D&D (2024) Jeremy Crawford: “We are releasing new editions of the books”

[Charlaquin]

What about Paizo's upcoming attempt to remaster PF2? curious

From my understanding, its relationship with PF2 will be pretty much the same as 1D&D’s relationship with 5e. However people want to describe that relationship.

 

[Parmandur]

From my understanding, its relationship with PF2 will be pretty much the same as 1D&D’s relationship with 5e. However people want to describe that relationship.

"It's complicated"

 

[Dire Bare]

No worries. My belief is that they haven't maintained a consistent product vision over the last 20 years, and the 2024 edition confusion is the most recent manifestation of that. It's like when a car changes from a coupe, to sedan, to station wagon, and yet has the same model name.

As for whether or not it will be good, I do not have a dog in the fight. I've enjoyed previous editions, but 5th left me cold. I have other games to keep me entertained for now, and if they make a product I'm interested or a new version of the game in a few years, I'll check it out and give it a fair shake.

20 years is a long time.

More data is gathered, personnel change, leadership changes, things change.

WotC currently is trying to change the culture of D&D in regards to "editions" of the game. Up to this point, within the D&D community, "edition" meant a new version of the game not compatible with what came before. This was TSR's blunder back when they launched "Advanced" D&D and then later AD&D 2E. This was carried forward by WotC with 3E, 4E, and 5E in 2014.

WotC leadership now realizes this isn't a great way to build a lasting franchise or product line and are trying to shift new "editions" to mean what the word means in the rest of the publishing industry, simply a new version of the book, not an entirely new game.

Long time fans are skeptical, it flies in the face of what we are used to.

But WotC has been pretty clear. There is no confusion . . . if you've been paying attention to what they have said and to the playtest documents released so far.

Dancey did some important, great work in his analysis of where TSR went wrong. But WotC has had over 20 years to gather more data and iterate on how they manage D&D. Dancey's work wasn't the final word on how to run a successful RPG business, but merely the beginning of that process.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I'm extremely skeptical of the claims of backwards compatibility. IIRC D&D Next promised the same that it would be backwards compatible with prior editions. That didn't happen. I have a feeling it will play out something like this, you could play 1D&D with 5E, but with all the changes in terminology and lineage and class features, it'd probably be a PITA to mix the two, so most people will probably just play one or the other, but WotC will still be able to say they delivered on their promise.

Exactly. Their motivation for making this claim is financial. It is marketing far more than it is honest presentation of fact.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Agreed. Also, there is historical precedent regarding using covers to differentiate the same book within the same edition.

In 1989, TSR printed the D&D 2nd Ed. Players Handbook with the mounted warriors on the cover. In 1995, just six years later, D&D 2nd Edition revised their Core Three books to have completely different formatting and art. They are often called the Black Books. The cover of the PH had the axe-wielding barbarian crashing through a dungeon door.

The page numbers for where to find things changed, but it was still the same game.

A 2024 PH with a different cover, and lots more diverse art and wider design options to cover more diverse character builds... sounds like a lovely, compatible 5E enhancement to me!

The 2e books you are referring to have exactly the same content. They are functionally the same book. This is not the case with the 2024 core books, and shouldn't be thought of as such.

 

[MoonSong]

Long time fans are skeptical, it flies in the face of what we are used to.

I can't use Xanatahar's nor Tasha's subclasses with current 1D&D Classes. To me that is the sign of a different edition/game version/whatever.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I can't use Xanatahar's nor Tasha's subclasses with current 1D&D Classes. To me that is the sign of a different edition/game version/whatever.

I'm with you, but a lot of people here seem to think only math matters.

 

[Dire Bare]

I can't use Xanatahar's nor Tasha's subclasses with current 1D&D Classes. To me that is the sign of a different edition/game version/whatever.

Yes, yes you can. Many of us currently are. The playtest material even tells you how to do it.

 

[Vaalingrade]

From my understanding, its relationship with PF2 will be pretty much the same as 1D&D’s relationship with 5e. However people want to describe that relationship.

Is 'Remaster' not the official term they're using?

 

[MoonSong]

Yes, yes you can. Many of us currently are. The playtest material even tells you how to do it.

Which means it needs conversion? Why would it need conversion if it is the same edition?