D&D 5E The Debate of "Canon" in D&D 5E

[Scribe]

Like, what? What are you arguing for, or against? I'm just not following your thought train.

I'm saying, you can go back to something closer to how things once had been presented.

You can do this with rules, by reintroducing mechanics that previously existed.
You can do this with lore, by overwriting previous retcons, or by implementing retcons for changes not well received.

I personally am not saying either of these need to happen, because realistically neither of them will happen so its a moot point. 5e is far too successful in any number of ways for them to even consider a 4e -> 5e shift. There is simply no need to do so.

They could though.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Nope. You can certainly complain. Fair enough. But once you try to couch your complaints in objective terms, now it’s an issue.

In other words, “I don’t like this” is always fine. “You cannot do this because TRADITION” is intellectually bankrupt.

Who is using tradition as their exclusive reasoning for complaining about something? There are a lot of things that have changed in franchises I'm emotionally invested in (D&D, Star Wars, Star Trek, comics). Admittedly I dont like a lot of it (although I do like some new stuff from all those things). But I have personal, subjective reasons for my dislikes, and tradition is not at the top of the list. And I dont think I'm the only person who feels that way. It's not a zero sum game.

 

[Hussar]

Who is using tradition as their exclusive reasoning for complaining about something? There are a lot of things that have changed in franchises I'm emotionally invested in (D&D, Star Wars, Star Trek, comics). Admittedly I dont like a lot of it (although I do like some new stuff from all those things). But I have personal, subjective reasons for my dislikes, and tradition is not at the top of the list. And I dont think I'm the only person who feels that way. It's not a zero sum game.

We just had exhibit A - the Realms. Their reason for complaining ISN'T tradition. That's the point. Tradition is completely unimportant, so long as the person LIKES the changes. If they don't like the changes, then tradition becomes the hill to die on.

Which is exactly what canon arguments are. It's a bad-faith argument trying to present personal preferences as objectively bad.

Of course tradition isn't the top of your list. Canon is only important when someone wants to bludgeon other people over the head with their preferences.

 

[Hussar]

5e is far too successful in any number of ways for them to even consider a 4e -> 5e shift. There is simply no need to do so.

I'm sorry, what is a 4e-5e shift?

 

[Scott Christian]

Everyone dislikes change. Life was much better when we still had prehensile toes. Disliking but accepting is fine, disliking and trying to rewind the clock is wrong.

We never see things changing... we only see them ending.

 

[Scott Christian]

This thread is about lore and canon... neither of which IMO is fundamental design.

It's design sure, but not fundamental. I can take the rules of 5E, strip out 95% of the lore, and still play D&D.

I am not sure that is correct. But before I counter, could you define lore?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I am not sure that is correct. But before I counter, could you define lore?

"a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth."

Thank you Webster! Ironically, if passed by word of mouth, it will inevitably change in a form of broken-telephone.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

The canon isn't too important in the tabletop. For example the DM can add in her Dragonlance campaing Raitslin's daughter, or the PC can travel to an alternate timeline where the king-priest was killed by Lord Sorth, but the Krynn sphere is being invaded by the Vodoni empire (a Spelljammer faction) and the chaos summer started before. But the coherence of the canon is more important for D&D as a multimedia franchise, this means, the lore in other type of products, as comics, novels, and maybe an animated serie in a streaming service (I feel Paramount, Netflix and Disney would fight to be who produce the adaptation). To reboot the franchise is risked when lots of books have been published. Do you remember Star Wand fandom with the "expansed universe"?

I guess the D&D cosmology will be redesigned to allow more flexibility and space to add new elements, for example an action-live horror movie produced by E-One becoming an official dark domain in Ravenloft setting. Or a D&D version of the Strange, Monte Cook's TTRPG, where worlds created by the fiction become realities (named "recursions"), or something like the "Ideaverse" of Marvel Universe. Then Conan and Tolkien's Middle Earth would be in D&D but as "recursions worlds", and all could happen here can't affect the original ones. Maybe is a crazy idea, but it is such crazy that it can work to publish intercompany crossovers.

 

[Fenris-77]

I'm sorry, what is a 4e-5e shift?

You put your left leg in, you take your left leg out, you put your left leg in and you shake it all about...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

That statement implies that all change is positive.

All change is negative for people who have gotten used to the the old way of doing things.

But positive or negative, it's up to the younger generation to decide, the older generation gave up it right to have a say by virtue of reproducing.