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

 

[MockingBird]

Running my first post 24 release session tonight in a QFtIS campaign using DDB. Have 2 players updating to 2024 characters and one sticking with 2014 for now. Will be using 2024 Unarmed Strike rules and the new Hide rules as well. Will report back on how everyone felt the conversion of their characters went as well as how the mix of 14 and 24 worked in DDB.

Our next session in a couple weeks we will be using a mix of characters. My wife definitely wants to update her sorcerer. My daughters will also want to update their druid and monk. The fighters might stay the same.

 

[OB1]

Our next session in a couple weeks we will be using a mix of characters. My wife definitely wants to update her sorcerer. My daughters will also want to update their druid and monk. The fighters might stay the same.

In my group the Barbarian and Ranger are updating now, the Wizard is waiting, I think partially so that he get's his subclass at 2nd and then will convert once he hits 3rd.

 

[Chaosmancer]

if you replace a single class, you can introduce a lot less than if you replace all of them. See A5e vs a dozen LL classes

... Yes if you replace a single class, you have replaced fewer things than if you replace all the classes.

I did personal homebrew for every single class, feat, spell, and racial option in the entirety of DnD 5e, along with weapons and items, crafting rules, and more. Does my work constitute a different game than Dungeons and Dragons? What I did was certainly extensive.

emphasis on making, the SRD you can copy

Sure, you can copy it, but there isn't much there and all the people you keep bringing up made things. That's why they charged money for it.

they are not even the only ones allowed to sell them…

To me there is a qualitative difference between having a set of alternative core books or it all being stacked on D&D 5e. It reduces the reliance on WotC in a way nothing else can.

Of course any 3pp product expands 5e, but until you have alternative core books you just tack things onto the same foundation

The same foundation... like the Dungeons and Dragons Fifth edition System Reference Document?

 

[Chaosmancer]

Sorry. You completely lost me. If you’re saying 5e became an independent platform before A5E and ToV, I can get behind that.

The OGL thing mattered because they tried to take back the open 5e platform and make it just D&D again. Thats why Morrus went through the trouble to make another open disconnected 5e SRD — the A5E SRD. Now we have two 5e SRDs (and the A5E one is vastly superior btw). Black Flag was going to be independent too but didn’t need to be since the 5.1 SRD went into the CC. Soon we’ll have a third independent SRD. Thats all part of 5e. The open SRDs, the core books from several companies, and all the supplements and other publications.

I'm not sure how to explain this more than pointing out that you are looking at this from a legal and sales perspective. Which makes some sense, you are an independent game author, you sell games. So the perspective seems natural to you. But... it isn't how I approach the game.

Here is a supplment making DnD work for an Equestria game

New classes, races, items, spells, feats, everything you need to change your game into that.

Here is one for Pokemon

Someone else made a Magical Girl class so they could use DnD 5e to play Madoka Magica: Magical Girl (5e Class) - D&D Wiki

So, when you say "The OGL thing mattered because they tried to take back the open 5e platform and make it just D&D again" I just end up scoffing a little bit. Because even if they made it so that you could not legally sell these products... they could never stuff everything that was made into a box and make it so that you could ONLY play DnD with the ruleset. Because you could always do more, you just couldn't make money off of it.

I personally have used the rules to run a System Apocalypse game set on Modern Earth multiple times. I have found multiple free rule sets to use alongside those games to enhance them and move them away from certain DnD coding. I didn't need the SRD to do that, and neither did those people who made those resources.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Sure but that's not the conversation being had.

The conversation is what is and isn't 5e.

Because if you fix a widely complained about part of 5e but keep everything else, you might result in something no longer compatible with 5e.

2024 D&D, TOV and A5e barely touched some widely negative aspects of 5e in order to remain compatible.

And you could change none of the "widely complained about" parts of 5e, and instead change things no one really seemed to care about and STILL get something not compatible with 5e.

You could also have a game that did fix those flaws, and is compatible with 5e.

It all depends on what exactly you do.

