D&D 5E WotC Explains 'Canon' In More Detail

Recently, WotC's Jeremy Crawford indicated that only the D&D 5th Edition books were canonical for the roleplaying game. In a new blog article, Chris Perkins goes into more detail about how that works, and why.

This boils down to a few points:

• Each edition of D&D has its own canon, as does each video game, novel series, or comic book line.
• The goal is to ensure players don't feel they have to do research of 50 years of canon in order to play.
• It's about remaining consistent.

If you’re not sure what else is canonical in fifth edition, let me give you a quick primer. Strahd von Zarovich canonically sleeps in a coffin (as vampires do), Menzoberranzan is canonically a subterranean drow city under Lolth’s sway (as it has always been), and Zariel is canonically the archduke of Avernus (at least for now). Conversely, anything that transpires during an Acquisitions Incorporated live game is not canonical in fifth edition because we treat it the same as any other home game (even when members of the D&D Studio are involved).

D&D Canon | D&D Studio Blog | Dungeons & Dragons

In this D&D Studio Blog, Chris Perkins describes the D&D Studio's position on canonicity.

dnd.wizards.com

D&D General - WotC: Novels & Non-5E Lore Are Officially Not Canon

At a media press briefing last week, WotC's Jeremey Crawford clarified what is and is not canon for D&D. "For many years, we in the Dungeons & Dragons RPG studio have considered things like D&D novels, D&D video games, D&D comic books, as wonderful expressions of D&D storytelling and D&D lore...

www.enworld.org

 

[Mirtek]

If there are persons who facrually exist and are being "worshiped", then Eberron has been destroyed - by means of its conformity to Forgotten Realms assumption.

Similarly, if a future 5e Dark Sun that has no gods, suddenly has Clerics who worshop elementals as the new gods, then Dark Sun too will have been destroyed.

WotC will have effectively thrown Dark Sun into the dumpster fire along with Eberron, all because of a misguided attempt to inject Intellectual Property of "gods", into anything and everything, perhaps especially into settings where "gods" are inappropriate to the setting.

Then Eberron destroyed itself the moment it was released? Surely there are deranged cultist who worship the overlords. And the overlords are deities in all but name

Same for DS. Just because some escaped slaves start to worship the elements now that they're away from the sorcerer kings doesn't chang the settings. You can pray to some random fire elemental as much as you wan't, that won't turn it into a deity.

And DS had a lot of links to the wider multiverse in it's own supplements anyway. IIRC it was "City by the Silt Sea" that said that this undead sorcerer king has one of the few working portals out of Athas under his controll and used it to travel the planes and learn about deities to prepare for his own ascension)

 

[Faolyn]

Dolurrh

Thanks. I should have remembered that. It was the plane with the obvious name.

 

[Malmuria]

No there is according to the blog posts now at at least 5 different Eberron canons, 3.5e Eberron canon, 4e Eberron canon, 5e Eberron canon, Novel Eberron Canon, and Video Game Eberron Canon. They took canon and shattered it to pieces without concidering the consquences.

THE CANON OF MANY PARTS
Being an adventure for characters levels 9-12

Adventure background: In the age of the old kings, there was but one CANON, sacred and inviolate. But then came the dark cataclysm, and the CANON was shattered and spread to the four winds. Eons have past, and yet the CANON remains separated. The PCs must travel the world, obtaining and uniting the pieces of the CANON.

Chapter One: Of Orcish Infancy
in which the heroes encounter a confusing admixture of Orcs of various alignments, and their precious children

Chapter Two: The Dragonborn Invasion
in which the heroes fend off a retcon in motion

Chapter Three: Felling the World Tree
in which the heroes become lumberjacks of the multiverse

Chapter Four: The Many Vecnas
alive, dead, undead, or god?

Chapter Five: Star Wars Crossover

Chapter Six: In Search of Lost Time
in which the heroes travel back in time in order to stop the CANON-shattering, only to unwittingly create multiple timelines and thus more CANONs.

Reuniting the CANON: if the PCs manage to unite the various parts of the CANON they receive a powerful magic artifact that allows them to have fun playing a fantasy game without worrying about lore. +4 Wis. Misty Step once per day.

 

[Faolyn]

Exactly - there are 8 other viable alternatives to what is listed in the stat block. Default =/= all.

