One D&D

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Lunar Ronin

Lunar Ronin

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The next version of Dungeons & Dragons has officially been announced, titled One D&D. Unofficially, it's pretty much 5.5E.





"One D&D is the codename for the next generation of Dungeons & Dragons that brings together updated rules, backwards compatible with 5th Edition, D&D Beyond as the platform for your D&D experience, and an early-in-development D&D digital play experience that will offer players and Dungeon Masters full immersion and rich 3D creation tools," Wizards said in a press release.

[...] Fundamental core rules are altered in the first document: A natural 20 is now always a success, while a natural 1 is always a failure. That change was made, said D&D's game design architect Jeremy Crawford, because the vast majority of people were playing the game that way whether it was the official rules or not.

[...] The first playtest focuses on Race and Background, giving an evolved version of previous rules that's still pretty simple and familiar. It also introduces, for the first time, a celestial opposite of the Tiefling: The animal-headed Ardlings. It also collapses spell lists into three simple, separate Arcane, Divine, and Primal lists.

Then there are much larger changes: Critical hits are seemingly now only for player characters, not for NPCs. That's huge! Some people will hate it.
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Wizards of the Coast also announced an official Dungeons & Dragons VTT for One D&D. You can read about that here.
 
"It also introduces, for the first time, a celestial opposite of the Tiefling: The animal-headed Ardlings."
I'm pretty sure that the Aasimar already existed. In 5e, no less.
Not sure collapsing the spell lists is a good idea. I also like having actual books, so D&D Beyond as the platform doesn't really interest me. Hopefully they don't mean it will be the only platform.
 
Endless Flight said:
No critical hits for NPCs? That's an unfortunate change and one I don't agree with.
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I didn't notice that bit. Makes me wonder what else they'll be doing to reduce lethality.

I'm guessing ditching Death Saves (being reduced to zero hp will probably be something like "disadvantage for one turn, then stand back up with your Con bonus in HP refreshed" or something).
 
Endless Flight said:
No critical hits for NPCs? That's an unfortunate change and one I don't agree with.
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Even though I concede that an ignoble death at level 1 from a rando critical hit is not everyone's cup of tea I think this is a terrible move. Everyone knows that if a game is too hard for the wrong reasons it will drive players away but few seem to realize that the same thing happens when a game is too carebear and easy. It happens with video games and MMOs all the time. Striking the right level of difficulty is arguably the greatest challenge of game design.
 
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It's all well and good for the company to say that Edition Wars are over and 5E won, but the people who have been fighting the Edition Wars aren't the ones publishing the newest edition of the game. Look at Warhammer, for example, and see that pretty much everyone plays the new edition. For D&D they have made enough large changes that a lot of folks prefer pre-change rules sets over post-change. That's what started the Edition Wars in the first place.
 
Apparition said:
The next version of Dungeons & Dragons has officially been announced, titled One D&D. Unofficially, it's pretty much 5.5E.







Wizards of the Coast also announced an official Dungeons & Dragons VTT for One D&D. You can read about that here.
Click to expand...


I'm glad the video was only six and half minutes as it was typical ad video - 30 seconds of info, six minutes of empty phrases. Good that they are tweaking instead of totally redoing. It will be interesting to see what their VTT will be like and how much it will cost. Nice that there is a path to get physcial and digital in one purchase. Beyond that, it's wait until they release playtest packages (which are hopefully free).

I think both 3e and 4e claimed to get lots of playtester feedback - that bit adds nothing for me.


finarvyn said:
It's all well and good for the company to say that Edition Wars are over and 5E won, but the people who have been fighting the Edition Wars aren't the ones publishing the newest edition of the game. Look at Warhammer, for example, and see that pretty much everyone plays the new edition. For D&D they have made enough large changes that a lot of folks prefer pre-change rules sets over post-change. That's what started the Edition Wars in the first place.
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Probably 90% of the people currently playing D&D are playing 5e. Of those 10%, they're splintered and there is almost nothing that WOTC could do that would win back a major percentage of them; especially not while keeping current players onboard so they are irrelevant from WOTC's perspective. This looks to be more about change to keep current players engaged.
 
