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

 

[Micah Sweet]

So, that is one person confident they could find games if they looked.... compared to a dozen or so who have stated that they have looked for months or up to a year and not found any.

All I can do is share my experience, same as @EzekielRaiden and anyone else who has difficulty finding games. And I have looked and found games, even if I decided not to pursue it.

 

[mamba]

But if they are still sitting on 5e then... maybe they will switch to 6e,

those will exist, that was never in doubt, the question is whether those that do not switch to 6e stick with 5e or not, and if not, whether they move over to something compatible and supported or not, which is exactly what happened with 3e/PF1 vs 4e

or to the new thing that came out in 2030 instead of an old system that came out nearly a decade ago. We don't see a lot of people leaving 5e now to go and play Dungeon World after all.

DW is not 5e compatible and 5e is still the current edition.

 

[mamba]

But you are thinking in the wrong terms. DnD isn't like a single physical object that only one person can use at a time. It is like software. And telling Adobe they can make products for Window's systems hasn't meant that Microsoft no longer owns Windows.

I know I was using a different term, that is why I said I would not be using the car… also, I never said WotC is not owning D&D, I said for all intents and purposes that is irrelevant for the part in the SRD

 

[Chaosmancer]

I don't agree. WotC is starting to do now what other games have been doing for a while. It's not trailblazing (and nor should it be--the market leader needs to play safe, for good reasons). At lot of the 2024 changes have been around in other 5E games for some time. Some of them are still ahead of WotC in terms of things like heritage/culture divides. WotC will get there eventually, but let's not pretend they are the leading edge of TTRPG design. That's what indie games do.

Never made any claims of trailblazing. But the team that designed 5e didn't need to go "well, the original rules used advantage and disadvantage, so we can keep that..." they made that.

Yes, other games have had more innovative designs, other games have made things that we consider better designs, but that is not much different than any other field of design where you look to see what your competitors are doing. Games that were designed specifically to be 5e compatible were specifically saying "here is a complete set of ready made rules, how do we want to change them" which is a different process.

That's... a rather insulting characterization.

Was going more for blunt than insulting. Yes, you have homebrew classes, homebrew subclasses, homebrew spells, homebrew feats, homebrew items and so on, but at the end of the day, you marketed Level Up as "this is DnD 5e, but with our rules replacing the parts we don't like".

To make them compatible, you had to base the rule design in what 5e is does and allows, you could not break too far from that, or they would not be compatible products.

 

[Morrus]

Without specifics, how big is the difference, in your estimation, in WotC coat tails vs no coat tails? Is it just a higher floor? I ask because size of the player base leads one to believe the difference is very significant.

Sorry, I don’t understand the question.

 

[Morrus]

Was going more for blunt than insulting.

You failed. And why not try kind, rather than insulting? What does ‘blunt/insulting’ gsin you?

Yes, you have homebrew classes, homebrew subclasses, homebrew spells, homebrew feats, homebrew items and so on,

They are not ‘honebrew’ any more than WotC’s work is honebrew. It is a professionally produced game.

Again, what’s with the random insulting language? What are you hoping to gain here? The only possible outcome of your “blunt” (insulting) language is a negative one. Insulting people’s work is not a great way to conduct oneself.

To make them compatible, you had to base the rule design in what 5e is does and allows, you could not break too far from that, or they would not be compatible products.

Sure. So?

 

[SlyFlourish]

Yeah, but you need WotC's audience.

As soon as WotC's audience moves off of 5E and onto D&D 6E (whenever that gets made), Level Up and Valiant are going to be hurting for players the same way all the would-be 4E players complaining that no one wants to play 4E because they all want to play 5E.

Will there be some tables that continue to play Level Up ten years from now? Sure. But will EN World also be filled with people saying they'd like to play Level Up but that no one in their area wants to because they are all playing 6E? Also sure.

Isn't this exactly what happened to Pathfinder? WOTC moved to D&D 4e and a bunch of D&D 3.5 people said "nope". Paizo said "hey, check this out!"

Of course it wasn't as big as D&D but it build a pretty good sized audience over the past fifteen years.

There are lots of people who play lots of RPGs including lots of previous editions of D&D.

 

[mamba]

To make them compatible, you had to base the rule design in what 5e is does and allows, you could not break too far from that, or they would not be compatible products.

you appear to believe that this means it is somehow lesser design work because of that.

Is 2024 therefore a lesser product than 2014? If not, is A5e or ToV then?

 

[Chaosmancer]

The argument is more that 5e is a framework. And any system that uses that framework is 5e. It's similar to games using unity engine, you could call them all unity games.

I could sort of see that, but then we get into weird differences.

For example, sure, a Unity game is a game made on the Unity engine. But I can't expect to take Subway Surfers mechanics and use them alongside Dog Simulator 3D. Those are different games.

But, if my players were fine with some discrepancies... I could have a 2024 Fighter using the Grimhollow fighter subclass playing at the same table a Witch Paladin from Pointy Hats Hexcraft book, and a Level Up Adept using the 2014 base rules all at the same table.

It is a framework... and the core of that framework are the DnD rules. None of those creators, to my knowledge, have fundamentally messed with the 5e design to the point where I can't include them in a game of "DnD". Because they are all the same "game". WoTC's DnD 5e, just with extra pieces and extra rules. And I don't see a categorization difference between my homebrewed Monk from 2020 and Level Up Adept, except one was sold and commercially successful. And modding and homebrewing a game has never altered that game to the point that the original creators still don't own that game.

 

[Chaosmancer]

yes, 5e is a ruleset plus some examples, as specified in the SRD, D&D is... not that

If DnD is not a ruleset plus some examples, what am I playing at my table?