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

[FitzTheRuke]

How long did it take to sell 48 Volos? Actually, how long did it take to sell 30 Volos?

Since the week it came out in 2016, and I think we've been out of it for a year or so. But I suspect that at least half of those were in the first couple of months. Still, it seems that Monsters of the Multiverse is selling similarly. I can't give you an exact apples-to-apples (say, first six months) sales for both without more archival work than I'm willing to do, sorry!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yes, it is. Pretty much every release of the game has a shorthand. Of course you have the Capital "E" editions shortened to 1E, 2E, etc. The variations of Basic have shorthand (BX, BECMI, etc). 3E's revision is simply 3.5. Up till now, probably the longest names for releases have been Black Box and Essentials. 5E(2014) is unnecessarily a mouthful that doesn't even do the intended job of avoiding the 3E/3.5E situation of making people consider the two releases as needing to be treated differently at the table.

A lot of people have been using 5.24 if you find the extra couple of characters to be too much for you.

 

[overgeeked]

Yes, it’s a new edition. In the same way 2E and 3.5 were new editions. It’s about the same level of changes.

But, importantly, it doesn’t actually matter if it’s a new edition or not.

 

[FrogReaver]

Meh. We'll just have to agree to disagree. Either way it's not a huge enough change. It's still recognizably the same game with more or less the same playability.

How much would need to change for you to consider it a new edition?

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

So you didn't say "I don't expect 5.5e to last very long"? Because I could have sworn you said "as long as 3.0e" which was 3 years.

Nobody can predict the future but the game is still going strong and the 2024 revision isn't a major upheaval. It was due for a bit of a revision after a decade. Will this iteration last another 10 years? I think that's more likely than the game collapsing and there never being another update.

Well, what I didn't say was that Dungeons and Dragons is in a Doomsday scenario. I also didn't predict the imminent death of Dungeons and Dragons. You said those things.

I did say that the 5.5 edition will probably last about as long as the 3.0 edition. It will be a short edition.

The problem is it will be hard to tell when this one ends and the next begins because, I believe, there will be no future editions. Instead, we'll get updates to our digital assets and maybe a splatbook or two.

It is my opinion that Wizards of the Coast is wisely committed to the Second Great Digitization of the Game.

 

[Lakesidefantasy]

Since the week it came out in 2016, and I think we've been out of it for a year or so. But I suspect that at least half of those were in the first couple of months. Still, it seems that Monsters of the Multiverse is selling similarly. I can't give you an exact apples-to-apples (say, first six months) sales for both without more archival work than I'm willing to do, sorry!

Fair enough.

 

[mamba]

Yes, it is. Pretty much every release of the game has a shorthand.

and we pretty much never need it, it’s just D&D in its current incarnation 95% of the time it is getting used. The few times you need to actually distinguish them it makes little difference whether I had to type / say 5.5 or 5e 24

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Fair enough.

It's not that I don't want to do the effort. It's that it's likely not worth it as I can guess that it's probable that Volo's would beat MotM, but only by a few copies.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It is my opinion that Wizards of the Coast is wisely committed to the Second Great Digitization of the Game.

I am 100% certain that you're wrong. Not in the declaration above - they are committed to digital. But I think that you are wrong about what that means, and about the timeline that things will progress at.

We will see all sorts of digital initiatives in the near future, sure. But books, dice, and pencils will continue to chug along.

 

[Nightfly]

When I was a teenager, New Edition did a free promotional set at my high school. I rolled my eyes at it, but in retrospect, that was obviously a mistake. A staggering amount of talent came out of that group: Bobby Brown! Johnny Gill! Bell Biv DeVoe! I wish I could tell my 15-year-old self to pay attention.