D&D 5E (2024) D&D Beyond's Development Roadmap Is A Complete Rebuild Of Platform

D&D Beyond has announced its roadmap for the future, including features in active development and those planned for later down the line. These include a full rebuild of the game platform's engine, a new character builder, tools for Dungeon Masters, and more.

Over the past few months, we’ve launched a new homepage, a revamped and more sortable content library, image reveals in the Maps VTT to help DMs immerse their players more easily, and several other quality-of-life improvements.

2026 is a year of refocusing and rebuilding D&D Beyond to make it easier to play D&D your way. Three major initiatives will drive most of our work:

• Rebuilding D&D Beyond’s Game Platform
• Improving Player Onboarding and Revamping the Character Builder Experience
• Launching a Suite of Dungeon Master Tools

 

[Scribe]

I've had this argument a million times before, and I have conceded loss, but I still disagree with you here. I think 5.5 is the silly one. It's based on 3.5 - a marketing gimmick that was used for D&D precisely ONCE, 25 years ago, that part of the community just can't seem to let go of. I don't think it was a good idea/name THEN, and I don't think it's a good idea/name now, but enough people apparently like it, I guess.

I honestly cannot wrap my head around the objections.

If we logically accept that the 2014 version of 5e, is not the same as the 2024 version of 5e, yet one is an obvious revision, and not rewrite, of the other...

Its just exactly what it is. A revision, an update, a 'new build release'. Its not a rebuild. Its not a new (6.0) release, but its also clearly, obviously, not the same game.

Its a half edition.

5.0 -> 5.5.

Simple.

 

[unknowable]

6e is the sensible naming convention. There are bigger differences than there were between AD&D 1e and 2e. And it is abnormal to completely rewrite a system or book with every edition from the ground up. Even games like warhammer don't do it.

There are bigger differences in 5e24 than people give it credit for. Sure the basic structure remains the same but, feat systems were changed and expanded upon, conditions changed, how certain skills changed, tools changed a lot, a lot of monster changes as well as fundamental changes to stuff like how bps!mgc got scrapped. Race, backgrounds, the weapon specialisations, a bunch of spells, a few side rules (movement not being difficult terrain through allies being one) and basically every class having a big rework and rebalance.
Didn't go as far as I wanted it to, but it is a big shift... arguably has resulted in more differences than 3e to 3.5e did at the table phb to phb and mm to mm.

The whole "it is just 5e" thing was and is a marketing gimmick for the most part. 6e would have made it clear and easy to talk about.
Oh and 5.5 wouldn't be its name if it used software versioning conventions either, you don't just jump to an arbitrary decimal with no reason and major releases are often given full numbered versions... but it isn't software it is a book/game edition.

Lol imagine if magic the gathering started following the half version concept.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I honestly cannot wrap my head around the objections.

If we logically accept that the 2014 version of 5e, is not the same as the 2024 version of 5e, yet one is an obvious revision, and not rewrite, of the other...

Its just exactly what it is. A revision, an update, a 'new build release'. Its not a rebuild. Its not a new (6.0) release, but its also clearly, obviously, not the same game.

I agree with all of the above.

Its a half edition.

5.0 -> 5.5.

But none of this. YOU think that way because you were taught to think that way with 3.5. But a "Half Edition" isn't actually a thing. It's a made-up concept (as all concepts are, TBF). It's just one that you agree with, and one that I don't. It's a marketing gimmick from 25 years ago that I don't think ought to be revisited.

Ultimately, I don't like it being called 5e, either. It's really something like the 17th or 19th edition of D&D, depending on how you add them up. But I understand why they don't go for THAT, because that would probably really confuse people.

Simple.

It's not hard to grasp, but neither is any other way of describing it when one feels the need to call it anything other than "D&D" - which is actually rare when you're not here, where we love to argue about stuff.

Honestly, the easiest answer to the question, "Which D&D?" when you're talking about... what you want to call 5.5... is "The Current One."

 

[FitzTheRuke]

No, that would be 6.0. A revision, quite simply, is not a full new number, its an incremental change, like a .5.

You know what bothers me even more than using "point five" for a current-edition rules update?

... Calling the base version "point-oh".

I truly cringe.

Look, none of it is a big deal - I would only argue about it in a place like here, where we're speaking philosophically about D&D.

 

[Scribe]

You know what bothers me even more than using "point five" for a current-edition rules update?

... Calling the base version "point-oh".

I truly cringe.

Look, none of it is a big deal - I would only argue about it in a place like here, where we're speaking philosophically about D&D.

To be fair, I work in Tech, my whole life at this point is steeped in a world where 1.0, 1.2, 3.0, 3.5....5.5 makes total sense.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

No, that would be 6.0. A revision, quite simply, is not a full new number, its an incremental change, like a .5.

.5 is a nonsense term that doesn't actually mean anything, but it makes people think it is a new game. You can "but that isn't what it means" all day, but that is what people use it for and understand it as.

Most of the people using 5.5 online also insist that it is a new edition. Since it is not, we shouldn't be using that terminology. It is just 5e.

 

[Scribe]

.5 is a nonsense term that doesn't actually mean anything, but it makes people think it is a new game. You can "but that isn't what it means" all day, but that is what people use it for and understand it as.

Most of the people using 5.5 online also insist that it is a new edition. Since it is not, we shouldn't be using that terminology. It is just 5e.

No, I think most insisting that think its a revision, as it is. Its certainly not 2014 5.0.

Again, a new version, a new game, a new edition? 6.0.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I honestly cannot wrap my head around the objections.

If we logically accept that the 2014 version of 5e, is not the same as the 2024 version of 5e, yet one is an obvious revision, and not rewrite, of the other...

Its just exactly what it is. A revision, an update, a 'new build release'. Its not a rebuild. Its not a new (6.0) release, but its also clearly, obviously, not the same game.

Its a half edition.

5.0 -> 5.5.

Simple.

Half edition isn't a real thing. It is a revision. You don't rename revisions, and even if we did, it is more accurate to make it 5.1 than 5.5.

There aren't two versions of 5e, there is just 5e, which has had a revision that is still completely compatible with the unrevised books. Because they are part of the same edition of the rules, the same game.

It is clearly, obviously, objectively, still the same game.

 

[Scribe]

You don't rename revisions, and even if we did, it is more accurate to make it 5.1 than 5.5.

It cannot be 5.1, because that is Tashas.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

It's not hard to grasp, but neither is any other way of describing it when one feels the need to call it anything other than "D&D" - which is actually rare when you're not here, where we love to argue about stuff.

Honestly, the easiest answer to the question, "Which D&D?" when you're talking about... what you want to call 5.5... is "The Current One."

Exactly.

"Simple" isn't the same thing as "true" or "the best way to go", it is just easy to understand. Lots of stuff that is complete bunk is easy to understand.

And there is no need to even specify outside of specifically discussing the revised core books as revisions, ie in the context of what changed in the revision. Literally outside that context, the "distinction" is meaningless and just confuses people who aren't in the weeds like we all are, here.

I have seen it at game stores, and when i introduce people to the game and they go on youtube to watch videos about the game, and people call it anything other than just "DnD" or "5e", and they think that they are jumping into a game that is being rebooted with a whole new version, when that isn't the case.

It's easily fixed when i tell them that the game as it has existed for over a decade got a revised set of core books, and some poeple try to make more of that than is actually there, but it is frustrating to have to correct that misunderstanding.