WotC WotC can, and probably should support multiple editions of D&D.

[Azzy]

OSR and Pathfinder has that all covered.

I mean yeah Id have loved for like AD&D to continue officially but eh OSR got it all handeled.

This. DM's Guild has most of the old edition books, and then there's OSR. There is so much material out there for old school play.

 

[mamba]

Another flaw with “don’t compete with yourself” is so many other, similar companies do. Toy makers do. Video game makers do. Boardgame makers do. None of them produce one thing then an endless supply of supplements for it. Most of them (including all the big names) have multiple lines that “compete” against each other.

WotC has D&D and MtG, they compete with each other too…

You can also buy PDFs of all the older editions if you wanted to, I doubt they sell a lot, but that also answers your question as to why WotC should not support the older editions in print…

I see no good reason for them to have a second TTRPG line, and if at all it should he SciFi or something, not a similar version to D&D

 

[overgeeked]

For Classic D&D, the work is out there, and someone like Gavin Norman or Daniel Proctor would be likely be happy to be paid to work on it. Again, the initial release isn't the massive thing it is for 5e releases today. It starts off smaller.

The big difference between these works and what you see coming from Paizo and various OSR guys is that it has the D&D name on it.

Honestly, either license the name brand or bring them in house. Hasbro can afford it, maybe. OSE is the legacy brand of D&D. PF2E is the rules heavy tactical brand of D&D. Revised 5E is the middle option.

While there is some overlap, those games have different fanbases with different preferences. The shared fans want different gaming experiences at different times. Just like other kinds of gamers, re: video games, boardgames, card games, etc.

 

[Chaltab]

Visit the pet food, potato chip, soda, cereal and toiletries aisles in your local grocery store.

"Competing with themselves" is what's made much bigger corporations than Hasbro very, very wealthy.

There's a difference. Those markets are enormous compared to TTRPGs, and those items are consumed constantly and quickly. A TTRPG product can take months or even years to full 'consume'.

 

[Micah Sweet]

And how many people are a few months away from replacing that game book they don't need to replace? About 80-95% of the D&D fanbase. How many people replaced 4E with 5E? 3.5 with 4E? 3 with 3.5? 2E with 3? AD&D with 2E? Etc.

Do you really think virtually all the current D&D fanbase is planning on replacing their corebooks at the end of the year? How many of them even know or care a new not-edition is coming? How many of those are aware of what changes are and aren't expected to be in those new books?

 

[overgeeked]

The "don't compete with yourself" argument also fails to take into account traditional book publishers, many other RPG companies who have multiple lines of games, etc.

When I think of multiple editions of D&D in print simultaneously, I think of something like the BECMI split or OSE, 5E, PF2E.

It's all the same core game mechanics to promote cross-compatibility and buying, but they deliver different experiences. B is dungeon crawling, E is wilderness exploration, C is castles and domains, M is mass battles, and I is godhood.

Build 5E compatible games around those different game play loops as the core game experience. But make them compatible. I mean, it's not like there's already been multi-million dollar Kickstarters for some of those exact ideas.

 

[dave2008]

This has been a post that for me has been a long time coming. I think WotC can and should support multiple editions of D&D.

They've been in this mode since they bought the product from TSR where they're only supporting one edition at a time, and frankly, it creates great amount of disruption for them and alienates fans every time they stop supporting a product that their fans like.

I think they should keep a maintenance version of 3e and for that version they should be publishing alternate stats for their new 5e adventures. Maybe even publish two versions of each new adventure for the hardback. One for 5e/onednd rules and another for their new 3.x maintenance version.

The other thing that I think they could support and probably should support would be a couple of Classic D&D versions meant to support running in OSR style. This would take the form of two different things. The first would be a version of Old School Essentials Advanced. They should pay Gavin Norman for this. The only change that I would make would be to the to-hit tables and saving throw tables to smooth them out (that's another rant that involves Target 20 and the very early decision by Gygax to extend from 9 levels to ~14 (the math supports 14, but could be 13 or 15, but the wizard in OD&D has a spell table to 16, but is functionally unlimited - I should really not get started)).

Optional changes would include d20 style ability checks (I don't means skill, more about setting a DR, having the player roll a d20 and add bonuses and meet the DR) and saving throws (5 arbitrary numbers is bad), optional ways to deal with death (more nuanced than just dead), maybe that funky cleric spell table, and anything else that tends to get house-ruled anyway.

Support for this would mostly be refreshed versions of old adventures (rewritten for clarity and brevity and packaged in bundles to support hardcovers) and what's seen in the sizable OSR community already.

I don't think they need to support older editions, but if they did support another edition, i would want that to be 4th edition.

 

[dave2008]

And how many people are a few months away from replacing that game book they don't need to replace? About 80-95% of the D&D fanbase. How many people replaced 4E with 5E? 3.5 with 4E? 3 with 3.5? 2E with 3? AD&D with 2E? Etc.

I can't speak for everyone, but my group never really upgrade to 2e from 1e and we skipped 3e & 3.5 entirely. We did go from 4e to 5e and I will at least but the 2024 books, though I don't think we were play it really as we play our own bespoke version of 5e as it is.

 

[overgeeked]

I can't speak for everyone, but my group never really upgrade to 2e from 1e and we skipped 3e & 3.5 entirely. We did go from 4e to 5e and I will at least but the 2024 books, though I don't think we were play it really as we play our own bespoke version of 5e as it is.

My long-time D&D group is almost exactly the same. We stuck with AD&D, skipped 2E, 3E, 3.5, and jumped on both 4E and 5E. But we've since jumped ship to Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG.

 

[Chaltab]

Honestly I think the most 'support' we're going to get for the past editions, besides selling them on DMs Guild, is releasing SRDs for them into creative commons, assuming they make good on that promise from last year.

Fourth Edition in particular would benefit a lot from the tools that could exist with unlimited license to the core of the system including a basic set of monsters.