D&D (2024) 50th Anniversary: 6E in 2024?

[ART!]

I just don't get this player based obsession with a D&D movie & all the grand hopes that get pinned on it.
From the company side? Sure. It's more advertising & merchandising, etc etc etc. $ $ $. Every company ultimately wants that.
But in case you haven't noticed? D&D has done fantastic these past 5 years - without a branded movie goosing sales for a few months.

And yes, 6e is most definitely in the cards. No matter what is currently said/not said by the powers that be.
In fact, right now, 5e is following a very familiar & predictable path that leads to a new edition. They are re-printing adventures (not just doing things inspired by or homages to previous versions of those adventures - for EX PotA, SKT) with cosmetic tweaks, releasing incredibly niche books (the MTG settings) and about to release a book of completely optional stuff. And growing amounts of errata (not as bad as previously, but...) These are things that often happen towards the end of an edition.
And now they're starting to make socially influenced changes to both lore & mechanics.
2024? I 100% believe that that'd be a fantastic launch point for 6e & celebrate the 50th anniversary of our favorite game.
But at this rate I'll be surprised if they make it to that date.

Oh, I could take or leave a D&D movie, personally - unless it was great, of course. I was just trying to say that as a marketing tool, a successful movie would be a good thing to coordinate with some new editions, updates, and products.

The more I think about it, the more I think 6E will come sooner than a lot of people expect, especially if 6E is designed and coordinated with a solid set of digital tools. An updated - maybe backwards compatible with 5E? - game fully integrated into apps and VTTs would be hard to resist for...some? I guess backwards compatibility would be easier for the user with digital tools doing the work for you? Just thinking out loud...

 

[Alzrius]

IMDB, for what it's worth, still has the D&D movie listed as a 2022 release.

Specifically May 27th, 2022.

 

[Oofta]

I don't see a 6E coming any time soon, sales are still going strong. Special anniversary boxed sets and prints I see coming. Cool boxed sets, maybe a special lines of minis, probably a "History of D&D" book.

That could all change of course if sales drop off. But for now? Why invest in a risky reboot when they don't have to? As Yogi Berra said, the future is hard to predict especially when it hasn't happened yet.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

6e (as an upgrade of 5e) will come. At this point I feel the core classes would benefit from a bit of rebalancing/straightlining and also opening up some options at higher levels. Not that 6e is needed at that point, but it would be a mistake not to upgrade it. 4 years is a lot of time, and noone would feel really bad if 5e got a roundup. It is important, that you could still use all the 5e material with little to no modification. So I really expect only improvements on the player side. Maybe only the PHB as a new entry point.

 

[Xeviat]

6e (as an upgrade of 5e) will come. At this point I feel the core classes would benefit from a bit of rebalancing/straightlining and also opening up some options at higher levels. Not that 6e is needed at that point, but it would be a mistake not to upgrade it. 4 years is a lot of time, and noone would feel really bad if 5e got a roundup. It is important, that you could still use all the 5e material with little to no modification. So I really expect only improvements on the player side. Maybe only the PHB as a new entry point.

More monster supplements would always be appreciated too.

 

[R_J_K75]

Tenser, who later joined and left.

What a jerk, no one likes a quitter.

 

[GreenTengu]

Given that the core races and classes of the game have been pretty busted in terms of balance since release-- let alone things that have appeared in expansion books, I think a 5.5E or 6E is well overdue. The single entry of "rapier" in the weapons table alone is a major hindrance to proper power balance in the game. And then there is the general issue of just way too many things being dependent upon Dexterity so that everyone wants their favorite race to be a Dexterity race to make them as powerful as possible-- meanwhile Intelligence is pretty useless except to a couple caster classes, and even then only if they choose spells that utilize DCs.

Now-- granted-- everything I see as a major issue has to do with rejigging the mechanics associated with the numbers that appear on PC's sheets and has very little to do with the general construction of monsters or adventures. So I suppose what I would like to see is more of a 5.5E that just fixes up the races and classes and changes up some of the stat dependencies to make Intelligence and Strength more worthwhile attributes while pulling back on just how much mileage one gets out of Dexterity.

Then again-- my wishlist would be to change up the PC races so that Orc, Goblin, Hobgoblin and maybe Kobold and Lizardfolk get included as core races that are just assumed denizens of every D&D world and people are expected to play while maybe moving Half-Elf and Half-Orc (and maybe Tiefling and Aasimar) to sort of "human variant options", include some version of the Warlord, if by a different name, as a base class as a non-religious, non-musical support class people can play. And I have to imagine my ideas on such things wouldn't be particularly popular.

But-- man-- waiting 3 more years for an overhaul?

 

[OB1]

I don't see a 6e in 2024, but could see a reworked PHB that adds the most popular player options from Xanthar's and Tasha's (and perhaps other sources) into a single sourcebook as an entry point for new players, letting them get the best of 10 years of improvements without cleaning the slate and forcing existing players to invest in a whole new set of books. Could possibly see them refreshing the DMG as well, but think it would be more likely to see an Advanced DMG instead.

And then the Grognard's Guide to Greyhawk setting guide, with a set of optional rules for playing old school

 

[Bacon Bits]

What a jerk, no one likes a quitter.

Well, he left because they kept killing him. He was on his second clone, and the last time only survived because he hid one of his clones on one of the moons. The job was a bit dangerous.

 

[DND_Reborn]

If 6E comes and continues the road 5E has traveled, I won't be getting into it myself.