D&D (2024) How Important Is The Lore

[MerricB]

I am particularly interested in actionable lore. Stuff that I can take as a player or DM and use at the game table.

Honestly, I've found myself incredibly impressed by A5E's Monstrous Menagerie and how it handles it.

Sections like "Signs" and "Behavior" are things I find useful at the game table.

Now, we could have bugbears with the entire lore description being "Bugbears are rangy, hairy creatures related to goblins." and just the stats... but I doubt many would be inspired by that.

I can change bugbears at my own table to be spiritual defenders of the forest, or whatever I like... but I want something to change it from, not a void.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think one of the major failures of 4e was that to many it did not "feel" like dnd. I can argue many of its mechanical improvements and benefits (and make no mistake, there were many) but I think a shift away from lore and presentation into the more clinical version we got is one of the reasons 4e struggled.

At the end of the day, people can play dozens of RPGs....but if they are choosing to play "dnd", they want to feel dnd, and the lore is a key part of that. Its a common thread that binds groups together across many campaigns, and one of the ways we can all share in the common experience that is dnd.

The existing lore in 4E also shifted in some cases.

Halflings became river-riders with dreadlocks. Gnomes, absent from the first PHB, are fey creatures (a decent idea!). Dragonborn and Tieflings both got called up to the main book after having only existed (in different forms) in supplements in prior editions.

So you had a big shift in mechanics in many cases ("illusion" spells in 4E were mostly just reskinning generic arcane abilities), some shifts in lore. The people who didn't feel like 4E "felt" like D&D weren't entirely wrong.

I'm someone who only wants "light" lore, as stated previously, but I was one of the people who felt like if 4E was still D&D, it was supporting a specific setting (Nentir Vale being the obvious example) rather than being a semi-generic toolkit that supported what I was already running (Ptolus, an extremely 3E setting by design).

 

[MerricB]

The existing lore in 4E also shifted in some cases.

Lore is an evolving beast in D&D in any case. (Check how halflings changed to be more kender-like and less hobbit-like in 3E).

I think that's fine, just as long as you don't expect everyone to be aboard with the changes. (There are times it is entirely justified - especially when everyone was using the new lore and not the old lore in their actual play!)

I just object to a lore void!

Cheers!

 

[Reynard]

Sections like "Signs" and "Behavior" are things I find useful at the game table.

I really like that stuff too. I don't consider that "lore." It doesn't lock the creature into any world. It doesn't demand I decouple it from the stats.

 

[MerricB]

I really like that stuff too. I don't consider that "lore." It doesn't lock the creature into any world. It doesn't demand I decouple it from the stats.

It's lore, because it does describe their behavior, etc.

That derives from the culture, upbringing, history, and so forth. It assumes a certain (broad) role for the bugbear. If you recast the bugbears as peaceful shopkeepers, then all of that breaks.

 

[jmartkdr2]

"An elf is a tall lithe humanoid with features humans consider ethereal and beautiful. They have exceedingly long lives and tend to live in the wild and remote places of the world." The end.

You failed to mention pointy ears, which is the artistic shorthand for "elf," or at the very least "magical non--human."

 

[Reynard]

You failed to mention pointy ears, which is the artistic shorthand for "elf," or at the very least "magical non--human."

It's the visual cue but it almost never ends up in the words.

 

[Laurefindel]

I’d like to redact my answer to « lore is essential but it is not essential for lore to be deep ».

 

[Yaarel]

Lore is extremely important. It makes the first-person "immersion" experience of D&D possible. It makes the fantasy world meaningful, worthwhile, and verisimilitudinous.

The difficulty is, different settings require different lore. The majority of tabletop D&D games are homebrew settings. Deep lore is best when it develops organically while DM and player creativity spontaneously generates it as they fill in the blank spaces in the map of the setting. Then all the lore is relevant and pulls the experience of the world into a meaningful whole.

Therefore, the D&D core rules can only offer light suggestions for possible lore, and must avoid baking in any specific setting assumptions. The actual setting assumptions of the 5e core rules are vague: it is somewhat renaissance technologically, somewhat modern American culturally, magic exists, and there are nonhuman sapient species. Any details are easy to add or remove.

This noncommitment to a lore in the core rules can be frustrating because lore is necessary. Vital. The solution is the setting guides. Whether purchasing a setting guide like Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Strixhaven, or Ravnica − or a folder compiling loose notes for inspirations and encounter records from an ongoing homebrew campaign − the setting guide is where to double down on lore and bake its chocolaty goodness into the rule mechanics.

D&D tradition tends to assume three core books: Players Handbook, Monster Manual, and DMs Guide. But defacto there are four core books. The fourth is the choice for the setting guide, that details all the lore. Sometimes a multi-tier adventure path transmits enough lore to serve as a setting guide.

 

[Bae'zel]

To me the problem is that the definition for what constitues "interesting" or "useful" lore varies from person to person.

For example, I'm sure that the authors of the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide thought that their entry on Neverwinter, with a focus on politics and factions, was hella interesting. Meanwhile, I, a DM looking for adventure hooks and opportunities for fantastic adventure, was bored out of my effing mind, doubly so when I found out (from different sources) that Neverwinter has THREE FREAKING FLOATING ISLANDS, and that the cemetary is walled off due to occasional bouts of restless dead.

For a game book, I believe that lore writers need to discriminate and front load the content that would most likely be well suited to inspiring the creation of hooks for adventure.