D&D (2024) Jeremy Crawford: “We are releasing new editions of the books”

[Remathilis]

Okay so when a 2024 adventure references mastery or a new condition/altered condition how does this work?

You look it up. Seriously, the Internet exists and the updated core rules will be available both officially and unofficially for free. The SRD and D&D Beyond will almost assuredly reflect the updated version and have the Basics for free.

Which is more likely?

DM: the taupe ooze spits a glob of slime at you. You take 12 acid damage and are... Slowed?
Player 1: what's slowed, that's not in the PHB?
Player 2: according to Google, it's -10 ft to your speed.
DM: ok. You take 12 acid and -10 ft move for this round

Vs


DM: the taupe ooze spits a glob of slime at you. You take 12 acid damage and are... Slowed?
Player 1: what's slowed, that's not in the PHB?
DM: WHAT!! I was told this module is compatible with 5th edition! That's it. Next week we start a new Pathfinder 2e game!!

 

[mamba]

Under that standard 1e and 2e are the same edition.

yes, so? No one claims editions were handled consistently under D&D, and a case can certainly be made that they should be (that they are not was marketing)

 

[codo]

Under that standard 1e and 2e are the same edition. Also, the splat doesn't work seamlessly. So new edition.

If D&D had kept using the normal definition of edition, like they did from 1e to 2e, I wouldn't have a problem with it. The problem is that they didn't keep using it, and instead switch the edition to mean a completely new game that isn't compatible with the older "edition", and they have been using that definition for over twenty years.

The alternate class rules in Tasha's don't work perfectly seamlessly either. Does that make Tasha's a new edition too? Because it looks like 1d&d works just as seamless as Tasha's does.

 

[mamba]

It's pretty damn likely that any pre-24 adventures they still consider worth selling are going to get a revised release not long after the 2024 core, "enhanced" to encourage 2014-era players to buy them all over again. After all, Lost Mine of Phandelver, Curse of Strahd, and Tyranny of Dragons (twice!) got this treatment in the current era. I would expect the originals to go out of print with the 2014 books.

I doubt it, it would be a terrible move that tells the world ‘2024 is not compatible, no matter what they say, they had to rerelease all the adventures for 24’

There is no reason to, maybe they update one or two like they did CoS, but that they haven’t done so yet seems to indicate that they are not all that interested in doing so

Maybe they eventually do something like Return to the Tomb of Annihilation, but that would hopefully be a much different adventure on a similar theme

 

[codo]

I doubt it, it would be a terrible move that tells the world ‘2024 is not compatible, no matter what they say, they had to rerelease all the adventures for 24’

There is no reason to, maybe they update one or two like they did CoS, but that they haven’t done so yet seems to indicate that they are not all that interested in doing so

Maybe they eventually do something like Return to the Tomb of Annihilation, but that would hopefully be a much different adventure on a similar theme

Also it is not just about printing and selling more copies in the future. It is also about the millions of adventures they have already sold. A lot of of them are currently sitting for sale on game stores shelves. It is a great way to kill local game stores by sticking them with tons of books for on old edition that they can no longer sell. Look at what happened to game stores with the switch from 3e to 3.5. There were a lot of stores that went out of business because they were stuck with a glut of 3.0 3PP books that they couldn't even give away.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

So yeah, subclasses will need work to make them compatible but everything else is dead simple. I'm not going to lie, subs are not 100% compatible, but they can be made to be if the DM wants. It will be far easier to convert a 24 sub than to convert a 3e prestige class or 4e paragon path. Hard, but not impossible.

I think the problem is, something like 3.5e->PF1e (at launch) is what people are gonna expect from the term "backwards compatible." Doubly so because that term really does get used in video games, and there...I mean, it literally means you can use everything from before with zero modifications or workarounds. That's going to bias people toward having very high expectations of what "backards compatibility" means.

And it's not like WotC is a stranger to saying things that resulted in "over-promised, under-delivered," even if they didn't intend it to be understood that way. Remember when "modularity" was the watchword for well over half of the D&D Next playtest? Remember when they spoke of trying to make a game that one table could play heavy-tactics 4e-style, and another could play heavy-sim 3e-style, and a third could play rules-light OSR style, and all of them could still talk with each other and fit under one umbrella? I sure do.

 

[codo]

I think the problem is, something like 3.5e->PF1e (at launch) is what people are gonna expect from the term "backwards compatible." Doubly so because that term really does get used in video games, and there...I mean, it literally means you can use everything from before with zero modifications or workarounds. That's going to bias people toward having very high expectations of what "backards compatibility" means.

And it's not like WotC is a stranger to saying things that resulted in "over-promised, under-delivered," even if they didn't intend it to be understood that way. Remember when "modularity" was the watchword for well over half of the D&D Next playtest? Remember when they spoke of trying to make a game that one table could play heavy-tactics 4e-style, and another could play heavy-sim 3e-style, and a third could play rules-light OSR style, and all of them could still talk with each other and fit under one umbrella? I sure do.

How is 5e to 1D&D any different from the 3.5 to Pathfinder? They look pretty similar to me. Almost identical core rules with just a couple of rule tweaks, and updated classes and spells. Why do you 3.5 to pathfinder is actually more backward compatible than 1D&D is?

 

[doctorbadwolf]

alternate class rules in Tasha's don't work perfectly seamlessly either.

They don’t? How do?

I think the problem is, something like 3.5e->PF1e (at launch) is what people are gonna expect from the term "backwards compatible." Doubly so because that term really does get used in video games, and there...I mean, it literally means you can use everything from before with zero modifications or workarounds. That's going to bias people toward having very high expectations of what "backards compatibility" means.

And it's not like WotC is a stranger to saying things that resulted in "over-promised, under-delivered," even if they didn't intend it to be understood that way. Remember when "modularity" was the watchword for well over half of the D&D Next playtest? Remember when they spoke of trying to make a game that one table could play heavy-tactics 4e-style, and another could play heavy-sim 3e-style, and a third could play rules-light OSR style, and all of them could still talk with each other and fit under one umbrella? I sure do.

I remember them stating it as a goal, early on.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

How is 5e to 1D&D any different from the 3.5 to Pathfinder? They look pretty similar to me. Almost identical core rules with just a couple of rule tweaks, and updated classes and spells. Why do you 3.5 to pathfinder is actually more backward compatible than 1D&D is?

Subclasses are one of the major factors. The changes to Backgrounds are another.

PF1e was, by intent, almost precisely the same. Thus far, "One D&D" is not "almost precisely the same." The differences are not some earth-shattering gulf...as I have explicitly said...but they are more than almost nothing.

 

[Maxperson]

All I know is that since it all balanced just the same, I'm going to use the 2014 versions of feats that the 2024 rules are gimping, like Great Weapon Master. One roughly the same power the same as the other, right?