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.

 

[The Green Hermit]

Oh, man. I live in Southern California, where it's been above 100 degrees during much of the summer. So much ice cream ...

On the Washington coast, we've only had a few days that were over 100, but I freely admit to buying two mega-boxes of ice cream at Costco right beforehand.

 

[Hussar]

TL;DR Canon is important because it's the framework that people use to engage with an imaginary world, giving structure to fantasy, and in so doing making it seem real enough to be entertaining.

Great post.

Do not agree.

Canon is largely unimportant because it's only useful to those who want to tell other people why they are wrong about some fictional universe. Otherwise, it really doesn't matter because "canon" in a fictional universe is always mutable and subject to change at any time. Canon is only used to judge how closely that change reflects someone's understanding of the setting and as an argument to police those changes. IOW, something is judged, not because it's a good or bad idea in and of itself, but on how closely it hews to the gate keeper's vision of the setting.

It serves no positive purpose.

 

[Scott Christian]

I'm not exactly young anymore (32), but I kind of love scouring older sources for obscure lore to utilize in my campaigns. I like collecting and nerd trivia in general, so that's definitely a big influence behind my desire to "collect" lore.

Powerscore RPG has a ton of deep dives I love. I pretty always go there first to see if there's an article on the history of, say, the Queen of Chaos and the War of Law and Chaos (there is, btw). Echohawk's own Monster ENcyclopedia articles here are also great, as are the many 4E lore threads that can be found on ENWorld.

My last campaign, for example, featured minor demon lords from previous editions (like Azuvidexis and Bechard), Alloces (from 4E's Codex of Betrayal), Ben-Hadar (Prince of Good Water Elementals), Renbuu (Slaad Lord of Colors), an expanding sphere of annihilation (from Bzallin's Blacksphere), and Geryon's Citadel Coldsteel (from a Paladin in Hell).

My current campaign is a mash-up of the adventures Thunderspire Labyrinth, Kingdom of the Ghouls, Shards of the Day, Night Below, the little details on the Underdark mentioned in Critical Role so far, and elements from 4E's Underdark sourcebook.

It increases my workload as a DM to grab all these references from things my players have never heard of, but it's personally super fun for me.

That is impressive - and awesome!

 

[Scott Christian]

1) 40+ year-old, long-time gamers are down around 10% of their market.

That seems pretty specific. Where does this figure come from?
Also, another way one can look at it, is 40+ year old gamers have a lot more spending power than an 18 year old. I know zero young gamers that have 1,000 minis, all the books, and hundreds of novels (and graphic novels). I know many older gamers that do.

 

[grimslade]

Smart fridges monitor what you've got in your fridge and how fast you go through it, both to notify you to buy more and to contact vendors so they can send you coupons.

I don't need a household appliance putting me on blast about how the few vegetables I purchase so often go to waste.

Now I feel the threat of a WotC 'smart' book that reports how many times I have to look up a rule. "Looks like you forgot about total cover again, would you like me to send a reminder to your phone?" - Clippy, the reincarnated d20

 

[Parmandur]

That seems pretty specific. Where does this figure come from?
Also, another way one can look at it, is 40+ year old gamers have a lot more spending power than an 18 year old. I know zero young gamers that have 1,000 minis, all the books, and hundreds of novels (and graphic novels). I know many older gamers that do.

There are more 18-35 year Olds who will buy 1000+ minis and whatnot in the next twenty years than there are over 40. This is a pretty universal trend: 18-34 year Olds are usually the main target for advertisers because they have some money but haven't satiated their desires as older people have.

The 10% number is from WotC: as of 2020,there are 50 million D&D players, with almost half being under 25.

 

[Dire Bare]

Now I feel the threat of a WotC 'smart' book that reports how many times I have to look up a rule. "Looks like you forgot about total cover again, would you like me to send a reminder to your phone?" - Clippy, the reincarnated d20

Meet Dicey! Your virtual TRPG assistant!

 

[Scribe]

That seems pretty specific. Where does this figure come from?
Also, another way one can look at it, is 40+ year old gamers have a lot more spending power than an 18 year old. I know zero young gamers that have 1,000 minis, all the books, and hundreds of novels (and graphic novels). I know many older gamers that do.

I always laughed when I was told GW target market was under 18.

My game group of 30 somethings (at the time) spent 10s of thousands. No 17 year old is doing that with his buddies.

 

[Parmandur]

I always laughed when I was told GW target market was under 18.

My game group of 30 somethings (at the time) spent 10s of thousands. No 17 year old is doing that with his buddies.

No, but 100,000 17 year olds are spending more in total. It's a bulk business.

 

[Alzrius]

Meet Dicey! Your virtual TRPG assistant!
View attachment 141220

Wow, that looks like Miss Minutes' dimwit cousin.

 

[Umbran]

That seems pretty specific. Where does this figure come from?

From WotC. Sorry, 13% is "down around" 10%.

Also, another way one can look at it, is 40+ year old gamers have a lot more spending power than an 18 year old.

Maybe, at the moment. Or you have kids you have student loans, a mortgage, and kids going to college soon...

