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

 

[Dire Bare]

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?

We're getting into "you can't trust anybody" level thinking here. Which, is technically true. Any company can have a change in leadership and direction, can reverse course. Will Roll20, over time, become enshittified? Perhaps.

But . . . if DDB was well run with great service and great prices . . . that would be a problem? That's some doom-and-gloom nothing can be ever truly be good level thinking!

The larger the company the more prone it is to toxic corporate behavior, but even small companies can fall prey to prioritizing profit-over-people. Or just make bad decisions that can harm workers and customers. But I'll worry about when Roll20 becomes enshittified when it happens (if it hasn't yet, I'm not a user). Or all of the other various TTRPG apps out there currently.

So . . . don't use digital media? Or digital tools that encourage you to purchase e-books tied to a specific app? That's not really a good solution for many, although respect to gamers who are paper-books-at-the-table only style players.

I would agree that the state of digital media isn't great and has lots of issues, of which you've talked about on the forums and in your podcasts (not just gaming books, but music, video, books, audio books . . . all of it). But what does the average gamer do, who wants and enjoys digital support to do? Other than, yes, keep pushing WotC to release PDFs of their current titles?

I don't think D&D 5E has become too crunchy . . . D&D has been crunchy and complicated since the AD&D days decades ago! For us dedicated nerds, we figured it out without digital support, but for more casual gamers who have flocked to the game in recent years, yeah, the current game is probably too crunchy. But look at the sturm-and-drang raised over a minor revision to the current rules! If WotC were to release a simpler, more OSR style of D&D . . . hoo-boy, the edition wars all over again.

I think the hullaballoo over the upcoming changes to D&D Beyond is overdone. I think folks convinced that the 2024 rules changes are a "new edition" and are loudly upset over it are over-reacting. But I do think we need to keep advocating, like you do on your podcast, for companies to be as consumer-friendly as possible by providing downloadable PDFs and structure their digital tools to allow folks to run what they want to run, as much as possible. Being consumer-friendly is the right thing to do, both in an ethical sense and a practical one. WotC is losing consumer trust, and it might not be feeling that right now, but things are not headed in the right direction for the company.

 

[Micah Sweet]

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?

After all the core 5.5 books are out. If you need a line, there it is.

 

[plecostomus]

My group looked at the RPGbot list of spell changes, and what we saw is the changes don't amount to much. So in that respect it's kinda whatever. Our resident coder is very unsettled and offended at the absence of version control though.

We also have a couple multiclass characters who might be affected by the progression change to the 2024 scheme, but I don't think they'll be able to sort that out until the sheet change actually happens.

 

[Parmandur]

Seems that WotC is essentially treating the material in the new books as errata.

 

[Nikosandros]

Seems that WotC is essentially treating the material in the new books as errata.

Part of it as errata, part of it not. The spells, magic items and "basic rules" are all being treated as errata. The classes, subclasses, feats and backgrounds are not. I don't really have any insight, so I won't speculate about the reasons. I.e. some of this might be due to management decisions some of it might be due to issues with coding.

What I know is that it will make my 2014 purchases on DDB far, far less valuable, since I'm currently playing in a campaign that will keep using the older rules.

I also think that it safe to bet that if you (generic you) either don't use DDB or plan to switch right now to the 2024 rules, all of this is completely irrelevant to you.

 

[SlyFlourish]

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..

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.

I'm pretty sure I'd prefer competing alternatives to a single centralized pillar we can never trust not to hose us.

 

[SlyFlourish]

We're getting into "you can't trust anybody" level thinking here.

BTW, I'm 51 years old and I made a meme. I'm very proud of myself.

 

[Larnievc]

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

Shadowrun uses (or at least it used to) ‘archetypes’. You could easily whip up a few iconic builds on a full page spread so players could jump right in.

Not quite pregens but archetypes.

 

[SlyFlourish]

We're getting into "you can't trust anybody" level thinking here. Which, is technically true. Any company can have a change in leadership and direction, can reverse course. Will Roll20, over time, become enshittified? Perhaps.

Roll20 could definitely become enshittified or die or change in some other way we don't like. WOTC could pull their licenses and you'd lose all your stuff and it wouldn't even be Roll20's fault.

