D&D (2024) The timing of the playtest

[Parmandur]

I think it is a clear indication that a main design goal of One will be that adventures in particular will be compatible. Broadly this seems possible because if you use One characters AND One monsters (including MotM monsters) then it should all work out -- theoretically of course. What is likely less compatible is "core" 5E material and pre Tasha's PC facing stuff (not sure about Xanathars considering they included it in the gift set with MotM and Tasha's).

Whether this goal survives playtesting of course remains to be seen. They may find that an overwhelming majority of players want things that aren't compatible and that goal will go to the back burner.

I think they will know the general shape of the revision by the end of next month, once they get the survey results for Races, Backgrounds and the general rule changes computed. Class changes probably won't make that big a difference to their 2023 book plans.

If anything, theybseemd to be more than willing to throw out any changes and go back to 2014 standard if people want to. Doubtful we will see anything more radical.

 

[Parmandur]

Certainly possible. My impression is that it will have a bunch of stuff themed around the Deck of Many Things, which includes new player options and spells etc. Sounded to me like a halfway book between something like Xanathar's and subject specific book. But yeah, just speculation.

It one of the more...different...books that they've done in a while, just on first brush.

I expect something more like an Adventure anthology combined with a Settign, format wise.

 

[Mistwell]

I am struck by the timing of the playtest announcement.

I am very excited to see where One takes us, and I will be following that closely (or so I fully expect). But the initial release of the first playtest package came the same week as the release of Spelljammer and the announcement of five new books, including Planescape. As a result, I find I am a little soured on these new books. I've cancelled my Spelljammer order (FLGS is very understanding, and knows it will sell) and I expect I won't buy any of the new books until the release of the new PHB.

Sure, there will be backwards compatibility, but at the same time there feels like a hard deadline at which the potential for obsolesence is real. Certainly, once 3.5 appered, there was only one book from 3.0 that saw regular use at our table (The Miniatures Handbook). And the changes for One D&D seem likely to be more substantial than the switch from 3.0 to 3.5 .

I'll still be playing in the meantime, of course, but I'm unlikely to invest. in books when I see the potential lifespan being so short.

(And yes, I knew the 50th was coming up -- somehow the release of the first playtest materials made that seem much more real, and more more where the designers energies are likely to be/should be focused.)

My impression of the Spelljammer books is...not good. There are extraordinarily few rules, and a whole lot of art, and maps of stuff which already existed in prior editions. The rules are so sparse that they literally just say "don't worry about it" when it comes to how to turn a ship, for example. And the ship weapons are so bad they tell you to not use them and just use PC ranged attacks if you want to be effective. And ship speeds make no sense. Between worlds they go too slow to actually reach a different star, and in system they literally move slower than a PC with 10 strength moving by thought alone.

I feel like these books were slapped together in a hasty manner. The only thing worth having is the new races and some monsters, and even the new races are sloppy at times. Hadozees for example are broken when combined with the ordinary jumping rules and can move 150 feet in a single move. [The Hadozee glide ability says any time they move downwards in the air they can glide 5ft at no movement cost. A 10 strength Hadozee can perform a standing, vertical jump of 1ft into the air. They then glide 5ft forward. This whole maneuver costs 1ft of movement. With 30ft movement, they can “jump-glide” 150ft per turn.]

And of course they're super thin books - 64 pages in a handback book looks like a pamphlet.

You can literally pull better ship rules out of Ghosts of Saltmarsh and house rule them for space ships far better than anything in these books.

I am pretty disappointed in WOTC for this release. It has me suspecting Planescape will be bad as well. They phoned this one in. And I've never said that about a 5e release.

 

[Reynard]

It one of the more...different...books that they've done in a while, just on first brush.

I expect something more like an Adventure anthology combined with a Settign, format wise.

How much do we actually know about it other than the title. Where do they discuss it in any depth?

 

[Parmandur]

How much do we actually know about it other than the title. Where do they discuss it in any depth?

All they seemed to say about it in the OneD&D Press Cobference was that the book will "contain a collection of creatures, locations, and player-facing content that is related to the Deck of Many Things." In terms of pkayer facing content, the last non general UA had the Fate Cleric, the Cartomancy Fear, and five Deck themed Spells. I suspect he creatures and locations will play a larger role in the book, but I'm not sure how it will work.

 

[Kobold Stew]

Their goal is to sell us the new books!

This is, really my point. I don't want to buy the books, now -- had they waited a week, I would have had the new warm fuzzies over Spelljammer that I was looking forward to (since April/whenever). It's not there now, because there is a new/uynpredictable/shiny just up ahead.

Being "compatible" is fine, but it's not enough to get me to buy. If there's going to be a new/current version of something my interest in the previous one becomes that of a historian, not a player. I don't want to mix-and-match between alternate versions; that invites a particular form of system mastery that favour older players and those with more money, which I don't like. I would love it if everything in Tasha's, Xanathar's MotM etc. all remained "current" but at this point I can't expect it to -- and they're core books. The impetus for keeping settings, etc. in canon as it were is by definition less.

 

[Parmandur]

This is, really my point. I don't want to buy the books, now -- had they waited a week, I would have had the new warm fuzzies over Spelljammer that I was looking forward to (since April/whenever). It's not there now, because there is a new/uynpredictable/shiny just up ahead.

Being "compatible" is fine, but it's not enough to get me to buy. If there's going to be a new/current version of something my interest in the previous one becomes that of a historian, not a player. I don't want to mix-and-match between alternate versions; that invites a particular form of system mastery that favour older players and those with more money, which I don't like. I would love it if everything in Tasha's, Xanathar's MotM etc. all remained "current" but at this point I can't expect it to -- and they're core books. The impetus for keeping settings, etc. in canon as it were is by definition less.

It's not mixing and matching, really: Spelljammer and Monsters of the Multiverse are already OneD&D books. They made the shift without telling us until now.

 

[TwoSix]

I don't know about that The Book of Many Things certainly sounds like it will contain a bunch of new character options and the like. Which seems like an odd thing to publish months before a new half edition or whatever.

Which might be a pretty good indication that either 1) the new core books revision aren't expected to be that big of a change or 2) the books isn't actually focused on new character options.

The idea that they're going to publish a Xanathar's 3 which they know will be obsolete in a year assumes a level of cluelessness on the part of the design team that doesn't seem to be warranted.

 

[Kobold Stew]

It's not mixing and matching, really: Spelljammer and Monsters of the Multiverse are already OneD&D books. They made the shift without telling us until now.

I would love for this to be true. I haven't seen the 2024 release yet, though, and I expect there will be new ideas emerging from the playtest.

 

[Parmandur]

I would love for this to be true. I haven't seen the 2024 release yet, though, and I expect there will be new ideas emerging from the playtest.

Take a loo at the existing UA, which is the big one. The Races are even written in the same format as Monsters of the Multiverse and Spelljammer.

The further packets are supposed to be more narrow and focused, so this seems to be the set of "big changes."