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, but they are not canonical for the D&D roleplaying game."

"If you’re looking for what’s official in the D&D roleplaying game, it’s what appears in the products for the roleplaying game. Basically, our stance is that if it has not appeared in a book since 2014, we don’t consider it canonical for the games."

2014 is the year that D&D 5th Edition launched.

He goes on to say that WotC takes inspiration from past lore and sometimes adds them into official lore.

Over the past five decades of D&D, there have been hundreds of novels, more than five editions of the game, about a hundred video games, and various other items such as comic books, and more. None of this is canon. Crawford explains that this is because they "don’t want DMs to feel that in order to run the game, they need to read a certain set of novels."

He cites the Dragonlance adventures, specifically.

 

[Hussar]

It's as logical as chosing the dish with mushrooms, because you enjoy eating mushrooms. It's a matter of taste.

And while it isn't the current business model of D&D, up until the announcement there was still the hope that it could once again become the business model of D&D come 6e or 7e.

It would not have been the first time that the fiction line had the longer breath and just outwaited the newest fad of the game side of things (cough world tree cough world axis).

Ok, now, if your argument is that canon is good because you happen to like it, fair enough. I certainly can't argue what you enjoy. That's fine. And, really, I have no issues with that.

But, it never stops there. Canon arguments are always used to try to justify why someone's personal preference should be given preferential treatment. It's an appeal to authority in a fake mustache. "I like this so, I hope it doesn't change" is perfectly fine. "I like this, so I'm going to claim that it's canon and you must not change it because it's canon" is very self serving.

That's the point where I find canon so distasteful. And it's why I think Crawford has done a great service to the hobby. Heck, the World Tree/World Axis is canon in 5e. It's right there in the DMG. If they wanted to, they could do a Nentir Vale/Dawn War Adventure Path and all the Great Wheel/Planescape fans wouldn't have a leg to stand on to complain. Which, frankly, would make me very, very happy.

 

[Bolares]

I know. Everyone tells me to watch Firefly, but there was only one season and a movie, so it's basically dead with no chance of expansion so I'm not going to waste my time.

But Eberron has room for expansion. You don't need to advance the storylines of a setting to expand it. 5e expanded on dwarves quite a bit, gave a lot o focus on the post war feeling of the setting, gave us warforged titans... Keith Bakes just gave us a very deep dive on the underwater cultures of the setting and a most needed view of the planes. For Eberron specifically advancing the plot would be detrimental. 998YK (the standard starting year for campaigns) is where a lot of campaigns hooks and events are boiling, and the setting is rippe with possibilities. If you advance the story you have to give answers to a lot of the settings misteries, and in doing so, taking the story out of the players hand.

 

[Hussar]

Y'know though, Sherlock Holmes is another IP that has multiple takes. Complete lack of canon between them. Heck, I'm watching the Regulators on Netflix right now. That's a completely different take on the Sherlock Holmes story. According to those that claim that canon should remain inviolate, that's a show that never should have been made. In fact, if we insist that canon cannot be altered, those shows couldn't be made. We'd never have Young Sherlock, Robert Downney Jr's Sherlock, the BBC Sherlock, The Regulators and a hundred others.

I'd say that Sherlock Holmes makes a pretty strong argument for how removing the limitations of canon makes for much more creativity and interesting stories. I'd hate to see what the world of mystery would look like if Sherlock Holmes was bound up in Doyle's canon and walled off from any new ideas.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

It's as logical as chosing the dish with mushrooms, because you enjoy eating mushrooms. It's a matter of taste.

No it's not, because dishes with mushrooms are designed to have mushrooms in them. With a few exceptions, campaign settings are not designed to tell an ongoing story, they are designed to play a game. If you buy a product to use for something it wasn't intended to do you have no cause to complain if it stops working.

And while it isn't the current business model of D&D, up until the announcement there was still the hope that it could once again become the business model of D&D come 6e or 7e.

And now you won't be disappointed when that turns out not to be the case. You should thank WotC for not leading you on. If you want a novel series, buy into a novel series, not a game.

 

[Remathilis]

But Eberron has room for expansion. You don't need to advance the storylines of a setting to expand it. %e expanded on dwarves quite a bit, gave a lot o focus on the post war feeling of the setting, gave us warforged titans... Keith Bakes just gave us a very deep dive on the underwater cultures of the setting and a most needed view of the planes. For Eberron specifically advancing the plot would be detrimental. 998YK (the standard starting year for campaigns) is where a lot of campaigns hooks and events are boiling, and the setting is rippe with possibilities. If you advance the story you have to give answers to a lot of the settings misteries, and in doing so, taking the story out of the players hand.

But quality is determined by expansion. Put another way: Citizen Kane is considered one of the greatest movies of all time, but how many sequels did it get? None. Compare that to Sharknado, which had SIX movies in it's series. I ask you; which is truly the better movie?

 

[Mirtek]

I know. Everyone tells me to watch Firefly, but there was only one season and a movie, so it's basically dead with no chance of expansion so I'm not going to waste my time.

Actually I agree. I know you mean this sarcastic. But knowing that Firely just ends with a cliffhanger I am not even interested in starting what little there is.

Worse enough if a series I started with is getting cancelled before it could run it's course to a proper ending, but I'd never start one when I already know this is the case

 

[Bolares]

But quality is determined by expansion. Put another way: Citizen Kane is considered one of the greatest movies of all time, but how many sequels did it get? None. Compare that to Sharknado, which had SIX movies in it's series. I ask you; which is truly the better movie?

No one can disagree on that. But expansion doesn't need to be made in a time line. You can expand a story in other ways. That's why every spin-off is better than the original source

 

[Mirtek]

No it's not, because dishes with mushrooms are designed to have mushrooms in them. With a few exceptions, campaign settings are not designed to tell an ongoing story, they are designed to play a game. If you buy a product to use for something it wasn't intended to do you have no cause to complain if it stops working.

Well, FR was a story setting long before it became a game setting and while being a game setting it managed to have a always continuing meta plot advancing via no less than 287 (!) novels and just as many game supplements. Sometimes a game supplement would introduce a new devlopement that would then be fleshed out in a novel, sometimes a novel would be first and then the events would their way into further game supplements.

And FR is far from unique. The #1 RPG in Germany is still DSA and let me tell you that FR was a barely detailed barebone of a setting if compared to the rigid details and metaplot of Aventurien.

W40k is also a popular setting and it too is tirelessly advancing driven from from both the actual gaming side of things as well as from it's novels

 

[Remathilis]

Actually I agree. I know you mean this sarcastic. But knowing that Firely just ends with a cliffhanger I am not even interested in starting what little there is.

Worse enough if a series I started with is getting cancelled before it could run it's course to a proper ending, but I'd never start one when I already know this is the case

I mean, in a choice between an ending like Firefly or Watchmen and an ending like GoT or Lost, it's kinda a toss up as to which is truly the worse...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'd hate to see what the world of mystery would look like if Sherlock Holmes was bound up in Doyle's canon and walled off from any new ideas.

Agree with literally everything you're saying except this, because I think if Holmes canon was locked down in the way, say, LotR canon is, we'd actually see more creativity and cool shows and stuff in the world of mystery, rather than bunch of "hot takes" on Holmes.

I don't say that with hate, either, though, let's be clear, because I've watched and enjoyed an awful lot of Sherlock Hot Takes. Also his canon was locked down until he went out of copyright, at which point it became a free-for-all, which is happening largely because he's so well-known worldwide, and at the expense of any mystery shows not based on Holmes stuff.

That's not a reason not to open canon up though!