At Wizards Presents today, Wizards of the Coast announced that the next generation of Dungeons & Dragons (opens in new tab) is underway through a large public playtest called One D&D. This includes revised versions of the Core Rulebooks: Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide, and Monster Manual. This update comes with D&D’s official digital toolset and virtual tabletop. (opens in new tab)
The new rules are backwards compatible with the current version of the D&D Rules, 5th Edition or 5E. They’ve been around since 2014, and statistically speaking, they’re probably what you’re playing. Don’t panic. We knew this was coming. It’s not as dramatic, and it has been before.
Wizards of the Coast doesn’t call the new ruleset D&D 6th Edition, but that’s what it really is. If you choose no official name other than One D&D, players will call it 6E or 5.5. Believe me: Wizards tried for years to make 5E just “Dungeons & Dragons”, but we called it Fifth Edition anyway… and now Wizards themselves call it that. increase. “One D&D” doesn’t last long.
“One D&D is the codename for the next generation of Dungeons & Dragons, bringing together updated rules, backwards compatibility with 5th Edition, D&D Beyond as a platform for D&D experiences, and early development D&D digital play experiences. It offers players and Dungeon Masters complete immersion and rich 3D creation tools,” Wizards said in a press release.
D&D Designer Chris Perkins said: Now we are no longer in a position to think of D&D as an edition. It’s just D&D. “
Wizards tried to make it clear in their presentation that their plans for changes to D&D weren’t to “take something away” from D&D players or “change what you love.” As a D&D veteran who went from 3rd edition D&D to its evolutionary D&D 3.5 and from 4th edition he went to 4E Essentials, I can say with confidence that it is correct… in part It must be true.
This 5th edition update includes a lot of development time and a lot of playing experience with D&D 5E. The past eight years have seen subtle rule updates and changed game design philosophies. It also benefits, at least in part, from knowledge gained in previous game updates.
But will your favorite things change in the official print? Maybe. The first document changes the basic core rules. A natural 20 will always succeed and a natural 1 will always fail. According to D&D Game Design Architect Jeremy Crawford, this change was made because the vast majority of people played the game that way, whether it was official rules or not.
This is actually kind of refreshing if you’ve done this before.
The first playtest focuses on races and backgrounds, offering an evolved version of the previous rules. Also, for the first time, ardlings with animal heads, the polar opposite of tieflings, will appear. Also, spell lists he organizes into three simple, separate Arcane, Divine, and Primal lists.
Then there are the bigger changes. Critical hits appear to only the player his character, not the NPC. It’s huge! Some people don’t like it.
in short?
In many ways this is the natural evolution of things. With the acquisition of D&D Beyond, Wizards of the Coast is the first to have a single, common platform for distributing D&D digital content. This includes what appears to be rule updates over the next few years ahead of these new core rulebooks. (Also creating his official 3D virtual tabletop tool.)
That’s been the plan from the beginning of 5th Edition, and allow me to admit that it still surprises me that it’s true in the corporate environment of Wizards of the Coast.
If you’re curious about the future of Dungeons & Dragons, sign up for the One D&D public playtest. dndbeyond.com (opens in new tab).
