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

 

[Oofta]

Do you ever buy anything from Nestle? Because their CEO said that he didn't think that humans should have a right to WATER.

What WotC does is worth complaining about, but hardly worth a boycott.

While you have a right to boycott them yourself if you feel like, you should think before you judge any of the rest of us for not agreeing that they're all that bad. In particular when you compare them to many corporations. Some of which are near impossible to avoid giving your money to.

Don't mention all the environmental destruction that comes from the devices we use to post on this forum either.

 

[cranberry]

Do you ever buy anything from Nestle? Because their CEO said that he didn't think that humans should have a right to WATER.

What WotC does is worth complaining about, but hardly worth a boycott.

While you have a right to boycott them yourself if you feel like, you should think before you judge any of the rest of us for not agreeing that they're all that bad. In particular when you compare them to many corporations. Some of which are near impossible to avoid giving your money to.

No, I don't buy anything from Nestle.

A corporation should be judged on it's own merits/lack thereof, not how it compares relative to other corporations.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Live services are rentals.

My point.

 

[Scribe]

Do you ever buy anything from Nestle? Because their CEO said that he didn't think that humans should have a right to WATER.

What WotC does is worth complaining about, but hardly worth a boycott.

While you have a right to boycott them yourself if you feel like, you should think before you judge any of the rest of us for not agreeing that they're all that bad. In particular when you compare them to many corporations. Some of which are near impossible to avoid giving your money to.

While I agree with your point, there is a difference here.

There are products (food, water, clothing) people need to survive, and there is work that needs to be done to pay for the ability to survive.

D&D, RPGs, Games, are not in those brackets of necessity, and not a single dollar needs to go to Wizards of the Coast for someone to even play an RPG.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

No, I don't buy anything from Nestle.

Are you sure?

From Hot Pockets to Purina pet food to Kit Kats to San Pellegrino to Haagen Dazs to DiGiorno Pizza to so many other things ...

You'd have to actively avoid them to not purchase something from them. Jus' sayin'.

 

[DinoInDisguise]

Do you ever buy anything from Nestle? Because their CEO said that he didn't think that humans should have a right to WATER.

This is going to tank my reaction to post ratio. xD

This is a really deep topic and needs context. And I am not commenting on the merits because thats not a debate I want. Just asking a question.

The real question here is; do people have a right to the labor that is used to clean the water? Or do they only have a right to the water that they have to clean themselves?

Those are very different statements. A right to labor has implications.

 

[Blue]

Say there are currently 100,000 people playing D&D right now. Even if every single one of them bought a ticket for the movie, at $20 a ticket that's merely $2 million dollars. A movie's success or failure does not hinge on 2 million dollars. It's the millions of times the movie gets seen by the entire world that its success hinges. D&D players pissed because of the OGL did nothing to affect the movie's success or failure.

But let's use actual numbers instead of made up ones several orders of magnitude too low.

Wizards of the Coast claims that over 50 million people have played dungeons and dragons worldwide. There are currently an estimated 13.7 million active tabletop D&D players worldwide. Since the inception of D&D in 1974, that number has continued to grow.
Source: How Many D&D Players Are There Worldwide?

So using your numbers, that's $274 million dollars at $20 a pop. And a movie's success or failure absolutely does hinge on $274 million dollars.

I hope that seeing real numbers applied to your argument you will be a big person and reverse your position, and not be petty and try to disregard your own criteria to argue it another way.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

No, I don't buy anything from Nestle.

A corporation should be judged on it's own merits/lack thereof, not how it compares relative to other corporations.

Of course. I wasn't really suggesting otherwise. It was simply an illustration that there are things IMO worth a boycott and WotC does not meet those things. You are fine to disagree, but you have made statements that make it sound like you can't understand why anyone would feel differently than you on the subject.

While I agree with your point, there is a difference here.

Of course there is!

There are products (food, water, clothing) people need to survive, and there is work that needs to be done to pay for the ability to survive.

D&D, RPGs, Games, are not in those brackets of necessity, and not a single dollar needs to go to Wizards of the Coast for someone to even play an RPG.

Sure. I don't have any problem with anyone who wants to boycott WotC. As you say, D&D is not a necessity. But that makes it go both ways, doesn't it? Their "crimes" are generally not particularly hurting anyone. At worst, they are PR disasters and customer service fails, or bad treatment of people trying to do business with them. Acting like it's some sort of moral failing to keep buying their products - it's a bit much.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

This is going to tank my reaction to post ratio. xD

This is a really deep topic and needs context. And I am not commenting on the merits because thats not a debate I want. Just asking a question.

The real question here is; do people have a right to the labor that is used to clean the water? Or do they only have a right to the water that they have to clean themselves?

Those are very different statements. A right to labor has implications.

Sure, that's an interesting discussion. It's also NOT the context (as far as I am aware) that the CEO was speaking to. The statement was more general, I believe.

If it was "humans don't have a right to have our bottled water for free" well, I'd agree with him there.

If that's what he meant to say, then he did a worse PR faux-pas than anything WotC ever did.

 

[Blue]

I think I might be right in saying that this is the first case of WotC officially supporting obsolete edition rules from the point a new edition released (as opposed to offering very old pdfs once the new edition was bedded in).

They have been EXCEEDINGLY clear that this is the same edition to them. They are doing nothing of the sort. There is no way to listen to what they have said and come away with anything but that this is the same edition.

That’s welcome and not nothing.

It's nothing, since it's not true according to them.