D&D 5E Using "D&D 2024" instead of "5e24"

[Micah Sweet]

I don't think that's true because it doesn't really matter what you call it, people will always think that the latest books from wotc are must haves.

Utter tragedy. The worst part of the current gaming environment to my mind is the idea that WotC is more important than any other publisher.

 

[Zardnaar]

The only problem with that is that it implies all other 5e publishers that aren't explicitly following WotC's coat tails are behind a step, as if WotC's minor adjustments so you feel you have to buy new books are some kind if cutting edge new tech you need to jump on.

Most people don't really care about the other publishers. Or know they exist.

 

[Zardnaar]

Utter tragedy. The worst part of the current gaming environment to my mind is the idea that WotC is more important than any other publisher.

They are they own the IP and are 10 times larger than the rest put togather.

Regardless of quality every other publisher doing D&D stuff is essentially a knock off or off brand depending on how charitable you're being.

Hell they're basically using 5Es foundations just tweaking it.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

I understand your point, but don’t know that it will really make any difference

 

[mamba]

Utter tragedy. The worst part of the current gaming environment to my mind is the idea that WotC is more important than any other publisher.

not sure that was ever any different, even in the TSR days

 

[Micah Sweet]

Most people don't really care about the other publishers. Or know they exist.

Anything that encourages that belief should, IMO, be avoided.

 

[Micah Sweet]

They are they own the IP and are 10 times larger than the rest put togather.

Regardless of quality every other publisher doing D&D stuff is essentially a knock off or off brand depending on how charitable you're being.

Hell they're basically using 5Es foundations just tweaking it.

Frankly, I don't see how that matters at this point. I remind you of the legendary tale of Hydrox and Oreo.

 

[KYRON45]

Frankly, I don't see how that matters at this point. I remind you of the legendary tale of Hydrox and Oreo.

Wouldn’t Tunnels & Trolls be Hydrox in this comparison? Hydrox was first; but Oreo was more popular.

Edit: I stand corrected; D&D was published first….but Braunstein predated D&D.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

As others have said, I am going to call it what it is: 5.5e. A revision, which will replace things officially (read: for organized play), but which will be effectively backwards-compatible with pretty much everything that came before. There's little to no problem playing 3e content in 3.5e stuff, and adventures written for either one will require little if any change regardless of the rules you choose to use. Much of it is simply rejiggering the math to patch up the holes they've found (e.g., giving the 5.5e Warlock a 1/day recharge of their spell slots because people don't short rest often enough.) There are some winners and some losers, some cool things and some annoyances. So it goes.

They're just bending over backwards to prevent the kind of backlash that happened with the last time they revised an edition rather than coming out with a new one. I find this pretense rather annoying and would prefer that they just be honest with people. Of course, the cynic in my soul recognizes that such honesty would backfire, but its optimist counterpart questions exactly how inevitable that is, given how much the D&D fanbase has changed over the past 20 years.

For real though:

• It's changing a bunch of spells, feats, and a handful of common/general mechanics (e.g. weapons), but nothing ground-breaking
• It's altering the mechanics of several core classes to improve them
• It's rewriting some subclasses to improve them (read: to make them suck less in most cases, e.g. Berserker, Champion, and Beast Master)
• It's going to change presentation and style, but not much about the math itself, other than a few back-end tweaks
• Most content from before will be usable without any adaptation. A few things, like backgrounds, will need adjustment.

This is exactly what 3.5e was. A revision that preserved the overall rules structure, but made tweaks and changes within it to fix what things could be fixed. It is 5.5e. But calling it that is too much of a risk, so we're going to get silly naming conventions instead.

 

[aco175]

There is a lot of things that have a a grander name than the specific. I think of D&D the game and it encompasses all of it and not just the WotC owned property, which is wrong in the specific. The other companies make 5e material under the licenses, but it will always be D&D to me. The new books will just be 5.5e to me even though many are trying to suppress that.