D&D 5E Do you care about setting "canon"?

[Shasarak]

The word "confusion" is misused here - or, at best, is a metaphor.

No one is literally puzzled. No one literally fails to understand what is going on. Rather, some people who identify as D&D players do not want to identify with this. They see it as an affront. I have seen the word "insult" used.

The response is the same, in its basic nature, as those who object to changes in other sorts of serial fiction (soap operas, movie series, comics, etc). No one who (say) objects to Wolverine's claws being stripped of adamantium to become bone, or who thinks that the clone saga turns Spider Man into a travesty, is expressing epistemic difficulties. They are not confused by anything. Rather, they don't like it.

At which point at least two responses are available. One is to ignore it, on the general principle that one should not spend leisure time or money on stuff one doesn't care for. The other is to reaffirm one's identification with the fiction at issue (D&D, Marvel Comics, whatever) and to condemn the stuff one doesn't like as a travesty/betrayal/insult. Someone who takes the second path is someone I would say cares about canon in a very different way from how I do.

I feel that I have a good idea of the reasoning behind the changes and even I am literally confused about why they actually decided to pull the trigger.

Category one is your casual and they probably dont even care enough to realise something has changed and Category two should be your core target market. This should be in your basic Business Economics 101 class as text book examples of what not to do with your business.

 

[Manbearcat]

When someone says that warlords are screaming your arm back on, what are they actually opposing?

Off the type of my head? How about...

Intellectual honesty?

Engaging in sincere discussion about tabletop RPGs?

Ceasing edition war memes that were shallow and uninspired trolling when those first volleys of hostilities were fired?


To our great collective nerd shame this became a thing. Worse still, it festered and framed many obnoxious years to follow.

 

[Maxperson]

NO, we're telling you (well, really, WOTC) not to take the chuck or porterhouse steak off of OUR plates and replace it with round steak, even though we're been eating the former for 40+ years, just because YOU personally think round steak is better and DAMMIT! We all need to get with the program, because chuck and porterhouse are SO last year! The WHOLE table has to eat round steak, it can't just be YOU eating round steak on a separate plate, even if your plate is just as big as ours. This is what 4e did, insist all players eat round steak. Whether round stake is "better" or "worse" than the other kind is irrelevant... what matters is our choice was taken away and replaced with another. 4e COULD have chosen to put the changes (new cosmology, elemental giants, new Eladrin and Tieflings, etc.) in a new "Netir Vale" campaign setting, thus allowing those who liked the new material to have it while leaving other campaigns untouched... but no, the changes were so "cool" that they had to be in the core material, where nobody could ignore it. You said that we could just change the monsters back. Well, let's turn that around... why should I have to have changed the 4e monsters? Why shouldn't it be YOU turning regular giants into elemental giants, regular Archons into elemental Archons, etc? Why should the burden be on the people who liked the original material?!?

What I want to know, is who eats round steak? My car tire is easier to chew through and tastes better.

 

[pemerton]

Category one is your casual and they probably dont even care enough to realise something has changed and Category two should be your core target market. This should be in your basic Business Economics 101 class as text book examples of what not to do with your business.

But this is only a derivative reason to care about canon, that applies only to WotC: that is, WotC should care about canon because some of their prospective customers care so much about canon that they will go ballistic if it is changed in ways they don't like.

But how does it make any sense to be that sort of customer? Why does it matter what WotC chooses to write in some book of stuff that they are publishing? If you don't like it, nothing is forcing you to buy it, read it, or include it in your game.

 

[Elderbrain]

What I want to know, is who eats round steak? My car tire is easier to chew through and tastes better.

I was not, of course, referring to literal, real-world round steak (or any other kind, for that matter). If you prefer, substitute "donuts", "bacon", or whatever you personally like, then imagine it being forcibly replaced by some other food you don't care for (i.e. "broccoli", etc.)... the food references are purely metaphorical.

 

[Elderbrain]

But how does it make any sense to be that sort of customer? Why does it matter what WotC chooses to write in some book of stuff that they are publishing? If you don't like it, nothing is forcing you to buy it, read it, or include it in your game.

1) The issue isn't what they put IN, so much as what they choose to leave OUT, as I stated above. New Tieflings? Fine, as long as you don't kill off the originals (and YES, by presenting the new Tieflings as the only version in the books, you ARE killing off the original!)

2) McDonalds is free to change its menu, and it's true that I have a choice whether to eat there or not... but if they change the menu to the point that it's unrecognizable, it's not longer really McDonalds, and I no longer have any reason to eat there. Decisions like that have consequences: yes, it may attract new customers who never cared to eat at McDonalds before, but it also causes many long-time loyal customers to abandon the chain and buy their meals elsewhere, since their patronage and wishes are being ignored. Coca-Cola had to learn this lesson the hard way.

 

[pemerton]

McDonalds is free to change its menu, and it's true that I have a choice whether to eat there or not... but if they change the menu to the point that it's unrecognizable, it's not longer really McDonalds, and I no longer have any reason to eat there.

If McDonalds changes its menu, and takes off your favourite stuff, you can't eat it anymore.

If WotC writes a new story about tieflings, and you still remember and prefer the old one, nothing is stopping you from using the old story.

If you prefer, substitute "donuts", "bacon", or whatever you personally like, then imagine it being forcibly replaced by some other food you don't care for (i.e. "broccoli", etc.)... the food references are purely metaphorical.

The issue isn't what they put IN, so much as what they choose to leave OUT, as I stated above. New Tieflings? Fine, as long as you don't kill off the originals (and YES, by presenting the new Tieflings as the only version in the books, you ARE killing off the original!)

This makes no sense.

You aren't being forced to do anything different. And nothing is being killed off. If you still own your PS book with the random tiefling attribute table, you can still roll your % dice and read a result of that table. The book hasn't been destroyed. The table hasn't been erased. Your dice haven't been confiscated. You haven't been forced to change anything about your game.

 

[Imaro]

If McDonalds changes its menu, and takes off your favourite stuff, you can't eat it anymore.

If WotC writes a new story about tieflings, and you still remember and prefer the old one, nothing is stopping you from using the old story.


This makes no sense.

You aren't being forced to do anything different. And nothing is being killed off. If you still own your PS book with the random tiefling attribute table, you can still roll your % dice and read a result of that table. The book hasn't been destroyed. The table hasn't been erased. Your dice haven't been confiscated. You haven't been forced to change anything about your game.

What if you don't still have those books for whatever reason? Granted I guess I could re-buy them... but then on top of the added cost of the old books...I'm also paying for wordcount I don't want in the form of the new lore... why should I have to?

 

[Remathilis]

What if you don't still have those books for whatever reason? Granted I guess I could re-buy them... but then on top of the added cost of the old books...I'm also paying for wordcount I don't want in the form of the new lore... why should I have to?

Why should I pay for half-orcs in my phb? I don't want them. Or great weapon master and sharpshooter. Or the Tarrasque (a useless monster and a waste of space) or the hand of Vecna? Or...

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[Imaro]

Why should I pay for half-orcs in my phb? I don't want them. Or great weapon master and sharpshooter. Or the Tarrasque (a useless monster and a waste of space) or the hand of Vecna? Or...

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Do any of these things you listed actually replace something that was in previous editions of D&D... or are they just additions?