D&D 5E WotC Explains 'Canon' In More Detail

Recently, WotC's Jeremy Crawford indicated that only the D&D 5th Edition books were canonical for the roleplaying game. In a new blog article, Chris Perkins goes into more detail about how that works, and why.

This boils down to a few points:

• Each edition of D&D has its own canon, as does each video game, novel series, or comic book line.
• The goal is to ensure players don't feel they have to do research of 50 years of canon in order to play.
• It's about remaining consistent.

If you’re not sure what else is canonical in fifth edition, let me give you a quick primer. Strahd von Zarovich canonically sleeps in a coffin (as vampires do), Menzoberranzan is canonically a subterranean drow city under Lolth’s sway (as it has always been), and Zariel is canonically the archduke of Avernus (at least for now). Conversely, anything that transpires during an Acquisitions Incorporated live game is not canonical in fifth edition because we treat it the same as any other home game (even when members of the D&D Studio are involved).

D&D Canon | D&D Studio Blog | Dungeons & Dragons

In this D&D Studio Blog, Chris Perkins describes the D&D Studio's position on canonicity.

dnd.wizards.com

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...

www.enworld.org

 

[Maxperson]

In the fiction who created the Wall? The gods? Or was it already there?

We don't need to delve too deeply into the Euthyphro to think that perhaps the good of conviction - if it is being held up as a good - might be understood as arising independently of, and prior to, the gods.

It was created by Myrkul, one of the evil gods. And all this talk of it being about atheists is wrong. It's about what it says. The faithless. In a world where virtually everyone knows that the gods exist, there will be almost no atheists that are alive. 99% of all of those who die and are placed into the wall believe that the gods are real(not atheists), but did not declare their faith in a god or gods, so died faithless.

"The Faithless were mortal souls who died without having chosen a divine patron. This could be because the mortal never worshiped a deity (or rejected outright the worship of any deity), because the mortal's divine patron had died, or because their divine patron had rejected them for whatever reason. A soul who did worship a deity but did not sufficiently uphold the patron's dogma was instead judged false."

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I'm pretty sure that if a party included an evil PC specifically so they could do the bad stuff the good PCs didn't want to dirty their hands with, then the DM would question the "goodness" of those PCs.

AO is neither good nor evil.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

AO is neither good nor evil.

Plenty of other so called gods are allegedly good though.

If they have not the desire to oppose the dictator Ao they are not good. If they have not the power to oppose Ao they are not gods.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

99% of all of those who die and are placed into the wall believe that the gods are real

I believe a dog turd is real, but I don't worship it.

 

[Maxperson]

Plenty of other so called gods are allegedly good though.

If they have not the desire to oppose the dictator Ao they are not good. If they have not the power to oppose Ao they are not gods.

So the gods don't have that ability. Ao literally can snap his fingers and make them mortal. They also have an overriding obligation to pursue what they are the god of, so a god of magic can't put that down and start pursuing justice. The god of justice has to weigh being able to bring justice to millions and not go after Ao, or achieve no justice at all and Ao still does what Ao wants to. Tyr doesn't have to like it, but there's literally nothing he can do.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So the gods don't have that ability. Ao literally can snap his fingers and make them mortal.

Then they are not divine.

Tyr doesn't have to like it, but there's literally nothing he can do.

Then Tyr is no more use than a dog turd.

 

[Maxperson]

I believe a dog turd is real, but I don't worship it.

Cool. And when you die you will be cemented into the wall of turds. Or not. It's just a game that has virtually no connection to real life groups other than the group playing it.

The Wall is a messed up thing in fiction, but it's not some sort of anti-atheist slam. It has no relevance in the real world outside of, "Wow. Eternity in a wall until you fade away is kinda messed up."

 

[Maxperson]

Then they are not divine.

False.

Then Tyr is no more use than a dog turd.

So don't smell him.

 

[Remathilis]

I think the easy fix for the question of atheism in D&D is to go back the Basic Set's definition of Cleric...

"Clerics are humans who have dedicated their lives to a great and worthy cause. Often, the cause is a cleric’s alignment. For example, a lawful cleric’s cause would be to spread law and order throughout the game world." (The Classic D&D Game, pg 14)

... Well crap. I guess just let them be white mages from now on.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Cool. And when you die you will be cemented into the wall of turds.

Which makes the Forgotten Realms a grimdark world world ruled by a dictator god.

Or not. It's just a game that has virtually no connection to real life groups other than the group playing it.

It's actually rather similar to Gnosticism. There is one God who is not good, served by a number of semi-divine powers with individual specialisms.