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

 

[Remathilis]

Seems you did not read closely. I just checked it because what you said was the exact opposite of what I read.

"All the monsters found in the 2014 Monster Manual will also still be available for use in the toolset. These materials will be marked with a Legacy badge if there are newer versions of them in the 2024 Core Rulebooks."

https://www.dndbeyond.com/changelog#UpdatingtheDDBeyondToolsetforthe2024CoreRulebooks under What Isn’t Changing: Access to the 2014 Rules and Homebrew

Huh, I was misinformed elsewhere.

Still moot.

 

[Minigiant]

yep, it was 2) given your description, as someone did pipe up in it, but you kept it sufficiently vague that there is some wiggle room for interpretations

Not really.

Someone piped up but they didn't give a convincing reason.

No one knew how many people wanted the 2014 rules. Data for it would be unreliable. So convincing WOTC to untangle DNDB would likely be unsuccessful.

It would and did take people yelling to get that data.

 

[mamba]

Not really.

Someone piped up but they didn't give a convincing reason.

The options were 1) no one voiced any concerns and 2) someone did but they were ignored.

In your example someone did speak up, hence it is 2), that they are not convincing was why no one listened to them in the first place.

 

[Umbran]

I don't know about you, but receiving an automated response always makes me feel appreciated and heard!

No. Actually getting changes you wanted (or something close enough) should make you feel appreciated and heard.

Personalized responses from someone whose response actually means something are for small-volume companies.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Rascal has released an interesting take on the topic of this thread. Edition Wars have made a battleground of D&D Beyond

I think it's a huge stretch to call what happened an "edition war". I don't see many people arguing that 5e is a better game than 5.5, just that they want to decide if and when to switch rules themselves, preferably not in the middle of a campaign.

If anyone thinks that players will immediately want to switch to the new rules as soon as they are published just because WotC is marketing it as the same edition, they are delusional. TTRPGs are not like MMOs where everyone has to download the latest patch on patch day whether they like it or not.

If there are still a lot of 2014 holdouts a year from now, WotC might have an edition war on their hands.

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

I think it's a huge stretch to call what happened an "edition war". I don't see many people arguing that 5e is a better game than 5.5, just that they want to decide if and when to switch rules themselves, preferably not in the middle of a campaign.

If anyone thinks that players will immediately want to switch to the new rules as soon as they are published just because WotC is marketing it as the same edition, they are delusional. TTRPGs are not like MMOs where everyone has to download the latest patch on patch day whether they like it or not.

If there are still a lot of 2014 holdouts a year from now, WotC might have an edition war on their hands.

I think the point of the article was that it set up a struggle between changing or not changing, it triggered a mindset of for or against which they want to avoid. They could have avoided it by encouraging change without forcing it in the tool set. People don’t like to be pushed into changing.

 

[Dire Bare]

I am pretty sure that poster was mistaking the missing tools access to say the functionality was going away.

The compendium access was fairly worthless. I doubt anyone buys content on DDB for the compendium.

I use the compendium all the time, it's very useful. My group games bi-weekly, so I'd say I use it bi-weekly to look up items, spells, or character options during the game.

 

[SpellObjectEnthusiast]

I don't see many people arguing that 5e is a better game than 5.5,

I think 5e is a better game than 5.5

 

[Nikosandros]

I use the compendium all the time, it's very useful. My group games bi-weekly, so I'd say I use it bi-weekly to look up items, spells, or character options during the game.

What DDB calls compendium is just reading the books online. The database access is not part of it. It is counter-intuitive, IMO, but that's the nomenclature they use.

 

[Dire Bare]

What DDB calls compendium is just reading the books online. The database access is not part of it. It is counter-intuitive, IMO, but that's the nomenclature they use.

I was thinking of the database . . . that's not the compendium?

Anyway, I use the web-format books too. For reading.