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

 

[Micah Sweet]

So we are in a world where we have to specify both the year and the publisher when talking about an edition of D&D. What a wild time to be alive.

I can see a statement such as "I like 2023 Kobold 5e much more than 2024 WotC 5e, or 2014 WotC 5e." as something I see. And I dont know how I feel about that.

This is why I settled on 5.5.

 

[DinoInDisguise]

This is why I settled on 5.5.

Which publisher? Could you call Level up 5.5 as well as the 2024 revision? So, from what I've seen, I prefer Level up 5.5 to WotC 5.5.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Which publisher? Could you call Level up 5.5 as well as the 2024 revision? So, from what I've seen, I prefer Level up 5.5 to WotC 5.5.

WotC. Level Up is Level Up, or A5e.

 

[Remathilis]

So we are in a world where we have to specify both the year and the publisher when talking about an edition of D&D. What a wild time to be alive.

I can see a statement such as "I like 2023 Kobold 5e much more than 2024 WotC 5e, or 2014 WotC 5e." as something I see. And I dont know how I feel about that.

Wait until we have to reference printings.

Yeah, we're playing D&D 5e (2024 WotC, 3rd printing, digital edition).

 

[bedir than]

D&D 5th Edition is created, published, and owned by WotC. They opened the core of the rules, the SRD, in both the OGL and later CC. D&D 5E is an open game, owned by WotC. Several awesome game companies developed their own variations of D&D 5E, like Level Up and Tales of the Valiant. Doesn't change ownership of the game, but does affect what others can do with it.

If you are fan of one of these variants of D&D 5E over the official rules, 2014 and/or 2024 revisions . . . that's great! It all works together rather easily, despite folks claiming the 2024 revision (or the DDB implementation of it) makes "sweeping" changes to the play community.

I won't make the claim that WotC doesn't own D&D.
They didn't put D&D in the CC, quite carefully so.
They put a version of the D&D 5th Edition rules into the CC BY. It's not the full rules and has very limited shared IP.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I won't make the claim that WotC doesn't own D&D.
They didn't put D&D in the CC, quite carefully so.
They put a version of the D&D 5th Edition rules into the CC BY. It's not the full rules and has very limited shared IP.

What is in the CC is 5e though, so WotC doesn't wholly own 5e. They own D&D.

 

[mamba]

So we are in a world where we have to specify both the year and the publisher when talking about an edition of D&D. What a wild time to be alive.

depends entirely on what abbreviations you use, ToV is fine 2014 is fine, and so is 2024. If you do not need to distinguish between the last two you could even call them 5e or WotC 5e if you want to be exact and do want to emphasize 5e as the big tent 5e vs the small tent D&D only

 

[mamba]

This is why I settled on 5.5.

does not help with what 5e means

 

[Micah Sweet]

does not help with what 5e means

I suppose not, but I rarely encounter anyone insistent on the idea that "5e" and "WotC" are synonymous.

 

[DinoInDisguise]

I suppose not, but I rarely encounter anyone insistent on the idea that "5e" and "WotC" are synonymous.

And it shouldn't be. It should be treated as a collection of interchangeable building blocks. You can, largely, hot swap features between all of the "5e" systems freely. And you can take what you like from each.

I can use character stuff from TOV, a monster manual from MCDM, spells from Level Up, and magic items from Mage Hand Press. And it, largely, functions just fine. You can go even farther by mixing items in the same category. You have even more freedom on the DM side, as the players largely don't interact with that side.

It can kinda be a build your own system, in a way. I think that is 5e's greatest strength. It's the modularity that WotC talking about during DnDNext but just not their doing.