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

 

[OB1]

The more that I think about the decision to the update to rules and spells, the more I think it was done to games with 2014 PCs and 2024 PCs easier to run togeather and is ultimately a very consumer friendly move. If I have a 2024 Sorcerer playing next to a 2014 Wizard and both have True Strike, it defaults to being the same spell for both, both use the same exhaustion rules, etc. Same thing with a 2014 Barbarian and 2024 Monk both using the same grappling rules. If a DM is confident enough to run with multiple versions of the core rules, they can homebrew and houserule solutions pretty quickly and easily.

In that way, I think this decision actually works to slow down the 'need' to upgrade to the 2024 rules immediately. Like, if I'm running a 2014 Cleric, I dont need to run out and buy the new PHB to get access to the better healing spells, they're already there.

Now, would it be nice for DDB to offer the option? Sure, but that takes resources, and for me personally, I'd prefer they use those resources on other things like being able to assign books to use when searching for monsters in the encounter builder on a campaign by campaign basis so that I don't have to click on and off a lot of books every time I'm building an encounter. That's personal preference though, and I recognize that like with anything on DDB, it comes down to how many people want a feature to get it.

 

[Parmandur]

The more that I think about the decision to the update to rules and spells, the more I think it was done to games with 2014 PCs and 2024 PCs easier to run togeather and is ultimately a very consumer friendly move. If I have a 2024 Sorcerer playing next to a 2014 Wizard and both have True Strike, it defaults to being the same spell for both, both use the same exhaustion rules, etc. Same thing with a 2014 Barbarian and 2024 Monk both using the same grappling rules. If a DM is confident enough to run with multiple versions of the core rules, they can homebrew and houserule solutions pretty quickly and easily.

In that way, I think this decision actually works to slow down the 'need' to upgrade to the 2024 rules immediately. Like, if I'm running a 2014 Cleric, I dont need to run out and buy the new PHB to get access to the better healing spells, they're already there.

Now, would it be nice for DDB to offer the option? Sure, but that takes resources, and for me personally, I'd prefer they use those resources on other things like being able to assign books to use when searching for monsters in the encounter builder on a campaign by campaign basis so that I don't have to click on and off a lot of books every time I'm building an encounter. That's personal preference though, and I recognize that like with anything on DDB, it comes down to how many people want a feature to get it.

I think it would be extremely customer friendly, if it could be toggled. Without that toggle, kind of a mess.

 

[mamba]

The more that I think about the decision to the update to rules and spells, the more I think it was done to games with 2014 PCs and 2024 PCs easier to run togeather and is ultimately a very consumer friendly move. If I have a 2024 Sorcerer playing next to a 2014 Wizard and both have True Strike, it defaults to being the same spell for both, both use the same exhaustion rules, etc.

nice theory, but letting the player / table choose whether to use the 2024 rules where available or the 2014 ones as the group is not switching is more consumer friendly than forcing everyone onto 2024 no matter what their preferences are.

This was done for one reason only, WotC wanting to get everyone onto 2024 asap. Applying some pressure helps with that, and that it costs no additional development effort was also very welcome. What the customers actually want was not a consideration at all

 

[OB1]

nice theory, but letting the player / table choose whether to use the 2024 rules where available or the 2014 ones as the group is not switching is more consumer friendly than forcing everyone onto 2024 no matter what their preferences are.

This was done for one reason only, WotC wanting to get everyone onto 2024 asap. Applying some pressure helps with that, and that it costs no additional development effort was also very welcome. What the customers actually want was not a consideration at all

Again, how does giving away those rules push people to adopt the 2024 PHB faster? If I like 2014 Classes, Species and Backgrounds, but want access to the new spells and rules, I don't have to upgrade to get them. It takes away a reason to update quickly.

And no one but WotC has any non anecdotal evidence of what customers actually want from DDB. Which to @Parmandur 's point, is the most likely reason the toggle wasn't put in at the start, there internal data likely told them that there weren't enough people who felt strongly about the toggle to spend resources on it (when those resources could be spent on something else that people do feel strongly about) or that the overall user experience was better for most people by having the rules shared by multiple PCs be the same. Likely some combination of both. For example, I don't find the update 'messy' at all, when we have our first session after the update (running a QftIS campaign with all 2014 PCs) I'll let my players know some things may have changed and we will roll with it.

That said, if WotC read their data wrong, and a significant portion of the customer base demands it, I'd expect that they add the option (at least for spells). But I'd wager that isn't the case.

 

[mamba]

Again, how does giving away those rules push people to adopt the 2024 PHB faster?

by making it much harder / impossible to stay with 2014. You either get a game that is ‘ruined’ by having 2024 parts in it already, or you bite the bullet and switch over, whether you wanted to at all / now or not

And no one but WotC has any non anecdotal evidence of what customers actually want from DDB.

eh, there have been plenty of polls, so everyone has about the same evidence as DDB

Which to @Parmandur 's point, is the most likely reason the toggle wasn't put in at the start, there internal data likely told them that there weren't enough people who felt strongly about the toggle to spend resources on it

where did they ever ask that? They have no more data on this than any of us. The decision to not do anything was made long before there was data and regardless of any data

That said, if WotC read their data wrong, and a significant portion of the customer base demands it, I'd expect that they add the option (at least for spells). But I'd wager that isn't the case.

