[ns161]

I've started work on a post-Capella era fanfic.  However, I have some major back story ideas that would require me to shove forward the ENTIRE FS timeline.  Basically, to make the back story plausible, which is necessary to make the main plot plausible (and I feel doing so adds a lot to my story) , I need there to be a few hundred years more history.

So I'm thinking of shoving the entire FS timeline forward to the 2700's.  In case that isn't clear, I would preserve the relationship between all the games and my story.  My story would still occur about 15-20 years post-Capella, but I would have shoved the entire timeline forward about 500 years and fill in the newly created space with my own back story.

Maybe this is too presumptive of me?  I want people to actually read and enjoy the story.  So if doing this is asking too much in terms of the suspension of disbelief I'll re-work my back story.  But if most people are cool with the idea I'll just do that, cause it's the easiest way to make it work.

[Snail]

If you did that it wouldn't be FreeSpace IMO... It actually would decrease my chances of reading it. If you hadn't posted this I would probably have thought before reading it something like: "Dude he got the dates all wrong," or, "Just make up your own universe..."

But my opinion doesn't really matter anyway.

[ns161]

Well like I said, I actually want people to read and enjoy it, so if your opinion is representative of the majority of the board then I gotta re-tool.  I do have a backup plan for the back story.  I personally don't find it as compelling and it leaves a lot less room for future stories dealing with it.  But I want people to enjoy the story.

[General Battuta]

What kind of backstory requires an additional 500 years?

[ns161]

I tell you that and, besides being an incredibly long post, it'll pretty much give away most of my current ideas.  But I'll just say that the way the story works now, I have a detailed history between the end of the 21st Century and the FS1 era (which I would place in the mid 2700's) that ties directly into the main plotline of the story.

But sentiment seems to opposed so I might with my backup plan, which is significantly less detailed but I can work with the canon timeline on.

[General Battuta]

Why not just find some way to compress the events?

Unless you're insisting on slower-than-light travel, most events can just be made to go more quickly.

[Goober5000]

Just write the story.  If it's good, people will forgive the date difference.

Of course, if it stinks, you'll have the reputation of a bad writer in addition to a person who flouts the canon timeline.

[Ransom]

Personally I wouldn't be bothered by that sort of meddling as long as the aspects that make it Freespace are kept intact. The date's pretty arbitrary, really.

[NGTM-1R]

I've started work on a post-Capella era fanfic.  However, I have some major back story ideas that would require me to shove forward the ENTIRE FS timeline.  Basically, to make the back story plausible, which is necessary to make the main plot plausible (and I feel doing so adds a lot to my story) , I need there to be a few hundred years more history.

Speaking as a writer...

...why the **** would you need to do that? What could you possibly do with 500 years that isn't going to make major changes to the universe? It's 500 years of technological advancement that's either going to be conspicious by its absence or totally rework the mechanics of even simple things.

I've never been one to be afraid of messing with the timeline, but normally much more in sense of rebuilding the story from a point on.

[Wobble73]

Meh, dates wouldn't make too much difference to me, after all, who's to say we're all using the same calender by then?