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 be included. From the update:

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...

www.enworld.org

Last week we released a Changelog detailing how players would experience the 2024 Core Rulebooks on D&D Beyond. We heard your feedback loud and clear and thank you for speaking up.

Our excitement around the 2024 Core Rulebooks led us to view these planned updates as welcome improvements and free upgrades to existing content. We misjudged the impact of this change, and we agree that you should be free to choose your own way to play. Taking your feedback to heart, here’s what we’re going to do:

Players who only have access to the 2014 Player’s Handbook will maintain their character options, spells, and magical items in their character sheets. Players with access to the 2024 and 2014 digital Player’s Handbooks can select from both sources when creating new characters. Players will not need to rely on Homebrew to use their 2014 player options, including spells and magic items, as recommended in previous changelogs.

Please Note:

Players will continue to have access to their free, shared, and purchased items on D&D Beyond, with the ability to use previously acquired player options when creating characters and using character sheets.

We are not changing players’ current character sheets, except for relabeling and renaming. Examples include Races to Species, Inspiration to Heroic Inspiration, and Cast Spell to Magic.

We’re dedicated to making D&D Beyond the ultimate digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons, continuously enhancing the platform to ensure you can create, customize, and play your game just as you envision it. From your first one-shot to multi-year campaigns and everything in between, we're grateful to be on this journey with you.

- The D&D Studio

 

[mamba]

I still think there is a technical issue.

A solvable one but one that would require a lot of man hours.

what is many man hours? they have a week to get it done, including the data entry…

 

[Imaro]

what is many man hours? they have a week to get it done, including the data entry…

How much revenue are they making off old content that's already purchased?? How does any amount of man hours in this scenario get paid for?

 

[KYRON45]

Hows that going?

My data is currently inconclusive.

 

[darjr]

I do appreciate that folks worked through the weekend on this.

As Mike says.

 

[Minigiant]

what is many man hours? they have a week to get it done, including the data entry…

Likely a whole lot.

You don't post something late night on a Sunday when it's easy.

 

[Parmandur]

This may sound weird/crazy, but hear me out. Over the past few years it has become obvious that WotC has a problem. There have been several times recently where they do something stupid and/or terrible (Hadozee, OGL, copyright strikes against YouTubers covering the new PHB, and now this), then there’s a public outcry from the community, and then they (normally) backpedal and reverse the stupid thing they did to get people to stop yelling at them. Then everyone forgets about it until a few months later when WotC does something else that makes everyone angry again and the whole situation repeats.

I’m starting to think, just maybe, WotC has an addiction to bad PR. It’s just a theory, but it would explain their weird consistency in repeatedly generating extremely avoidable and idiotic controversies. They must get high off of making the community mad. I don’t get it, it’s not my thing, but maybe it just makes them feel in control. Or like someone is listening to them for once.

I shudder at the thought of what will happen if we allow this viscous cycle to continue for too long. If anyone knows of a 12 step recovery program that could help, please send it to WotC’s management ASAP. We need to stage an intervention before it’s too late.

Few years, hardly. They've been doing this dance as long as I have paid them any mind. Same old, same old.

 

[Deset Gled]

Can anyone with a head for business explain why they take the worst possible option first and then back track 2 days later every time?

This is entirely speculation from me, but at the proverbial 10,000' view...

What I generally see from WotC's actions is a back-and-forth between a couple factions. One faction is a bunch of MBAs making business decisions. Things like "supporting legacy product is expensive, push everyone to update ASAP." Or "don't dilute your brand or allow factioning; you must call everything by the same name" come from this group. Generally speaking, these are all plans that come from a strong idea and/or have been proven in other markets, but it's unclear how they translate to TTRPGs.

The second faction is the group charged with implementing these ideas. Twenty years ago I would have called them the game devs, but today it also includes the VTT devs, ad guys, support teams, contractors for everyone, and a whole bunch of others. This group has to consider multiple ideas and conflicting goals, and come up with real, implementable reality. They also have their own, internal wars. This inevitably means making sacrifices, cutting corners, and going full ahead with some choices that they know will not be in popular, but must be made to deliver a product.

