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.

 

[billd91]

It was long before Kennedy. I distinctly remember living though the prequel era and "George Lucas r*p*d my childhood!" declarations from fans after Kid Anakin and Jar Jar graced the screen...

While the prequels did suck (really, George, you should've gotten good editors capable of saying "No" to you when your ideas were dumb), there's a lot of what I'd consider narcissism in a lot of fandoms. It's about MY childhood, MY preferences, MY head canon. And I'm not above it entirely either. I can think of better ways to develop the story in the prequels rather than drag us through the execrable Attack of the Clones where we've already gone from Anakin being a sweet, helpful little kid to being a whiny creep (now THERE's the transformation the prequels should have covered, in MY humble opinion).

 

[Micah Sweet]

That's exactly why I don't get "Disney ruined Star Wars and Kathleen Kennedy hates Star Wars" narratives. The prequel trilogy was total trash, but presumably Lucas didn't hate Star Wars or lack understanding of what Star Wars is about!

I've always been less hard on the Prequel trilogy than others, but that's because a lot of what they were about was world-building, and I LOVE world-building. The story was fine in broad strokes, it's the execution that was bad in my opinion. I love the Clone Wars, Rebels and the Bad Batch, and all of those owe their existence to the Prequels.

 

[RFB Dan]

That's exactly why I don't get "Disney ruined Star Wars and Kathleen Kennedy hates Star Wars" narratives. The prequel trilogy was total trash, but presumably Lucas didn't hate Star Wars or lack understanding of what Star Wars is about!

When the prequels came out I was on board with the consensus that they were crap (TBH I don't think they're that bad now). But eventually (right around the time between VII & VIII) I came to the conclusion that what killed Star Wars for me were the Toxic Fanboys who would scream into the ether about how everything filmed after 1996 was trash EU was best etc. etc. Sure, they'll insist that they don't have any hatred in them, but the ones I've spoken to IRL have almost all been betrayed by the fire in their eyes and the adrenaline-shaking aggression in their body language.

 

[Parmandur]

While the prequels did suck (really, George, you should've gotten good editors capable of saying "No" to you when your ideas were dumb), there's a lot of what I'd consider narcissism in a lot of fandoms. It's about MY childhood, MY preferences, MY head canon. And I'm not above it entirely either. I can think of better ways to develop the story in the prequels rather than drag us through the execrable Attack of the Clones where we've already gone from Anakin being a sweet, helpful little kid to being a whiny creep (now THERE's the transformation the prequels should have covered, in MY humble opinion).

There is a nearby alternate timeline where Steven Spielberg directed Leonardo DiCaprio as Anakin in the Phantom Menace...

 

[Parmandur]

When the prequels came out I was on board with the consensus that they were crap. But eventually (right around the time between VII & VIII) I came to the conclusion that what killed Star Wars for me were the Toxic Fanboys who would scream into the ether about how everything filmed after 1996 was trash EU was best etc. etc. Sure, they'll insist that they don't have any hatred in them, but the ones I've spoken to IRL have almost all been betrayed by the fire in their eyes and the adrenaline-shaking aggression in their body language.

Yeah, this.

 

[Micah Sweet]

When the prequels came out I was on board with the consensus that they were crap. But eventually (right around the time between VII & VIII) I came to the conclusion that what killed Star Wars for me were the Toxic Fanboys who would scream into the ether about how everything filmed after 1996 was trash EU was best etc. etc. Sure, they'll insist that they don't have any hatred in them, but the ones I've spoken to IRL have almost all been betrayed by the fire in their eyes and the adrenaline-shaking aggression in their body language.

I guess I'm lucky in that I mostly never got into the Star Wars EU. I read the Thrawn trilogy, and Legacy of the Empire, and that's about it. When it was rendered Legendary, it didn't really effect me.

 

[jasper]

So I don't get this. You have all the information. You own the books. You have access to the various fanpages and wikis. WotC isn't going to come over to your house and force you to use only Approved Materials when you read or run a game.

......

Darn it Faolyn , I just send in my application for WoTC Gamer Thug. Now what will I do with my retirement years.

 

[billd91]

There is a nearby alternate timeline where Steven Spielberg directed Leonardo DiCaprio as Anakin in the Phantom Menace...

Spielberg's definitely a better director and has had a good working relationship with George Lucas, but DiCaprio would have been too old to play Anakin at the age Lucas would have wanted. DiCaprio and McGregor only differ by a few years. That would have been a very different relationship. Maybe Haley Joel Osment would have fit the bill.

 

[Parmandur]

Spielberg's definitely a better director and has had a good working relationship with George Lucas, but DiCaprio would have been too old to play Anakin at the age Lucas would have wanted. DiCaprio and McGregor only differ by a few years. That would have been a very different relationship. Maybe Haley Joel Osment would have fit the bill.

He was Lucas' first choice: the move to a kid actor was a later move.

 

[Don Durito]

I admit I don't quite get this. So WotC are declaring that things that we all know never happened never happened?

What practical effect does this have?