Is the New Edition of DnD worthwhile?

[Astromancer]

Basically, from what you've seen of the new players guide, is the new edition of DnD an upgrade, a must miss, a change but little more. Please spill the beans.

Thank You

[RogerBW]

If you are locked into the D&D Beyond treadmill, you don't have any choice.

If you just want to run games, you could avoid giving money to an egregiously badly-behaved company even by modern standards and use any of the many, many other options.

D&D is the Windows of RPGs. Very few people actuallylike it, but everybody else is using it and many of them find other systems scary because they think it'll be just as much work to play them as it is to play D&D, so you can't get them to play the good stuff.

[Icelander]

I'm out of the loop. Have they gone beyond 5th Edition already?

[thorr-kan]

Originally Posted by Icelander

I'm out of the loop. Have they gone beyond 5th Edition already?

A new edition of the PH has been released, with a DMG and MM on the way. 2024 5E is very much an update to 2014 5E.

Whether it's a new version is for pedants to decide. I am off that treadmill because I'm just too old to keep buying when I have a large library and will never use all of it. So I cannot offer any opinion.

[Anthony]

The 2024 edition is basically 5e revised. I would call it nonessential -- it's fine, probably a net upgrade, but not a must have -- unless you want to play in a game with other people using it. They have a set of free rules (smaller than the SRD, which is supposed to come out next year) which should be sufficient to get a sense of what's changed.

[DeadParrot]

I got off the WOTC game treadmill when they switched from 3.5 to 4 and in the process canceled most existing licenses while not caring about the bad done to customers. That said, from what I have read on other more D&D based forums, the 2024 version is a significant update while WOTC claims it is mostly backwards compatible with existing books.

If you don't care about staying totally up to date and still have some 2014 books missing from your library, might be a good time to check used book stores. I have seen many 2014 version books showing up. Unless you are playing WOTC sponsored game sessions, probably no reason to rush out and buy the new stuff.

Personal Opinion - The 2024 release is a way to update the game and encourage folks to buy new books while claiming that buying new books isn't required. OTOH, 10 years is one of the longer runs for a D&D version.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by DeadParrot

Personal Opinion - The 2024 release is a way to update the game and encourage folks to buy new books while claiming that buying new books isn't required. OTOH, 10 years is one of the longer runs for a D&D version.

Maybe it is.

Honestly, though, my first reaction was, 'Already? Didn't they just publish a 5e?'

I'm not claiming I follow Hasbro news like I'm a close competitor, Santa Claus or Cthulhu or someone, but still, I don't really feel it's been that long since I agreed to try their new D&E 5e.

[DeadParrot]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Maybe it is.

Honestly, though, my first reaction was, 'Already? Didn't they just publish a 5e?'

I'm not claiming I follow Hasbro news like I'm a close competitor, Santa Claus or Cthulhu or someone, but still, I don't really feel it's been that long since I agreed to try their new D&E 5e.

I had a similar reaction when I saw the mention of 5e-2014 edition being updated by the 2024 version. Especially when they went from 3.0 to 3.5 to 4.0 in less time. Hasn't seemed like 5e has been out that long.

[L.J.Steele]

My GM is using it.

I find it a bit flavorless -- they've tried to simplify stuff from, say 3.5. There's a lot less tactical rules lawyering. Significantly more simplification with feats, classes and subclasses. Things seem down-powered a fair amount.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by L.J.Steele

My GM is using it.

I find it a bit flavorless -- they've tried to simplify stuff from, say 3.5. There's a lot less tactical rules lawyering. Significantly more simplification with feats, classes and subclasses. Things seem down-powered a fair amount.

This sounds more like talking about 5e in general than about the differences between the 2014 edition and the 2024 edition (the 2024 edition generally increases the power of PCs relative to 2014).