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

 

[kayakingpoodle]

Citation needed.

All but a couple of people I play with left DDB over the 24 rules implementation in the character generation tool, and every new player gets 0 DDB exposure when they start with us.

 

[Staffan]

Since they had originally stated that they were removing the 2014 rules and only kept them after mass outrage and cancellation of subscriptions, then yes, Spell is completely correct. They had intended to force people to move to 5.5.

They have little incentive to fix the mess that they created.

Or, they assumed everyone would be moving to 2024 and designed things appropriately. When they learned people would not, they did the bare minimum to claim legacy support.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Or, they assumed everyone would be moving to 2024 and designed things appropriately. When they learned people would not, they did the bare minimum to claim legacy support.

What would possibly lead them to make such a far-reaching assumption? I thought they did studies and collected data?

 

[Maxperson]

So no, I don't think WotC management intended to use the lack of legacy support to force people to move to 5.5, I think they just assumed that everyone on D&D beyond would switch to the new system right away, and were surprised when that didn't happen.

Name one edition where everyone decided to switch to the new one? WotC is well aware that every new edition has a lot of people who do not make the switch. We have every edition from 2e on to show that to be the case. I don't at all believe that they were caught by surprise when everyone didn't switch.

 

[Staffan]

I agree with that strategy. However, I think they screwed up by making the changes to the newest version of 5e just enough that some folks have decided it's too much of a change, and so that there are a few glaring difference that are a problem on DDB (e.g. druids, weapon masteries). If they had kept the changes to a Tasha's level, I don't think we'd be having this conversation. Folks aren't too worked up about the DMG or MM, for example - it's the PHB.

For me, it's not that I mind the changes themselves. Most of what I've seen indicate that the changes are improvements to the game. But:

• I'm not convinced the improvements are worth getting a whole new set of core books.
• I'm not currently running a D&D game of my own (right now I'm more into Savage Worlds, and Fabula Ultima is also looking kind of tempting), and I'm not likely to start one any time soon.
• I am a player in a game where we play approximately twice per three months (we play with intervals of a few weeks, but we alternate between D&D and someone's homebrew game), and since we already have 5.0 characters we've decided it's not worth changing mid-game.

It's not exactly true that DDB was never intended to support multiple versions of the game. For instance, it had no problem supporting players who bought Tasha's and those who didn't. And it's supporting the current situation pretty well, but obviously some adjustments are needed.

Most of the Tasha changes were to individual bits though, not to system-wide things the way 5.5 is. That's much easier to handle with toggles, e.g. "Do you want your paladin to have a fighting style or cantrips?"

 

[Staffan]

What would possibly lead them to make such a far-reaching assumption? I thought they did studies and collected data?

Boundless optimism? Alternately, these days Wizards' management is largely recruited from Microsoft and IME software tends to have pretty high adoption rates for new-and-improved versions.

 

[J-H]

Boundless optimism? Alternately, these days Wizards' management is largely recruited from Microsoft and IME software tends to have pretty high adoption rates for new-and-improved versions.

That's mostly because there is no free choice. At work we have to run Windows 11.
I am running a much older version at home because a working Recent Documents menu and data privacy is more important to me than the newest AI gizmo.
I lose 5-10 minutes per day in Windows 11 switching documents thanks to the mandatory "upgrade."

With this, the users have the power to say "No."

 

[Belen]

Boundless optimism? Alternately, these days Wizards' management is largely recruited from Microsoft and IME software tends to have pretty high adoption rates for new-and-improved versions.

Windows 11 is only 30% of the market. People are staying on 10 because 11 is garbage.

 

[Vincent55]

Their heavy-handed tactics are hurting them and will drive more away or to 3rd party sites, which let more freedom and use and don't put things behind a paywall or try and over-monitize the person on the site. As it is shadowdark seems to be filling a gap that Hasbro so generously made, lol Talk about your own worset enemy.

 

[Dire Bare]

Yes, there's no toggle to turn the 2024 rules off across the board for a character sheet. You get both spell lists visible for your characters and have to pick "Legacy." Similar for the weapons. Lance and monk damage were changed to 2024 rules, and probably a few other things like magic items.
At character creation, you have to repeatedly choose to find the 2014 options instead of the 2024 options. Most players I have seen build characters for actual play (IRL + forums) have not managed to successfully avoid using 2024 rules at some point (species, character class, etc.). Scrolling past Human to find the drop-down to select Human is confusing for people who aren't familiar with the nuances of the rules. It's led to some last-minute character re-dos during play time, which is pretty inconvenient. I am not using 5.24, so I'm encouraging my players to build sheets on Myth-weavers for online play, or on paper for IRL play.

I've heard that there's limited access for DMs to control which ruleset's content their players can use in shared campaigns, but I've never used Beyond that way so I can't confirm anything first-hand.

There have been numerous posts on the DND Beyond forums about it for the last 6 months or more, with zero response from WOTC/Beyond. I don't expect them to budge... good will doesn't show up on the P&L and the players not switching to 5.24 probably aren't buying more content anyway (aside from subscriptions? This is my best guess at the logic of leaving out the easy "2024 on/2024 off" button).

Whether you are using the 2014 or 2024 rules . . . the way DDB is set up is hella confusing.

I still love the service but . . . oof.