D&D (2024) Is the 5E player base going to split?

[Smackpixi]

Level Up is both really different and “fully compatible”. I really suspect anything WotC does will be less of a departure, but way more people will freak out about it. Narcissism of minor differences will run rampant on the internet, most people will acquire the new books at a pace matching their curiosity, eagerness for new exploits, love of picture books, and FoMO. Objectively none of the changes will actually matter, some will be convenient, some providing clarity, some satisfying common decency. The sun will revolve around the earth again and some people who have repeatedly asserted they are done with DND will say so again.

Aside from that pointless post, and new monster art, I hope and think the biggest and most interesting and most useful changes will be in the DMG. So much improvement and change and value and clarification could be added there while being fully compatible, entirely new optional rules (aren’t all rules optional outside AL?) can be done while being fully compatible…people will freak out and it will be fun to watch.

 

[Li Shenron]

Presumably they'll incorporate two more, Xanathar's and Tasha's, into the 50th anniversary PHB.

I agree with your general prediction but this is not gonna happen because of simple space reason.

What can happen, is that they incorporate a few selected changes: customised racial ability bonuses and those free class boosts from Tasha, and maybe Beastmaster alternate pets. I don't think they have room for extra subclasses or feats.

 

[Parmandur]

I agree with your general prediction but this is not gonna happen because of simple space reason.

What can happen, is that they incorporate a few selected changes: customised racial ability bonuses and those free class boosts from Tasha, and maybe Beastmaster alternate pets. I don't think they have room for extra subclasses or feats.

I don't know that we can assume too much one way or another about the "next evolution" of the game. WotC might not know exactly what it will look like yet: it's over 2 years off, and their normal product turnaround is 13 months. They might do a gigantic Rules Cyclopedia, they might do another triple core set like AD&D, they might do a BECMI series of box sets. Who knows at this point?

 

[Reynard]

I don't know that we can assume too much one way or another about the "next evolution" of the game. WotC might not know exactly what it will look like yet: it's over 2 years off, and their normal product turnaround is 13 months. They might do a gigantic Rules Cyclopedia, they might do another triple core set like AD&D, they might do a BECMI series of box sets. Who knows at this point?

A giant slipcase of three separate 3-book slipcases!

 

[Parmandur]

A giant slipcase of three separate 3-book slipcases!

I mean, why not??

 

[teitan]

I realize my post above (#37) diverged a bit from what the OP is asking, but I think it is relevant. But to take one element from that, and to respond more directly to the OP, I think a lot depends upon how the "Stranger Babies" respond to this change. The old-timers who are still around have gone through this before, some several times. But what we don't know is how the new player base will respond to changes in a game that, for them, has not yet changed.

And of course a lot of their response depends upon how much the game changes, and in what ways. But I think WotC is very aware of this, and will try bring the game only up to the edge of what they think won't rock the boat too much.

Another fact that seems barely mentioned, but I think is huge: 5E is quite different from past editions in that there are minimal splats. Most of what is published are adventures and settings, and those sorts of products are more "update resistant" than splats. We've already seen WotC's planned approach: they folded two older splats (Volo's and Mordenkainen's) into one new book. Presumably they'll incorporate two more, Xanathar's and Tasha's, into the 50th anniversary PHB.

Meaning, they aren't going to have to re-publish everything - just the core rules, and then move on from there. They could even do a 5.5 and the uproar will be (or should be) less than in past editions, because there is less to update, and most of it can be updated within the core rulebooks.

So my prediction is that it will be more seamless a transition to the 50th anniversary because of the nature of the 5E product line: heavy on adventures and settings, relatively light on splats.

I don’t think they will integrate Tasha’s and Xanathar’s. I think they will remain as is and compatible and that’s why they are in the gift set with what is essentially the Monster Manual 2 for 5e. They wouldn’t heavily revise those two books and reprint them and then bundle them like that. Plus from indications the class structures in those two are essentially the class structure of Revised. No short rest abilities etc. they are promising compatibility with existing material. If the artificer is moved to core it will have two different subclasses instead of the Tasha classes for example. They’ll add new subclasses to each class and slight revision to the core classes already in there. The races will default to MotM format with the original as a “suggested quick build”.

 

[Greg Benage]

For me, I really think it will depend on digital implementation. I'm perfectly happy to pick and choose the bits I like from different editions -- that would be the most "old school" element of 5e to date. But I play almost exclusively on Roll20 now, and I pay for that digital implementation. Currently, I can ignore the new design directions I don't care for and skip some books completely, and that works just fine.

OTOH, if I can't load 5.5 up in Roll20 and get (for example) racial ASIs in the character builder, I'm just not going to buy it on Roll20 and I'll keep running 5e. I expect that will be the case. Still, I hope I'm wrong because I'm sure there will be new stuff I do like and that would be clunky to import without digital support.

 

[Jack Daniel]

there were and are people playing every single previous edition because they went back or they jumped off the edition treadmill when that one came out.

I have to say, it is mighty nice to be off the treadmill. I find the solid ground to be quite pleasant, especially where there's grass.

They might do a gigantic Rules Cyclopedia, they might do another triple core set like AD&D, they might do a BECMI series of box sets. Who knows at this point?

I know. And so do you, and so does everyone else. There is no conceivable world where WotC abandons the PHB/DMG/MM model. It's tradition, it's nostalgia, it's revenue.

 

[Parmandur]

I have to say, it is mighty nice to be off the treadmill. I find the solid ground to be quite pleasant, especially where there's grass.



I know. And so do you, and so does everyone else. There is no conceivable world where WotC abandons the PHB/DMG/MM model. It's tradition, it's nostalgia, it's revenue.

Sure, there is, they've openly talked about that as a possibility. And if the future is a huge "Rules Cyclopedia" supported by digital Monstrous Compendiums...well, they won't have forced anyone to re-purchase a PHB or DMG.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I disagree, it will be adopted but it won't be fast. It will be a steady clip of people moving to it though. People will get over Tasha's and MotM by then and we will have more experience with them. MotM is more how it was handled than anything actually wrong with the material IN the book outside of what was removed from the front of Volo's and ToF.

Yeah if it's as compatible as they say they want it to be, the adoption won't be that quick, but there won't be much necessity.

You're get a few million neophiles immediately adopting it, and from then on it'll be a slow transition, as with 1E > 2E and 3E > 3.5E.

Ironically the less compatible it is, the faster the transition will be.