Wizards of the Coast has announced One D&D, the next phase of Dungeons & Dragons would happen in 2024. Here’s what excites us most about this change.
Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition is arguably stronger than ever. Gaming has had an incredible surge in popularity in recent years, thanks to a combination of great new product, real-life shows like Critical Role and The Adventure Zone, and just a general culture shift towards acceptance of the hobby. .
Doing well, however, doesn’t mean it’s perfect. In fact, the development team recognizes that many aspects could be improved. To that end, One D&D was announced this week: an initiative to revise and republish the core rules, while incorporating official digital tools to make the game even more accessible, immersive, and customizable. Core rulebooks will be republished in 2024, marking the next evolution, not necessarily editing—of the current game.
Change can be daunting, especially when there may be a need to repurchase books, but One D&D feels like a clean win and a huge opportunity. Here are five reasons:
5) A number table in Unreal Engine
One of the three pillars of Wizards’ One D&D initiative is the creation of software that allows Dungeon Masters to bring their tables to life for players. This new tool, as shown in the trailer above, already looks really impressive early in its development, perhaps thanks to the use of Unreal Engine 5. Players will be able to customize their avatars to reflect their character, while DMs build the play space. and enemies with immersive tools. The team is keen to give the impression of watching a table game and not a video game, using things like their “tilt-shift” camera.
Digital aids like this have been around for years, with more regular hits on Kickstarter, but an official outlet straight from the game developer that uses a powerful engine like this seems like the next step (for groups that play with physical components, that is).
4) Integrate D&D Beyond
For most of Fifth Edition, D&D Beyond offered players a suite of tools to aid in their tabletop experience. It started as a way to create characters, but grew to incorporate monsters, a dating builder for DMs, and a bot to use on Discord for those playing remotely. Official sourcebooks and adventures could also be purchased on Beyond, adding their races, classes, items, monsters, etc. to user content pools.
However, there was still a big disconnect for many players. D&D Beyond was originally founded by Curse LLC, an esports company that changed hands from Amazon to Twitch and then to Fandom. So those who bought physical books like Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything would have to purchase the same content on D&D Beyond in order to use its myriad class options on Beyond. Adding codes for e-content in physical books has long been requested, as hardcover books themselves sell for CDN$65 and most e-books normally cost around US$30.
Wizards of the Coast purchased D&D Beyond from Fandom earlier this year, and now One D&D will use the service as one of its three main pillars. The new adventure of this fall, Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen will be available as a digital/physical set in both its standard and deluxe editions (admittedly, for a premium price). Hopefully this will be the new status quo for other books to come. Removing this wrinkle is a huge win for players and the game, new edition or not.
3) Existing hardware will still be compatible
Speaking of content, one thing that sets existing players back every time a new edition is suggested is the fear of losing value in all the books they already own. No one is keen on throwing away a collection of expensive rulebooks, especially when the game is going well, but One D&D won’t make everything from D&D 5E obsolete.
The development team doesn’t like to think of One D&D as an entirely new “edition”, but as continuing to grow the existing game with even more options. Their approach is less like “fixing something that’s broken” than “tweaking something for optimal performance.” Groups can use the new testing rules to launch new characters and then launch them into existing adventures like those recently released in Journeys through the Radiant Citadel. Later printed monsters and opponents may have new stat blocks to refer to instead.
2) Refine the rules
Over the past two years or so, Wizards of the Coast has listened to player feedback and slowly instituted subtle rule changes that can have a big impact on player representation and character customization. One D&D is a natural evolution of this process, and the new changes are evident as soon as you open the first pack of test materials, even though it only covers the first stage of character creation.
Restrictions on playable races have been lifted, giving players more freedom in the process, both in cosmetic and gameplay mechanics, such as creating shorter human characters, and therefore removing outdated fantasy tropes. Racial origins are now less important in determining ability scores, with responsibility for this now placed on background. It’s a subtle change that not only avoids harmful stereotypes, but gives players more flexibility in what race class combinations they can realistically use; cast orc casters and halfling barbarians without worrying that their stats are naturally not maxed.
Now that they are doing more mechanical lifting, the track record has been expanded. There are more preset builds alongside ways to create your own, putting ability score bonuses where you want them and taking a free exploit at level 1. It was a disappointing part of D&D 5E, but the First look at One D&D’s updated rules quickly makes it a whole lot more engaging, while the free exploit allows players more utility and expression out of the gate.
And this is just the first phase of character creation and the first batch of rule updates. If the rest of the new rules shape the rules into a better state in the same way, we could soon be playing a very smooth and polished version of the game.
1) Player input will shape a D&D
The beauty of all of these mechanical changes is that we’ll be able to help shape the final product of One D&D by participating in playtesting. As was the case with Fifth Edition, Wizards will periodically provide packets of new rules that players can read and test. We don’t just sample changes, we can also provide feedback directly to the team.
This not only helps alleviate concerns about potential changes by allowing players to see them for themselves, but also helps the development team spot potential issues before they’re finalized. No matter how thoroughly a game is tested internally, players have a fresh perspective and a knack for finding flaws and exploits.
Playtest feedback was so instrumental in making Fifth Edition a success that Wizards still uses it, releasing Unearthed Arcana packages for many things that make them new books. So it’s fitting that the same process is at the heart of One D&D. We can help create the game itself, as well as the campaigns and characters we play with friends.
The end product of this bold new initiative is still about two years away, and the future looks bright right off the bat. Hopefully, the care and passion the development team has put into shaping the game thus far will allow One D&D to truly elevate the world’s most popular tabletop RPG to the next level – and after all, who doesn’t? in no rush to level up?
