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

 

[Daztur]

No kidding. I mean, I would not be remotely surprised if someone at the top thought that everyone would simply LOVE to get their New Spells for FREE!

Yes exactly. Due to them backing down so quickly this seems more WotC being dumb than WotC being evil, but dumb (in the sense of utterly failing to understand how their customers tick) is just as concerning as evil from a customer's perspective.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

They really give zero naughties, and then they wonder why almost no one who isn't a DM isn't paying - why would we pay for such naughty word?

I feel like the community should get up in arms and shame them into making DDB better, but unfortunately, it's just "good enough" that no one is likely to be strongly motivated toward picketing. And WotC makes many many millions of dollars a year off of it with their "barely lifting a finger"-management style, so they're not motivated to do it.

Who knows? Maybe we'll be surprised and they'll do some big updates soon, like I expected them to for the 50th Anniversary.

 

[bedir than]

Maybe we'll be surprised and they'll do some big updates soon, like I expected them to for the 50th Anniversary.

They did decide the 50th anniversary year lasts 18 months

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yes exactly. Due to them backing down so quickly this seems more WotC being dumb than WotC being evil, but dumb (in the sense of utterly failing to understand how their customers tick) is just as concerning as evil from a customer's perspective.

Oh man, as a Comic and Game store owner, I'm sooooo used to having to deal with companies that don't understand their audience. You think WotC's bad? You should deal with MARVEL.

I like to say that it feel like Marvel is actively trying to kill their own industry. OTOH, DC has its heart in the right place, but is dumb as a bag of rocks.

(I was going to write some details to explain those two accusations, but I'm not sure that anyone is interested enough for it to matter).

 

[FitzTheRuke]

They did decide the 50th anniversary year lasts 18 months

That's funny, and they deserve the snark, but I think it's just that they decided that it goes March to March to justify their late printing on the MM.

 

[mamba]

So you think Paizo issued a revision to PF2e so shortly after initial release just to look good to their customer base?

they supposedly were willing to go to court over the OGL, they did not even need to in the end, so why there is a revised 2e now is a valid question

 

[Blue]

What if I don't?

* fingers in ears * LA-LA-LA-LA NOT LISTENING!!!

But fair enough. Let's go through it. 50 million is all-time count for D&D, but the question was those who were affected by the OGL debacle not wanting to go to the theater, so we can't use that number for our start because most of those people had no connection to the OGL. So we would have to go with the 13.7 million "current" tabletop D&D players number to begin with since they would be the ones who'd possibly be aware of the OGL thing.

Now the question comes down to how many of these 13.7 million current D&D players were of the following...

• Was intending on seeing the Dungeons & Dragons movie altogether.
• Knew what the OGL was.
• Cared that the OGL was possibly going away and were upset about that.
• Was angry enough about Wizards of the Coast stating they were going to revoke the OGL that it would inspire them to not go see a D&D movie made by an entirely different company in protest.
• Was still mad enough even after WotC reversed their decision and kept the OGL in place that they maintained their stance on not going to the movie.
• Actually did not go see the Dungeons & Dragons movie in protest of the OGL in late March of 2023, rather than just saying they weren't.

What does our number end up at then? How many of these 13.7 million players fall into this bucket? I don't know, but it certainly isn't 13.7 million. But I'm fairly certain no one actually knows. Even with whatever the number of people was who actually did boycott the movie... I am willing to say that in my personal, unknowledgeable opinion that for a Hollywood movie to do really well (both domestic and abroad) that it has to cross over from just being popular with the genre's fandom to being a film that every quadrant of the movie-going populace wishes to see. And if D&D:HAT did not become a huge box office hit, it was because most of the "non-D&D" public did not care to see it rather than a certain number of D&D players boycotting it.

Yes, it helps sustain the anger of those people who are still bent out of shape with WotC over the OGL to insinuate that the company's stupidity ruined the release of Paramount Picture's film... but I still do not think those people actually made any real dent. Those numbers just aren't that important when we are talking Hollywood domestic box office.

When I said, "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." , and then you ignore your own criteria and lay out a different one to try to make your point again, I see that you are not interested in actually having a conversation, only being right.

You set up the criteria, but then used number of players that was shown to be completely out of touch with reality by several orders of magnitude, and when the factual number applied to your own criteria showed the opposite results, you weren't willing to accept that. If you can't even accept your own arguments when real data is put in them, I see very little chance of anyone else's arguments ever getting through to you.

Good day sir.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

They did decide the 50th anniversary year lasts 18 months

What are they using Saturn Years or something?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Oh man, as a Comic and Game store owner, I'm sooooo used to having to deal with companies that don't understand their audience. You think WotC's bad? You should deal with MARVEL.

I like to say that it feel like Marvel is actively trying to kill their own industry. OTOH, DC has its heart in the right place, but is dumb as a bag of rocks.

(I was going to write some details to explain those two accusations, but I'm not sure that anyone is interested enough for it to matter).

Are you dealing them directly then and not via Diamond, the previous champion of trying to slay the industry?

 

[pukunui]

I wonder if there's any way to use this momentum to get WotC to finish updating the DDB functionality that's been in the pipeline for years ... Like, you know, getting the 2024 rules for free was one thing, but can we please get that generic features upgrade that was promised ages ago?