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.

 

[Hex08]

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

I get where you are coming from but a boycott and a decision on how to spend your money is also an expression of free speech. Also, often people seem to try and draw differences between intent and action without there actually being a difference with the only goal (seemingly) resolve some cognitive dissonance. As an example (and I think your Gillette example is similar); I played D&D since the Basic and Expert boxed sets and 1e thru 3.5 and when 4e came out I decided to no longer buy D&D products for two reasons. First, nothing I had seen about 4e appealed to me and second, I had decided I was done giving WOTC money for yet another new version of a game I had spent tons of money on over the years on other editions. That didn't mean I was done buying new versions of the game (to avoid stagnation as a player and DM I think moving on to new versions can be a good thing), I was just done giving my money to WOTC. I moved on to Pathfinder during it's beta test (before 4e launched I think) and about the time 5e was announced I was getting burned out on it so moved on to Castles & Crusades. Also, there were tons of other RPGs I enjoyed and others I wanted to try. Eventually I started playing Magic again (briefly) and have purchased board games from the Avalon Hill imprint, some based on D&D and some not - all after 5e was released. Was what I did a boycott or just a decision about how to spend my gaming dollars? Does it matter since the end result is the same?

--This isn't meant to be an attack on your viewpoint, more than anything I was thinking aloud--

 

[Maxperson]

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

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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.

The 40 year old will probably spend for 20 years more and a lot more during that time than the 18 year old. I just spent around $600 on the new MTG Forgotten Realms boxes just because they were D&D.

While only 13% are 40+, 45% are 30+ which is a very significant number with a lot more disposable income. WotC would be smart to target both groups pretty aggressively. Otherwise they are missing out on a lot of money.

 

[Maxperson]

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.

8-14 was a silly group to include, because their spent money came from the 35+ crowd anyway.

 

[Maxperson]

Sure thing!

You can also be like "While WotC doesn't consider the Time of Troubles to be an important part of the Canon, it'll be the basis of a lot of things in this adventure. So here's what your characters would probably know about it based on their backgrounds and stuff."

Which is just peachy keen and also part of what the Crawford is saying...

You CAN use all this Lore, but we're not going to FORCE you to know it going forward.

The Time of Troubles was mentioned in The Sword Coast Adventure Guide, so it is still canon by their reckoning.

 

[Parmandur]

If they were smart, they'd target both groups. Only picking one or the other is very shortsighted and will cost them money.

I mean, to be honest, I would say they have pretty consistently for 7 years. This doesn't change that, it's just a shift in emphasis on one element over time.

 

[Parmandur]

The 40 year old will probably spend for 20 years more and a lot more during that time than the 18 year old. I just spent around $600 on the new MTG Forgotten Realms boxes just because they were D&D.

While only 13% are 40+, 45% are 30+ which is a very significant number with a lot more disposable income. WotC would be smart to target both groups pretty aggressively. Otherwise they are missing out on a lot of money.

No reason to think they aren't, per this 35 year old.

 

[MGibster]

8-14 was a silly group to include, because their spent money came from the 35+ crowd anyway.

It's not silly at all. I didn't have any money in 1984, but Mattel and Hasbro sure marketed the hell out of GI Joe, Transformers, and Masters of the Universe to my eight year old self. Knowing who is buying your product, even when it's really the parents spending the money, is certainly useful information to know for marketing purposes.

 

[Steampunkette]

The Time of Troubles was mentioned in The Sword Coast Adventure Guide, so it is still canon by their reckoning.

As I expressed in a later post: The Time of Troubles is -mentioned- in the SCAG. But it doesn't go into nearly the detail required to build a significant portion of a story around.

Meanwhile the no longer canon Baldur's Gate and Avatar series are noncanonical and contain -scads- of detail and information about the event.

The DM in the example could reference that the Time of Troubles HAPPENED without stepping out of Canon, but having any sort of real detail to offer characters based on their backgrounds and such? Not so much.

 

[Maxperson]

I mean, to be honest, I would say they have pretty consistently for 7 years. This doesn't change that, it's just a shift in emphasis on one element over time.

I don't mind the shift, but they really should have put out a book 3x the size for the Realms if they were. They'd still have made a ton of money(probably more than they made with TFRAG) and the people with the most money wouldn't be nearly as upset.

 

[JEB]

You CAN use all this Lore, but we're not going to FORCE you to know it going forward.

I don't recall Wizards previously forcing anyone to research every relevant scrap of pre-5E lore before running a game. Seemed to me they were pretty good about including anything necessary in the actual 5E books; the use of any additional lore already seemed pretty optional.

Besides, the current rule still renders all of 5E canon. Surely no one thinks that levies a requirement that DMs running Candlekeep Mysteries must go back and read every Realms-based adventure since 2014... right?

That some people might have felt pressured to meticulously follow lore, whether or not they wanted to, is unfortunate... but hardly canon's fault. Nor does this announcement really change anything, except shrinking the size of the reading list.