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

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

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 try he 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.

There's also the complete radio-silence from the Beyond team that doesnt look good. A huge part of the front page of each sub-forums is filled with raging posts about the handling of the 2024 rules. Having a little update absolutely ignoring the crux of the complaints is not helping anything either.

 

[pukunui]

There's also the complete radio-silence from the Beyond team that doesnt look good. A huge part of the front page of each sub-forums is filled with raging posts about the handling of the 2024 rules. Having a little update absolutely ignoring the crux of the complaints is not helping anything either.

No doubt they've been told not to engage, but yeah, it's not helping.

 

[Daztur]

From a business perspective this is all pretty bewildering. Did they expect people in existing 5e games to swap over to 5.5e spells in the middle of a campaign? Did they expect people to universally start using the 5.5e PHB before the 5.5e DMG and MM were out?

I guess they expected people to react to this like the tweaks to a few spells in splatbooks that did things like make it explicitly impossible to do Twin Spell metamagic on Booming Blade, etc.

But this just changes so much more stuff than that. Before I soured on 5.5e I was making plans for a new 5.5e campaign but I didn't even consider importing 5.5e mechanics into an existing game as an option.

But it seems like they were thinking of 5.5e as like a MtG set or a splatbook, something that yiu can seamlessly plug into an existing campaign seamlessly, which I guess is possible to do, it's just not how most people have ever done things as it's a real pain to change up rules in the middle of a campaign.

I guess they drank their own Kool-aid about 5.5 just being an update and not an edition. Or are the people calling the shots people who never play D&D? I'm just having a hard time understanding what WotC expected to happen. Having the main D&D message boards be full of pissed off customers just was the new PHB was getting ready to roll out seems to obviously predictable.

But then they seemed to be caught off guard completely by how pissed off people were by the OGL fiasco.

 

[MockingBird]

I'd be really surprised if dndbeyond doesn't address this issue further in the next week or so.

 

[Daztur]

I'd be really surprised if dndbeyond doesn't address this issue further in the next week or so.

Which makes things even more bewildering, then they'd get all this bad press for no gain whatsoever instead of bad press in return for goading people towards 5.5e.

 

[Azzy]

Which makes things even more bewildering, then they'd get all this bad press for no gain whatsoever instead of bad press in return for goading people towards 5.5e.

WotC stepping on rakes?

 

[Belen]

Wow, 50 pages of rage on the “clarification.”

Roll20 is trolling WOTC.

The fact that they will be screwing up existing campaigns (mine included) seems to have been missed by the geniuses and may actually damage adoption of 5.5.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

WotC stepping on rakes?

 

[Zaukrie]

From a business perspective this is all pretty bewildering. Did they expect people in existing 5e games to swap over to 5.5e spells in the middle of a campaign? Did they expect people to universally start using the 5.5e PHB before the 5.5e DMG and MM were out?

I guess they expected people to react to this like the tweaks to a few spells in splatbooks that did things like make it explicitly impossible to do Twin Spell metamagic on Booming Blade, etc.

But this just changes so much more stuff than that. Before I soured on 5.5e I was making plans for a new 5.5e campaign but I didn't even consider importing 5.5e mechanics into an existing game as an option.

But it seems like they were thinking of 5.5e as like a MtG set or a splatbook, something that yiu can seamlessly plug into an existing campaign seamlessly, which I guess is possible to do, it's just not how most people have ever done things as it's a real pain to change up rules in the middle of a campaign.

I guess they drank their own Kool-aid about 5.5 just being an update and not an edition. Or are the people calling the shots people who never play D&D? I'm just having a hard time understanding what WotC expected to happen. Having the main D&D message boards be full of pissed off customers just was the new PHB was getting ready to roll out seems to obviously predictable.

But then they seemed to be caught off guard completely by how pissed off people were by the OGL fiasco.

I'm guessing lots of tables switch mid campaign, yes.

 

[Belen]

I'm guessing lots of tables switch mid campaign, yes.

Over 1000 responses on DDB with most angry says it may not be that common.