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.

 

[Faolyn]

Did they ever do that? Did WotC ever make claims over canon? Yes, they released material, but, at no point did they point to this or that and declare it to be canon. Fans just assumed that it was, which leads me to this:

With this sort of material, it's assumed to be canon unless specifically declared non-canon.

 

[JEB]

Probably as forewarning. Take Ravenloft. Whether you include the 3e Sword & Sorcery stuff or only stick with 2e as canon, VGR completely rewrote it, keeping on the basics and the flavor. This angered a lot of people who didn't want to have something new sprung on them.

I agree that it's forewarning, but I can guarantee you that this declaration won't stop fans from complaining whenever they reset Dragonlance or the like.

 

[jasper]

The Time of Troubles is a -part- of the Canon. .........

IT is? Please give me a page and book quote. From Season 1-10 adventure league modules or any of the adventure paths books, which reference the Troubles and has the Troubles center stage as a plot point.

 

[Hussar]

The Time War didn't wipe out the old continuity; there have been numerous references to the classic era of Who in the new series, up to and including the last season. The Time War just wiped out the Time Lords and the Daleks. Both of whom came back. And then got killed again... and then came back again... and then got killed again...


Yes, there are toxic D&D fans who use canon as a bludgeon. There are also a much larger number of fans who just liked canon, and the idea of everything D&D being part of one largely coherent narrative. Making the latter group unhappy to thwart a tiny number of problem folks isn't very fair.

I would say that there have been Easter Eggs and nods to original Who, but, canon? Not really. We've had exactly one episode where a former companion showed up (not counting the great Sarah Jane Adventures). The Master has been completely rewritten (multiple times). Raselon is now a meglomaniac villain who tortured a child for who knows how long just to possibly pull some of Gallifrey out of the Time War and destroy the Earth in the process. I'm thinking that canon in New Who is a bit... wibbley wobbley, timey whimey.

 

[Steampunkette]

No, I think that bullies who want to argue about how you can't do this or that, in order to gain some tiny degree of power at a gaming table, will use whatever tool they like best. The problem isn't the tool. It's the behavior. Removing tools from everyone who liked them, because of the behavior of a few bad actors, isn't fair.

I'm confused as to why someone who is intensely interested in Canon and wants to debate or discuss or reminisce or whatever about it it is a "Bully" and a "Jerk". This is where you've taken this individual who -really likes- the previous canon that is now being erased.

Meanwhile there's a bunch of people in this thread who are intensely interested in Canon and want to debate or discuss or reminisce, but they're "Nice people who just like Lore".

This is the dichotomy you've invented to create imaginary bad faith people who are the "Real Problem" and are "Being Punished".

No one is being punished. Not you. Not those strawmen. No one.

This isn't a punishment. It's a clean slate.

That isn't actually what Wizards said: they still include all D&D 5E RPG products as canon. They didn't say that every module stands alone. (Though I will say, in practice, that most if not all of the 5E modules can be run without referring to anything beyond the core rules, to include story beats; and that was the case both before and after this declaration.)

Yeeeeah... see... what I was going for is this:

At the table, you're okay if a given adventure goes "None of what happened before 5e is Canon for this adventure". In fact you encourage DMs to say this and think there's no problem with it and there's no reason the lore has to be made non-canon for the DM to say this at their table. Whether at a Con or at Home.

But if -all- of them do it, it's a punishment for you and people like you.

Meanwhile, I'm not quite sure why you seem to be making this personal...

That wasn't my intention, and I apologize for it coming across that way. I am sorry.

 

[Hussar]

With this sort of material, it's assumed to be canon unless specifically declared non-canon.

I think that assumption is pretty much the heart of the problem. This is something that a subset of fans assume to be true - ie. has intrinsic value - that the creators never intended and frankly probably don't care about. Or at least don't care to the degree that fans do.

 

[Steampunkette]

IT is? Please give me a page and book quote. From Season 1-10 adventure league modules or any of the adventure paths books, which reference the Troubles and has the Troubles center stage as a plot point.

Holy crap, Jasper, are you so focused on trying to attack anyone you perceive as on the "Other Side" that you're gonna go after someone on the "Same Side"?

Jeeze, dude. Step back a minute.

 

[Faolyn]

I think that assumption is pretty much the heart of the problem. This is something that a subset of fans assume to be true - ie. has intrinsic value - that the creators never intended and frankly probably don't care about. Or at least don't care to the degree that fans do.

That may be the heart of the problem, but it's a problem dating back probably fairly close to a century, starting when comic books put out "imaginary tales" about Superman or Captain America or whomever that weren't part of official canon for that character. So it's not a problem that's going to go away as long as there's people who actually care about keeping the story straight and knowing what's real and what's just for fun.

And it's why DC, at least, has done several reboots over its existence. Because eventually settings suffocate under the weight of their own lore unless it gets trimmed down. (I don't know Marvel enough to know if they did anything like Crisis or if they just switch universes.) I consider this to be D&D's own Crisis on Infinite EarthsSettings.

 

[Remathilis]

you just read up on it online? Seriously no fan site did a full summary of it? Not a single one?

I mean, sure. There are summaries and stuff. Because that's such a good replacement for, ya know, actually experiencing it yourself. Kinda like saying you've seen a movie because you read the Wikipedia article on it.

 

[jasper]

I want to explicitly, straight up, flatly point out:

All that lore us old players enjoy so much was absorbed OVER TIME. Literal years of D&D games, reading novels, playing videogames, and stuff. For -decades-.

......

But yeah... I know that lore because I played that game almost 30 years ago. 30. Years.

The only way to reasonably use that in modern canon would be to have him show up in a Cameo. Expecting anyone who have an idea of who he is in a manner that means anything to the story? Pfffft... Get outta here.

I want to explicitly, straight up, flatly point out:
All the lore us old players who did not absorb any lore over time. Literal years of D&D games, reading novels, playing videogames, and stuff. For -decades-. Meant nothing because us Non-Lore players knew the books did not match up. The videogames did not match up. The splat books did not match up. All the other lore did not matter because we did not buy all the books, games, splat books, or knew lore only mattered between the DM's specific lore they chose to follow. Which would be different from the other DM.
The lore, games, and game related product of almost 41 years ago. 41 years. Does not matter to anyone but ME, myself, and I.