D&D (2024) How D&D Beyond Will Handle Access To 2014 Rules

D&D Beyond has announced how the transition to the new 2024 edition will work on the platform, and how legacy access to the 2014 version of D&D will be implemented.

• You will still be able to access the 2014 Basic Rules and core rulebooks.
• You will still be able to make characters using the 2014 Player's Handbook.
• Existing home-brew content will not be impacted.
• These 2014 rules will be accessible and will be marked with a 'legacy' badge: classes, subclasses, species, backgrounds, feats, monsters.
• Tooltips will reflect the 2024 rules.
• Monster stat blocks will be updated to 2024.
• There will be terminology changes (Heroic Inspiration, Species, etc.)

D&D (2024) - Wizards of the Coast Backtracks on D&D Beyond and 2014 Content

Wizards of the Coast posted an overnight update stating that they are not going forward with previously released plans to require those wishing to use some 2014 content on D&D Beyond to use the Homebrew function to manually enter it. Instead, all the content including spells and magic items will...

www.enworld.org

 

[SkidAce]

Or...you know...the sky is falling and all that.

The sky is not falling no.

But I sure would like to be able to use Sleep 2014 version with my 2014 characters instead of Sleep 2024...

 

[John Lloyd1]

Heavy duty stapler then use binding paste to paste it into a large sheet of heavy paper, then paste that into medium weight cardboard with binding paste and finish with printed stickers or include folded paper in the borders and paste into heavy board with light cement and then cover with vynil or leather.

I've been sewing my text blocks. I should put up some pictures at some point.

 

[pukunui]

Again, while I don't feel that it's much of a defense, I suspect it would turn out that it was a logistical problem (unfathomable programming-wise) over a conscious decision. Not so much because they're trying to gouge us for money, but because it would cost more than they are willing to pay to make things work. Which is pathetic, in a lot of ways, but not sinister.

You'd think that it wouldn't be hard to make a toggle to keep things 2024, but I bet that it's harder than we imagine.

"Too hard" shouldn't be an option when they're swimming in profits.

I think what upsets me the most is that, while I was most likely going to switch over to the new rules, I wanted to do so on my own terms and at my own pace. WotC is taking that option away from me. I either have to switch when they want me to or just stop using their tools.

Even though I do like most of the 2024 rules updates, this has left a sour enough taste in my mouth that I am actually considering walking away from DDB, which is not something even the OGL fiasco made me consider doing.

 

[mamba]

At small(er) companies you can often do everything yourself, so very agile. At bigger companies everything has been segmented, what you did yourself at a smaller company, now requires multiple different people, often in different departments. Just getting everyone lined up to do something together is already a task that will take time.

yeah, that much is true, I was asking about them being at the point that adding more people would not accelerate the task, as that seemed to be what you were suggesting

More people is only useful if they can do things the rest can't or if there's a general lack of (wo)manpower, there is zero indication that this is the case.

is there any indication in either direction?

I am not sure how many people are working on DDB or what they are actually doing, but I see no indication that they are at max capacity and adding more people would accomplish nothing

 

[FitzTheRuke]

"Too hard" shouldn't be an option when they're swimming in profits.

I don't disagree.

I think what upsets me the most is that, while I was most likely going to switch over to the new rules, I wanted to do so on my own terms and at my own pace. WotC is taking that option away from me. I either have to switch when they want me to or just stop using their tools.

Even though I do like most of the 2024 rules updates, this has left a sour enough taste in my mouth that I am actually considering walking away from DDB, which is not something even the OGL fiasco made me consider doing.

I feel ya. It's a shame that they don't recognize how important it is to treat their customers with as much respect as possible. They flub it far too often. I don't think it's malice, most of the time, I think it's desperation. Those that are doing the job are trying desperately to NOT be in the next, inevitable, round of layoffs for the almighty quarterly increase.

 

[Queer Venger]

this is great, glad 2014 content will accessible and backwards compatible!!

 

[Queer Venger]

Same.
Our DM wanted us to stick with 2014 through the campaign, but our DnD Beyond heavy use among players will make this hard

my group and I just wrapped up our curse of strahd 3 year campaign. My players all agreed they wanted to jump to 2024 (a few were following the UA devs). So we all sat down and agreed to 2024 rules and Ive coincided our new campaign (spelljammer) with the new rules. I agree sticking with the older rules will m make this difficult if you rely on Beyond as much as my group does.

 

[Mistwell]

Anyone taking bets on how quickly homebrew rules are added to the database covering the 2014 rules?

I'll bet 4 days.

 

[Remathilis]

The sky is not falling no.

But I sure would like to be able to use Sleep 2014 version with my 2014 characters instead of Sleep 2024...

Please forgive me if I'm being obtuse here, but the issue is purely the tooltip, right? Your 2014 character will still have the 2014 features and 2014 options. You just need to have the compendium open in a separate tab rather than hovering over. That's really not much more inconvenient than using a PDF or the SRD. It's not like they are going to convert your character to 2024 or remove access to the compendium, they are just going to adjust the tooltips to the most recent version of the rules rather than keep two separate ones.

It's not like it changes what rules your DM is going to use just because the tooltip now says it's a wisdom save rather tham HP scaling.

I get it is a little more inconvenient, but as someone who played Pathfinder off the PRD and runs 5e out of physical books, I don't consider having the virtual books and character sheet open simultaneously a deal breaker. So unless I'm really missing some element, it just seems that it's not going to be as big an inconvenience as some make it out to be.

I mean, you still have the compendium. Ask 4e players how much they miss that.

 

[pukunui]

Please forgive me if I'm being obtuse here, but the issue is purely the tooltip, right? Your 2014 character will still have the 2014 features and 2014 options. You just need to have the compendium open in a separate tab rather than hovering over. That's really not much more inconvenient than using a PDF or the SRD. It's not like they are going to convert your character to 2024 or remove access to the compendium, they are just going to adjust the tooltips to the most recent version of the rules rather than keep two separate ones.

It's not like it changes what rules your DM is going to use just because the tooltip now says it's a wisdom save rather tham HP scaling.

I get it is a little more inconvenient, but as someone who played Pathfinder off the PRD and runs 5e out of physical books, I don't consider having the virtual books and character sheet open simultaneously a deal breaker. So unless I'm really missing some element, it just seems that it's not going to be as big an inconvenience as some make it out to be.

I mean, you still have the compendium. Ask 4e players how much they miss that.

The issue is that one of the main reasons to use D&D Beyond is the tooltip feature. And it's not just the character sheet. Any hyperlinks in 2014 monsters will also point the DM to the 2024 rules.

For me, the whole point of using D&D Beyond was for the convenience, and this makes it a helluva lot less convenient for people still using the 2014 rules as to be not really worth it. It also sucks that the change is being forced on us. I wanted to swap over to the 2024 rules in my own time and at my own pace, but I can't do that if I want to keep using D&D Beyond.