I hope the people opposing this will speak with their wallets, but once you have bought into DDB enough switching to a different VTT is hard / prohibitive, and WotC is counting on that being the case, so they can strong-arm the people instead of them leaving

It’s like the OGL, WotC trying to enforce their will over their customers, this time they might have the upper hand though due to the money spent on DDB already

 

[jasper]

...

I strongly suspect this is a technical issue that they're passing off as an editorial decision. Like maybe they forgot to code in an ability to make magic items "legacy". It's pretty crap either way.

....

Um. No. my shop could legacy in cobol. And I know newer languages are more flexible.

 

[OB1]

by making it much harder / impossible to stay with 2014. You either get a game that is ‘ruined’ by having 2024 parts in it already, or you bite the bullet and switch over, whether you wanted to at all / now or not

It certainly isn't impossible to stay all 2014 with DDB, and 'much harder' is subjective. For those who feel their game is 'ruined' by having the updated spells, it's a matter of creating possibly a dozen or so homebrewed spells (or selecting ones created by other users).

As it stands, you have 3 options moving forward, 2 of which won't cost you a dime.

Stay all 2014 and homebrew spells to add to your character sheet, while using the compendium for other 2014 rules.
Stick with 2014 PCs and use updated spells and rules.
Switch to 2024 PCs and rules (requiring new cost for the user)

I still don't understand how getting some 2024 rules for free forces or makes it more likely that someone spends more money to upgrade fully to 2024.

eh, there have been plenty of polls, so everyone has about the same evidence as DDB

Internet polls on fan sites or social media don't come close to the evidence that DDB has and the former carries enough bias to make it worthless for actual decision making. For example, DDB knows for certain how many 2014 PHB owners have already purchased 2024. They may also have conducted polling on the features, focus group tested the features, and playtested them before making the decision.

Again, maybe they read their data wrong, and enough people will make it clear that they want the feature that they'll change course, time will tell. If enough people cancel their monthly subscription because it's no longer worth paying for it without an option to use 2014 spells/rules with a toggel, I expect DDB to spend the resources to retain those customers.

 

[mamba]

It certainly isn't impossible to stay all 2014 with DDB, and 'much harder' is subjective. For those who feel their game is 'ruined' by having the updated spells, it's a matter of creating possibly a dozen or so homebrewed spells (or selecting ones created by other users).

it’s more than spells though, as has been mentioned a few times in this thread, and I am pretty sure that spell list was far from exhaustive, so yes, it is more effort or maybe even truly impossible (can you have a custom exhaustion rule, no idea… what is the impact on 2014 subclasses in the char builder, no idea…)

Stay all 2014 and homebrew spells to add to your character sheet, while using the compendium for other 2014 rules.
Stick with 2014 PCs and use updated spells and rules.
Switch to 2024 PCs and rules (requiring new cost for the user)

1) is at best a pain if at all possible, 2) is more than just spells but doable, if you do not mind all these changes to your ongoing campaign that were forced upon you, 3) is obviously possible, no one disputed that

Internet polls on fan sites or social media don't come close to the evidence that DDB

that is nonsense, they have better data for things they can measure, but they have no way of measuring whether people want to switch or not. They can only measure things people use / do in DDB, not things that DDB does not support.

Add to that that the decision to add a distinction to allow separate 2014 or 2024 rules would have had to be made quite some time ago before there even were any polls and however they arrived at their decision had nothing at all to do with what DDB users / D&D players want

Again, maybe they read their data wrong

again, they have no data on this

Tell me how they got that data, say a year ago so they still had time to act, that helped inform their decision to not add a switch, ie how many people wanted to stay with 2014, how many would mix, how many would move to 2024 and whether they want to do so immediately or further down the line…

 

[jayoungr]

You've got about a week and a half to purchase the 2014 PHB, if you want it on DDB and haven't done so already.

Thanks for the tip. Just grabbed a copy for safekeeping.

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

Lots of folks on the DDB message boards are furious about this and quite a few are quitting their subscriptions too. It hasn’t built to the drama of the OGL fiasco, but it’s definitely a decision that is bad PR, is pissing off a lot of subscribers and shows how little they respect users of the site. We BOUGHT the 2014 spells. We BOUGHT the 2014 Players Handbook. And they are just saying, go homebrew those spells and items or soon they’ll be gone. They are revoking content WE PAID FOR. I don’t own the 2024 rules, they aren’t even released yet. How am I supposed to have a list of every spell and item changed? And they are off-loading on me hours of work to homebrew them? Thanks for dumping naughty word on me I didn’t expect.