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.

 

[JEB]

2) Having a backlog of 40 years of lore and NPC is often pointed as the MAJOR turn-off for most newcomers whishing to use a specific setting.

If that's so, how did 5E manage to attract so many new fans, despite the Forgotten Realms - a world with decades of lore - being the featured setting?

I can suggest one answer - that knowing the lore wasn't actually necessary for new fans to enjoy the 5E Forgotten Realms. Anything that was relevant tended to be included in the new 5E material, and anything not relevant was already de facto optional for new players. Or, alternatively, folks were just ignoring the Realms in their 5E games and doing their own thing. The connection to old lore mattered to folks that liked it and didn't matter to folks who didn't.

In short, as far as 5E has functioned thus far, the oppressive weight of past lore seems to have been a non-issue, as far as the game's success. This seems to be a solution in search of a problem.

This declaration - that older-edition and non-RPG lore doesn't count unless the 5E designers decide it will - makes a lot more sense as a hint of their future plans, especially in the context of the Ravenloft reboot. They're signaling to the fanbase that big changes are coming to the old material. (The specific focus on Dragonlance, in the context of the legal troubles with the novels last year, is particularly hard to dismiss.)

That said, I don't think they intend to drive old fans away. Far from it! They still want your money, after all. So I'm sure they'll make sure that future products, even ones with radical reinventions, will have piles of Easter eggs to appeal to old fans' nostalgia. (5E Ravenloft certainly had plenty.) And that's all you need to keep buying, right?

 

[Dire Bare]

Honestly, because the novels can be awesome for ideas that the DM can pick and choose from.

For example, there is a drow novel that said all drow magic items are destroyed by direct sunlight. That is awesome! It is explains why the drow dont create surface empires.

I dont think this was ever "official". But it is super flavorful.

In the second Drizzt trilogy, which was a prequel detailing his escape from Menzoberranzan, Salvatore gave a lot of detail about drow equipment slowly being destroyed as Drizzt explored the surface, and if I remember correctly, even how Drizzt slowly began to lose some of his innate drow abilities as described in 1E lore. But Salvatore didn't make up these details, they came from the game itself.

Salvatore, love his work or no, has actually done a pretty good job of taking the drow lore of 1E and incorporating it into his novels. Menzoberranzan is an echo of Ereli-Cinlu . . . just about everything Gygax wrote about the drow made it's way into the Drizzt novels. Of course, he also dramatically expanded on that lore and fleshed it out!

 

[Charlaquin]

If there is no canon, then there is no expectation that you can carry things with you through editions, from novels, or whatever.

Maybe it's because I started with 3.5e, but this is not a new thing in my experience. I've been through two edition changes and both of them saw massive lore changes that were completely irreconcilable with the previous edition's lore.

Books like The Grand History of the Realms, are a source of enjoyment, a way to interact with D&D outside of the game itself. To indicate that such things are 'not canon' absolutely takes something away from that.

Ok. I'm willing to take it at face value that it takes something away. What does it take away though? What, specifically, is different between "the novels are canon" and "the novels have their own continuity that the game books are not beholden to"?

I'm not talking crunch. I'm not talking about 'forcing DM's to respect the lore.' I am talking about something, history, that there absolutely are people which find joy in such things.

That book wouldnt even exist otherwise.

I don't fault anybody for finding joy in the history of the setting. I just don't see that history going anywhere. The old game books are still there for you to draw from for your own games or not as you see fit, as they've always been. The continuity of the novels is still intact. So what is it that's being lost if not these things?

 

[Charlaquin]

Even if one agrees with rebooting why would one buy any new novels if they just declear it non canon again further down the track?

To... read them?

 

[Zardnaar]

Okay. Good to know. You're not actually a fan of the work in the first place. Thanks for letting us know that.

I still bought some of it just checked out after they blew the world upbagain in Dragons of Summer Flame. Kaz had his charms, parts of the world were interesting.

It's a big reason why I don't like heavy metaplot or reboots.

It like 4E jumping the timeline in FR. Ok you just killed off all the world building you were doing and we're happy to sell me the year before.

Never bought another D&D novel after that.

Take my money fool me once......

Same theoy with the videogames. They keep pooping the bed there so I never preorder them. Last one I bought was BG2 remake.

 

[JEB]

I don’t understand this. The setting is absolutely existent, and it has never been canon to 5e lore. This changes nothing for PoLand.

Not yet, but if they ever actually bring PoLand back in 5E, they've basically indicated that they'll feel free to change everything about it, if they think it'll make a better product for modern audiences. If they still think warlords are a waste of time, for example, they won't bring them back, or they'll just say "fighters are also called warlords"; or they could alter Bane to match his Forgotten Realms portrayal.

Now, I don't think this would be a smart move, if they're actually hoping to tap into 4E fans' interest in a revival; I would think a largely consistent update, like they did for Eberron, would be best. But appealing to older fans wasn't much of a consideration for Ravenloft...

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

If that's so, how did 5E manage to attract so many new fans, despite the Forgotten Realms - a world with decades of lore - being the featured setting?

I can suggest one answer - that knowing the lore wasn't actually necessary for new fans to enjoy the 5E Forgotten Realms.

I an suggest another answer. All the people introduced to the game by all the streaming shows and podcast games that are not set in the Realms. Those fans of Critical Role did not have to know anything about anything other than the parts of Exandria where the games were set.

 

[Scribe]

Maybe it's because I started with 3.5e, but this is not a new thing in my experience. I've been through two edition changes and both of them saw massive lore changes that were completely irreconcilable with the previous edition's lore.

Ok. I'm willing to take it at face value that it takes something away. What does it take away though? What, specifically, is different between "the novels are canon" and "the novels have their own continuity that the game books are not beholden to"?

I don't falut anybody for finding joy in the history of the setting. I just don't see that history going anywhere. The old game books are still there for you to draw from for your own games or not as you see fit, as they've always been. The continuity of the novels is still intact. So what is it that's being lost if not these things?

For lack of a better way to describe it, I would prefer an absolute mountain of lore built up over decades, some contradictory, some that I personally despise and 'head canon' into non-existence, an near unfathomable edifice that I seek to reconcile, than 'new edition, forget what came before.'

I would fire 4e lore, and what it contributed in terms of art style, lineages and so on INTO THE SUN. At this point in time however, I still try and reconcile it as canon, and that loops in novels that I enjoyed, and some that I didnt, AND it informed the lore of 5e. That continuation matters to me. Way way more than it should, but it does.

Retcon's happen, the errata stealth delete of the Wall of the Faithless or perhaps other things (Volo Orcs?) happens too. Things can also simply not be referenced and forgotten over time or seen as 'canon but...not really relevant'. Any setting that grows too large sees this type of thing happen, I get it.

To flat out state 'nothing before X' is canon is different. It absolutely does have an impact for one who is invested in that unwieldy mess for it to be summarily dismissed and stated to no longer be something that the creators will no longer even try/pretend, to adhere to or care about.

 

[Zardnaar]

To... read them?

See previous response. You have to hook me with your world or your characters.

If you change them there's a decent chance you're changing what I like about them.

Also you're taking my money now but in a few years it's badwrongfun.

Either future proof your products better, make something new or just focus on something else conforming to the new paradigm.

What happens if they reboot DL it gets a 4E reception just reboot again in 10 years?

 

[Scribe]

What happens if they reboot DL it gets a 4E reception just reboot again in 10 years?

Yes, if ever. They will have their own 'made for modern players' settings like Exandria or Eberron or whatever.