D&D (2024) New One D&D Playtest Document: 77 Pages, 7 Classes, & More!

There's a brand new playtest document for the new (version/edition/update) of Dungeons of Dragons available for download! This one is an enormous 77 pages and includes classes, spells, feats, and weapons.

Unearthed Arcana Playtest

Unearthed Arcana Playtest Materials Get Unearthed Arcana playtest content, try it out in your game, and provide feedback! Check back regularly for ...

www.dndbeyond.com

In this new Unearthed Arcana document for the 2024 Core Rulebooks, we explore material designed for the next version of the Player’s Handbook. This playtest document presents updated rules on seven classes: Bard, Cleric, Druid, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, and Rogue. This document also presents multiple subclasses for each of those classes, new Spells, revisions to existing Spells and Spell Lists, and several revised Feats. You will also find an updated rules glossary that supercedes the glossary of any previous playtest document.

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[Parmandur]

Heh. I wish. I've tried. Really I have. Made stuff available. Brought stuff up. Pointed people in the direction. Nope, zero interest. I have five new races for your new PC but none of them are in a WotC book? Might as well not exist at all.

Lessee, from memory, in the past 20 ish years that I've played D&D with the OGL (and, trust me, I've used OGL material extensively - to the point of actually running The World's Largest Dungeon and my very first 3e campaigns were set in Scarred Lands.) - I've had a grippli character which was from Dragon magazine, an awakened skeleton, currently have a Pugilist character in a game, and a Lucidling (a reified dream of an aboleth). I might be forgetting something, but, that's about it.

I mean, good grief, I was running Scarred Lands, made all that material available to the players and the players just basically refused to play anything that wasn't in a WotC book. I might as well have been running Forgotten Realms. Zero interest in anything that doesn't have the WotC seal of approval.

It really is rather frustrating.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg...?

Do they prefer WotC options because they come from WotC? Or does WotC produce the options that they want?

 

[Arilyn]

Oh absolutely. I loves me 3pp. I use them all the time. Monsters. Adventures. All sorts of stuff.

In twenty years of the ogl, I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had a player try to use a non-WotC source.

That's too bad. Players at my table devour 3pp. It's generally preferred over WotC.

 

[Maxperson]

That feels like your loss and WotC's gain? You had more choices, but opted to take none of them, and how you have less choices but get all of them. I'm not sure how the latter situation is better for you, though obviously if you're buying more books in total terms, that's great for the publisher.

I loved the stream of new experimental stuff to check out and tinker with. I just didn't have or use all of it.

For every one of him, there are those like me and my group that bought almost every book during 3.5.

 

[Hussar]

Which came first, the chicken or the egg...?

Do they prefer WotC options because they come from WotC? Or does WotC produce the options that they want?

Again potato potahto. The upshot is, as far as my players are concerned, the ogl has zero impact on the game.

 

[Emirikol Prime]

Instead of doing the whole Dane Cook McDonalds bit, I’ll leave you to it.

But like…seems unlikely.

You’re so cool, Brewster.

 

[Emirikol Prime]

See @CapnZapp you point at WotC being unwilling to change because they want to milk the fandom.

I disagree.

They can’t make any changes because any changes are immediately rejected by a very loud cadre of fans who cannot bear the idea that WotC isn’t catering solely to them.

So WotC proposes a change and it gets shot down. WotC doesn’t innovate because they aren’t permitted to.

The difference is semantics. The end result is this update that no one asked for.

 

[Hussar]

The difference is semantics. The end result is this update that no one asked for.

No one? Really? I'd say that there are a hell of a lot of people asking for the update. Some folks wouldn't mind if the update went further than it does, but, I've pretty much never heard anyone who claims that this update is unnecessary at all.

Good grief, ten years and a bajillion play hours later, you figure that there shouldn't be an update? I rather hope that this 10 year cycle keeps up forever. I don't mind rebuying the core books every ten years. Won't bother me in the least. While I am critical of some of the changes being made - mostly critical because I think they should make more extensive changes than they are- at no point have I thought that this is an "update that no one asked for".

 

[CapnZapp]

I'm more than willing to pay that price

Ah, finally. You said the proper thing, which is to say what you subjectively like, instead of what the game objectively "needs".

That's all I needed. Thanks.

 

[CapnZapp]

See @CapnZapp you point at WotC being unwilling to change because they want to milk the fandom.

I disagree.

They can’t make any changes because any changes are immediately rejected by a very loud cadre of fans who cannot bear the idea that WotC isn’t catering solely to them.

So WotC proposes a change and it gets shot down. WotC doesn’t innovate because they aren’t permitted to.

They're absolutely permitted to. Instead, what this is about is WotC choosing to listen to protests.

Why would they want to do that? And the answer is because they have no intention to make any controversial changes.

Every time WotC realizes the only way to move the franchise further is to make controversial changes (i.e. a truly new edition), they choose to not listen to the fans beforehand. (That is, there were no way playtesters could "not permit" WotC to change a rule for 1E or 2E or 3E or 4E or 5E and there won't be for 6E)

That should be a hint that this thing is only going to rehash the existing edition just like 3.5 and 4E Essentials did (to motivate a new purchase) but save any actual fixes for the actual next edition.

WotC could easily have presented fans with a new rule, and only allowed them to bicker about exactly how that new rule should be implemented, without having "not do the new rule at all" as an option. If the fans didn't permit WotC to change stuff, it is only because WotC decided to give the fans that power. Listening to fans is a sure-fire way of having an excuse to not do anything that actually changes stuff.



Hope that helps

 

[CapnZapp]

Eh, if you could afford a host of books, maybe.

Table-top roleplaying games must be among one of the least expensive hobbies there is.

Five people playing for hours after making a single $30 purchase. We're talking a couple of dimes per man-hour, tops. I think it's safe to assume the ttrpg dungeon master able to afford only one book each edition is not representative of the customer base.

Even then, have you tried asking your players if they'd be willing to chip in a few dollars every once in a while, considering the probably hundreds of unpaid man-hours you put into their campaign?