D&D (2024) How Important Is The Lore

[Bae'zel]

I think it is worth recognizing the difference between description and lore.

...

Right, I hadn't thought of that nuance. Fair enough.

Yeah I see what you mean. Ideally the description would be self-contained and helpful regardless of assumed genre-savvyness of the user.

For example, I always skip the intro paragraph in RPG books on "What is a RPG?", but I'm glad that it is there for people who need it.

 

[CreamCloud0]

I think it is worth recognizing the difference between description and lore.

Description is: Elves are tall humanoids bearing an ethereal beauty (to human eyes, at least). They are exceedingly long lived and therefore view the world from a somewhat alien mindset. Their communities are found in wild, remote places of great natural beauty, but individual elves often visit the lands of other peoples.

Lore: The Children of Correllion are stewards of the forests and oppose evil, especially orcs. They were the ones who taught magic to humankind. Dwarves and elves are at odds over a centuries long feud between their gods.

okay yeah this is the thought i was trying to have, you can keep the lore for the lorebooks, but for the core books i really only want the description, tell us what things fundamentally are and let us play with the peices, maybe you insert some pages of lore for the generic assumed setting of DnD at the back of the books just so people have something to springboard off of but personally i don't need your fluff, i'll get the setting book if i want to play an established setting but otherwise i'll make my own.

 

[Reynard]

okay yeah this is the thought i was trying to have, you can keep the lore for the lorebooks, but for the core books i really only want the description, tell us what things fundamentally are and let us play with the peices, maybe you insert some pages of lore for the generic assumed setting of DnD at the back of the books just so people have something to springboard off of but personally i don't need your fluff, i'll get the setting book if i want to play an established setting but otherwise i'll make my own.

Exactly.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

You can be as contrarian as you want. My point is that you don't need LORE to establish what elves ARE.

Sure you do. Since the PJ movies over 20 years ago Tolkien has faded from popular culture. Folklore has long been a preserve for geeks. JRPGs and anime are better known but not universal. Santa’s elves are probably the best known: 3ft tall pointy eared green clad comic artificers.

 

[Stormonu]

For me it is a case of "I'm (mostly) glad its there.", though I come from knowing a lot of 1E/2E lore. The lore can inspire me to use a creature, so long as it doesn't conflict with something I've already established from way back when. Every once in a while, new lore might inspire me to use a creature that didn't click before some lore was added/changed.

To me though, the most upsetting lore that caused me problems was 2E's "change" to elves going into trance instead of sleeping. It had the potential to blow an entire dream/nightmare based adventure I was planning, because elves don't dream...

I like lore mostly when it rounds out the creature/item for use in the now but I could do without the origins as I run my own homebrew (and am constantly dreaming up new campaign worlds where those origins may be QUITE different - f'ex, dragon origins in my "Dragons Must Die" world where they are magic clots/cancer vs. the feathered dragons of "Scions of Sckamandra" where they are the creation gods). I imagine many others are in a similar boat - lore is great when it helps to frame the creature in the now, but when you start getting into "where it came from", that may very well change from campaign world and table.

 

[Reynard]

Sure you do. Since the PJ movies over 20 years ago Tolkien has faded from popular culture. Folklore has long been a preserve for geeks. JRPGs and anime are better known but not universal. Santa’s elves are probably the best known: 3ft tall pointy eared green clad comic artificers.

I don't see how this means you need lore. You just need a (best short) description of what kinds of elves the game is using.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't see how this means you need lore. You just need a (best short) description of what kinds of elves the game is using.

And how does that differ from lore exactly?

 

[Reynard]

And how does that differ from lore exactly?

See my example above. In short, Lore prescribes certain specific setting elements in relation to the species or whatever.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

See my example above. In short, Lore prescribes certain specific setting elements in relation to the species or whatever.

So, you want to proscribe 3ft tall artificers do you not?

You need to start from the position that a new player knows nothing whatsoever about any playable species, and provide enough lore for them to know what they are choosing.

 

[Bae'zel]

Lore is a funny thing. I'm much more interested in "real" lore, like the Kalevala or Norse Eddas. Or even the Silmarillion than pages about the Moon Elves of Toril.

Personally, I just need enough to get immersed in a setting that I'm running. But that's just me.