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Any tabletop roleplaying game going through the transition process of launching a new edition<\/a> is bound to have growing pains. But when Wizards of the Coast made a major selling point out of how easy its 50th-anniversary-celebrating<\/a> new edition would make it for current players pick up their characters and campaigns and venture forth into the new ruleset, it\u2019s hard to see its latest bit of drama feel like nothing more than the latest in the company\u2019s increasingly long line of unforced errors.<\/p>\n Ahead of the incoming launch of the new revised\u00a0Dungeons & Dragons<\/em> Player\u2019s Handbook next month, last week Wizards of the Coast announced<\/a> how it planned to have its digital marketplace\/virtual tabletop system\u00a0D&D Beyond<\/em> present to players both new material from the next evolution of the game, and the Fifth Edition rules and details they\u2019ve had access to in their\u00a0Beyond<\/em> accounts over a decade\u2019s worth of\u00a0D&D<\/em> material. While overall some of the changes made sense, in some regards, it was\u2026 not as good at that.<\/p>\n While many elements of\u00a0D&D<\/em>\u2018s 2024 ruleset were made in mind so that players could keep use the versions found in Fifth Edition and its many sourcebooks\u2013like playable species, certain classes and subclasses, background choices and particular feats\u2013Wizards planned on drawing a hard line on the rules for spells and magical items available on\u00a0Beyond<\/em>. All of those would be updated to their 2024 versions, and the 2014 versions would simply be wiped off of\u00a0Beyond<\/em> entirely, regardless if your account had purchases access to the new Player\u2019s Handbook or not. If you wanted to use those 2014 versions? Well, do it yourself, so sayeth one of the biggest roleplaying game publishers in the world. \u201cIf you wish to use the old version of a magic item or spell that has been replaced by its 2024 counterpart,\u201d Wizards\u2019 original changelog read in part. \u201cYou will need to create a homebrew copy of it and enable homebrew content on your character sheet. Then, you can add it to your character sheet\u201d.<\/p>\n Suffice to say people were not pleased. Given how important Wizards sees\u00a0Beyond<\/em> and its use as a digital ecosystem for future of the game heading into the new edition, the idea of completely wiping away access to Fifth Edition\u2019s spells in this regard\u2013plenty of elements from Fifth Edition were otherwise being retained, with a badge to mark their status as \u201clegacy\u201d material\u2013and leaving it up to individual players to catalogue a decade\u2019s worth of spells and items manually, made no sense.\u00a0Especially<\/em> given that the change would impact a player regardless of whether or not they had purchased the new 2024 rulebooks on their account. Again, as it did before however, it took fans speaking up for Wizards to realize what a mistake it was making.<\/p>\n Last week we released a Changelog detailing how players would experience the 2024 Core Rulebooks on D&D Beyond. We heard your feedback loud and clear and thank you for speaking up. <\/p>\n Read the full update here: https:\/\/t.co\/o6wDEwjBs1<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/IKNRsOcXIp<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) August 26, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cWe heard your feedback loud and clear and thank you for speaking up,\u201d an updated statement<\/a> from\u00a0D&D Beyond<\/em> released last night reads. \u201cOur excitement around the\u00a02024 Core Rulebooks<\/em> led us to view these planned updates as welcome improvements and free upgrades to existing content. We misjudged the impact of this change, and we agree that you should be free to choose your own way to play.\u201d<\/p>\n According to the updated addendum to the changelog, now players who only have access to the 2014 version of the Player\u2019s Handbook in their\u00a0Beyond<\/em> accounts will retain the ability to use 2014 versions of spells and magical items with their characters, while players who have both the 2014 and 2024 Player\u2019s Handbooks on their accounts will be able select either the former or updated version of a spell via a native option, rather than having to manually homebrew the old version themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re dedicated to making D&D Beyond<\/em> the ultimate digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons<\/em>, continuously enhancing the platform to ensure you can create, customize, and play your game just as you envision it,\u201d the updated statement concluded. \u201cFrom your first one-shot to multi-year campaigns and everything in between, we\u2019re grateful to be on this journey with you.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s good that Wizards learned the lesson relatively quickly this time (compared to how, for example, it initially handled<\/a> the backlash against its planned changes to the Open Game License<\/a> last year). But considering how Dungeons & Dragons<\/em>\u2018 new edition wants to treat itself more like a living game than ever before\u2013where its ruleset can be regularly tweaked and updated as necessary\u2013while also maintaining a level of continuity with players still using the Fifth Edition rules they\u2019ve had over the course of\u00a0D&D<\/em>\u2018s massive popularity boom in the last 10 years, the fact that it initially didn\u2019t see that making this process a manual one where the onus was on players, rather than\u00a0Beyond<\/em> as a platform, to make the intended compatibility smooth, is kind of wild. At least they\u2019re listening!<\/p>\n Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel<\/a>, Star Wars<\/a>, and Star Trek<\/a> releases, what\u2019s next for the DC Universe on film and TV<\/a>, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote><\/div>\n\n
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