Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
Zeno: History doesn't always repeat, but it sometimes rhymes.
Achilles: Wait ... wistery? Mistery? BLISTERY! IT'S BLISTERY, ISN'T IT??
Zeno: ........ you make me cry like Prohibition, Achilles.
Anyway, I think that when we are peering into the crystal ball of nonsensical youtube conspiracy theories to determine what One D&D (5.5e, 6e, The One Edition to Rule Them All, etc.), it might be helpful to not look to the future, but instead ..... THE PAST. Specifically, what happened with prior edition changes and the transitions? The reason for this is revealed at the end of the post ... but a quick examination will provide some helpful clues as to the likely One Direction of One D&D (apologies to Harry Styles).
First, the EDITIONS. Note- I am not including the B/X and BECMI lines.
OD&D Original D&D, the 1974 rules (and supplements and other materials) until the released of AD&D. (1974-1979)
1e First Edition. (1979 - 1989)
2e Second Edition. (1989 - 2000)
3e & 3.5e Third Edition. (2000-2008)
4e Fourth Edition (2008-2014)
5e Fifth, or current, Edition (2014-?)
Briefly looking at the transitions between editions, we see the following.
1. OD&D to AD&D (1e).
The very first transition occurred relatively seamlessly. 1e was, essentially, late-period OD&D with all the bells, whistles, and house rules from Gygax included. It was OD&D turned up to 11, with additional material culled from, inter alia, Dragon Magazine. In essence, if you were keeping up with current play in D&D, AD&D was pretty much what you were already playing.
2. 1e to 2e.
Again, 2e was just 1e that had been cleaned up and had certain late-period (UA, OA, DSG, WSG) materials added in the materials (weapon specialization, NWPs).
3. 2e to 3e.
If you were playing late-period 2e, you were probably familiar with the all the various player-facing splat books (including the Player Options, which provided, inter alia, the ability to point-buy and more advanced combat & tactic options). While 3e substantially modernized the creaky-TSR era base, it also built on many of the ideas of late-period 2e.
4. 3e to 4e.
While this was a divisive change, it certainly wasn't unexpected to people who were following late-period 3.5e. After all, the designers that were responsible for such tomes like the Book of Nine Swords were also the same designers who brought you 4e.
5. 4e to 5e.
This might be a little less obvious; but again, a certain retrenchment and refinement in the form of Essentials was seen in 4e prior to the playtesting of 5e.
So what am I saying? Past is prologue; as a general rule, people act shocked with each edition (or ... non-edition change as the case may be for One D&D) but generally there is some amount of carryover between the design elements that began to pop up toward the end of the design's lifecycle and the new edition's (BOBBY BROWN!) design elements.
So for One D&D, you should expect that it will carry forth the design decision from Tasha's forward- and this will be completely unsurprising.
Achilles: Wait ... wistery? Mistery? BLISTERY! IT'S BLISTERY, ISN'T IT??
Zeno: ........ you make me cry like Prohibition, Achilles.
Anyway, I think that when we are peering into the crystal ball of nonsensical youtube conspiracy theories to determine what One D&D (5.5e, 6e, The One Edition to Rule Them All, etc.), it might be helpful to not look to the future, but instead ..... THE PAST. Specifically, what happened with prior edition changes and the transitions? The reason for this is revealed at the end of the post ... but a quick examination will provide some helpful clues as to the likely One Direction of One D&D (apologies to Harry Styles).
First, the EDITIONS. Note- I am not including the B/X and BECMI lines.
OD&D Original D&D, the 1974 rules (and supplements and other materials) until the released of AD&D. (1974-1979)
1e First Edition. (1979 - 1989)
2e Second Edition. (1989 - 2000)
3e & 3.5e Third Edition. (2000-2008)
4e Fourth Edition (2008-2014)
5e Fifth, or current, Edition (2014-?)
Briefly looking at the transitions between editions, we see the following.
1. OD&D to AD&D (1e).
The very first transition occurred relatively seamlessly. 1e was, essentially, late-period OD&D with all the bells, whistles, and house rules from Gygax included. It was OD&D turned up to 11, with additional material culled from, inter alia, Dragon Magazine. In essence, if you were keeping up with current play in D&D, AD&D was pretty much what you were already playing.
2. 1e to 2e.
Again, 2e was just 1e that had been cleaned up and had certain late-period (UA, OA, DSG, WSG) materials added in the materials (weapon specialization, NWPs).
3. 2e to 3e.
If you were playing late-period 2e, you were probably familiar with the all the various player-facing splat books (including the Player Options, which provided, inter alia, the ability to point-buy and more advanced combat & tactic options). While 3e substantially modernized the creaky-TSR era base, it also built on many of the ideas of late-period 2e.
4. 3e to 4e.
While this was a divisive change, it certainly wasn't unexpected to people who were following late-period 3.5e. After all, the designers that were responsible for such tomes like the Book of Nine Swords were also the same designers who brought you 4e.
5. 4e to 5e.
This might be a little less obvious; but again, a certain retrenchment and refinement in the form of Essentials was seen in 4e prior to the playtesting of 5e.
So what am I saying? Past is prologue; as a general rule, people act shocked with each edition (or ... non-edition change as the case may be for One D&D) but generally there is some amount of carryover between the design elements that began to pop up toward the end of the design's lifecycle and the new edition's (BOBBY BROWN!) design elements.
So for One D&D, you should expect that it will carry forth the design decision from Tasha's forward- and this will be completely unsurprising.