Except we haven't actually seen this table yet and don't know what it will involve. Nor do we know if they're keeping alignment in the statblock at all. Why bother, if there's a table? If it's a d8 table, I could easily see results 1-4 being different flavors of good, 4-6 being neutral, and 7-8 being evil. That emphasizes that gold dragons are mostly good while still allowing for other variations.

 

[lingual]

If there are persons who facrually exist and are being "worshiped", then Eberron has been destroyed - by means of its conformity to Forgotten Realms assumption.

Similarly, if a future 5e Dark Sun that has no gods, suddenly has Clerics who worshop elementals as the new gods, then Dark Sun too will have been destroyed.

WotC will have effectively thrown Dark Sun into the dumpster fire along with Eberron, all because of a misguided attempt to inject Intellectual Property of "gods", into anything and everything, perhaps especially into settings where "gods" are inappropriate to the setting.

Where have gods been injected into Eberron or Dark Sun?

 

[Henadic Theologian]

If there are persons who facrually exist and are being "worshiped", then Eberron has been destroyed - by means of its conformity to Forgotten Realms assumption.

Similarly, if a future 5e Dark Sun that has no gods, suddenly has Clerics who worshop elementals as the new gods, then Dark Sun too will have been destroyed.

WotC will have effectively thrown Dark Sun into the dumpster fire along with Eberron, all because of a misguided attempt to inject Intellectual Property of "gods", into anything and everything, perhaps especially into settings where "gods" are inappropriate to the setting.

Which Eberron? Because according to Chris Perkins there are at least 5 different Eberron Canons. By your definition of Dumpster fire 5e Eberron and Video Game Eberron are in the Destroyed, 4e Eberron is lightly roasted by the fire and 3e and novel Eberrons are nowhere near the Dumpster Fire (same with 2e Darksun, Video Game Darksun, and 4e Darksun, but possibly not future 5e Darksun).

 

[dave2008]

Except we haven't actually seen this table yet and don't know what it will involve. Nor do we know if they're keeping alignment in the statblock at all. Why bother, if there's a table? If it's a d8 table, I could easily see results 1-4 being different flavors of good, 4-6 being neutral, and 7-8 being evil. That emphasizes that gold dragons are mostly good while still allowing for other variations.

Not sure what this has to do with defaults, but OK

 

[J.Quondam]

THE CANON OF MANY PARTS
Being an adventure for characters levels 9-12

Adventure background: In the age of the old kings, there was but one CANON, sacred and inviolate. But then came the dark cataclysm, and the CANON was shattered and spread to the four winds. Eons have past, and yet the CANON remains separated. The PCs must travel the world, obtaining and uniting the pieces of the CANON.

Chapter One: Of Orcish Infancy
in which the heroes encounter a confusing admixture of Orcs of various alignments, and their precious children

Chapter Two: The Dragonborn Invasion
in which the heroes fend off a retcon in motion

Chapter Three: Felling the World Tree
in which the heroes become lumberjacks of the multiverse

Chapter Four: The Many Vecnas
alive, dead, undead, or god?

Chapter Five: Star Wars Crossover

Chapter Six: In Search of Lost Time
in which the heroes travel back in time in order to stop the CANON-shattering, only to unwittingly create multiple timelines and thus more CANONs.

Reuniting the CANON: if the PCs manage to unite the various parts of the CANON they receive a powerful magic artifact that allows them to have fun playing a fantasy game without worrying about lore. +4 Wis. Misty Step once per day.

Supplemental pirate-themed side-quest called "Broadsided!", wherein the heroes must brave volleys of canonballs to maintain the integrity of their campaign world lest it be sunk by establishment privateers.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I asked myself in this context, why are they even bothering to revisit a FR setting book? It dawned on me. The Obilesks, they are going to set them off all at the same time, and that is how they will justify having all these different timelines and canons, THIS is what they have been building up to with the Obilesks, The Shattering of the Forgotten Realms and the broader D&D multiverse. This is why they compared it to Marvel with its multiverse.

 

[Remathilis]

I asked myself in this context, why are they even bothering to revisit a FR setting book? It dawned on me. The Obilesks, they are going to set them off all at the same time, and that is how they will justify having all these different timelines and canons, THIS is what they have been building up to with the Obilesks, The Shattering of the Forgotten Realms and the broader D&D multiverse. This is why they compared it to Marvel with its multiverse.

Or, you know, they will just say that they're were groups of good Drow all along and not bother with this. But if you need a RSE to help you sleep, did they you gotta.