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

 

[TiQuinn]

Just like with the OGL debacle, they wouldn't have changed their mind if people hadn't freaked out.

This is the big point of why people continue to bang the drum on these changes. If you do not bang the drum, that voice gets ignored.

 

[Minigiant]

I vaguely remember WotC mentioning a Free Rules 2024 (which was to replace Basic Rules 2024) in one of the explainers they published during this weeklong mess, but I can't find it upon checking. Maybe @Minigiant is right and there will be no Basic Rules 2024 immediately, but even then I agree that they will basically have to put the equivalent of Basic Rules 2024 when the 2024 SRD gets released. And honestly I don't think this isn't MEGA LOSS for free 2024 adopters.

What I am saying is the 2024 Basic rules won't be Free in the PC builder.

You will need to buy the 2024 PHB to build the awesome upgraded monk or sorcerer on DNDB.

Before it was free.

That's a MEGA LOSS.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Maybe @Minigiant is right and there will be no Basic Rules 2024 immediately

I am very confident there won't be an immediate Basic Rules 2024, because of statements Beyond have made, but yeah, the SRD will make them de facto a thing and even if WotC doesn't put them out at that point, someone else will, which would just make WotC look silly.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

What I am saying is the 2024 Basic rules won't be Free in the PC builder.

You will need to buy the 2024 PHB to build the awesome upgraded monk or sorcerer on DNDB.

Before it was free.

That's a MEGA LOSS.

Not really. You can make some kind of claim of this nature when the 2024 SRD comes out, if WotC doesn't put out some 2024 Basic Rules (including on Beyond) at that point.

It's just premature to complain about it right now.

 

[Minigiant]

A) Go through them and add (Legacy) to the end of the name

I don't think that's just it.

I think there is a hiccup between the system finding a tagged item when you're playing a 2014 character or 2024 character.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This is the big point of why people continue to bang the drum on these changes. If you do not bang the drum, that voice gets ignored.

That's definitely the pattern with WotC. You gotta complain, you gotta get mad, you've gotta get people talking about the issue, preferably on Twitter etc. Then suddenly the impossible becomes possible, long-planned changes get cancelled, and so on.

It's a pity that their management issue keep creating situations like this (I expect Sigil will manage to create quite a few by itself).

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I don't think that's just it.

I think there is a hiccup between the system finding a tagged item when you're playing a 2014 character or 2024 character.

There's literally no logical reason to believe that. You are entitled to believe it on a largely irrational (imho) basis, as an article of faith, but it doesn't make sense.

What makes sense is this was a continuation of their long-term policy of perverse miserliness re: their own time/effort, and the moment there was real, public push-back (as I noted, this was starting to get traction on Twitter and elsewhere, which the laziness with Theros and Ravenloft never did, in part because of Beyond claiming they would fix it in future, which several years later, they have not). If it was a hiccup, it was trivial to fix, clearly.

 

[Belen]

What I am saying is the 2024 Basic rules won't be Free in the PC builder.

You will need to buy the 2024 PHB to build the awesome upgraded monk or sorcerer on DNDB.

Before it was free.

That's a MEGA LOSS.

Nope. Once 2024 arrives, if you do not own 2014, then the only option will be the new stuff.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Nope. Once 2024 arrives, if you do not own 2014, then the only option will be the new stuff.

This is actually slightly unclear, from what Beyond have said.

Specifically they have repeatedly alluded to the 2014 Basic Rules continuing to exist past the release of 2024.

 

[Ondath]

What I am saying is the 2024 Basic rules won't be Free in the PC builder.

You will need to buy the 2024 PHB to build the awesome upgraded monk or sorcerer on DNDB.

Before it was free.

That's a MEGA LOSS.

Initially, you might be right. But I do not see any chance of WotC not adding the 2024 Basic Rules for free once they get released with the SRD. So no, it's not a MEGA LOSS, it's a waiting period of up to 1 year at worst.