D&D (2024) Reworked…revised…redone….but

[R_J_K75]

I'd say if I have a different cover, I also expect different content.

I would argue that if the two books have the same name, and there's no new edition, and trade dress-wise it looks quite similar, that it is a new cover on an old book.

Here's a true story. In 1997 or so I had a friend who drove tow truck for impound, and he came across a set of the revised 2E core books and took them. He called me up as we used to play together and sold them to me for maybe $25. As they didn't say 1E and 3E was still a few years away, I had no reason to think they weren't anything than a reprint. I used them for years alongside the original printing and neither me nor the other players ever noticed any difference in them. I'm going to side with @Micah Sweet on this one. That revision is 30 years removed from the current revision and there's a lot of history in between, I don't think it's quite the same,

 

[R_J_K75]

compatible worh other 4E materials.

I'm assuming you meant 5E?

 

[mamba]

As they didn't say 1E and 3E was still a few years away, I had no reason to think they weren't anything than a reprint.

of course now we do know that a revision is about to be released, I assume that would have affected your conclusion

 

[R_J_K75]

of course now we do know that a revision is about to be released, I assume that would have affected your conclusion

Im not following you

 

[g00se99994]

What does that have to do with the idea that different things should be named differently?

I think I agreed with you. I said that if at your table you want to say 5.24 only then thats ok. Dm's run the games.

 

[mamba]

Im not following you

you said you knew the new cover was a 2e PHB because 3e was still several years away. Now you know a new release is just around the corner, so when you see the new cover that should be enough to know that it is the 2024 revision, not a 2014 reprint

 

[R_J_K75]

you said you knew the new cover was a 2e PHB because 3e was still several years away. Now you know a new release is just around the corner, so when you see the new cover that should be enough to know that it is the 2024 revision, not a 2014 reprint

What I said was at the time I had no reason to believe it was nothing more than a reprint, I wasn't positive. These are different times so information comes more easily if you're actively looking in the right place, so yes, I know that 5E24 is a revision

 

[mamba]

What I said was at the time I had no reason to believe it was nothing more than a reprint

you wrote “As they didn't say 1E and 3E was still a few years away, I had no reason to think they weren't anything than a reprint.”

I take this to mean that you were interested enough to stay in the loop and knew there was no new edition being discussed. By being in the loop you now know there is a revision. So your conclusion of what the cover represents is based on your already existing knowledge.

If I showed someone who does not know anything about D&D, and has to decide this based on the covers only, the two 2e covers and the two 5e covers, I do not expect them to say the 2e covers are just reprints while the 5e are not. If anything I assume the exact opposite conclusion is the most likely

 

[Chaosmancer]

For anyone actually concerned about backwards compatibility, Crawford has basically said that as long as you read the 2024 book, and do exactly what it says, in a robotic fashion (my addition), then it will work. If you take the 2024 wizard and beep bop boop read it exactly as it says with no second guessing and then take the 2014 necromancer and beeop bop booep read it exactly as written... then everything will be fine.

The general consensus among people who have actually seen the book, is that for any DM who has even altered the HP of a monster statblock before, adjusting 99% of the material is simple, easy, and obviously straightforward.

As for the pointless debate about the name, though I am sure this will do nothing to shift the gnashing of teeth, I am going to put this up.

There is NO possible way to get confused here on Amazon. DnD Beyond will be equally clear.

"But, what about those poor souls who wander lost and confused into a gaming store?"

Yeah... those places that have employees who are knowledgeable about their products? Who likely answer questions every day, all day, about the things people are buying? Who likely are going to have massive promotional posters everywhere? Yep, those people have no hope. There is absolutely no possible way they could figure any of this out. I'd even bet there is nothing that could even give them pause to wonder if something might be different about the 5e rules they've been playing for years

Nope, we may only lament these poor, lost, confused souls who have no conception of the fate that awaits them, which is sure to be fierce and terrible, and in no way easily solvable by speaking to someone or reading the preface for the Book, which every WoTC PHB has had, which likely references the anniversary and the 10 years since 5th edition started.

Utterly hopeless I declare it thus!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't want them to be done my way, I want them done to make the best game the designers can make, to meet their design goals, and I don't want the most important of those goals to be profit.

Okay. But you assume that the designers are NOT trying to make the best game that they can, because it's not the game that you want it to be. And just because that A goal is profit, does not mean that it is the most important goal. (To the designers - it's always going to be the most important goal to the money-folk at the company, those folks don't even know what the designers even do, I bet).