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.

 

[TheSword]

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.

Based on that, the reason you wanted to play had nothing to do with cannon. Unless the accuracy of the replication was more important than the creativity of the DM.

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

Again, not really to do with the dedication to established fact. Something can have merit in some areas but not all. Does the name of Grand Moff Tarkins Star Destroyer add merit to your game, or the particular model of droid used by Jabba’s catering service?

 

[billd91]

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.)

You might think so, but the 1999 data that WotC shared about purchasing habits showed each age cohort's purchasing increasing substantially, though they also arbitrarily truncated the data at an earlier cohort than the 40+ range. How that translates to their cohorts on the pie graph now is anybody's guess outside of WotC. But the main point I have is that the eldest age cohort in the earlier survey data could have been expected to have a ton of gaming books on their shelves too and it didn't stop them from buying more and at a much higher rate. It's almost like older gamers have more disposable income...

 

[Parmandur]

You might think so, but the 1999 data that WotC shared about purchasing habits showed each age cohort's purchasing increasing substantially, though they also arbitrarily truncated the data at an earlier cohort than the 40+ range. How that translates to their cohorts on the pie graph now is anybody's guess outside of WotC. But the main point I have is that the eldest age cohort in the earlier survey data could have been expected to have a ton of gaming books on their shelves too and it didn't stop them from buying more and at a much higher rate. It's almost like older gamers have more disposable income...

The truncation isn't arbitrary at all, because across industries in society luxury spending peaks in the 30's usually, and then trends right back down.

 

[wellis]

Does the name of Grand Moff Tarkins Star Destroyer add merit to your game, or the particular model of droid used by Jabba’s catering service?

Sometimes yes, because it adds in a lived-in feeling in a world, or it provides possibilities for a player if they know littke things like that.

 

[MGibster]

Based on that, the reason you wanted to play had nothing to do with cannon. Unless the accuracy of the replication was more important than the creativity of the DM.

The Rebel Alliance struggling against the Empire isn't canon? If I were to show up for a game of Star Wars and the GM says, "Oh, by the way, in my version Luke died attacking the first Death Star, Vader killed the Emperor and rules the galaxy, and Darth Hermana (Princess Leia) is Vader's apprentice now" I wouldn't be interested in playing.

Again, not really to do with the dedication to established fact. Something can have merit in some areas but not all. Does the name of Grand Moff Tarkins Star Destroyer add merit to your game, or the particular model of droid used by Jabba’s catering service?

I think we just see this from fundamentally different points of views.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I'm sorry, but no.

Forgotten Realms wonks are not a "culture". Nor is it anything even remotely protected in any way, shape or form. It's actually pretty offensive to compare something as trivial as "People who like Forgotten Realms Lore" to real cultures which have often faced horrendous persecution, murder, rape and torture simply for existing.

Forgotten Realms might have fans. But, being a fan is not a "Culture".

Its a subculture and it takes nothing away from any full culture to acknowledge that.

 

[transmission89]

I'm sorry, but no.

Forgotten Realms wonks are not a "culture". Nor is it anything even remotely protected in any way, shape or form. It's actually pretty offensive to compare something as trivial as "People who like Forgotten Realms Lore" to real cultures which have often faced horrendous persecution, murder, rape and torture simply for existing.

Forgotten Realms might have fans. But, being a fan is not a "Culture".

You do realise sub cultures are a thing right? Since we are in a gaming sub culture, the context to which this is subordinate to is known and so ”culture“ can be correctly used. Being a fan of something is recognised as a culture, there are many papers on fandom cultures and sub cultures.

It’s also a bit of a reach to suggest comparisons were being made to “real cultures facing persecution etc” as the context was clearly referring to fan cultures. A little less of the rhetoric and appeal to worse problems please, this is merely a discussion on canon.

I also keep seeing gatekeeping being used, and used irresponsibly in my opinion. Lore doesn’t gate keep. It attracts, it entices. It offers something to say about a creative work and it’s vision. For many things, it’s literally the appeal. Why read lord of the rings or Harry Potter or whatever takes your fancy over any other book? They offer a rich world, a sense of verisimilitude, a new place to explore with a history. Lore doesn’t gate keep, people do. People who abuse their knowledge of the lore as a metric to measure others. Remove this and these same people who would gate keep will just find another way.

Myself, I’m probably at the acceptance stage with this announcement. The writing was long on the wall with what they’ve done to Ravenloft and others (from my point of view: little interest in actually developing anything, merely draping its skin over their needs of the day). I think it’s actually less about setting specifics and more regarding what they see as a problem to contemporary issues. The Tanar’ri and Baatezu of the day.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I considered a Boycott of WotC/Hasbro briefly, but rejected it for two reason. One, morally boycotting something over content feels like an an attack on free speech and I have seen to much harm come from that sort of thing to engage in it myself, which is why I refused to engage in the Gillette boycott, although I was sympathetic (I never bought the product to begin with to he fair, so my refusal to join in was symbollic at best).

The other reason is that it would be utterly useless, I simply can't produce the kind of numbers to hurt WotC's massive growth, as seen below. Over 100% growth for this year's second quarter compared to last year's second quarter. I simply can't beat that.

Hasbro Reports Growth in Second Quarter 2021 Revenue, Operating Profit, EBITDA and Earnings Per Share

 

[Faolyn]

You might think so, but the 1999 data that WotC shared about purchasing habits showed each age cohort's purchasing increasing substantially, though they also arbitrarily truncated the data at an earlier cohort than the 40+ range. How that translates to their cohorts on the pie graph now is anybody's guess outside of WotC. But the main point I have is that the eldest age cohort in the earlier survey data could have been expected to have a ton of gaming books on their shelves too and it didn't stop them from buying more and at a much higher rate. It's almost like older gamers have more disposable income...

That was data from over 20 years ago. People have a lot less money nowadays, partially because, well, reasons I don't need to go into now due to politics and wages and insurance/medication costs and the like, and partially because a large number of people lost money due to less work during lockdown. And, well, inflation. A book or boxed set coming out in '99 was about $20-25, and nowadays it's more like $50 if you get it at your LGS.

 

[Parmandur]

I considered a Boycott of WotC/Hasbro briefly, but rejected it for two reason. One, morally boycotting something over content feels like an an attack on free speech and I have seen to much harm come from that sort of thing to engage in it myself, which is why I refused to engage in the Gillette boycott, although I was sympathetic (I never bought the product to begin with to he fair, so my refusal to join in was symbollic at best).

The other reason is that it would be utterly useless, I simply can't produce the kind of numbers to hurt WotC's massive growth, as seen below. Over 100% growth for this year's second quarter compared to last year's second quarter. I simply can't beat that.

Hasbro Reports Growth in Second Quarter 2021 Revenue, Operating Profit, EBITDA and Earnings Per Share

...

Over an all-time record year in 2020. Holy Forking Shirtballs. @Morrus