D&D 5E D&D New Edition Design Looks Soon?

WotC’s Ray Winninger has hinted on Twitter that we may be seeing something of the 2024 next edition of D&D soon — “you’ll get a first look at some of the new design work soon.”.

 

[TwoSix]

I’m excited for the impending threads about how “WotC is making me new books” despite the old books and new books being completely compatible.

 

[Reynard]

Only online, I probably wont ever hear a peep about this from my gamer friends.

Almost certainly. The internet is a weird, silly, dangerous place.

 

[Reynard]

I’m excited for the impending threads about how “WotC is making me new books” despite the old books and new books being completely compatible.

Well, they already made me burn my Volo's and Mord's guides!

 

[Mind of tempest]

5e was a completely new edition, 2024 edition is likely a minor tweak. It will not need as much testing. Additionally, the Next playtest was unusual. PF2 went from playtest to product in just a year IIRC.

an open test would still be nice

 

[J.Quondam]

The thing I am most excited about regarding the 2024 edition is how bad the fight is going to be over "how much of a change" it is going to be among fans. I mean, everyone could just wait and see. But they won't. They will argue endlessly in the lead up and ALL end up being wrong.

To be fair, they won't stop arguing after it comes out, either.

 

[Parmandur]

A new open playtest wouldn’t be too surprising, given how well the last one worked out for them.

What do you think they've been doing since 2019 with Unearthed Arcana and new products...?

We probably have most of the new rules content in place (new to core, that is). The issue they're probably thinking of at this time is format and branding. Significantly, Winninger said here that the revision will be new Core rulebooks, and not something like an all-digital edition or box sets or something.

 

[Charlaquin]

Wouldn't they need to get started on that rather soon, then? D&D Next, as I recall, last two years, and 5.5E (or whatever it's going to be called) is coming out sometime in 2024.

Well they did say we’d see their early design work soon. But also, I would bet that any open “playtesting” they do for the 2024 rules will really be a marketing move, even more so than the 5e playtest was.

 

[Charlaquin]

What do you think they've been doing since 2019 with Unearthed Arcana and new products...?

We probably have most of the new rules content in place (new to core, that is). The issue they're probably thinking of at this time is format and branding. Significantly, Winninger said here that the revision will be new Core rulebooks, and not something like an all-digital edition or box sets or something.

I thought as much too, but “you’ll get a first look at some of the new design work soon” makes it sound like there’s… well, new design work going on that we haven’t gotten a look at yet…

 

[Parmandur]

I thought as much too, but “you’ll get a first look at some of the new design work soon” makes it sound like there’s… well, new design work going on that we haven’t gotten a look at yet…

True: my wild speculation is that the new Starter Set coming out next month might have some different Class features for the Pregens than the 2014 Core standard. Classes are the big Wildcard possibility for radical change, since they are modular rules.

 

[Oofta]

What do you think they've been doing since 2019 with Unearthed Arcana and new products...?

We probably have most of the new rules content in place (new to core, that is). The issue they're probably thinking of at this time is format and branding. Significantly, Winninger said here that the revision will be new Core rulebooks, and not something like an all-digital edition or box sets or something.

I would assume the biggest reason for buying DndBeyond was to get the numbers on what people are actually playing. There's less need for surveys if you know what people actually use.

It will be interesting to see if they start having UA in DDB again, although the technical limitations and effort may not be worth it.