The 5 Unwritten Goals of the One D&D Rules Update

Six months before then D&D head Ray Winninger announced an new set of Dungeons & Dragons core books for 2024, I predicted the update. I based my prediction on a declaration from the D&D team, which made their top priority “making D&D as welcoming and inclusive as possible.”

To reach that goal, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything featured a new way to distribute ability scores. “This option emphasizes that each person in the game is an individual with capabilities all their own.” New books portrayed “all the peoples of D&D in relatable ways, making it clear that they are as free as humans to decide who they are and what they do.”

But the 2014 core books still showed an outdated approach, so when the D&D team wrote, “Our priority is to make things right,” predicting new core books seemed easy. I wrote, “By the end of 2022, Wizards of the Coast will release a new version of the Player’s Handbook that revisits the old ability score adjustments in favor of the more flexible version.”

The rest of my prediction proved wrong, because I expected a speedy, modest update that simply added Tasha’s rules for ability scores and replaced some troublesome spells, class features, and so on with the improved versions already printed in newer books.

Wandering Troubadour by Rudy Siswanto

Given fifth edition’s continuing growth, such a careful update seemed sensible. New editions fuel a surge of sales as a game’s existing fans replace their books, but they also lose players who choose not to leave their game mastery and their investment in old books. The worst case of a new edition follows the path of fourth edition, where as much as half of the player base split to play Pathfinder, a game that felt more like D&D to its fans. Hypothetically, a disastrous One D&D release could strangle D&D’s burgeoning growth. In D&D management’s nightmare, Matt Mercer dislikes One D&D and opts to stream Critical Role games based on his own fifth edition offshoot called Mattfinder.

Nonetheless, the One D&D playtest packets suggest changes that resemble a new edition. What explains the bolder update that has players using the word “sixth,” even if no one on the D&D team dares?

Some gamers say a major update will sell more books, and that might be true for a replacement to a stagnant edition. A mature roleplaying game with shelves of rule expansions can intimidate potential players, because they feel like they could never catch up. A new edition feels more welcoming. But fifth edition avoided flooding game store shelves with new rules, opting for adventures and settings instead. Besides, the edition continues to gain players at an unprecedented rate.

Anyway, a careful refresh would have led millions of gamers to replace the books already on their shelves, vaulting a trio of D&D books to the top of Amazon’s bestseller lists. Such an update would skip One D&D’s 18-month playtest or any risk of slowing sales as some gamers spend 18 months avoiding purchases ahead of the new release.

Some gamers suspect that the designers aim to create a game that works better online. After all, One D&D includes a Digital Play Experience that “will be a virtual play space that allows Dungeon Masters to create truly immersive campaigns and players to enjoy a D&D experience where we offload a lot of the rules referencing.” Offloading “referencing” could mean nothing more than what players gain from D&D Beyond, but a virtual tabletop would probably add automation like attack buttons that roll to hit and total damage. A few playtest rules would prove easier to automate. For example, the Hide action simplifies sneaking to just a DC 15 Dexterity Check (Stealth). That rule’s programmer can take an early lunch.

Still, just as many playtest rules replace a rule easy for computers with one easier for humans. For example, the Special Speeds rule eliminates the math of mixing flying and climbing with regular movement. No computer struggles with the old math. The Jump action seems designed to free designer Jeremy Crawford from explaining how to include a jump in a Move action. Computers could handle the original rule effortlessly. I see no signs that the revision systematically favors play on a VTT. It systematically favors sparing Jeremy from answering the same damn questions about sneaking. Some changes match the game rules to the way players misunderstand the 2014 rules. This category includes changes like eliminating critical hits for attack spells and making Heroic Inspiration a re-roll.

Lead designer Jeremy Crawford says he keeps a list of pain points and sources of confusion in D&D. Likely the aggressive One D&D update stems from that list and similar lists from other designers. None of this makes the 2014 edition a bad game, but 8 years of play surfaces ample opportunities for improvement. Happily, based on the playtest, the designers’ lists match most of the pain points I would include in a list of my own—or in my 10 years of blog posts.

