There’s been a drama of late over a recent errata update to D&D, sourcebooks and campaigns. Retcons for Drows, you might have read, or beholders and mind flayers no longer evil.
Ray Winninger, the D&D boss, disagrees and has updated the errata to say so. An errata errata, or “further context” as Wizards of the Coast describes it.
Winninger is crystal, noting;
First, I urge all of you to read the errata documents for yourselves. A lot of assertions about the errata we’ve noticed in various online discussions aren’t accurate. (For example, we haven’t decided that beholders and mind flayers are no longer evil.)
Wizards have previously explained the changes, or at least talked about it, in the Future of D&D section of the D&D Celebration 2021.
Firstly, in D&D, not all Drow are Forgotten Realms Drow. Winninger writes;
The Multiverse: I’ve previously noted that new setting products are a major area of focus for the Studio going forward. As part of that effort, our reminders that D&D supports not just The Forgotten Realms but a multitude of worlds are getting more explicit. Since the nature of creatures and cultures vary from world to world, we’re being extra careful about making authoritative statements about such things without providing appropriate context. If we’re discussing orcs, for instance, it’s important to note which orcs we’re talking about. The orcs of Greyhawk are quite different from the orcs you’ll find in Eberron, for instance, just as an orc settlement on the Sword Coast may exhibit a very different culture than another orc settlement located on the other side of Faerûn.
We’re reminded that alignments were suggested for playable races and words like “most” used. As D&D ramps up their Multiverse ambitions, of which the TV shows and movies are part of, and not all Halflings are Forgotten Realms halflings, words like “most” become even less accurate.
On that note, DMs are encouraged not to have dull monsters, all with the same mindsets, motivations and responses. This applies to beholders and mind flayers, for example, who are still evil if they do evil things – which they tend to do.
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