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.

 

[billd91]

The James Bond movies are not in continuity with each other. Each time a new actor takes the role of Bond, everything is reset.

This wasn't always strictly true. There have been nods here and there such as Bond's obsession with going after Blofeld and Teresa Bond, which is based on holding some continuity between the George Lazenby and Roger Moore Bonds. I don't believe there's been any significant continuity other than supporting actors (Judy Dench, Desmond Llewelyn) crossing Bond actors since Moore.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Ok. Look Crawford is not saying anything new here. They could always change canon. They have changed canon many, many times. Spellplague FR shows how much they can change while 'respecting' canon. All Crawford is saying is what they have done all along. They change what they want and the stories are still good, just won't stop us from doing what we want.

Exactly. Even the 5e's adventures are not considered canon: the Realms could have been facing a Dragon cult scheme, Elemental apocalypse and Fiendish rampage all at the same time, or none of this has happened, or just some of those adventures.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Back on topic, this is a good thing. It avoids things like this:

DM, implementing a famous NPC into their game: "So and so appears in the game doing X and Z."
Player: "Um, no they don't. Back in this one novel from 1988, this happened to them, so no way that could happen."

 

[R_J_K75]

So that FR novel the Lost Library of Cormanthor I read 25 years ago and cant remember even one single detail about is no longer canon? What a tragedy.

Seriously though this is a good thing if theyre actively writing single adventures and stories that are self contained in their own product. That story doesnt need to bleed into other future products. I havent paid attention to any canon lore past the 3E FRCS. I think I prefer it this way as I've taken to just writing my own adventures and stories for a long time now. I always thought that we as players and DMS knew to use what you want, modify or throw out the rest. I dont see this as any big revelation. I challenge anyone to read the 32 page timeline in the 2E FR Empire of the Shining Sea book and actually care about any of it. Another problem with canon for me has always been twofold, too hard to keep up with as a DM and it gave gave a false sense of how things should play out in game set in an official campaign setting because they read a few novels or setting books.

 

[Shardstone]

You can still share in your enjoyment of canon and linked together stories and the mythos of the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance by going back to those stories and books yourself.

Like come on, why are we getting so dramatic? You literally still have the books! You still have the stories! They're just over now, and will probably be reimagined.

Spider-Man and Superman and all other superheroes have been rebooted countless times. You still have your old canons to cherish. Its the same here. Its a new Forgotten Realms universe, with new ideas, for a new audience, based off old ideas. If that's too far for you, you still have books and COMMUNITIES (including this one!) to discuss that stuff at! Most of the original authors are still alive! You can still contact everyone involved with your favorite myths!

 

[Bolares]

Within the context of 'current setting' no, it's no longer canon, and is irrelevant.

... it's as relevant as people reading the books make them. When I read the Salvatore books, or the Dragonlance trilogy, I never new they were canon. It didn't matter. They were cool dnd books I could read.

 

[hunter1828]

As a DM, the only thing canon in the Forgotten Realms is what I as DM decide is canon. There's a lot of stuff from the game books I ignore or change and a lot of stuff from other game worlds that I import. It's up to the DM and the DM alone.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Gnomes are my wife's favorite race, actually.

She counts an extra-true fan, in that case.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Do you imagine the state of desolation would the DMsguild be if every published document would have to strictly follow the established canon of publishable settings?

The Writer's Guide would be, like, 310 pages long.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Back on topic, this is a good thing. It avoids things like this:

DM, implementing a famous NPC into their game: "So and so appears in the game doing X and Z."
Player: "Um, no they don't. Back in this one novel from 1988, this happened to them, so no way that could happen."

I don't know how much that actually happens, but you can certainly find a lot of people complaining about it if you go back into the 3E-era posts on this board.