D&D (2024) WotC is right to avoid the word "edition."

[jasper]

Calling it a new edition could scare some people, I can see why they would want to avoid it. They don't want to fracture the player base and by looking at the playtest I'm afraid they may fracture it by some fraction (less than half). They had me sold with "compatability" but I'm starting to have my doubts.

THIS THIS THIS
It is Market Evil Corporation Speak to avoid "EDITION". If 5.5 E is not fully backwards combatable then it will be 6E.
Remember Waterdeep Dragon Heist contain no heist.
Remember all the bad marketing speech on the books which did not match what they promise.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Interesting take, care to divulge any further?

from my POV I will use 3/3.5 BUT i heard this was true of 1e/2e to a lesser extent

About half of us (including me) bought the 3.5 books. The people who didn't quickly had to just stop bringing the 3.0 book. If we leveled or needed a rule looked up (because of dispute or just not remembering) no one would use the 3.0 book.

Gencon, Origins, and at least 5 local con's the year later all had 90+% games being 3.5 NOT 3.0.

when the first splat came out (Complete Warrior) some amount of the page count was just updates to Sword and Fist... at that time almost all of us owned sword and fist... but if even 1 of us bought CW, it would mean THEY had the updates (and a lot were small) and again would force the group to ask "Do we use the old rule and trust it didn't change, or do we check the updated one"

 

[CrashFiend82]

I am curious how or if the Playtest, run up to 2024E will help assuage people. I remember they announced 3.5 in Dragon a few months ahead, but at the time a number of my group were taken by surprise an it made them angry. Also with 3.0 and 4e printing so many mechanical books it invalidated so much. Lastly it really hurt my local gaming store because they had shelves of now useless books and 3PP material. How many books would this new edition really invalidate the core 3, maybe Tasha's and Xanathar. I heard they all ready ended printings of Volo's and Morty's books making them Legacy, but that still leaves more than half of 5e books useful.

 

[MockingBird]

I don't really know how to feel about this "compatability". With feats not being optional it puts a bad taste in my mouth. I'm going to have to see how the playtest goes. If you can play a 2014 phb character at the same table of a 2024 phb character I'll be okay with that but I get the feeling that won't be the case. Another concern I have is D&D Beyond, I have the phb on there. Are they going to mark it "legacy"? I would assume so. Trying not to knee jerk but I'm feeling like I'll just stick to 5e. If the Adventures are compatible I might pick those up but that might be the extent. I was all in on 5e, I bought damn near every book.

 

[beancounter]

Ultimately, it will have an edition number, even if it's informal/unofficial.

This kind of reminds me of when Microsoft claimed Windows 10 would be the last version...

 

[Corinnguard]

And let's not forget that some people have been calling Pathfinder 1st Edition, 3.75 D&D.

Has anyone who has gotten Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition seen or thought of it as 5.5 D&D?

 

[Parmandur]

from my POV I will use 3/3.5 BUT i heard this was true of 1e/2e to a lesser extent

About half of us (including me) bought the 3.5 books. The people who didn't quickly had to just stop bringing the 3.0 book. If we leveled or needed a rule looked up (because of dispute or just not remembering) no one would use the 3.0 book.

Gencon, Origins, and at least 5 local con's the year later all had 90+% games being 3.5 NOT 3.0.

when the first splat came out (Complete Warrior) some amount of the page count was just updates to Sword and Fist... at that time almost all of us owned sword and fist... but if even 1 of us bought CW, it would mean THEY had the updates (and a lot were small) and again would force the group to ask "Do we use the old rule and trust it didn't change, or do we check the updated one"

I started after 3.5 came out, and everyone was mixing willy-nilly. Convention usage doesn't really speak to normal usage at tables.

If they make the Edition set hat Beyond tools allow free mixing, people will need able to do so easily.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't really know how to feel about this "compatability". With feats not being optional it puts a bad taste in my mouth. I'm going to have to see how the playtest goes. If you can play a 2014 phb character at the same table of a 2024 phb character I'll be okay with that but I get the feeling that won't be the case. Another concern I have is D&D Beyond, I have the phb on there. Are they going to mark it "legacy"? I would assume so. Trying not to knee jerk but I'm feeling like I'll just stick to 5e. If the Adventures are compatible I might pick those up but that might be the extent. I was all in on 5e, I bought damn near every book.

We already have evidence it will be the case, because we have already been mixing OneD&D designs in releases the past two years using the 2014 Core. Seems entirely reasonable it should work the other way around.

 

[Mistwell]

C'mon everyone! It's going to be branded as 50th Anniversary Dungeons & Dragons (and everyone knows it!).

Let's just get used to calling it 50th already and be done with this "is it or isn't it an edition". It both is and isn't depending on what you think the word edition means and how much you think you should have to work to achieve backwards compatibility.

Either way, it will be 50th An. D&D. Nothing will stop that.

50 AD&D. Yes let's go with that. 50 AD&D will confuse everyone. In a good way.

 

[Mistwell]

THIS THIS THIS
It is Market Evil Corporation Speak to avoid "EDITION". If 5.5 E is not fully backwards combatable then it will be 6E.
Remember Waterdeep Dragon Heist contain no heist.
Remember all the bad marketing speech on the books which did not match what they promise.

I mean, 3.5 was not fully backwards compatible with 3e but it was a half edition rather than a full edition.

I remember being slightly bitter those soft cover expansion books from 3e (which were quite good) were no longer acceptable at any 3.5 table despite WOTC claiming they were still part of the game. Propose a character on a message board for 3.5e and use something from one of those 3e books and people would scoff and dismiss you. They could call it backwards compatible, but they couldn't make it practically compatible.