But . . . if DDB was well run with great service and great prices . . . that would be a problem? That's some doom-and-gloom nothing can be ever truly be good level thinking!

Yes. Because there's no guarantee they'd always be a great service with great prices. Anything can happen to cause them to start to suck and you're going along for the ride. The more you invest in it, in time, money, emotion, expertise, or just plain inertia, the more you have to eat what they serve. It may be tasty now but may be bitter later.

But I'll worry about when Roll20 becomes enshittified when it happens (if it hasn't yet, I'm not a user). Or all of the other various TTRPG apps out there currently.

We're seeing right now, with D&D Beyond making it impossible to build or run pure D&D 2014 classes in the character builder, what happens when a service that people generally liked starts to change. So this is it. For some, it's probably not a big deal. For others, it obviously is.

So . . . don't use digital media? Or digital tools that encourage you to purchase e-books tied to a specific app? That's not really a good solution for many, although respect to gamers who are paper-books-at-the-table only style players.

For D&D there are other alternatives. Not all of them are fantastic or as user-friendly as we would like. Foundry and Fantasy Grounds let you download your own copies of their clients with your own libraries of material. They can change but you can always go back to the old ones. Foundry works hard to make it easy to back up your stuff. Other solutions like More Purple More Better are fully downloadable so as long as you ran render their PDF in Adobe, you're good.

And yes, there's always paper. I think our own grip on the hobby is stronger when we're willing to use paper. We did it for a long time.

I would agree that the state of digital media isn't great and has lots of issues, of which you've talked about on the forums and in your podcasts (not just gaming books, but music, video, books, audio books . . . all of it). But what does the average gamer do, who wants and enjoys digital support to do? Other than, yes, keep pushing WotC to release PDFs of their current titles?

What can we do?

• Stop trusting online services to not change.
• Have fall-backs we're ready to jump to.
• Get used to using paper again.
• Work with our players to let them use what they want but also show them alternatives.

There is no average gamer. There is us, and our friends. That's who matters. Our jobs as GMs isn't to solve the industry's problems. Our job is to run awesome games for our friends.

I don't think D&D 5E has become too crunchy . . . D&D has been crunchy and complicated since the AD&D days decades ago! For us dedicated nerds, we figured it out without digital support, but for more casual gamers who have flocked to the game in recent years, yeah, the current game is probably too crunchy. But look at the sturm-and-drang raised over a minor revision to the current rules! If WotC were to release a simpler, more OSR style of D&D . . . hoo-boy, the edition wars all over again.

You're right. I've just been reading over the original D&D 3.5 books and if we can do that on paper, we can do a lot of things.

But if its reasonable to use paper character sheets, why are people so mad about this?

I think the hullaballoo over the upcoming changes to D&D Beyond is overdone. I think folks convinced that the 2024 rules changes are a "new edition" and are loudly upset over it are over-reacting.

You can feel about it how you feel about it. So can I. And so can everyone else. I think people are free to be upset about this and its not unreasonable to feel that way. But no one should be surprised. If they are, this is a good wake-up call.

But I do think we need to keep advocating, like you do on your podcast, for companies to be as consumer-friendly as possible by providing downloadable PDFs and structure their digital tools to allow folks to run what they want to run, as much as possible. Being consumer-friendly is the right thing to do, both in an ethical sense and a practical one. WotC is losing consumer trust, and it might not be feeling that right now, but things are not headed in the right direction for the company.

Thank you! I still believe WOTC is doing and has done a whole lot of great things for this hobby:

• 5.1 SRD in the CC in five languages.
• Supporting Foundry, Fantasy Grounds, and Roll20 with D&D 2024 alongside D&D Beyond.
• Great after-school program.
• Continuing to release and support physical books.
• A promise to release the 5.2 SRD in the CC in early 2025.

I think this, along with the blur-gate stuff from a few weeks ago, and most of their missteps in the past year and a half have all been the signs of a confused company who can't get out of its own way and steps on a lot of rakes in the process. I don't see the malevolence here that we saw with the OGL. This is just clumsiness.

 

[Umbran]

There is no average gamer.

More specifically, there is no average gamer who just happens to share your own preferences in how things should be handled. You and your group are individuals, and so the chances that anyone else's choice of process or design would 100% meet your desires is basically nil.