D&D General WotC: Novels & Non-5E Lore Are Officially Not Canon

At a media press briefing last week, WotC's Jeremey Crawford clarified what is and is not canon for D&D.

"For many years, we in the Dungeons & Dragons RPG studio have considered things like D&D novels, D&D video games, D&D comic books, as wonderful expressions of D&D storytelling and D&D lore, but they are not canonical for the D&D roleplaying game."

"If you’re looking for what’s official in the D&D roleplaying game, it’s what appears in the products for the roleplaying game. Basically, our stance is that if it has not appeared in a book since 2014, we don’t consider it canonical for the games."

2014 is the year that D&D 5th Edition launched.

He goes on to say that WotC takes inspiration from past lore and sometimes adds them into official lore.

Over the past five decades of D&D, there have been hundreds of novels, more than five editions of the game, about a hundred video games, and various other items such as comic books, and more. None of this is canon. Crawford explains that this is because they "don’t want DMs to feel that in order to run the game, they need to read a certain set of novels."

He cites the Dragonlance adventures, specifically.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

the novels ARE the Forgotten Realms

The setting books and boxed sets are the Forgotten Realms. The books are tie-in products that take place in the setting. That's always been the case.

To alot of folks the FR novels ARE the Forgotten Realms, more so then the RPG line.

And that's the core issue: Those people aren't the license holders.

They're still putting out new FR novels -- Salvatore has his first novel of his not-all-drow-are-evil series coming out next month -- and that seems unlikely to stop any time soon, given that we are in the "Year of Drizz't," whatever that means.

But when push comes to shove, WotC is saying the game books come first, and the tie-in products come second. So, a little-remembered comic book that came out in 1993 isn't canon that they're beholden to. But if, like Lucasarts and Jaxxon the rabbit, they want to bring back some crazy stuff from the comics, they're allowed to.

Because I don't think you actually want everything published for the Forgotten Realms to appear again. You have a set of stuff that is your personal core. It might be huge, but there's almost always stuff that people say "well, I just ignore that part" and never bring it up in your memories, conversations or games.

You and WotC actually agree on that take. The question is to what degree your visions of the Realms overlap. For all we know, Crawford has an implant in your head and your version of the Realms maps 100% to their setting bible. We won't know for sure until they publish something that contradicts something you believe to be core.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

But is also highly annoying if the player picks up on lore the DM doesn't care about, didn't know about, or chose not to use.

So instead WizCo should erase ALL lore so the player can INVENT lore the doesn't care about

Your argument is still "some people don't like it therefore it shouldn't exist and nobody should be able to use it"

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

It's going to be awesome in 5-10 years when WizCo declares everything prior to Revised 5th Ed or 6th Ed is also no longer canon and starts changing even more things...

Just move everything from Greyhawk into the Realms. It will just be easier that way

 

[Remathilis]

Yes there are lore inconsistencies, that is not a license to jettison the novel canon, the novels ARE the Forgotten Realms, its what made FR the most successful D&D setting ever by a wide margin. To alot of folks the FR novels ARE the Forgotten Realms, more so then the RPG line.

You're not getting it. They aren't jettisoning anything. They are saying that in a choice between some change they intend to make to the setting and keeping continuity with some novelization, the novelization is going to lose. I suspect this is so they can make changes to certain aspect of lore (such as the way formally evil races are handled) or to keep certain media from influencing their work (such as "Elminster can't be in the D&D movie; according to the Year of the Wailing Gnome, he was trapped in Grazzt's prison beneath Myth Drannor)

I get you want to rage on, but this is purely a move to allow the game makers (and the media makers) some leeway. If Baldur's Gate 3 blows up Neverwinter, don't expect that the next IP set in Faerun is going to reference it.

 

[PsyzhranV2]

So instead WizCo should erase ALL lore so the player can INVENT lore the doesn't care about

Your argument is still "some people don't like it therefore it shouldn't exist and nobody should be able to use it"

I'm sure everybody who bought a Samsung Note 7 that caught fire or exploded took solace in the fact that other people could use their Note 7s without issue.

 

[Parmandur]

Yes I do believe that, sincerely. They don't hate their version of FR, they hate what came before, but they still want to milk the profits from it.

That is patently absurd. No one expects you to like what they are doing, but be serious. WotC does not hate the Forgotten Realms, or the history ofvthe Forgotten Realms.

 

[Parmandur]

No, I haven't overthought it.
Right, Crawford is saying that the contents of the 5E RPG books are "scripture." One Canon. Which I call the "RPG Studio Timeline" (aka Reality 5-Prime).
And that the contents of all pre-5E RPG materials, 5E novels, 5E video games, etc. are not part of that Canonical Timeline. In the "RPG Studio Timeline," those events did not take place.
That is the content of those paragraphs which Crawford wrote.

But obviously, the Novel stories and Videogame stories "happened" in some imaginal sense, in some reality or timeline. But not in the "RPG Studio Timeline." So they must've taken place in a D&D Novels Timeline and D&D Video Games Timeline(s).
Crawford says these other timelines may or may not be used for inspiration for the RPG Studio Timeline, but they are separate timelines.

Pretty simple.
Just blurring things together with fuzzy words doesn't make it all copacetic.

You have surely overthought this. No need to systematize what is a pretty casual approach centered on serving the needs of DMs, with complex terminology.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

I'm sure everybody who bought a Samsung Note 7 that caught fire or exploded took solace in the fact that other people could use their Note 7s without issue.

Are you seriously implying someone not liking a bit of lore (like the backstory for dragonborn in the Realms) is akin to someone's hundred dollar phone exploding in their pocket?

 

[see]

its what made FR the most successful D&D setting ever by a wide margin.

No, the novels are not what made FR the most successful D&D setting ever. What made the Realms the most successful D&D setting was the Gygax-TSR divorce, which left TSR without a flagship "Standard AD&D" campaign setting. Whatever replacement for Greyhawk chosen by TSR at that point would become the major setting, because it would be the beneficiary of the TSR product production strategy from 1987 until bankruptcy, and thus the biggest setting come the WotC takeover.

The novels may have drawn some people to play D&D and Forgotten Realms. On the other hand, they might well have been detrimental. After all, all the best years for D&D sales happened in two periods: the years before TSR published any novels, and in the years after WotC stopped publishing D&D novels. That's probably coincidence, but it hardly is a ringing endorsement of the novels.

 

[Remathilis]

That is patently absurd. No one expects you to like what they are doing, but be serious. WotC does not hate the Forgotten Realms, or the history ofvthe Forgotten Realms.

Rule Four of the Dogma of the Dedicated Fan: The current IP holders always hate the franchises they shepherd, often placing people who loath the property as head of it so they can slowly choke the life out of it while milking every penny out of its dying fanbase.

See: Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel, DC, Doctor Who, Ninja Turtles, Transformers, D&D, etc...