D&D (2024) So Will 'OneD&D' (6E) Actually Be Backwards Compatible?

[Parmandur]

But this is also in line with what you do at the end of an edition: you make products that are callbacks to older ones. An anniversary edition (and I have some of those from back in the 2E days on the book shelf behind me) is a limited print run that you intend to sell through.

At the start of an edition, you plan to make new versions of all of the old products to sell again. I had both "Sword and Fist" and "Complete Warrior" back in the day. Now with 5E there aren't that many of those products that even exist. Will WotC want to keep selling Monsters of the Multiverse after 6E launches? I expect that they'd just sell a print run and then come up with an entirely new version. That would be something they could sell to everyone, not just to new DMs. Once a print run sells out, I doubt we'll see new runs of anything as we get closer to launch for the new edition. I suppose it depends on how fast a print run sells, though. I expect smaller print runs and being more conservative until we get an idea of how well the existing edition is still selling. My skills with Amazon searches tell me it is still selling pretty well.

Monsters of the Multiverse is a OneD&D product already, yes. They plan to keep selling it for the foreseeable future for the new Core books. Same as everything else they are printing. This is a significant rules revision, but this is Evergreen D&D in action now.

 

[Faolyn]

not sure about that, because that has been consistently wrong.

1e to 2e lost 50% of sales, no idea about 3e (clearly it gained players, just not sure about numbers) but that was a very different scenario, 3e to 4e did not work out either and 5e has basically been a fresh start more than anything because of that.
If this shows us anything, then that the player base does not switch to the next edition.

So I definitely understand why WotC does not want 1DD to be seen as a new edition and to maintain compatibility with 5e

Not quite. TSR and WotC certainly expected people to move on. Whether people did or not, of course, is an entirely different thing.

I think the easiest way to tell would be to see how many people who already owned VGM and MTF also bought MPMM, even though they already had those races and monsters. MPMM is currently #7 in D&D books on Amazon, and I have to imagine that a not-insignificant percentage of people who bought the book from Amazon also owned the earlier books. And that's just within a single edition! We've already seen in the playtests that the species are fairly different. People are going to want to see what's done with the monsters as well.

 

[SteveC]

Monsters of the Multiverse is a OneD&D product already, yes. They plan to keep selling it for the foreseeable future for the new Core books. Same as everything else they are printing. This is a significant rules revision, but this is Evergreen D&D in action now.

I just looked that the product page for Monsters of the Multiverse on the Wizards website and on Amazon. Neither one refers to is as a 6E product or "1D&D compatible." I'd assume that some monsters from it will be in the new Monster Manual, and who knows how compatible they will be. Maybe WotC has said it will be compatible, but they aren't claiming that on the product pages. What's more, as this thread has proven, definitions of "compatible" are a ... fluid situation.

 

[Parmandur]

I just looked that the product page for Monsters of the Multiverse on the Wizards website and on Amazon. Neither one refers to is as a 6E product or "1D&D compatible." I'd assume that some monsters from it will be in the new Monster Manual, and who knows how compatible they will be. Maybe WotC has said it will be compatible, but they aren't claiming that on the product pages. What's more, as this thread has proven, definitions of "compatible" are a ... fluid situation.

Crawford said in the pkaytwt videos that MotM is OneD&D material. None of those will be in the MM, because theybare still planning to sell MotM actively in the coming years.

Well, Kyle Brinka has juat gone on record guarentt8ng that OneD&D will be 100% compatible with 5E rules as they exists, so that's indication that they arenchanging directions.

 

[dave2008]

Here is my perception.




No, they wont.

Only something that changes the math would update the 5.1 SRD.


No. But this depends on what exactly the ORC looks like.


The OGL is dead.

Hasbro-WotC will rely on the free advertising that comes from the CC-BY 4.0.

Outside of the 5e SRD, the Hasbro-WotC lawyers will viciously enforce copyright claims.

But. Hasbro-WotC will get away with this "sues regularly" approach, because they will actually support the creativity of unofficial content that comes from the gamers inside the walled garden, in the DMsGuild (or whatever its future incarnation will be called).

