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

[Clint_L]

So when exactly are the next edition books coming out?

Sigh.

 

[Aldarc]

Slightly. But still I see measuring with two different scales. And quite some bias.

Thankfully you are free of any such bias your own assessments, am I right?

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

World of Warcraft and other MMO's have expansions, not editions. If WoTC said called One D&D an expansion of 5e, there might have been less confusion all around. Instead, they rolled a 1 several times and hoped no one would really notice.

1D&D isn't like an expansion though. It doesn't add (much) new content, it revises the old content. MMO's do that as well with patches and updates, but MMO players don't get the option of sticking with an older version, so there is not much need to differentiate the versions. A book like Tasha's is a much better analogue for an MMO expansion.

Over time, an MMO can evolve to the point where it's essentially a different game than it started out as, which is why Blizzard released WoW Classic some time ago as a separate game for gamers who wanted to play WoW the way it was at release.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Thankfully you are free of any such bias your own assessments, am I right?

Yes. Totally. Glad you see that.

Edit: I see them as small animals that jump at their prey when they are weakened and sick. So they fulfill an important role in the ecosystem. Encouraging the big animals to stay healthy.

 

[Corinnguard]

It's less intelligence and more WOTC putting themselves and others in a box and being unable to step back an look.

More like a Bag of Holding with way too much stuff in it. They're reaching into it, but they aren't sure what item they want to pull out?

 

[delericho]

Slightly different set of circumstances, mate. The desire for PF2 remasters has a lot to do with the OGL fiasco, moving PF away from WotC's IPs, and moving PF2 to the new ORC license.

I get the impression that it started like that. But as soon as they realised they were needing to put out new books, and needing to make some changes, anyway, they figured they might as well clean a bunch of other things up.

The PF Remasters certainly feel an awful lot like 2.5e to me. Just as the 2024 D&D books feel an awful lot like 5.5e. YMMV, of course.

 

[Minigiant]

1D&D isn't like an expansion though. It doesn't add (much) new content, it revises the old content. MMO's do that as well with patches and updates, but MMO players don't get the option of sticking with an older version, so there is not much need to differentiate the versions. A book like Tasha's is a much better analogue for an MMO expansion.

Over time, an MMO can evolve to the point where it's essentially a different game than it started out as, which is why Blizzard released WoW Classic some time ago as a separate game for gamers who wanted to play WoW the way it was at release.

They are adding new races, monsters, spells, equipment, and subclasses to the core. As well as new fundamental class features.

If this were a Vidya Game it would be

Dungeon and Dragons 5: Mastery, Muskets, and Multiverses.

 

[mamba]

So when exactly are the next edition books coming out?

”Unknown” appears to be the answer.

staggered in 2024, we do not have more than that

As to learning 5e now being a waste, much of the mechanics and all of the actual DMing will stay the same. What will change the most is what your class and subclass look like.

If she e.g. plays a Rogue now and a Sorcerer in the next version, she won’t notice much of a difference, what she learned from the Rogue and applies to the Sorcerer transfers over and what doesn’t would not have helped her with a 5e Sorcerer either

There is certainly a lot more that transfers from 5e to 1DD than from 3e, so she might as well start with 5e

 

[R_J_K75]

I'd be much happier with them if they just called it 5.5 and were done with it.

Me too. I'm still watching things as they progress, albeit not very close, and I've pretty much decided this probably isn't for me, but yeah call it 5.5, 6E or D&DAGAIN.

 

[deganawida]

Me too. I'm still watching things as they progress, albeit not very close, and I've pretty much decided this probably isn't for me, but yeah call it 5.5, 6E or D&DAGAIN.

That just spurred a thought. I seem to recall that Ryan Dancey had a major critique of TSR, in that they were competing with themselves via two products lines, and multiple campaign settings. WotC was going to avoid that with 3rd edition (back when it was just 3rd edition, not even 3.0 yet).

However, how is WotC not competing with themselves nowadays? 3.0 to 3.5 wasn’t a huge shift (though I do believe that it was more significant than most credit it for), but then they released 4th, followed by Essentials (which was a restatement and rearrangement of 4th), with Next (not a product most saw due to only being playtest), followed by 5th, and now 5E 2024.

That’s at least three, possibly four, different product lines in 23 years. While it is true that support for previous products has ended, we still have people playing different versions, which had significant mechanical and lore differences.

Just a thought.