I made a post about the announcement here
batintheattic.blogspot.com

One D&D, The Announcement

So One D&D? Today Wizards announced some details about what happening to DnD. DnD News Catch Up One DnD FAQ The one thing they hammer on in...
batintheattic.blogspot.com batintheattic.blogspot.com

For this one, I focus on their claims of being backwards compatible but point out there are some consequences based on my experience dragging the Majestic Wilderlands across different systems.

Also the first playtest document is out.
www.dndbeyond.com

Unearthed Arcana Playtest

Unearthed Arcana Playtest Materials Get Unearthed Arcana playtest content, try it out in your game, and provide feedback! Check back regularly for ...
www.dndbeyond.com www.dndbeyond.com
 
Ability bonuses from background but not race. They've already loosened scores from race, saying you can just drop points wherever you want. This tightens up in a new direction.
1st level feats would prevent humans from getting powerful feats right away, in theory.
 
Moracai said:
That's it. I'm going to write my own 5e PHB.
With blackjack and hookers of course! :hehe:
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Bro I have a dream of making a weird fantasy heartbreaker out of the 5e SRD.

That is the dream but the reality is that I would be happy if I managed to publish a few pages of houserules that were warmly received.
 
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I think feat progression is also a bad idea but I see why they want to do it (at the time of writing, ability score increases are better than feats 95% of the time).
 
I like ability increases from backgrounds better than the old increases from race, but I still prefer Tasha's "up to you" method; at least they're still in the player's hands, though, rather than the game designers.

But for everything else... I dunno, I just don't think I care.
 
So they’re outright stealing PF2es character creation model. The problem is Paizo actually put tons of effort into their backgrounds and there’s tons to choose from. WotC on the other hand we’ll just give a +1 to hit for the Sage background and call it a day.

Also the idea that your species (it’s species, not race) shouldn’t impact your attributes is asinine. This implies that on average an Orc won’t be stronger than a gnome and the a halfling with his tiny little stubby legs has the same movement capabilities as a graceful elf. It’s all dumb and was done solely to appease a vocal minority that manufactured a problem that hadnt existed for the 50 years of existence that D&D enjoyed before it became the mainstream cool thing to do.
 
There are a couple things that would make me interested in "One D&D:"
  • An integrated "hard mode" option with slower advancement (ideally based primarily on treasure accumulation), slower recovery of hp and spells, fewer at-will and "push-button" abilities, more dangerous (save or die, save or suck) effects, more emphasis on resource management, and other stuff that makes the game feel more like the old days - sure, the DM can already house rule all that stuff in, but I'd like to see it as a fully developed and officially sanctioned option that works in the VTT space with the flip of a switch
  • An optional "classical" skin for the VTT stuff (and ideally the printed books as well, but I assume that would never happen) where armor and weapons look more historical, characters and monsters have more realistic proportions, and so on, a la something like Angus McBride's art
If WotC did both of those I'd probably pick up the new edition. Without them, I'm pretty sure I'll give it a pass.
 
Monero said:
So they’re outright stealing PF2es character creation model. The problem is Paizo actually put tons of effort into their backgrounds and there’s tons to choose from. WotC on the other hand we’ll just give a +1 to hit for the Sage background and call it a day.

Also the idea that your species (it’s species, not race) shouldn’t impact your attributes is asinine. This implies that on average an Orc won’t be stronger than a gnome and the a halfling with his tiny little stubby legs has the same movement capabilities as a graceful elf. It’s all dumb and was done solely to appease a vocal minority that manufactured a problem that hadnt existed for the 50 years of existence that D&D enjoyed before it became the mainstream cool thing to do.
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I don't think their target audience is the old-guard. The game has reportedly grown by leaps and bounds and attracted all sorts of new people to the hobby with very different tastes to the old farts (I definitely am old enough to be part of that cohort). More power to them I guess? I'll happily keep not playing/running WotC D&D and stick to other games that scratch my trad-game itch.
 
