In case you missed it, Wizards of the Coast has started playtesting for One D&D, which is being marketed as “the future of Dungeons & Dragons.” Their goal is to build on and expand the ruleset of 5th edition D&D to create something new without it necessarily being a “new edition” of the game.
Naturally, players thought this was completely reasonable and collectively decided to hold off on making broad assumptions until they learned more about the process and the product.
And if you believed that, I have a bridge in Sharn to sell you.
My experience in tabletop roleplaying games and… well, living has led me to avoid overwhelmingly positive or negative reactions to things. For the most part, I’ve learned to adopt a “wait and see” approach, and in the event that something merits an opinion, I always try to strike a balance. If I like something, I look for things to critique and areas that can be improved. If I don’t like something, I try to figure out who would like it and how I would suggest it to them.
It works for books, for movies, and for news about major shifts in the RPG industry.
I have no inclination to change my approach here, but I think it’s worth considering a couple points that make One D&D unique. The game of Dungeons & Dragons is having a moment, having become part of the mainstream culture in a way that was impossible before the events of the last few years, and this means that there’s new ground to cover for a lot of D&D players, whether they’re multi-edition veterans like me or relative newcomers. So let’s start with just a quick overview of what One D&D means before we discuss its implications in today’s RPG world.
The Edition Wars: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Metagame
If you’ve played D&D anytime in the last ten years (or really, anytime in the last ever) you’re familiar with the word “edition.” The current version of the game is marketed at “D&D 5e,” with the 5e part standing in for “5th edition.” This means that it’s the fifth discrete iteration of the game since it was first published in 1974. But what does the word “edition” really mean for the game itself?
Until recently, RPGs were only distributed through printed books containing rules and details about the game. That means they draw heavily from the print publishing industry which classifies books based on their printings and editions. “Printings” refers to the number of copies of a book that were printed in one run: a new book might have 5,000 copies printed, and if all 5,000 copies are sold, the publisher will order a second printing. If there are any differences between printings, they’re minimal, like fixing typos, since print runs need to have the same page count and general content.
Editions, however, are usually a bigger deal. Different editions of books might contain major revisions or have additional content that previous editions lacked. In fiction, for example, the paperback copy of a book is considered a new edition, given that the number of pages often changes from the hardcover version. In nonfiction, new editions may have corrections or include newly discovered information that wasn’t available for the first edition. Therefore, the difference between editions of the same book are often noteworthy when they happen.
This is the context behind RPG editions. A second edition of a game is a major update in which rules change, with new ones being added and old ones being revised or removed. There are often new items, foes, and setting details to entice players of the first edition to make the switch. In fact, game publishers feel pressure to make sweeping changes between editions in order to justify the costs of designing, printing, and marketing the game, which usually means they stop supporting the previous edition entirely. This has been the case with D&D for every previous edition, even the micro-edition that was 3.5, and it’s been the case with virtually every other RPG in the industry.
But now Wizards of the Coast is trying to change the way we talk about new versions of D&D. So the question is… have they really done away with editions?
One D&D and the Road Forward
Wizards of the Coast is using several different terms to refer to One D&D instead of “edition:” “next generation,” “evolution,” and even “backwards compatibility.” If these sound like buzzy tech industry words, it’s because they are. The company is specifically tying the development of D&D Beyond as a digital play resource into their plans for One D&D, which allegedly includes codes for digital versions of physical products you purchase in the store and a virtual tabletop. They said as much in their world reveal trailer:
Their updated language also reflects the more established role of D&D as the most visible RPG in the industry. But even though they’ve avoided using the term “new edition” as much as possible, we have to look at the actual content to decide if it meets the definition of a new edition or if it’s something else.
And based on my own reading… well, it’s something else, but that something else closely resembles a new edition. While there aren’t any current playtest materials available, archived versions of Unearthed Arcana have the previous materials still accessible: “Character Origins,” taking the place of the old races and backgrounds, and “Expert Classes.” There are major differences contained within, from changing how rolling 1s and 20s work to reclassifying spells away from class-specific lists and towards the broader, more narrative categories of arcane, divine, and primal spells. However, these aren’t substantial changes but instead mostly organizational ones that break up the previous race components and some class abilities to make them independently selectable during character creation.
This doesn’t necessarily preclude larger rules changes at a later time, but it does indicate that Wizards of the Coast is sincere in saying they want something that’s both bigger and smaller in scale from simple edition changes. The most significant evidence of this is their proposed backwards compatibility between One D&D and 5e: by not introducing new things that change how the game is played, just how the components of the rules themselves are categorized and relate to each other, anyone with a 5e Player’s Handbook and a basic rundown of the differences should be able to make a character according to One D&D’s method without having to purchase a new rulebook. (Though I doubt they’ll have a separate, freely available conversion guide. In order to know the steps for One D&D, somebody—at least the DM—is going to need that new rulebook.)
It’s an intriguing direction, but I’m not quite excited yet. For one thing, based on comments made by the designers, it doesn’t sound like they’re reconsidering changing the model of the game writ large. There will still be three separate core rulebooks as opposed to the single volume favored by other games these days. Also, while they’ve made steps to revise the notion of challenge ratings in recent books like Monsters of the Multiverse, which have been arbitrary to the point of uselessness, there’s no indication that they’re looking to retool how encounter design and experience points work.
But those are relatively small issues, and some would say changing things like that would alter the very thing that sets D&D apart. At its core, no matter how creative individuals or streamers get with pushing the boundaries, this is a game about venturing into dungeons, tombs, and decaying ruins in order to hunt monsters and collect treasure. For my part, even though I don’t find those activities to be the most appealing part of a role-playing game, I wouldn’t want to see that change either. Even if I think that there are better ways of accomplishing it, the designers of D&D have a vision that should be respected.
And that vision seems to extend to knocking down the walls between editions. We’ll just have to see if this ends up being as consequential as the creation of D&D itself, or if it’s just one more neat idea that gets relegated to the “What Could Have Been” TV Tropes page.
