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

 

[SlyFlourish]

The poster I was replying to was mocking that everyone expected this. That's the links I'm looking for - that it was common knowledge that everyone knew months ago that your existing characters would be partially converted.

Thank you for bringing in actual knowledge, but it's not targeting what the person was claiming.

I tried! I talked about it on my show a lot and a lot of people told me I was crying wolf.

 

[Minigiant]

the playtest started 2 years or so ago, sounds like you had a reason for at least two years

2 years ago, they didn't know what they were going to change.

I think by the time they looked at DNDB, they didn't have to staff to fix it.

 

[SlyFlourish]

Roll20's new character sheet launches Sep 17; 2014 rules fully supported. Open Beta is here if you want to play around with it: https://app.roll20.net/characters/create/dnd2024byroll20

One of the things I worry about, similar to some people's migration off of X and onto Threads, is that we're trading one online centrally-managed service for another. Sure, Roll20 may offer better capability now, but they don't always have to. Things change. Budgets change. Companies change. And our services can change along with them, with little to no warning.

In a way, I think this whole situation is good because it's showing a lot of people that you can't trust a service you can't trust. If D&D Beyond was doing everything perfectly for fantastic prices, I still think it'd be dangerous because it would further centralize the hobby around a single company and a single service.

This is what I wrote about a year ago. As part of that I ran a YouTube poll (yes, I know its not a perfect survey, you don't need to correct me) on how many people used D&D Beyond back in October 2023 and ran it again just a couple of days ago. Regular D&D Beyond usage went from 38% to 36%, not enough to really tell us anything other than it's about the same and it's about one in three of those who bothered to answer the poll (2400ish people).

Something else this brings up in my mind is whether D&D and 5e is, for many people, just too complicated a system to reasonably expect them them to manage it on paper. I think all the recent 5e variants may suffer from this. My wife is spending a ton of time converting her 5th level A5e paladin over to a new sheet and still running out of room. So much cross-referencing. So many things in so many places. Has the game gotten too crunchy and thus more players rely on digital tools?

There are lots of possible things to attribute to the growth of D&D over the past ten years but I think it also corresponds to the growth of D&D Beyond. DDB made it easier for people to quickly build, run, and maintain characters where doing so on paper may have been just too hard for them.

What house rules can we put in place to help players more easily build and maintain 5e characters?

 

[bedir than]

The more I think about it, the more is suspect this clown show is directed by WotC's marketing department. They can't be saying it's "the same edition", while at the same time their in-house digital character sheet app lets users choose between 2014 and 2024 editions. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot with a +3 crossbow.

I see the opposite.
The insistence that it's not compatible doesn't hold up when I'll have a 2014 Bladesinger using 2024 Sleep spell while being a 2024 Farmer and a 2014 Kobold.

 

[Minigiant]

What house rules can we put in place to help players more easily build and maintain 5e characters?

After listening to your podcast, I've been working on a set of houseruled Weapon Masteries and class features to both speed up combat and make building characters faster.

But ultimately..

One of the things I worry about, similar to some people's migration off of X and onto Threads, is that we're trading one online centrally-managed service for another. Sure, Roll20 may offer better capability now, but they don't always have to. Things change. Budgets change. Companies change. And our services can change along with them, with little to no warning.

In a way, I think this whole situation is good because it's showing a lot of people that you can't trust a service you can't trust. If D&D Beyond was doing everything perfectly for fantastic prices, I still think it'd be dangerous because it would further centralize the hobby around a single company and a single service.

this one of my worries as a Good DNDB would not have the great houserules and concentrate WOTC'S power.

But a Bad DNDB would spawn a ton of alternatives who could be just as bad. Especially if they are competing with each other.

 

[Remathilis]

That, and it's happening piecemeal before the full edition is even available, forcing a change faster than people expected or wanted.

So when would be a good time to pull the switch? After the Monster Manual? A year from now? How long would I have to wait to make a 2024 character after getting my books?

 

[Remathilis]

About the spells given for ''free'':
- Does it only include SRD and already-bought spells that received and update or does it include the new spells (arcane vigor, starry wisp etc) ?

If the item was in 2014, you get the 2024 version. Does not include the new feats, spells, species or subclasses.

 

[mamba]

2 years ago, they didn't know what they were going to change.

they do not need to know what changes there will be to know that they need an identifier field to be able to distinguish the two versions

Roll20 could do it and they certainly did not know more than DDB

 

[Remathilis]

I still think it'd be dangerous because it would further centralize the hobby around a single company and a single service.

[...] As part of that I ran a YouTube poll

Alanis Morresette would have a field day...

 

[darjr]

lol!