But the issue is really total remaining time as a customer. That 20 year old can be induced to spend for 30 more years. The 40 year old... probably can't.

 

[Faolyn]

But the issue is really total remaining time as a customer. That 20 year old can be induced to spend for 30 more years. The 40 year old... probably can't.

And the 40+ year old already has a ton of gaming books on their shelf and might not feel the need to keep buying new ones. (Well, except for those of us who are completionists. But even then.)

 

[Scott Christian]

There are more 18-35 year Olds who will buy 1000+ minis and whatnot in the next twenty years than there are over 40. This is a pretty universal trend: 18-34 year Olds are usually the main target for advertisers because they have some money but haven't satiated their desires as older people have.

The 10% number is from WotC: as of 2020,there are 50 million D&D players, with almost half being under 25.

You are 100% correct. But there is an assumption problem there too; half the under 25 year olds may have never bought a book. They may have only played in a high school club. And it is impossible to determine how many will make it a lifelong hobby.

I do not disagree with what Wizards is doing. And I do not disagree with their tactic either. But hobbies rise and fall with popularity. How long the train keeps rolling is anyone's guess.

 

[Scott Christian]

From WotC. Sorry, 13% is "down around" 10%.

Thank you. Do you know where they got their data from?

 

[Parmandur]

From WotC. Sorry, 13% is "down around" 10%.

View attachment 141219





Maybe, at the moment. Or you have kids you have student loans, a mortgage, and kids going to college soon...

But the issue is really total remaining time as a customer. That 20 year old can be induced to spend for 30 more years. The 40 year old... probably can't.

It is worth noting that the 40+ share of the pie actually increased in 2020, because in 2019 WotC included the numbers for people as young as 8, and 8-14 year outnumbered the 40+ crowd.

 

[Faolyn]

In this case, I would use the bare bones of the prophecy, but let the player know that you wouldn't be trying to stick to canon, just melding it into your current campaign in whatever way made sense.

Yeah, but I'm not going to buy a or read bunch of 30-year-old adventures just to figure out what the prophecy is, especially when it will have no impact on anything I'm actually running. Fortunately, none of my players are that gung-ho about deep Ravenloft lore and know that I'm the type of person who changes things willy-nilly, and they're just fine with it.

But extrapolate that to a much larger and more complicated world like the Realms, where there's absolutely boatloads of people, factions, and other weird events going on all over the place? It's likely a pain in the butt for a lot of people.

 

[Parmandur]

You are 100% correct. But there is an assumption problem there too; half the under 25 year olds may have never bought a book. They may have only played in a high school club. And it is impossible to determine how many will make it a lifelong hobby.

I do not disagree with what Wizards is doing. And I do not disagree with their tactic either. But hobbies rise and fall with popularity. How long the train keeps rolling is anyone's guess.

Well, that is why WotC is focused on helping and fostering the younger audience, to maximize growth and retention.

 

[MGibster]

Canon is largely unimportant because it's only useful to those who want to tell other people why they are wrong about some fictional universe.

I don't know if I've ever heard a more cynical take on this message board. I am seriously impressed! I suspect the reason most people find canon important is because they like the setting. When I first played WEG's Star Wars back in 1987, I was excited about the prospect of playing in a galaxy far, far away where the Rebel Alliance struggled against the evil Empire. It's been a long time and memories fade, but I don't think I ever recall wanting to play Star Wars because I had a strong desire to tell other people why they were wrong about the setting.

IOW, something is judged, not because it's a good or bad idea in and of itself, but on how closely it hews to the gate keeper's vision of the setting.

Most of us wouldn't be using the setting in the first place if we hadn't judged it had merit of some sort.

 

[MGibster]

I always laughed when I was told GW target market was under 18.

My game group of 30 somethings (at the time) spent 10s of thousands. No 17 year old is doing that with his buddies.

You and your friends (and me) are outliers. Or at least we were. In the past, GW's business model revolved around hooking teens for a few years with the assumption they would drift out of the hobby as they grew older and be replaced by the next batch of kids. Though now their model seems to have changed to limited productions and fear of missing out. Warhammer Fantasy died in part because the player base skewed older and most of them were at the point where they just weren't going to be buying many new models.

I worked at a game store in 2000 and I was frankly amazed by the amount of money some of my regular teenage customers were able to spend on Warhammer 40k. I'd see these kinds 13-17 popping into the store with their parents every few weeks spending $50+ a visit. It added up over time.

 

[The Green Hermit]

Yeah, but I'm not going to buy a or read bunch of 30-year-old adventures just to figure out what the prophecy is, especially when it will have no impact on anything I'm actually running. Fortunately, none of my players are that gung-ho about deep Ravenloft lore and know that I'm the type of person who changes things willy-nilly, and they're just fine with it.

But extrapolate that to a much larger and more complicated world like the Realms, where there's absolutely boatloads of people, factions, and other weird events going on all over the place? It's likely a pain in the butt for a lot of people.

I completely agree. I would just ask the player to give me a quick synopsis of the prophecy, thank them, and let them know that in your world, it might turn out a bit differently.