T. Foster said:
There are a couple things that would make me interested in "One D&D:"
  • An integrated "hard mode" option with slower advancement (ideally based primarily on treasure accumulation), slower recovery of hp and spells, fewer at-will and "push-button" abilities, more dangerous (save or die, save or suck) effects, more emphasis on resource management, and other stuff that makes the game feel more like the old days - sure, the DM can already house rule all that stuff in, but I'd like to see it as a fully developed and officially sanctioned option that works in the VTT space with the flip of a switch
  • An optional "classical" skin for the VTT stuff (and ideally the printed books as well, but I assume that would never happen) where armor and weapons look more historical, characters and monsters have more realistic proportions, and so on, a la something like Angus McBride's art
If WotC did both of those I'd probably pick up the new edition. Without them, I'm pretty sure I'll give it a pass.
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So long as WotC is soley dedicated to the X Card crowd, the idea of a hard mode is just a pipe dream. Though that would be awesome and old D&D editions would've had the balls to do that but this is modern WotC we're dealing with.
 
Nick J said:
I don't think their target audience is the old-guard. The game has reportedly grown by leaps and bounds and attracted all sorts of new people to the hobby with very different tastes to the old farts (I definitely am old enough to be part of that cohort). More power to them I guess? I'll happily keep not playing/running WotC D&D and stick to other games that scratch my trad-game itch.
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Oh you're right, they completely abandoned the people that were soley responsible for keeping the hobby alive, even when it was damn near social sucidie to admit you were one of those "nerds" that plays that 'satan worshipping' game. Modern WotC slapped those people in the face and welcomed in their new hashtag overlords.
 
Monero said:
So long as WotC is soley dedicated to the X Card crowd, the idea of a hard mode is just a pipe dream. Though that would be awesome and old D&D editions would've had the balls to do that but this is modern WotC we're dealing with.
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While I agree with your general sentiment, we try to avoid talking about stuff like the X card ‘cause it always inevitably veers into politics, FYI
 
Monero said:
Oh you're right, they completely abandoned the people that were soley responsible for keeping the hobby alive, even when it was damn near social sucidie to admit you were one of those "nerds" that plays that 'satan worshipping' game. Modern WotC slapped those people in the face and welcomed in their new hashtag overlords.
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Abandoned? Maybe just moved on. I’ve moved on too (I’m just morbidly curious in this thread). I’ve discovered other games, some based on older editions of D&D, that suit my needs better.
 
Monero said:
Oh you're right, they completely abandoned the people that were soley responsible for keeping the hobby alive, even when it was damn near social sucidie to admit you were one of those "nerds" that plays that 'satan worshipping' game. Modern WotC slapped those people in the face and welcomed in their new hashtag overlords.
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*shrug* The people that run the company probably weren't even born when I started playing. All they owe anything to is their shareholders as part of a publicly traded company. As for the hobby? D&D might be a big chunk of it, but there's plenty of other games and people willing to play those games. D&D's success or failure doesn't mean shit to me, except that if people get drawn into the hobby and end up curious enough to branch out into other avenues of play, maybe they'll stumble on to interests that align with my own? I certaintly wouldn't have found BRP, CoC, Mythras, Dragon Warriors, or the OSR, without experiencing the ennui WotC D&D gave me, so I guess I owe them a bit of gratitude after all.
 
I didn't watch the trailer because I don't want to give them my click, but I did watch a reaction video to it. They must've used the word 'more', more than a hundred times in that video. I don't want more D&D, I want less. Less classes and subclasses, less powerful god-like characters, less options and fewer levels. I'm a fan of the fan-made E6 variant for 3.5e, where the level cap is set to six. This is a classic bloat trap they have been setting themselves up for, like oh so many other RPGs. This is obviously targeted for the 'Oo, new shiny' crowd. Also, I never will be gaming on a VTT, so there's that too.
 
I think it would have been interesting to take the custom background approach to its logical conclusion and do that with races as well. Basically, give people a list of options to choose from for special abilities (maybe assigning them a cost/rank to keep things balanced) and let people create their own, while still offering the sample/premade options. That way they could be tailored to meet the needs of a setting.
 
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