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The 5E adventures and sourcebooks are canon, not novels, video games, or comic books

elminsterelminster Member, Developer Posts: 16,317
in General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!)
I saw this interesting article talking about it (as part of an interview with Jeremy Crawford).

https://comicbook.com/gaming/amp/news/dungeons-dragons-canon-roleplaying-game-novels/

Anyways, as far as I know this is the first time someone from WotC has confirmed the novels, video games, and comic books aren't canon.

"Basically, our stance is that if it has not appeared in a book since 2014 [the year that Dungeons & Dragons' Fifth Edition core rulebooks came out], we don’t consider it canonical for the games."

They also don't consider any print product released before 5E to be "canon" either. Which makes sense given the sheer volume of content released over the last 40 years.

Anyways, I know for years people debated here about whether or not the Baldur's Gate novels were "canon" compared to the games. So I guess this settles it.

Comments

  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    edited July 2021
    So Drizzt 1-27ish are not canon but Drizzt 28ish-39 are.
    I'm guessing they are more like guidelines for DnD 5e. They just allow to reboot everything to make history less complex to take into account for the table top games.
  • GraionDilachGraionDilach Member Posts: 592
    This does offer Larian and any other 5e game developers more leniency, as also shown in that D&D DA game pulling a loose reiteration of the Crystal Shard storyline. With neither being part of the "canon", both can be referred equally accurate.
  • Balrog99Balrog99 Member Posts: 7,371
    edited July 2021
    Everything or nothing can be canon. One word solves all:
    Multiverse!
  • megamike15megamike15 Member Posts: 2,666
    the canon should whatever the dm feels at the time.
  • Xar105Xar105 Member Posts: 112
    So no no Abdel Adrian ?.
  • lroumenlroumen Member Posts: 2,538
    Murder in baldurs gate is canon as I understand. So yes to Abdel
  • kanisathakanisatha Member Posts: 1,308
    This has been implied for some time now, but it's in this interview that it's been made explicit by WotC. And very clearly this is to allow video game developers leeway to ignore or change D&D/FR lore in whatever ways they want to suit their game. But for me, this is yet one more reason to hate WotC and to question whether I want to give them any more of my money in the future. *The* main reason I would want to play a D&D video game is because of how much I love all of the (old) FR lore, and for WotC to simply declare everything that came before their current D&D edition to be trash is loathsome. If there is no homage to decades of FR lore in a D&D video game, there is no other point to playing that game.
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