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

 

[mamba]

I think that in practise the "something" will always be one game/company because of the high network effect in play and other barriers to entry in the ttrpg market.

that will be hard to overcome, agreed, but that does not mean it is necessary that there is one such company for the hobby to thrive. Both of these can be true at the same time.

The hobby is bigger than it ever was, by now it could sustain more than one big player imo, but that still means that this other player has quite the uphill battle to get into that position

 

[Imaro]

Didn't we all agree that "because it's always been done this way" was a terrible reason to maintain a practice?

You haven't proven anything to me, certainly profitability demands WotC power.

Wait... who all agreed? I think..."because it's worked so far" is a good reason to maintain a practice until you can show that something else works better... can you show that for ttrpg industry??

 

[Imaro]

No one is saying they didn't need WotC to get started. That's obvious. I'm saying they don't need them now.

Lol... yeah they do... to bring in new consumers to eventually buy their game... or even to market what ttrpg's are to the average person.

 

[Minigiant]

Exactly this. WotC is the only company pouring significant resources into expanding the TTRPG market through advertising, and as such, they reap most of the rewards from doing so. And with 2024, they remained focused on bringing a new generation of players into the hobby, as seen by the focus on making the Core more user friendly and investing in tools like DDB and Sigil to make the game easier to play.

While it's unlikely that another company will ever dethrone D&D as the market leader in the Fantasy TTRPG space, a well run company with the resources to advertise their platform could get as high as 35-45% market share (think Uber/Lyft, AirBnB/Verbo), but as of yet, the market isn't big enough for a solid competitor to emerge.

All it would take is 1 passionate billionaire to decide they want to make their own RPG and ~15-35% of the market would be theirs.

We've seen it with Tony Khan and AEW. He just dumped money into making a pro wrestling company to cut out some of the share of WWE.

All you'd need is the RPG version of Tony Khan.
But you'll be stuck with all the negatives of RPG version of Tony Khan.

 

[Imaro]

Then the marketing load will need to be shared out, obviously. Better for more companies that way.

Then why aren't they doing it now if it's objectively better...

 

[Micah Sweet]

Exactly this. WotC is the only company pouring significant resources into expanding the TTRPG market through advertising, and as such, they reap most of the rewards from doing so. And with 2024, they remained focused on bringing a new generation of players into the hobby, as seen by the focus on making the Core more user friendly and investing in tools like DDB and Sigil to make the game easier to play.

While it's unlikely that another company will ever dethrone D&D as the market leader in the Fantasy TTRPG space, a well run company with the resources to advertise their platform could get as high as 35-45% market share (think Uber/Lyft, AirBnB/Verbo), but as of yet, the market isn't big enough for a solid competitor to emerge.

If 2024/DDB/Sigil is a good enough product to really expand the TTRPG market to the next level, expect a strong competitor to emerge in the next decade. My own guess is that competitor focuses on either SciFantasy or Superheroes rather than Renaissance Fantasy as a competitive edge over D&D (allowing them to claim the title of #1 in one of those genres).

I see no reason a healthy industry requires a "throne" at all.

 

[Micah Sweet]

No one else has the money to do it.

Fantasy Adventurer RPGs is run by WOTC and both Fantasy and sci fi war gaming are run by GW because they have and invest the money in the marketing to make their IP valuable.

There is no big VTM-lite because the owners of WOD, Paradox, have made a mess of marketing. And no one else promoted an alternate well. So the Urban Dark Fantasy RPG industry is in the dumps.

Then I'm back to saying that the price of having the industry be this big (essentially corporate feudalism) is too high.

 

[Imaro]

I want a healthy and diverse community, where people play different games that suit their interests and temperament. Having one companies product aggressively dominate the industry works against that. If diverse and varied gaming means a smaller industry overall (because no company is too strong to compete with), so be it.

Well you aren't the gaming community. And a smaller community I'd just bad for everyone... I'd rather have 10% of 1000 vs 10% of 10.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Then why aren't they doing it now if it's objectively better...

Because the way it works now is better for WotC, and no have the power to stop them, unfortunately.

 

[mamba]

No one else has the money to do it.

that is self perpetuating though, and in no small part probably responsible for the fact that D&D is so dominant