 

[mamba]

... Yes if you replace a single class, you have replaced fewer things than if you replace all the classes.

I guess that must be why I said a dozen individual classes…

Each individual class will hew closer to D&D than a wholesale replacement with a common theme will - that, or they become disjointed

I did personal homebrew for every single class, feat, spell, and racial option in the entirety of DnD 5e, along with weapons and items, crafting rules, and more. Does my work constitute a different game than Dungeons and Dragons? What I did was certainly extensive.

possibly, I have not seen what you did so cannot really comment on it

Sure, you can copy it, but there isn't much there and all the people you keep bringing up made things. That's why they charged money for it.

obviously the point is not to copy it and change / add nothing to it. The distinction still is that the SRD allows it and the PHB does not

The same foundation... like the Dungeons and Dragons Fifth edition System Reference Document?

no, the D&D core books

 

[mamba]

So, when you say "The OGL thing mattered because they tried to take back the open 5e platform and make it just D&D again" I just end up scoffing a little bit. Because even if they made it so that you could not legally sell these products... they could never stuff everything that was made into a box and make it so that you could ONLY play DnD with the ruleset. Because you could always do more, you just couldn't make money off of it.

that is blatantly false, you can make this available for free or sell it, the price changes nothing about the legality. Either you wrote everything yourself and are sufficiently different that if you were dragged into court over copyright you win, or you can copy those parts that are in the SRD and still be safe

 

[Minigiant]

And you could change none of the "widely complained about" parts of 5e, and instead change things no one really seemed to care about and STILL get something not compatible with 5e.

Sure

For example I, Minigiant, have 2 variant rules for Social Interaction.
Few fans really cares about changing social interactions.
Many hate social rules.

One is 5e compatible: Minigiant's Languages & Dialects
One is not 5e compatible: Minigiant's Social Classes

You could also have a game that did fix those flaws, and is compatible with 5e.

Eh... some things can be fixed and be compatible: Adjusted Spells and Feats.
Others can't. Redoing Skills or Redoing Armor.

 

[Chaosmancer]

I guess that must be why I said a dozen individual classes…

Each individual class will hew closer to D&D than a wholesale replacement with a common theme will - that, or they become disjointed

I have no idea what you are trying to say here. The more classes you change the more you will make something like DND?

possibly, I have not seen what you did so cannot really comment on it

And what if I told you that I didn't intend any of it to be a new game system, separate from DnD, but to be DnD? Even if I made radical changes to all the classes, would my intent matter at all?

obviously the point is not to copy it and change / add nothing to it. The distinction still is that the SRD allows it and the PHB does not

The SRD allows for products to be sold. That's the only difference. Only having the Core Rulebooks never once changed my ability to write new rules or alter existing ones.

no, the D&D core books

And in terms of actual game rules (d20 rolls, ability scores, spells, ect) those two things are identical. That is why the System Reference Document references the System of Dungeons and Dragons 5e.

 

[Chaosmancer]

that is blatantly false, you can make this available for free or sell it, the price changes nothing about the legality. Either you wrote everything yourself and are sufficiently different that if you were dragged into court over copyright you win, or you can copy those parts that are in the SRD and still be safe

Something that has never once been tested. We have no idea if a court would rule that "d20+modifiers" is a legally protected product. And what about something like....

Machete 1d6 slashing Finesse, light
-Successful hits made with this weapon wound the target. Each time you damage an enemy they gain a wound. Each time you damage a wounded target they take an extra d4 slashing damage per wound. Wounds stack up to three times. The wounds remain until healed by an appropriate tech, or they treat the wounds by using a standard action to make a dc10 medicine check.

This is copied directly from a DnD setting I know. Are they going to take them to court over the word's "finesse" or "light"? The document in question doesn't use those keywords for anything. The weapon doing a d6 damage? You can't copyright that.

And this was a reality of the situation LONG before the idea of an SRD was proposed. Dragon Magazine was full of players submitting fan made content to the game.