D&D (2024) So Will 'OneD&D' (6E) Actually Be Backwards Compatible?

[Morrus]

WotC's marketing thus far as indicated strongly that the upcoming new edition of Dungeons & Dragons will be backwards compatible with the current 5E edition.

We have only seen a couple of playtest documents so far, but there is already comunity disagreement over whether this new edition will actually be compatible or not.

Of course, WotC still has a year at least of 5E material coming out -- Planescape, Phandelver campaign, Bigby's giants book, and so on, and it's likely that those books would take a hit if the perception was that 6E (or One D&D or whatever it ends up being called) was not compatible with those books. So far, we've been assured that it will be.

On the flip side, with 5E now out in Creative Commons, and the popular thought that WotC wants to create a new 'walled garden' for the next edition, having the new edition be a separate entity plays towards that goal.

But what do you think? Compatible? Yeah or nay?

 

[deganawida]

I think it will end up being a "nay." Not trying to be a grump (though I know that I have been grumpy), but, if Hasbro wants D&D to be a curated online experience, having the SRD in the wild would work against that. I am anticipating more drastic changes, followed with a new GSL.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Can I vote for both?

I think 5.5 will be "broadly" compatible, perhaps not as much as it would have been before the OGL kerfuffle. I think they may be moving it a bit more in the other direction, preparing the ground for a real "6E" that will be more different and more easily walled off.

 

[Shiroiken]

Based on what we've seen so far in the playtest, it's very much yes. I've been running a playtest campaign since the second packet came out (Experts) with a mix of playtest characters and 5E characters, and there doesn't seem to be any compatibility issues.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

If we consider 1E and 2E AD&D to be compatible, which personally I do, then I'd say "Yes", which is how I've voted.

Even in the playtest material we've seen there's already considerably more difference between 5E and 1D&D than 3E and 3.5E, but we're still well within tolerances for 1E to 2E.

I think in practical terms you could probably run a 5E adventure with 1D&D PCs, for example, without huge problems (based on how 1D&D is currently looking), or vice-versa. You could also have a mixed party of 5E and 1D&D PCs, but I feel like 1D&D PCs are generally going to be slightly more effective - then again, the same was true of 1E and 2E PCs.

I think they may be moving it a bit more in the other direction, preparing the ground for a real "6E" that will be more different and more easily walled off.

Yeah that's the question. We don't have any evidence yet (unless a packet just dropped and I missed it), but it seems to me that they may well do this. If so we may end up with a 1D&D that's less compatible with 5E than 2E was with 1E, and that would be stretching the definition of compatible somewhat, I feel.

 

[Staffan]

I think it will be semi-compatible, like 1e/2e or 3e/3.5e. You'll be able to use older material, primarily adventures and monsters, with the new edition but it won't be seamless. And player-facing materials will be more iffy.

 

[Jolly Ruby]

I'm not sure if it will be backwards compatible, but I'll say I hope not. 5e is great, and I love it, but it feels like it's constraining what they can do in this next edition. I want WotC game design team to build upon 5e foundation, but with leeway to create new things and revamp core structures of 5e if needed. However, what wouldn't be good, IMHO, is creating something that isn't compatible just for the sake of being incompatible.

 

[aco175]

I say yes to start. Like what @eyeheartawk said, I think it will be a jump to an actual 6e. I could see testing the 5.5e for a couple years to see how all of this affects the bottom line and if they really need to go 6e and cut the OGL.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'm not sure if it will be backwards compatible, but I'll say I hope not. 5e is great, and I love it, but it feels like it's constraining what they can do in this next edition. I want WotC game design team to build upon 5e foundation, but with leeway to create new things and revamp core structures of 5e if needed. However, what wouldn't be good, IMHO, is creating something that isn't compatible just for the sake of being incompatible.

I'd have liked to have see a jump to a less-constrained edition, but what we're seeing with 1D&D is almost more-constrained - c.f. the mindless standardization of subclasses at L3 even where it makes fundamentally very little sense (which is literally most subclasses at this point). Or the standardization of all casters into being preparation casters.

 

[Steampunkette]

Best Case Scenario it's A5e and 5e going forward.

But after this debacle, I almost expect a GSL2. And if that happens we're gonna see One D&D put off for a while to let the kerfuffle die a bit, and this year's books to sell without impingement of the coming edition change.

THEN they'll put out One D&D as 5.5e with a new License Agreement that people don't bother with for at least a -few- years to have their walled garden.