D&D 5E Do you like or dislike Song & Steeal Dragons being demoted to Folklore?

[Maxperson]

I was looking through MToF today actually and I thought to myself "I bet they have disavowed this."

And look at that.

Expressing how I really feel about this would be counter productive to a good mental state, but yeah, I just hate it so much.

I will point out that they very specifically said, "...we don’t have a public-facing account of what is canonical in fifth edition..."

The only reason I can think of for saying they don't have a public-facing account of what is canonical, is that they also have a private one. I'll bet that they are leaving it to the core three for most third party producers of content, but the stuff they put out probably has more than the core three that it has to account for.

 

[JEB]

I will point out that they very specifically said, "...we don’t have a public-facing account of what is canonical in fifth edition..."

The only reason I can think of for saying they don't have a public-facing account of what is canonical, is that they also have a private one. I'll bet that they are leaving it to the core three for most third party producers of content, but the stuff they put out probably has more than the core three that it has to account for.

Of course, since we don't know what's in this "private" canon, it could change at any time; the public simply wouldn't be aware that the private canon no longer includes, say, SCAG or Volo's anymore. And if anyone complains, the designers can just point to "only the core books are canon" as a defense. Very efficient.

For folks who care about an official canon, the best approach to take for 5E might be to basically treat each non-core product as a unique entity, not bound by anything established in any other work. Dungeon of the Mad Mage disagrees with Fizban's on steel dragons because they aren't in the same canon...

 

[Scribe]

For folks who care about an official canon, the best approach to take for 5E might be to basically treat each non-core product as a unique entity, not bound by anything established in any other work. Dungeon of the Mad Mage disagrees with Fizban's on steel dragons because they aren't in the same canon..

This is such a non-starter.

The only answer if you care about canon?

Stop, or write your own.

 

[Imaculata]

I consider myself a Shrug-dragon.

 

[JEB]

The only answer if you care about canon?

Stop, or write your own.

This has pretty much been my own response, yeah. (My head-canon is a 5E that still includes all the previous editions' lore, as previously implied, with the contradictions just being competing myths and/or interesting puzzles to sort out.)

 

[Mind of tempest]

I have a heart of neutrality on this topic.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I just don't get how anything can be 'just folk lore' in the kitchen sink of D&D.

It's WotC shorthand for "we didn't have room in this book, but your DM can make it".

 

[Azuresun]

I have a heart of neutrality on this topic.

All I know is that my gut tells me maybe.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Just a reminder, none of the novels are canon for the game.

Just a reminder, the Novels functional ARE setting, and separating the novels from TTRPG canon into there own canon is worse then the Spellplague, completely poorly thought out none sense, and not how the setting was designed or how it evovled over years. As said I disregard what Chris and Jeremy said, which btw contradicted each other.

Sometimes I wish Ed would sue WotC for voiding the contract and take FR back, they aren't being good Stewards of the setting. They learn NOTHING from the back lash to the Spellplague.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I feel it's a step in the right direction. Now if we can just get the various gods described as folklore instead of Really Powerful But Also Really Existing Monsters (tm), we will be on to something.

I mean seriously, Al-Qadim did it, Eberron did it, why can't everyone else catch up?

No, the Gods do exist AL Qadim were very much real, it's just they didn't materialize in the material plane.

I got to say, not a fan of all the Antitheism being pushed into every setting.

Not every setting has to be atheistic, it's a huge retcon in FR, you have Eberron and Darksun for deities are folklore or don't exist or are gone.

The Gods are a huge part of the Forgotten Realms setting.

You don't have to homogenize every setting, destroying what is special about them.

Heck I don't care what you do in your home game version of FR, but don't wreck the official lore of the Forgotten Realms.