wrong with his character, like pretending to invent an atom bomb, we will retcon it: we will tell players "this did not happen."

Very often when players use the term, they mean to undo something entirely. That's not always the case. Staff or players sometime change just a small thing. For example, Paul (playing Elianos) poses that he yells at your character, a sentry in the Firan Republic Army, for stripping in the field. You page Paul privately to let the player know that you meant to type "trip" and not "strip." Paul agrees to change his pose. Instead, Elianos yells at your character for clumsiness.

In general, staff hate to retcon things. It can be confusing for players, especially as more time passes or more players get involved. Whenever possible, we will search for solutions to problems that avoid retcons.