D&D 5E (2024) So IS it a new edition?

[payn]

 

[Mephista]

When it comes to computer programs, there's an interesting quirk. By convention, all odd numbered versions (ie something like OS 1.024) are the glitchy versions with all the cool new features that might or might not work right. The even numbered version (ie OS 2.011) is the polished version with little new, but everything works well. (in theory anyways) Then OS 3.xxx is going back to new exiting features that aren't properly working.

5e14 was the odd number, 5e24 is the even number. They'd be called different versions (or editions, or whatever) in just about any other field. Not just Advanced D&D, or .5e, or Essentials. Always with a different name, but it means the same bloody thing once you get past the marketing ploys.

 

[TiQuinn]

It’s a new edition. It’s not an expansion with new rules, and it’s not errata. It is meant to replace the 2014 rules. That is a new edition, any way you want to cut it. That’s not a bad thing, it’s simply the way the game evolves and changes.

 

[Maxperson]

New edition in the book-publishing sense (different typesetting, pagination, art, etc.)? Yes, obviously.

New edition in the idiosyncratic way that RPG players mean, where a new edition is a new version of a game's base ruleset? No, not in the way that WotC has used the term "edition" historically. (The argument could be made that the leap is similar to that between AD&D 1st Ed. and 2nd Ed., but I'm not sure if TSR's usage is relevant here.)

WotC has never changed edition numbers without also creating a whole new incompatible game system, with entirely different XP advancement tables, saving throw mechanics, attack roll calculations, spellcasting mechanics, etc. This new 5.5 edition is . . . clearly not that relative to 5.0. In fact, the change from 3.0 to 3.5 is a pretty apt analogy.

3.5e was backwards compatible with 3e in the sense that WotC is using the term with 5.5e. There wasn't much you had to do to convert things.

 

[FrogReaver]

Another fun question - Is Madden 2024 (or whoever year they are on) a new edition of Madden?

 

[TerraDave]

I think people are tired of the discussion, but only just waking up to the real implications. There will be 2014 tables, 2024 tables, and a whole variety of permutations in between.

 

[payn]

Another fun question - Is Madden 2024 (or whoever year they are on) a new edition of Madden?

More importantly; why dont Madden fans care???

 

[payn]

I think people are tired of the discussion, but only just waking up to the real implications. There will be 2014 tables, 2024 tables, and a whole variety of permutations in between.

So, same as it always was?

 

[FrogReaver]

So, same as it always was?

Not on this scale.

 

[Oofta]

Eh. I don't really care. I'm calling it 5E24 and don't really care if that's similar to car model years or a new edition.

Previous changes from 2 to 3, 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 were far more significant changes. It's a scale of change thing to me. In previous editions, many of the changes could just have been made in a splat books such as the Book of Swords in 3.5 or the Essentials line in 4E.

It's still rock and roll D&D 5E to me. At least until I start playing.