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

 

[mamba]

This is very important.
1. D&d 5e came first
2. A licensing agreement to use certain elements from d&d 5e came later.

agreed

Thus, using the licensing agreement is using the 5e d&d ruleset, just not in full.

no, the ruleset is the SRD, D&D 5e simply has additions to it, just like the other 5e games do.

The SRD is what establishes the standard, D&D 5e established nothing anyone could use

MS Word has the .docx format and it came first, they then created the Office Open XML standard that other office suites could use, mostly because some government agencies insist that the applications they use are using an open format. The sequence of events is the same and there are differences between the standard and what Word actually saves / supports, just like between the 5e SRD and D&D 5e. One is the standard, the other is an implementation of the standard with some additions

 

[Imaro]

D&D 2014 isn't 5e compatible? Really? Now I'm really confused.

Snark aside, I think we're stuck on the idea that either we consider 5e to be D&D or we consider D&D to be one of several 5e compatible systems. I'm in the latter camp and I think it makes the whole hobby stronger when we consider it that way. If we choose the former camp, I'll ask, why take that point of view?

What does it hurt or diminish to consider D&D 2014 and D&D 2024 5e compatible systems alongside Tales of the Valiant, Level Up Advanced 5e, and others?

On the same note how does it make the hobby stronger to smoosh and mash all of these individual systems and supplements under a banner of it's all 5e? Certainly not clarity or level of compatibility... so what is gained?

 

[SlyFlourish]

There is no 5e ruleset separate from the d&d 5e ruleset.

Yes there is. A5e's 5e compatible ruleset is 100% independent. It does not even reference the 5.1 CC document. The EN world publishing team spent a bunch of work last year making it completely independent and releasing it – an SRD 5x bigger than the 5.1 SRD.

Black Flag is a 5e compatible SRD that is independent from D&D yet compatible with other 5e systems, supplements, adventures, and campaign books.

Even the 5.1 SRD no longer represents the current core books of D&D. They've gone down another path with D&D 2024 and now plan to release another SRD, the 5.2 SRD. Which means WOTC themselves will have two different SRDs compatible with different versions of 5e.

So yeah, there are existing rulesets compatible with 5e that are not D&D.

 

[Imaro]

no, the ruleset is the SRD, D&D 5e simply has additions to it, just like the other 5e games do.

Wait the SRD is a complete rules set now?

The SRD is what establishes the standard, D&D 5e established nothing anyone could use

No D&D 5e established the SRD... you know the one based on it since it came after.

 

[SlyFlourish]

Apparently WotC's social status means they're above considering their version of 5e merely, "compatible".

This is my sort of controversial and confrontational position.

I have a clear agenda for saying that 5e is a platform bigger than just the two 5e compatible versions of D&D (D&D 2014 and D&D 2024). I think recognizing that 5e eclipses any one game makes the whole hobby stronger. The hobby is stronger when we recognize that 5e is now independent of any publisher and that multiple publishers are publishing full core RPGs around it compatible with the thousands of other 5e products.

I don't think it diminishes D&D or the work of the designers at WOTC to say so. I think it benefits them since many of them wrote for 5e before working at WOTC and now write for 5e after leaving WOTC.

So what's the flip side? That we all must recognize that Hasbro as a corporation has control over 5e? Why is that something that we'd want to reinforce?

Hasbro is actually doing a fantastic job ensuring that they're a beneficial member of the various publishers of 5e. They put out the 5.1 SRD in five languages in the CC. They're committed to release the core D&D 2024 rules into the 5.2 SRD early next year. That's fantastic! It makes the whole hobby stronger.

No one will forget that the designers at WOTC in 2014 put together the core of 5e and then put it out under an open license. We won't forget that they released it again under the Creative Commons license in 2023. But that doesn't mean we have to say 5e = D&D unless we want to say that. Why would we?

 

[mamba]

It's controversial because instead of the meaning of 5e changeing organically

that change is organically

within the majority of the community like say... jello, klenex or internet...

that did not happen from one day to the next either, it’s not like there was a vote on it or anything. It is a gradual shift for this just as it was for kleenex. It’s just that the kleenex shift had happened before you became aware of it

 

[mamba]

Wait the SRD is a complete rules set now?

yes, it always has been

No D&D 5e established the SRD... you know the one based on it since it came after.

and the SRD established what is the common, open standard (everything in it) and what is not (the rest)

 

[SlyFlourish]

On the same note how does it make the hobby stronger to smoosh and mash all of these individual systems and supplements under a banner of it's all 5e? Certainly not clarity or level of compatibility... so what is gained?

Because we can recognize the incredible breadth and diversity of 5e products published from hundreds of publishers. We can mix and mash up the best ideas for the game we want to run. We don't have to hope a single company goes the direction we want them to go – we can take ideas from lots of different publishers with different philosophies and choose what we want.

Just look at monsters alone. We have the original D&D 2014 Monster Manual. We have A5e's Monstrous Menagerie which adds knowledge checks, loot parcels, related monster encounters, and more streamlined baseline monster math. We have MCDM's Flee Mortals with crunchy tactical 4e-ish style monsters for 5e. We have Forge of Foes which offers simple improvised monsters enriched with custom monster powers. We have the Monster Vault with streamlined but super-sharp-teethed versions of core monsters. You might like some of these. You might hate some of these. But you have lots of options to choose from. That's fantastic.

The same is true with character options, GM guides, campaign sourcebooks, published adventures, and a slew of supplements.

If we treat all of this stuff as "lesser" than the core D&D 2014 books, we're really missing out. Because they're not.

 

[Micah Sweet]

This is my sort of controversial and confrontational position.

I have a clear agenda for saying that 5e is a platform bigger than just the two 5e compatible versions of D&D (D&D 2014 and D&D 2024). I think recognizing that 5e eclipses any one game makes the whole hobby stronger. The hobby is stronger when we recognize that 5e is now independent of any publisher and that multiple publishers are publishing full core RPGs around it compatible with the thousands of other 5e products.

I don't think it diminishes D&D or the work of the designers at WOTC to say so. I think it benefits them since many of them wrote for 5e before working at WOTC and now write for 5e after leaving WOTC.

So what's the flip side? That we all must recognize that Hasbro as a corporation has control over 5e? Why is that something that we'd want to reinforce?

Hasbro is actually doing a fantastic job ensuring that they're a beneficial member of the various publishers of 5e. They put out the 5.1 SRD in five languages in the CC. They're committed to release the core D&D 2024 rules into the 5.2 SRD early next year. That's fantastic! It makes the whole hobby stronger.

No one will forget that the designers at WOTC in 2014 put together the core of 5e and then put it out under an open license. We won't forget that they released it again under the Creative Commons license in 2023. But that doesn't mean we have to say 5e = D&D unless we want to say that. Why would we?

That is how I feel about the issue. I just don't see the value (and I do see some measure of harm) in putting WotC up on some kind if pedestal, as if they're somehow above other 5e content creators. They already make much, much more money than everyone else. Isn't that enough?

 

[Minigiant]

I am willing to say D&D 2014, D&D 2024, TOTV, & A5E are all 5e.

Because they are

1) Compatible with what is in the Basic Rules out on the 5e SRD
2) Embrace the design principles and core mechanics of 5e

So some things we would consider 5e and some things not. Like Nimble5e while looking like a great product, isn't 5e to me as it is missing both attack rolls and advantage to speed up play.