A New Edition (or Something) of D&D is Coming Out This Year and Does Anybody Care?
21 random thoughts on D&D 5.5, or 6.0, or One D&D or whatever the hell this thing is.
Wizards of the Coast (WotC), the makers of Dungeons and Dragons, have announced the roll out of the new D&D edition…or not edition…5.5e or 6e, or One D&D, or just D&D…whatever is going on, beginning this year. The core rulebooks will come out beginning with the Player’s Handbook in September 2024, and ending with the Monster Manual in February 2025. This already feels like the clunkiest roll-out of a D&D edition…or not edition (see the confusion?) I can remember. Maybe it will be a stellar success though. Here are 21 thoughts in no particular order1.
1) Nobody, including WotC seems to know what the hell this thing is. Is it a new edition or not? Do we have to buy these books? Reportedly, it’s supposed to be backwards compatible with the existing 5e system, but what does this mean for revamped classes, monsters, etc.?
2) Having books come out with revised versions of core classes…fighter, cleric, wizard, etc., while suggesting that the old versions in the old books are still backwards compatible feels like a mess. This was the kind of muddle that killed off 4e, albeit that version was troubled from the start.
3) As far as I can see, the new books aren’t being offered, at least not for presale, on Amazon, pretty much the world’s biggest bookseller. Rather, they seem to be offered specifically through WotC’s own DnDBeyond system. Not offering hardback books via Amazon seems like premeditated murder for sales numbers.
4) One core flaw of 5e…tying feats to ability score increase (ASI)…seems like it will go unfixed. Perhaps that will change by the time the books come out.
5) I live a pretty insular life but, frankly, I sense pretty much no buzz around the books. Asking around, most people seem rather lukewarm at best.
6) Despite claiming that D&D is one of the big money makers for WotC’s parent company, Hasbro, Hasbro laid off a big chunk of the D&D development team in December 2023, along with other company staff. That’s horrible timing, given the launch of a new product line and suggests a company that is deeply troubled.
7) WotC couldn’t have worked harder to sabotage their credibility with fans the last few years with multiple scandals that managed to cast themselves as simultaneous wokescolds and greedy misers.
8) D&D appears to be trying to sprinkle just enough woke garbage into its products to please online mobs while hoping core players won’t notice too much. I think this will leave no one satisfied. We’ll see how bad it gets with the new books, but I’m a bit worried we’ll end up with 2024-2025 products that were developed with an anomalous 2020 moral purity spiral in mind.
9) Not to be a complete Debbie Downer, the new Weapon Mastery ideas actually do sound kind of cool.
10) More feats are also good. The feat list always felt a bit thin.
11) The Players Handbook (PHB) will probably sell pretty well, it usually does in any version.
12) Unfortunately, comparing sales to the original 5e PHB is likely going to be difficult, given previously mentioned disuse of Amazon. WotC is typically pretty opaque about sales data.
13) Overall I doubt this new “edition”…or whatever it is, is going to be “successful” in developing sales given the muddle it creates, people’s frustration with WotC, and general lack of focus.
14) I doubt WotC will go broke anytime soon and any disasters in this new move will likely be absorbed by the general productivity of the 5e system which will muddle on.
15) Indeed the “clean” version of 5e is likely to be the biggest competitor for any new version. I suspect many people will simply ignore the new books or pick through the carcasses via online information for the few bits of the new stuff they like.
16) Fortunately for WotC, although I suspect there’s a market for a less woke-moralistic version of D&D, it seems their main rival Paizo has been just as captured by the race panic of 2020 and is unlikely to offer much alternative.
17) I don’t think audiences want an overtly anti-woke system either, rather moral lecturing is likely to grind on people’s nerves over time. I see no evidence that the majority of players want their fantasy worlds to feel like a college gender studies course, as has been the case for several recent WotC releases.
18) WotC, Paizo and the rest really need to stop listening to loud online mobs or the occasional “traumatized” individual who claims to speak on behalf of minoritized communities…but really doesn’t. This isn’t a random observation…I do worry how much this will reflect in the new books.
19) Much hinges on how many people really want to move to the DnDBeyond online system WotC has been promoting (if you haven’t heard of it, you’re not missing much). I’d guess…some…but not enough to make this whole enterprise a roaring success. They seem to want to make it THE way to play D&D, but I think backfire potential here is significant.
20) This is probably a ripe time for a new company to make a play at seizing a big chunk of the D&D audience, much like Paizo once did with Pathfinder after WotC ditched the popular 3e system for the disastrous (come on, it was) 4e system.
21) Overall, this feels like the worst move WotC has made since it muddled the 4e system with all the “Essentials” confusion. Then again, maybe it will be great! What do I know? Only time will tell…
Of course, I’m curious what you think. Comments are only for paying customers, I’m afraid, so join up as a paying subscriber and let me know what you think. Or drop me a line via other channels.
Note: I readily cop to lack of originality, having cribbed this style from other substack writers, particularly Matty Yglesias.
My what big miniatures you have…
Did somebody put out a bowl of…broccoli…for people to nibble on? They deserve death!
Apparently, AI thinks Asians play D&D much more intensely than everyone else.