D&D 5E Is D&D Next a translation of the 5th iteration of Pluffet Smedger's proto-rpg?

[Dungeonosophy]

In the original 1983 Greyhawk boxed set, we learn that:

• The Advanced Dungeons & Dragons game is an English translation of an actual Oerthian proto-RPG that was invented by Pluffet Smedger the Elder as a scholarly tool to help students understand historical events.
• And the Greyhawk sourcebooks are translations of actual Oerthian texts written by the Savant Sage some 400 years before Smedger.

The implication is that the TSR editors acquired Smedger's books via inter-dimensional portal, and translated them from Oerth Common into English.

In Living Greyhawk Journal #4, we learn that all the texts we know as D&D Greyhawk rpg books, exist in secret vaults within a special Zagig Yragerne section of the Great Library of the City of Greyhawk.

This "in-story frame within a frame" is further detailed in the article "Greyhawk Meta-Text Onomastics" by tzelios.


I propose that for 5e:

• That D&D Next be considered an English translation of the 5th iteration of the proto-RPG designed by Smedger the Elder.
• That all D&D books have an in-story counterpart in all worlds that are relevant to those texts. All generic/core 5e rulebooks exist as in-story texts in all published D&D Worlds. Either Smedger's proto-RPG passed to other worlds in the same way as Bibgy's spells, or there is a different equivalent to Smedger in each D&D world. But setting-specific books (such as the 5e Forgotten Realms setting books or novels) only exist in that World (the FR books exist in Toril and were written by various in-story Faerunian personalities, and actually exist in Candlekeep library).
• That all credited D&D authors/designers/artists have an alter-ego in each D&D world they contribute to.
• That the implication be that all D&D books are translations from the various D&D Common Tongues (or other D&D languages) into our Real World English.
• That all these texts were acquired by TSR/WotC employees via the Plane of Shadow, and that the original untranslated books exist in a secret vault in Renton, Washington.
• That once the 5e "in-story frame-within-a-frame" is reestablished, that the entire TSR/WotC rpg oeuvre be retconned into this, so that all rulebooks exist as Smedgerian proto-rpg rulebooks, and all setting-books (and other fluff) exists as scrolls and tomes written by in-world alter-egos.

This "fictive frame" is similar to how JRR Tolkien implies that he translated the Middle-earth stories into English from the Red Book of Westmarch which was written by Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam several thousand years before the Common Era, with the Shire located in the same place on the Earth where England now lies.

Unlike the Middle-earth stories, the D&D Worlds aren't set on our Earth*. So, these texts must've arrived via the Plane of Shadow.

*The exception are those few D&D stories which are set on Earth, such as Masque of the Red Death, or which visit the Earth, such the "Wizards Three" articles, along with the Earth-based d20 Modern campaign models. All these would be considered to be various depictions or timelines of a "D&D Earth". The Smedgerian proto-RPG (including its d20 Modern iteration) also exists in D&D Earth.

 

[Sunseeker]

Um, yeah, I'm all for pretending I'm a half-giant who can shoot fireballs, but I think playing pretend with the actual books as though they're mystic tomes from another dimension is pushing it, ya know, into the realm of insanity.

 

[the Jester]

I propose that for 5e:

• That D&D Next be considered an English translation of the 5th iteration of the proto-RPG designed by Smedger the Elder.
• That all D&D books have an in-story counterpart in all worlds that are relevant to those texts. All generic/core 5e rulebooks exist as in-story texts in all D&D Worlds.

• 
  
  What's the penalty if I don't want them in my homebrew?

 

[Kynn]

No.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

What's the penalty if I don't want them in my homebrew?

Thanks for pointing that out--I editted the OP to say all *published* D&D Worlds. When I say published, I don't mean to exclude the third party publishers. I hope it's impliable that I mean only the IPs that WotC owns.

 

[gyor]

Forgotten Realms is also connected to Earth thanks the Imaskri and the races they imported as well as the Earth Gods they journeyed with them.

 

[El Mahdi]

The Oerthian RPG that WotC is currently translating into D&D 5E, is the result of a multiversal colaboration by all the major worlds of the D&D multiverse. Each Crystal Sphere sent representatives to Greyhawk for this purpose, known as the 5th Multiversal Synod.*




*This is all 100% true.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

El Mahdi, that's an interesting and fantastic idea. Yet my OP is more of a straightforward elaboration of the canonical in-story framework established in the core First Edition and Third Edition setting.

 

[Quickleaf]

Interesting bit of game lore I knew nothing about!

It's kind of begging for a John Titor scenario

 

[am181d]

I prefer the meme where a powerful wizard from the campaign setting is traveling to Earth and telling the game designers what to write...