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.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Wizards of the Coast: Saving the Forgotten Realms Canon - Sign the Petition! Sign the Petition via @CdnChange

 

[PsyzhranV2]

Wizards of the Coast: Saving the Forgotten Realms Canon - Sign the Petition! Sign the Petition via @CdnChange

Are you for real

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Finally caught up, and it has been a ride.

Started reading this thread yesterday, but had to stop to go to a friend's place, who lives a little over an hour away. I've got a playlist of youtube videos I listen to sometimes, and I put it on as I drove. It played a video by MrRhexx on Orcs, part of his "what does 5th edition not tell you about..." series from... Nov 2020.

/snip

And that isn't that bad of a thing

Yeah, I agree. IMO, it's not just "not that bad of a thing", it's a good thing (sorry for the weirdly-worded double-negative).

I like listening to MrRhexx's lore videos, but I've always found that it's spending 30 minutes to an hour and a half to get a few pieces of good lore. There's some good and really interesting bits of lore from previous editions (the Netheril, the Vestige of Karsus, the Dawn War, etc) but IMO, there's even more of bad, contradictory, and absolutely boring lore (the multiple origins of Asmodeus and Dragons, the difference between an Erinyes and a Succubus/Incubus, the shifting homes of the Gods, the many lives and deaths of Mystra/Mystryl, etc).

I shared in post 343 that, as a new player and DM for the Forgotten Realms, I felt compelled to learn as much as I could about the setting in order to run it, and, for the most part, it was just a waste of time and an added stress factor to the already overwhelming stress from learning to be a good DM.

Excessive lore does not help new players. Excessive lore that is still considered canon for the purpose of the world's lore does not help (and thus is a detriment to) new DMs.

 

[Zardnaar]

One doesn't need to spotlight the old lore and in FRs case there's been a timejump as well.

Or you can go with MtG inventing new settings all the time.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Yeah, I agree. IMO, it's not just "not that bad of a thing", it's a good thing (sorry for the weirdly-worded double-negative).

I like listening to MrRhexx's lore videos, but I've always found that it's spending 30 minutes to an hour and a half to get a few pieces of good lore. There's some good and really interesting bits of lore from previous editions (the Netheril, the Vestige of Karsus, the Dawn War, etc) but IMO, there's even more of bad, contradictory, and absolutely boring lore (the multiple origins of Asmodeus and Dragons, the difference between an Erinyes and a Succubus/Incubus, the shifting homes of the Gods, the many lives and deaths of Mystra/Mystryl, etc).

I shared in post 343 that, as a new player and DM for the Forgotten Realms, I felt compelled to learn as much as I could about the setting in order to run it, and, for the most part, it was just a waste of time and an added stress factor to the already overwhelming stress from learning to be a good DM.

Excessive lore does not help new players. Excessive lore that is still considered canon for the purpose of the world's lore does not help (and thus is a detriment to) new DMs.

Why do new players need to be prioritized over long term loyal players and readers. Use a setting like Eberron instead for new players, that prefer less depth of lore.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Why do new players need to be prioritized over long term loyal players and readers.

Youth are the future, dude. Sorry to be callous, but your generation's gonna die off eventually, and dead men (and women and non-binary people) buy no books, so prioritizing the younger players makes them more likely to also become long-term loyal players in the future, and thus, a more reliable steady-stream of income.

Use a setting like Eberron instead for new players, that prefer less depth of lore.

5e's default setting is the Forgotten Realms. All of the Forgotten Realms' base races are in the PHB. Eberron's are not. Thus, more money required to play a non-base setting. IMO, it's just way better to make the base setting more user-friendly.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Youth are the future, dude. Sorry to be callous, but your generation's gonna die off eventually, and dead men (and women and non-binary people) buy no books, so prioritizing the younger players makes them more likely to also become long-term loyal players in the future, and thus, a more reliable steady-stream of income.

5e's default setting is the Forgotten Realms. All of the Forgotten Realms' base races are in the PHB. Eberron's are not. Thus, more money required to play a non-base setting. IMO, it's just way better to make the base setting more user-friendly.

Then make sonething else the base setting.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Why do new players need to be prioritized over long term loyal players and readers. Use a setting like Eberron instead for new players, that prefer less depth of lore.

Because their are the overwhelming majority of current players and you are somewhat of a vestige?
I dont know your age, that is.

But your ''loyalty'' gains you noting. You not owed anything. WotC is a for profit company, they must go where the money goes. So having to choose (that's not what they are doing, but since you wont hear anything else...) between a massive wave of potential customers with money AND a few old players who longs for the books that havent been sold for decades...the choice is pretty clear.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Then make sonething else the base setting.

It's a bit late for that. Good luck convincing WotC to rewrite 5e's Core Rulebooks. They may do that in a 6e, but this is the next-best-thing up until then.

 

[MGibster]

Why do new players need to be prioritized over long term loyal players and readers. Use a setting like Eberron instead for new players, that prefer less depth of lore.

Because newer players make up more of their customer base than long term loyal players do. So they can fish from the 40+ year old pool where I'm swimming and maybe catch a few fish or they can cast their line in the pool filled to the brim with 18-24 year olds. On the bright side, when it comes to mortgage ads, catheters, and Harley Davidson motorcycles I'm the more desirably demographic.