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

[Micah Sweet]

No. It was not but WotC was always clear in communicating about the 2024 books. Always. It is still people on the internets freaking out and jumping to false conclusions. Imagine the outrage those player option books would generate now.

"Wotc want to stealthily introduce a new edition. All my other books are incompatible. What should I do if some player decides to use those option and someone else not. Absolutely power creep. My old psionics book is useless now. What are they thinking to change proficiencies. I have to do math. The juggling proficiency is totally unbalanced with bonuses to thrown weapons. Why should I buy those books if LevelUP does the same thing and better?"

Should I go on?

You know I'm with you on that last complaint.

 

[mamba]

Obfuscating the idea of new editions and accusing people of having an agenda is also an agenda.

I am not obfuscating a new edition, I am saying that WotC is very clear about what 1D&D is and isn’t.

Do they have an agenda? Not the word I would use, they have a goal and they build 1D&D to match that goal. That is the difference to all the people who do have an agenda that results in them ignoring or twisting what WotC is saying

 

[Micah Sweet]

This makes sense, and were I to actually decide to play 1D&D Id probably do the same. Here's where I'm confused, has WotC ever clarified what their definition of backwards compatibility is? I interpreted it as if one player is playing a 2014 PC then they'd use the rules in the 2014 PHB, if another is playing a 2024 PC then they'd use the 2024 PHB. Am I wrong? Seems like its going to be using a little from both the 2014 and 2024 rules.

I'm pretty sure what they mean by it is that everyone can participate in the same published adventure. They've been saying that since day 1.

 

[mamba]

As soon as those books drop though? Those old books are trash. What are you even doing with those, you scrub? Why aren't you joining these official games that are 5.5 only? Why isn't you home game 5.5 only?

well, if this is what you expect, then it will be easy to check in 2025 whether you were correct or not.

Until then it is at best pure speculation

 

[R_J_K75]

As soon as those books drop though? Those old books are trash. What are you even doing with those, you scrub?

That gave me a good laugh and reminds me theres always one in every group who has to go against the grain. Reminds me of this time in the later 90s when we started playing the 2E players options and were just starting to use the miniature/grid rules from combat & tactics, so we all bought miniatures, the $2 Arduin ones. There was one guy in the group who refused and said "I'll just use a nickel". I guess $2 wouldve broke the bank.

 

[Micah Sweet]

there are plenty of ways to allow for different attacks without resorting to some things add some subtract do them in the right order then look at a negative target number.

There absolutely are. Thaco isn't the best system by any means. I use better ways myself in my preferred games. I just don't think it was all that confusing, and the meme-level hate bewilders me.

 

[R_J_K75]

I'm pretty sure what they mean by it is that everyone can participate in the same published adventure. They've been saying that since day 1.

OK that makes things clearer

 

[mamba]

Of course it is. They're releasing new core books, which they will referring to moving forward. You really think they don't care whether or not you buy them?

would they want me to? sure, just like anything else they release.

Do they care whether I use 5e and keep buying new adventures, mix and match 5e with 1D&D and keep on buying new adventures, or switch to 1D&D completely while keeping on buying adventures? Only to the degree that the first option means I spent maybe $200 less on their books

What they do care about is to not leave a certain percentage of their players behind, like 3e to 4e did

 

[mamba]

You know I'm with you on that last complaint.

pretty sure you were the inspiration for that line

 

[SteveC]

It's interesting how this discussion has evolved over time. I've said that discussion of editions really depends on what's changing. As we've seen the playtests come out, I think we have an idea of where things are going, but it may change of course depending on where Wizards wants to go with it.

From my perspective, this is a ".5" edition. I'd say it's fairly comparable to 3.5 where you had the same underlying systems but classes and spells changed significantly. You needed the 3.5 books to play a wizard because the spells had major changes to them, as did many of the classes. I've looked over the classes that I play and they are ... really different. I play complex characters so they are spell casters, which are pretty different. I build a lot of warlock into them and that's a very different class at the moment.

I think what Wizards would like to do is have it be an "Essentials" edition. If you didn't play 4E, Essentials presented new character classes that you could play along side existing 4E characters. We had a player that wanted a simple character, so they played a Slayer, which was a fighter variation. You could have a classic 4E fighter in the game right alongside one. Or a "thief" (the Essentials Rogue) right alongside a classic Rogue. That ... doesn't seem to be the mentality they are going with, so the classes will have the same name, and have varying levels of differences between the new and the old. That's why I'd call it a .5.

And there's nothing wrong with a .5 edition update! I was wondering if they were going to change the underlying game mechanics or not, which I think is sort of a pre-req for a "6E" update. I just wish that Crawford would just stay out of the "what edition is it?" discussions, since it usually just ends up creating discussions like this one.

Just an aside, with an explanation for why I think he's doing this: a .5 edition really needs you to buy the new books (if you're not going exclusively digital) so explaining that means that you'd have a lot of people not buying product until the next edition. I know I'm not. But I wasn't exactly buying Wizard's products beforehand. What I am affected by is Paizo's "revised" edition. That is a similar situation, and it means I'm not buying their books or APs until revised comes out, which actually means something. I have been buying their stuff.

So ... we don't really know what the new edition will bring, but in my opinion from the playtests, it looks like a .5 Edition.