D&D (2024) Do you plan to adopt D&D5.5One2024Redux?

[Oofta]

I thought the decision was that this 5.5 was supposed to be the final update forever?

I don't actually believe that--at the very least, they'll make enough minor changes to warrant another major update like this--but I thought that was what their claim was.

They though 5E was the swan song for D&D, that it would be the last version because
there wouldn't be any demand for new books.

I've never heard that 5E24 was going to be the last version.

 

[Lanefan]

Could you get away with multiple versions of D&D on the market simultaneously?

Yes, I think you could.

The last time that happened didn't go over that well, as I recall.

You mean when BECMI and 2e were sold side-along as TSR was dying on the vine? Nothing went well in that era. Times have changed.

 

[JEB]

Could you get away with multiple versions of D&D on the market simultaneously? The last time that happened didn't go over that well, as I recall.

Basic D&D and AD&D ran in parallel for 15-ish years. Granted, they were a lot more compatible than 3e and 4e, or 4e and 5e.

 

[James Gasik]

Basic D&D and AD&D ran in parallel for 15-ish years. Granted, they were a lot more compatible than 3e and 4e, or 4e and 5e.

I just remember reading that having two competing game lines became problematic for TSR eventually.

 

[tetrasodium]

I just remember reading that having two competing game lines became problematic for TSR eventually.

Hasbro sells umpteen versions of monopoly clue trivial pursuit and so on without issue. It's not without reason that people so often say that barring gal silliness 4e would probably have done fine if not called d&d simply because it was aimed at a somewhat different niche of play

 

[Lanefan]

I just remember reading that having two competing game lines became problematic for TSR eventually.

That's because everything down to tying their own shoelaces became problematic for TSR eventually.

 

[Hussar]

Given that we now have the game in CC, why would there ever be a need to have two WOtC D&D lines? If you want something outside of the main line, you are absolutely spoiled for choice.

 

[Lanefan]

Given that we now have the game in CC, why would there ever be a need to have two WOtC D&D lines? If you want something outside of the main line, you are absolutely spoiled for choice.

To the best of my knowledge, only 3e and maybe 5e are in CC. 4e still has its wiggedy quasi-license, and 0-1-2e can only be approached by bending the 3e CC sideways.

And for all we know, the split-off version of D&D might not be anything we've seen before. Maybe they go full-on Story Now with it, for example, or go near-zero magic grim'n'gritty, or go full steampunk far beyond anything current Eberron can do...who knows?

While I personally would like to see them do a 0-1-2e-like version of the game and market it side-along with 5e, there's no way of knowing if that sort of version is the route they'd go. But having two (or more) official versions out there at once is, I think, a good idea for both the business and the game.

 

[Hussar]

To the best of my knowledge, only 3e and maybe 5e are in CC. 4e still has its wiggedy quasi-license, and 0-1-2e can only be approached by bending the 3e CC sideways.

And for all we know, the split-off version of D&D might not be anything we've seen before. Maybe they go full-on Story Now with it, for example, or go near-zero magic grim'n'gritty, or go full steampunk far beyond anything current Eberron can do...who knows?

While I personally would like to see them do a 0-1-2e-like version of the game and market it side-along with 5e, there's no way of knowing if that sort of version is the route they'd go. But having two (or more) official versions out there at once is, I think, a good idea for both the business and the game.

...

Considering there is a large, robust OSR crowd out there, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the AD&D/OD&D crowd is being well served. They don't need to "bend the 3e CC sideways". The OSR has been out there for what, nearly twenty years now? If it was going to be an issue, one would think that it would have been a problem at some point before now.

3e has Pathfinder, never minding that there is still an absolute mountain of 3e material out there. More than you could ever play in your lifetime.

4e? Ok, fair enough. I'd love to see a 4e open treatment. But, again, not holding my breath.

But, again, why on earth would WotC want to do this? The entire point of the OGL and now CC is so WotC doesn't HAVE to do this sort of thing. There are so many D&D adjacent games on the market, right now, that you could probably play a different system every day for a year and still not have played them all.

And that's just the D&D family of games. Never minding the other stuff out there. You want full on Steampunk using the 5e rules? Well, off the top of my head, if only we knew a publisher around here that has an entire setting devoted to a huge steampunk adventure that was written for 3e, then updated for 4e then updated AGAIN for 5e. Dunno where I might find something like that...

 

[Lanefan]

...

Considering there is a large, robust OSR crowd out there, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the AD&D/OD&D crowd is being well served. They don't need to "bend the 3e CC sideways". The OSR has been out there for what, nearly twenty years now? If it was going to be an issue, one would think that it would have been a problem at some point before now.

3e has Pathfinder, never minding that there is still an absolute mountain of 3e material out there. More than you could ever play in your lifetime.

4e? Ok, fair enough. I'd love to see a 4e open treatment. But, again, not holding my breath.

But, again, why on earth would WotC want to do this? The entire point of the OGL and now CC is so WotC doesn't HAVE to do this sort of thing. There are so many D&D adjacent games on the market, right now, that you could probably play a different system every day for a year and still not have played them all.

And that's just the D&D family of games. Never minding the other stuff out there. You want full on Steampunk using the 5e rules? Well, off the top of my head, if only we knew a publisher around here that has an entire setting devoted to a huge steampunk adventure that was written for 3e, then updated for 4e then updated AGAIN for 5e. Dunno where I might find something like that...

You (generic) can promote 3pp material all you like, but in the eyes of a very great many if it's not official (as in, these days, WotC), it doesn't count. We're all outliers here in that we even know 3pp material exists.

That, and I suspect WotC coming out with a re-done 1e (or BX, or even 2e) would quickly torpedo a large chunk of the OSR scene. Not sure it would have quite the same effect on the modern-indy scene were they to come out with a story-now D&D, but it'd be interesting to watch nonetheless.