The third group is the one that communicates with the user base. Lots of marketing, some real nerds, some customer support folk, etc. Every time a change (or external news) comes out, it's their job to first announce/address it, then get customer feedback and report it to the other two groups.

So, what you see is a feedback loop. A decision gets made, a product gets released, or juicy news story comes out. The internet reacts. The marketeers send feedback to the MBAs and devs, who both have immediate and conflicting responses. The devs propose a change, the MBAs make an upper level decision, the devs work on a change, the marketeers announce the change. Rinse and repeat with varying amounts of lather from the fan base.

Sometimes the creatives know an idea is stupid but can't convince the suits of that fact until the nerds complain loudly enough. Sometimes the devs screw up and it isn't noticed by the MBAs who are looking at the big picture instead of the minutia. Sometimes the marketeers are just really clueless about how to present an idea without accidentally lighting a dumpster fire with the professional ragers on Twitter. Sometimes, the walls between these "factions" I invented are so blurry it's impossible to tell who's who. In the end, all sorts of problems end up in the problem/solution treadmill you describe.

 

[Jadeite]

Well, I add the OGL to the list of dumb things that were never actually implemented, I was asking about the statement of "yet another change they had to back out" when it's been two over the past two years. Unless there's something I'm forgetting of course.

They killed the OGL. I'm still waiting for d20 modern and 3.5 CC. And unless I'm mistaken they never said that they didn't have the rights to deauthorize the OGL in the first place, just that they weren't going to do so this time (similar to Disney and its streaming ToS).

 

[Parmandur]

This is entirely speculation from me, but at the proverbial 10,000' view...

What I generally see from WotC's actions is a back-and-forth between a couple factions. One faction is a bunch of MBAs making business decisions. Things like "supporting legacy product is expensive, push everyone to update ASAP." Or "don't dilute your brand or allow factioning; you must call everything by the same name" come from this group. Generally speaking, these are all plans that come from a strong idea and/or have been proven in other markets, but it's unclear how they translate to TTRPGs.

The second faction is the group charged with implementing these ideas. Twenty years ago I would have called them the game devs, but today it also includes the VTT devs, ad guys, support teams, contractors for everyone, and a whole bunch of others. This group has to consider multiple ideas and conflicting goals, and come up with real, implementable reality. They also have their own, internal wars. This inevitably means making sacrifices, cutting corners, and going full ahead with some choices that they know will not be in popular, but must be made to deliver a product.

The third group is the one that communicates with the user base. Lots of marketing, some real nerds, some customer support folk, etc. Every time a change (or external news) comes out, it's their job to first announce/address it, then get customer feedback and report it to the other two groups.

So, what you see is a feedback loop. A decision gets made, a product gets released, or juicy news story comes out. The internet reacts. The marketeers send feedback to the MBAs and devs, who both have immediate and conflicting responses. The devs propose a change, the MBAs make an upper level decision, the devs work on a change, the marketeers announce the change. Rinse and repeat with varying amounts of lather from the fan base.

Sometimes the creatives know an idea is stupid but can't convince the suits of that fact until the nerds complain loudly enough. Sometimes the devs screw up and it isn't noticed by the MBAs who are looking at the big picture instead of the minutia. Sometimes the marketeers are just really clueless about how to present an idea without accidentally lighting a dumpster fire with the professional ragers on Twitter. Sometimes, the walls between these "factions" I invented are so blurry it's impossible to tell who's who. In the end, all sorts of problems end up in the problem/solution treadmill you describe.

Sounds similar to every place I've ever worked.

 

[Oofta]

They killed the OGL. I'm still waiting for d20 modern and 3.5 CC. And unless I'm mistaken they never said that they didn't have the rights to deauthorize the OGL in the first place, just that they weren't going to do so this time (similar to Disney and its streaming ToS).

They did not kill the OGL. There was a [very stupid] proposal to change and they reversed course before the change was implemented based on feedback while putting the current version in CC. They've stated that they plan on putting other 3.x in CC, but the work on 2024 edition has taken priority. Meanwhile 3.x is still covered by the OGL.

As far as the entire concept of the OGL, that's a whole separate issue and was their attempt to break away from TSR's lawsuit happy days. Putting it in something like CC from the get go probably would have been a better idea.