WotC James Wyatt is on the Dungeons & Dragons Team Again

[AbdulAlhazred]

I think it would be incredibly difficult for Hasbro/WotC to leave money on the table by not coming out with some sort of "anniversary edition" in 2024.

Yeah, with a range of retro products, like maybe a thematically retro reprint of 5e. How about a Temple of the Frog module!

 

[Parmandur]

I think it would be incredibly difficult for Hasbro/WotC to leave money on the table by not coming out with some sort of "anniversary edition" in 2024.

A good opportunity to bring Core into line with where the game is evolving. Ruleswise, a minor shift, but a significant one.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I think it would be incredibly difficult for Hasbro/WotC to leave money on the table by not coming out with some sort of "anniversary edition" in 2024.

Sure, but I expect it would look more like a 5e "revised" than a 6e. (I'm sure people will want to call it five-point-five but I expect it would be more like five-point-one.) Something entirely backwards-compatible that just gets things in line with the current thinking, combined with a nice anniversary-type package and a few other retro-products on the side. They of course will do some anniversary products, but it doesn't need to be a new edition!

 

[Parmandur]

Sure, but I expect it would look more like a 5e "revised" than a 6e. (I'm sure people will want to call it five-point-five but I expect it would be more like five-point-one.) Something entirely backwards-compatible that just gets things in line with the current thinking, combined with a nice anniversary-type package and a few other retro-products on the side. They of course will do some anniversary products, but it doesn't need to be a new edition!

That sounds like a new Edition: same as 2E, basically. I doubt they will use 6E as a marketing tool as was attempted with 3.0, 3.5, and 4E. 5E doesn't ever use "5E" for marketing purposes, it's just Dungeons & Dragons.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

That sounds like a new Edition: same as 2E, basically. I doubt they will use 6E as a marketing tool as was attempted with 3.0, 3.5, and 4E. 5E doesn't ever use "5E" for marketing purposes, it's just Dungeons & Dragons.

Doesn't sound like a new edition at all to me, YMMV. Do you mean 2E as compared to 1E or the black-covered 2E books compared to the originals? Because I guess I could see it being similar to the latter. I doubt that they will make anything that's even as drastic as 4E's Essentials, but you never know. I'd expect to see more like a reprint of the core books with some extreme errata than a new edition. We are years and years away from a new edition, even if we grow closer and closer to some relatively big changes. Just IMHO, naturally.

 

[Parmandur]

Doesn't sound like a new edition at all to me, YMMV. Do you mean 2E as compared to 1E or the black-covered 2E books compared to the originals? Because I guess I could see it being similar to the latter. I doubt that they will make anything that's even as drastic as 4E's Essentials, but you never know. I'd expect to see more like a reprint of the core books with some extreme errata than a new edition. We are years and years away from a new edition, even if we grow closer and closer to some relatively big changes. Just IMHO, naturally.

It seems people freely used 1E material in 2E, or used 2E material for ongoing 1E games. Any 6E will likely be similarly evolutionary.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It seems people freely used 1E material in 2E, or used 2E material for ongoing 1E games. Any 6E will likely be similarly evolutionary.

Yeah, BD&D/1E/2E materials were used pretty much interchangeably among the folks I knew.

I know, this being the internet, that there are people who have Very Strong Opinions about the distinct identities of each version, but in my experience, it was all more or less the same to us, especially adventures and monster books.

 

[Azzy]

Yeah, BD&D/1E/2E materials were used pretty much interchangeably among the folks I knew.

I know, this being the internet, that there are people who have Very Strong Opinions about the distinct identities of each version, but in my experience, it was all more or less the same to us, especially adventures and monster books.

Same here. When 2e hit, we switched to it (because those were the only books avaiable for those of us that didn't already own the books, but we brought back any 1e material that was missing from 2e without issue. I would hope that 6e is as backwards compatible.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah, BD&D/1E/2E materials were used pretty much interchangeably among the folks I knew.

I know, this being the internet, that there are people who have Very Strong Opinions about the distinct identities of each version, but in my experience, it was all more or less the same to us, especially adventures and monster books.

I think I'm one of those people who saw them as very VERY different things. Maybe I was just young enough to not see the similarities? Or just too OCD? (I would never EVER have mixed 3.0 and 3.5 material either). I had no problem with 4E and Essentials, though. I don't know if that's a difference in material, or a difference in ME.

It seems people freely used 1E material in 2E, or used 2E material for ongoing 1E games. Any 6E will likely be similarly evolutionary.

Yeah, I guess if you want to call a fully backwards compatible update to the core books 6E, even if WotC doesn't brand it as that and one can still play everything published for 5E with little to no translation, AND it takes relatively little work for WotC's design team to produce... I guess THAT product could be coming for 2024, sure.

 

[Parmandur]

I think I'm one of those people who saw them as very VERY different things. Maybe I was just young enough to not see the similarities? Or just too OCD? (I would never EVER have mixed 3.0 and 3.5 material either). I had no problem with 4E and Essentials, though. I don't know if that's a difference in material, or a difference in ME.


Yeah, I guess if you want to call a fully backwards compatible update to the core books 6E, even if WotC doesn't brand it as that and one can still play everything published for 5E with little to no translation, AND it takes relatively little work for WotC's design team to produce... I guess THAT product could be coming for 2024, sure.

I think they'll call it 6E, just not talk too much about it, beyond "we've clarified the rules!"

I came into the game with 3.x in the mid-Aughts during College, and we were slippery about whether the game was 3.0 or 3.5. I honestly suspect in hindsight that my friends were still importing 2E assumptions.