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

457249269_918504900314811_875922287646718169_n.jpg

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 be included. From the update:


Last week we released a Changelog detailing how players would experience the 2024 Core Rulebooks on D&D Beyond. We heard your feedback loud and clear and thank you for speaking up.

Our excitement around the 2024 Core Rulebooks led us to view these planned updates as welcome improvements and free upgrades to existing content. We misjudged the impact of this change, and we agree that you should be free to choose your own way to play. Taking your feedback to heart, here’s what we’re going to do:

Players who only have access to the 2014 Player’s Handbook will maintain their character options, spells, and magical items in their character sheets. Players with access to the 2024 and 2014 digital Player’s Handbooks can select from both sources when creating new characters. Players will not need to rely on Homebrew to use their 2014 player options, including spells and magic items, as recommended in previous changelogs.

Please Note:

Players will continue to have access to their free, shared, and purchased items on D&D Beyond, with the ability to use previously acquired player options when creating characters and using character sheets.

We are not changing players’ current character sheets, except for relabeling and renaming. Examples include Races to Species, Inspiration to Heroic Inspiration, and Cast Spell to Magic.

We’re dedicated to making D&D Beyond the ultimate digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons, continuously enhancing the platform to ensure you can create, customize, and play your game just as you envision it. From your first one-shot to multi-year campaigns and everything in between, we're grateful to be on this journey with you.

- The D&D Studio
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Darryl Mott

Darryl Mott


log in or register to remove this ad


Or... they figure in a year or two the number of 2014 users on DDB is going to be such a miniscule number (yes we know everyone on the internet is staying with 2014...) that the time, effort and money to keep it in DDB wasn't considered worth it... basically what happened with 3e and 3.5 as far as user adoption.

That seems more likely, even if they also thought they were giving people a free upgrade. This also sets a precedence for future revisions, that everything that was ever in DDB stays. Long run it could be annoying, it's already on my wish list that they would give me more global options on whether or not I want to see legacy content or even specific books.
 

the ‘should have never happened’ part applies to the OGL as well, can’t really say it does not apply to DDB either… the excuses change, but that part remains the same

Well, I add the OGL to the list of dumb things that were never actually implemented, I was asking about the statement of "yet another change they had to back out" when it's been two over the past two years. Unless there's something I'm forgetting of course.
 

It almost feels like someone at the mid-tier level is encouraging the higher-ups to take the worse, less subtle option in these instances, purely so that when the backlash hits they'll have to walk it all the way back.
 

I can actually understand their perspective on this (as they state in the message, "Our excitement around the 2024 Core Rulebooks led us to view these planned updates as welcome improvements and free upgrades to existing content."). Call it the Apple / Bono problem- they couldn't imagine that everyone wouldn't be happy with something free! Of course, they forgot that some people had ongoing campaigns and such ...
Why would they think people would be happy to lose access to the older stuff, though? That's what I don't get. (I don't use D&D Beyond, but I gather the problem was that they were going to make the 2014 stuff completely disappear?)
 

Why would they think people would be happy to lose access to the older stuff, though? That's what I don't get. (I don't use D&D Beyond, but I gather the problem was that they were going to make the 2014 stuff completely disappear?)

The books were still going to be there, they were just going to show the new version of spells (and feats?) on the character sheets. So if you were playing and wanted to use the 2014 rules you'd have to go to the source book if there was an updated version.
 


The books were still going to be there, they were just going to show the new version of spells (and feats?) on the character sheets. So if you were playing and wanted to use the 2014 rules you'd have to go to the source book if there was an updated version.
So yeah, they were planning on taking away what people already had (on their character sheets). Why on earth would they assume that was a good idea?
 

Why would they think people would be happy to lose access to the older stuff, though? That's what I don't get. (I don't use D&D Beyond, but I gather the problem was that they were going to make the 2014 stuff completely disappear?)
Well it's a subscription service... not a purchase of ownership and contrary to how people feel about it that's how they work... there is no agreement into perpetuity for any of this... WotC keeping the old stuff around is actually out of the ordinary for the vast majority of sub services...
 

Remove ads

Remove ads

Top