One D&D to rule them all?
The Announcement
The announcement for the next version of D&D that a lot of us have been expecting for a while has dropped alongside a set of playtest rules dropped that I wanted to get a look at (and plan to report on following a game or two) before offering my thoughts. The video is linked above for those who haven’t seen it.
The End of Editions
The first thing they stress is that they’re not making a new edition and they don’t think of editions anymore. Its a nice idea, but I’m sure some will have been calling this 5.5e seconds after the video was made public. Overhauling the rules inevitably means some players will want to stick to the rules they know, edition wars will be fought for the most pyrrhic of victories, and regardless of if they refer to it as 2014 released 5th edition and 2023 released 5th edition, people will think of them as different editions.
They are at pains throughout to reassure that they’re protecting 5e and not making everything you’ve bought obsolete. The plan is to have everything new be compatible with current content - and it sounds like they’re going to be particularly protective of adventures. They do then go on to say they’re making new core rulebooks so some things will change and if (more later) they’re restructuring character creation, some of the more rules based content will need revisions.
I GM a lot, and own most of the content my players use, so I’d rather not be buying more books, but I think they’ve struck a nice balance. It makes sense to refresh and adjust the game from time to time, and obviously there is a financial incentive for WotC to do so, but 5e in its current form will have lasted nearly 10 years by the time this is released at that feels like a good run.
Bundles
This is an answer to a complaint I’ve heard more than anything else with 5e. People have been at a loss as to why buying the content in hardcopy didn’t also get you the digital content and the thought of ‘paying again’ upset many. Then when the global pandemic hit and so many games went online this call became louder than ever. After WotC bought D&D Beyond it seemed the excuses for why this couldn’t be done had gone away, but then along came Spelljammer book which didn’t fix it.
Now its here, but to be honest its a bit disappointing as they seem just to be charging you twice in one hit.
Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen is on D&D Beyond as digital only for £29.99, the bundle meanwhile costs £59.99 - assuming the same pricing model continues (ie the physical book costs the same as the digital) this is actually 1p more expensive than buying them separately - what the hell?
It misses the point entirely that people are begrudging paying for the content twice and all the talk of paying for the tool sets available through D&D Beyond is blown away when they charge an ongoing fee.
Three Pillars
Finally they talk about three pillars of the game; the Ruleset, D&D Beyond & D&D Digital. This last one got me really excited because it promises to bring together a fully integrated online experience. Undoubtedly this will come with its own subscription, but the D&D Digital (VTT) they’re talking about creating will, I hope, allow you to use the content you have in D&D Beyond instead of facing yet another paywall to access content. They look to have a great vision for a unique looking design, and a commitment to making it flexible enough to manage published content, but also GM’s own creations.
The Playtest Materials
I haven’t had a chance to run a game using these yet, and will report when i have, but here are my thoughts following a read through:
Races
The races have been overhauled here pretty thoroughly and the structural changes lead me to believe they will undoubtedly be planning to release revisions or updates to books that contain race descriptions and mechanics. The key change is that races will no longer provide stat adjustments, this is now the province of your background.
Race defines size and speed and provides some special abilities or traits. There seems to have been a lean into lineages and widening player choice along those lines with the Tieflings and the (new) Ardlings. Meanwhile Halflings and Dwarfs have lost variants, and Orcs join with no options (really this just feels like a half-orc, not something terribly new). This really feels like they’re moving in opposite directions increasing choice for some while removing it for others and that’s just odd.
On the half orc/half elf front they’ve finally come up with rules for mixing and matching any two humanoid races.
Backgrounds
Backgrounds have had a major overhaul and have now become much more aligned to your character’s core strengths, and by default you build your own. This is great as it allows you to play the race you want and not worry about the stats assigned to it, allowing you to stitch together the character you want with a lot more flexibility.
On the downside they’re built of exclusively core mechanical features and to the exact same combination; Every background gets +2/+1, x skills, y tools, z languages, 50gp, and a feat. But why? Why do a Guide and Hermit get the same number of languages? Why does a Noble have the same funds as an Urchin? Why does an Artisan have the same level of tool use as a Cultist? The equability of this structure undoes the importance of these choices from an RP point of view, inviting players to think of them solely as mechanical choices. The Sailor will no longer feel empowered to approach a ship for passage, or the Criminal to call on their fence contact to dispose of stolen goods. Its not even as though these choices have been moved into feats (which I really like), they just seem to have disappeared.
In an effort to make them ‘balanced’ the sameness of these backgrounds looses the narrative power it’s meant to supply and I think that’s a loss.
Feats
The playtest materials includes 1st level feats, which given every background gets one look like they’ll be a much bigger part of the game. There are some great options in here and they seem to have been really well thought though a little thin - I particularly like the adjustment to Lucky. I like the idea of leveled feats were the more powerful ones are restricted to higher levels characters, but prerequisites are here too and that feels a little like doubling down on their restrictiveness and the first step towards feat trees and that I don’t want to see.
Arcane, Divine and Primal
These are three new groupings of spells and I’m left in a bit of a quandary as I like the simplicity this seems to offer, but worry about all classes feeling alike if they have access to the same spell lists. The worst case scenario in my opinion would be these three new designations and the class spell lists and I’m not entirely convinced that they’re not heading that way. For a new player spell lists as they currently exist explode the choice and really understanding what magic a Sorcerer has vs a Warlock or a Wizard isn’t going to be clear for many levels.
D20 Test
This section seems to be getting a lot of attention, so here’s the info in short:
Natural 20 = success, natural 1 = failure
Critical hits only for weapons and unarmed hits by player characters
The first rule has almost no impact on how I run the game. I’ve never seen the point of letting the player roll the dice if the thing they’re trying is impossible so a 20 has always meant success anyway.
I’m not sure I like the crit changes. I like the sudden shift in a fight or player’s perception of their danger when a monster crits and while I acknowledge that spellcasters often become overpowered compared to martial classes, I don’t think this is the solution. I also want my spell casters to have those critical awesome moments.
Inspiration
Three major changes have been made to inspiration, mainly I think to get it used more.
Firstly a d20 roll of 20 now provides inspiration - I like this as it gives players a way of triggering this, rather than having to nudge the GM when they do something cool.
Second, if you have inspiration and would get it again you can pass it to another player - this is great for getting the party working together.
Finally, all inspiration is lost on a long rest - I’m not sure about this one, partially because I’m not sure how much more frequently people will have it. Humans get it after every long rest automatically and the Inspiring Song feature on the Musician feat allows you to hand it out too. The ‘roll 20’ or special mechanics feel like inspirations I’d find it reasonable to lose over a long rest, but one earned through RP feels like it should endure.
And that’s all I have right now, more when I’ve run with the playtest rules, but in the meantime
Onward to adventure!
