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.

 

[Parmandur]

I totally get where they're coming from. Having to keep X number of iterations straight and decide which one they're going with, then have people getting mad when they make changes to the lore, has its difficulties. I get it that you don't want new DMs to feel bound to five editions of history. It's like when I tried to pick up the X-Men comic for the first time in decades, and found that everything was just too much to catch up on.

But at the same time, if they're still directing people to the 3e FR Campaign Setting, how does that fit into that statement? D&D has a rich tapestry of lore going back decades, and 5e has used that to make the current edition all the richer. Heck, just look at how many dragons from the old Wyrms of The North column have shown up?

I do wonder what the reason for making this announcement now is? The first new Dragonlance novel is coming at the end of the month, if Amazon's date is correct, though the timing could be incidental.

I'm still going to mine older editions' lore for use in my games, but certainly would defer to the most recent 5e information where possible.

WotC sells the Grey Box, the 2E box, the 3E FRCS, and the 4E FRCS. I've seen Perkins recommend any of those books as good for 5E. DMs aren't bound by anything.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Sad, but I am not too surprised. The question is about if the changes will be to better or worse. I can understand some retcon about kenders, gullys and draconians, or in the new novels Theros Ironfeld is an artificier but also one of the heroes of Dragonlance, Tika is darksin but redhead (both are possible simultanealy in the real life), the order of the seekers are masters of the psionic powers, Goldmoon is a favoured soul and Riwerwind a barbarian, Kitiara is found in the bed with a boy and a girl by the dragon highlord, there are gem dragons in Krynn, Raitslin now shows tribal tatoos on his face, some warlocks have got pacts with Ariakan, Jiathuli, and Artha..

But some changes could be too risky. Tass can be now a girl (but the time when she found that cursed talisman with gender swap) but we need the right key to be fun character and not annoying.

It was really horrible the "edition war", and now I don't want troubles about "Rey is a Mary-Sue" and the new "Master of the Universe" is Teela's show.

Some changes may be wellcome, for example there was not Chaos War and the age of the mortal never stated but not all the new ideas.

 

[embee]

So only 5e lore is canon. This means that you buried the lede.

Jeremy Crawford Declares Self To Be "The One Who Remains"​

 

[Scribe]

Some people enjoy that shared setting. The fact that I can appreciate the same thing as someone from the other side of the world, 10 years ago.

A history, a tapestry of bits and pieces woven together over potentially decades, which again is shared.

Dumping that can never be a good thing to me, but it sure let's them wipe their hands of anything they believe to be seen as problematic.

 

[Disgruntled Hobbit]

Unsurprised

So, in other words, WotC is telling longtime D&D fans they aren't welcome in 5e and that decades of learning lore isn't appreciated, in fact it's scorned?

Retroactively rebooting all of D&D lore, in all settings and core lore effective 7 years ago?

Telling Realms fans that the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide is the only canonical Realms book?

Pretty much

Is WotC actively trying to alienate dedicated longtime fans? The last time I felt WotC was doing this was when 4e came out.

Actively? No
They just don't care about them anymore
Cause anyone who remembers or played an edition before 5th Ed is the minority
All the new players don't know the lore and won't notice the changes

Why put in the work of researching when you can just invent the details and most of your audience won't be able to tell the difference?

 

[Mercurius]

It's weird how people in this thread can't seem to figure out why some people like setting canon. They like it in RPGs for the same reason they like it in any other media: part of their enjoyment from the thing is based on its consistency and internal logic.

Partially because "setting canon" means different things to different people. Take the Realms, for instance. Some are Gray Box purists. Some take the whole thing, from the 1980s to present. Others jettison the Spellplague and 4E completely. Still others just play in the somewhat nebulous 5E version, which is focused on whatever is in the adventures and everything else is just kind of "out there somewhere."

If we must compare RPGs to movies--even though they're very different--then I think it is better to compare them to James Bond than Star Wars. Think of each new edition as more like a new Bond actor; it is a reboot, and all the past "lore" is source material to draw from, but no longer applies. Of course each new edition is not a complete reboot, but it is a partial one. I mean, this is the case with the rules: there is some continuity, like HP, AC, Ability Scores, etc, but there are usually new takes, and learning how things work in the new edition is an intrinsic feature of a new edition.

But I still think the basic idea that every game table and group creates their own canon is central and needs to be re-stated, again and again. This is where it differs from films altogether. The real and only "canonical" game world is whatever you decide it to be, at your table.

 

[Parmandur]

Some people enjoy that shared setting. The fact that I can appreciate the same thing as someone from the other side of the world, 10 years ago.

A history, a tapestry of bits and pieces woven together over potentially decades, which again is shared.

Dumping that can never be a good thing to me, but it sure let's them wipe their hands of anything they believe to be seen as problematic.

This doesn't take away from any of that.

 

[Stormonu]

DC, Marvel, Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica - these and many more franchises have already jettisoned old lore.

Still, WotC can do what they want, I still have my old books and I will keep what I want and jettison the rest. For example, I like the new Ravenloft, but I’ll stick to my Gray Box FR.

 

[Reynard]

But I still think the basic idea that every game table and group creates their own canon is central and needs to be re-stated, again and again. This is where it differs from films altogether. The real and only "canonical" game world is whatever you decide it to be, at your table.

Why does it need to be restated? It is self evident. And I don't think that's what people unhappy with this are talking about at all.

They want their knowledge of who Jarlaxle is to remain correct, because they have invested some portion of their enjoyment of D&D in The Forgotten Realms and its lore.

 

[Parmandur]

DC, Marvel, Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica - these and many more franchises have already jettisoned old lore.

Still, WotC can do what they want, I still have my old books and I will keep what I want and jettison the rest. For example, I like the new Ravenloft, but I’ll stick to my Gray Box FR.

Indeed!