FYI, some of the Kyle Brinks interviews are live now:

And here are some of the things he said (about 30 min. mark):

• SRD will be made 100% compatible with OneD&D
• No update to OGL.
• No plans to close D&D (no GSL).
• WotC thinks OneD&D is 5e and vice versa.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

But this is also in line with what you do at the end of an edition: you make products that are callbacks to older ones. An anniversary edition (and I have some of those from back in the 2E days on the book shelf behind me) is a limited print run that you intend to sell through.

At the start of an edition, you plan to make new versions of all of the old products to sell again. I had both "Sword and Fist" and "Complete Warrior" back in the day. Now with 5E there aren't that many of those products that even exist. Will WotC want to keep selling Monsters of the Multiverse after 6E launches? I expect that they'd just sell a print run and then come up with an entirely new version. That would be something they could sell to everyone, not just to new DMs. Once a print run sells out, I doubt we'll see new runs of anything as we get closer to launch for the new edition. I suppose it depends on how fast a print run sells, though. I expect smaller print runs and being more conservative until we get an idea of how well the existing edition is still selling. My skills with Amazon searches tell me it is still selling pretty well.

Except that doesn't fit what they've been doing for the past decade. You're calling back to editions of the game which were designed, managed, produced, and distributed by different people, under different circumstances, with a different understanding of the community and industry.

5e supplements are still selling well. They aren't going to arbitrarily kill them off next year, when they can create a new line of core books that don't invalidate those supplements that are, again, still selling quite well.

 

[Faolyn]

Except that doesn't fit what they've been doing for the past decade. You're calling back to editions of the game which were designed, managed, produced, and distributed by different people, under different circumstances, with a different understanding of the community and industry.

5e supplements are still selling well. They aren't going to arbitrarily kill them off next year, when they can create a new line of core books that don't invalidate those supplements that are, again, still selling quite well.

But they did that already, by creating MPMM when they already had VGR and MTF. Which shows they are more than willing to create a new line of core books. And they're going to be putting out a new PHB and almost certainly a new DMG and MM as well, which will also invalidate the earlier books.

I can also see them putting out a monster book that's half MPMM, half new creatures (or part MPMM, part monsters from current adventure books, part new monsters), thus causing a demand for another monster book with the rest of MPMM monsters along with new ones.

 

[SteveC]

Except that doesn't fit what they've been doing for the past decade. You're calling back to editions of the game which were designed, managed, produced, and distributed by different people, under different circumstances, with a different understanding of the community and industry.

5e supplements are still selling well. They aren't going to arbitrarily kill them off next year, when they can create a new line of core books that don't invalidate those supplements that are, again, still selling quite well.

That may be the case, but the game has an almost 50 year history, and part of that history is saying "it will be compatible!" each and every time. And, in the case of Essentials, it was. So it's not without precedent. But that's not what usually happens.

And who knows if the people who are saying it are actually in the position to make that call? I don't know Crawford, but I have friends who do, and he is pretty well thought of. He's a solid gamer. But WotC isn't being run by gamers at the moment. The recent kerfuffle proves that and no one who was making those calls has been fired.

So when we come to the bottom of it all: we have WotC saying it will be compatible and if you believe them, then I guess there's no point in this thread. I don't believe that. I'm going based on what has been said in the past and what has happened before, and I could be quite wrong. I think, however, that just saying "this time will be different," is just as reaching as what I'm saying, since people have said the same exact thing before as far as what would happen that time. I don't know if even the people who are talking now about what will happen actually do know what will really happen.

Honestly I don't think there's much more to say about it because we are at things we believe will happen and none of us really know anything.

 

[Maxperson]

we are not operating in a vacuum here, the monsters were revised in MMotM, the races in Tasha’s, 1DD is just following an existing trajectory and the playtest supports this notion.

I do not see WotC wanting a large difference, as they do not want to split the 5e base. This alone gives them incentive to remain compatible

The problem with this is that part of that existing trajectory of prior changes included the assumption that the OGL 1.0a would be unauthorized prior to the release of 5.5e. The current change is more than enough to put that trajectory in doubt.

 

[Maxperson]

This is one of those moments where I'll quote Jane Austen: "believe that if it gives you comfort." There's a huge difference between what WotC says, their playtest materials, and what finally comes out. I did the 5E playtest and there were quite a few changes along the way.

Yep. And a good amount of what we ended up with for 5e was never part of the playtest.