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 be included. From the update:

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...

www.enworld.org

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

 

[deadman1204]

How many times has wizards pulled this crap in the last year or two? This won't be the last, and any apologists for wizards seem pretty out of touch.
Either way, this isn't as big as people think. The basic mechanics of the game WILL overwrite in ddb. Exhuastion and all sorts of other little things will change with no option. Its gonna leak in. As well, its still only a matter of time until wizards tries this sort of thing again. Again, how many times have they done crap like this in the last couple years...?
Its very common in the software industry to make old versions harder and inconvienent to use. A great example is iphones/ipads. Apple releases and update to destroy the battery life of older models to force people to buy new ones. Wizards will continue to do things to force ddb customers to buy new books. Chances are the next time wizards does this, they won't telegraph it ahead of time, they'll just sneak it in.

 

[Lidgar]

WotC PR department :

 

[Nefermandias]

But according to their statements, management plays D&D weird.

Hell even Crawford and Perkins play very differently than common table.

Remember WOTC didn't get that people would even want to play suboptimal race/class combos but want to be mechanically strong.

I have watched Perkins running Storm King's Thunder and it was really good.

Instead of slavishly sticking to the rules as written, he instead relied on DM fiat and strong adjudication based on the current fiction.

That's how the game is supposed to actually work. People just forget or pretend to ignore that "The DM has the final say" is also a written rule. In fact, the single most important of them all.

 

[Oofta]

They said they are going to release the SRDs in CC. They also said that there was no plan to change the OGL. Why exactly should I trust them? Just putting the word "irrevocable" into the OGL or at least stating publicly that they don't have the power to deauthorize the OGL would have been pretty easy. And it's not like the 3.5 SRD contains stuff like Strahd.

The few companies that rely on the OGL for 3.x stuff have been relying on it for years. As I said above, they probably should have put it in CC to begin with. They've stated that they intend to move it over, it's just not a high priority. Why would it be a high priority for them? There's no reason to change anything for the older stuff since there's no real money for WotC to be gained from changing it. Once it's in CC there's no going back so of course they want to go over it with a fine tooth comb.

 

[mamba]

They said they are going to release the SRDs in CC.

they said they would look into it

They also said that there was no plan to change the OGL. Why exactly should I trust them? Just putting the word "irrevocable" into the OGL or at least stating publicly that they don't have the power to deauthorize the OGL would have been pretty easy.

and why would you trust either of these? They said the same thing about the current OGL…

 

[deadman1204]

I have watched Perkins running Storm King's Thunder and it was really good.

Instead of slavishly sticking to the rules as written, he instead relied on DM fiat and strong adjudication based on the current fiction.

That's how the game is supposed to actually work. People just forget or pretend to ignore that "The DM has the final say" is also a written rule. In fact, the single most important of them all.

yes, I tend to find that actual play doesn't work like the whiteboard stuff people talk about online. Everyone wants to make the game work and isn't as focused on maximizing white board bs like they are online

 

[mamba]

If you want people to see a Statement, you don't post it Sunday Night unless it's football.

still not seeing the correlation to the effort involved in the change, while there clearly is one to the level of public interest in the issue

 

[Alzrius]

Putting it in something like CC from the get go probably would have been a better idea.

 

[Alzrius]

Which nobody trusts, because the company behind it is untrustworthy. Effectively, the OGL is dead because without trust, nobody has reason to put faith in it.

To be fair, I still get notices from DriveThruRPG several times a week about new OGL products, albeit almost all of them from smaller publishers. Particularly when they're releasing third-party supplements to products which are themselves third-party products (e.g. Pathfinder 1E).

 

[Oofta]

How many times has wizards pulled this crap in the last year or two? This won't be the last, and any apologists for wizards seem pretty out of touch.

So what have they done? I asked above because I don't pay that much attention and thought maybe I had forgotten something. Other than the reversed OGL proposal and now this, what "crap" have they pulled over the past two years? They made a mistake with the hadozee if you want to include that but to me that was more of a cultural ignorance issue and a copy/paste error with lack of editorial review.

Either way, this isn't as big as people think. The basic mechanics of the game WILL overwrite in ddb. Exhuastion and all sorts of other little things will change with no option. Its gonna leak in. As well, its still only a matter of time until wizards tries this sort of thing again. Again, how many times have they done crap like this in the last couple years...?
Its very common in the software industry to make old versions harder and inconvienent to use. A great example is iphones/ipads. Apple releases and update to destroy the battery life of older models to force people to buy new ones. Wizards will continue to do things to force ddb customers to buy new books. Chances are the next time wizards does this, they won't telegraph it ahead of time, they'll just sneak it in.

There is no way they can force anyone to buy anything. Unlike Apple they can't send out a software update that causes your system to degrade. Depending on decisions they make I may reevaluate whether DDB is worth it, but that's my choice.