So just two playtest packets include improvements to exhaustion, dual-weapon fighting, Hunter’s Mark, Guidance, and much more. All these updates replace rules in the 2014 Player’s Handbook without breaking any of the game’s existing adventures or subsequent character options.

The One D&D team promises new core books compatible with the other fifth edition books. Second edition’s most important goal was “to make sure the game was still the one you knew and enjoyed,” and that goal applies to One D&D too. Still, if your definition of “compatible” means new classes and character features that equal the power of the 2014 versions, then One D&D will disappoint you. On average, One D&D characters and feats bring more power, but surely not as much power as some characters optimized for the 2014 rules. When I changed my human fighter with Great Weapon Fighter and Polearm Master to the playtest rules, his power plunged.

So, most of the playtest changes come from 4 goals, listed by importance from the essential number 1 to a number 4 that makes the D&D Sage’s life easier.

  • Make D&D as welcoming and inclusive as possible.
  • Keep One D&D compatible with existing adventures and new class options.
  • Fix pain points revealed by 8 years of play.
  • Avoid common questions and points of confusion prompted by the current rules.

The playtest rules show one more goal that I rate as the least important, but with One D&D opening the door to other, vital changes, the designers gain cover for working a fifth goal:

  • Adjust the game to the tastes of the current design team and how they read the tastes of D&D players

For example, the 2014 design team sought to make new characters as simple as possible. This returned to D&D’s 1974 roots. Now, the idea of pairing backgrounds with feats and mechanical benefits clearly enchants Jeremy Crawford. “I’m super excited about this whole approach that we’re taking with backgrounds,” he explains. “It’s all about building your character’s story and making certain meaningful game-mechanic choices that reflect the story you have in mind for your character.” Background-based feats appear in the playtest, but make no mistake, recent D&D products show that this change is already set.

Also, the 2014 design team felt comfortable making 1st-level characters as fragile as soap bubbles. After all, players have little investment in new characters. But today’s players more often lavish creative energy on the background and personality of characters, so the playtest offered a rule making new characters a bit harder to kill by preventing monsters from scoring critical hits. I suspect this critical hit rule tested poorly, so look for different tweaks that make new characters more durable.

I suspect the rules for awarding heroic inspiration on 5% of d20 rolls fits goal 5, although I’m unable to explain what the designers hope to achieve. Perhaps the inspiration rule takes us closer to a game where characters just show off their abilities on the way to easy success. Over 8 years, the design team has shown less and less appetite for letting characters fail.

Perhaps I could do without goal number 5, but the D&D team would say that if a change fails to match the tastes of D&D players, then playtest feedback will block it.

6 thoughts on “The 5 Unwritten Goals of the One D&D Rules Update

  1. Yora

    What is it always with these “happy, laughing fantasy people are having a good time together” artwork for modern D&D? That’s not what happens during a D&D adventure.
    Where is the danger and the excitement? The violence and the wondrous places? The kind of things that the game is about?
    Is this contemporary D&D now?

    Reply
      1. Eh

        DnD is now a comic book with visual novel storytelling about a group of happy superheroes who conquer the world and remake it in their image, and maybe kiss.

        Not surprising as the fandom culture of YA fantasy fans has usurped the old play culture. DnD social media is largely OC art and quirky dialogue between awkward lovers. In YA style, DnD has become wish fulfillment fantasy. There is no failure in such fantasy.

        Looking forward to when the creators announce that characters can no longer be hurt in battle. Bookkeeping in combat will be that much easier!

        Reply
        1. sapphirecrook

          I mean, sure?

          They use D&D as a social lubricant. As set dressing to “Let’s all feel super cool and have fun adventures”. As an excuse, a justification, to play pretend. They don’t want death or defeat, and they don’t care about the Gamist elements, the balance, parity and challenge of the system. Never did, and odds are, never will either. They want stories, and flashy moments, the stuff of Marvel movies.

          So yes. They probably don’t want failure. Maybe the idea, the illusion, but rarely the actual failure itself. They want moments and experimentation. To have fun with friends, a safe space, a place of social learning and exploring the self. The game itself is borderline irrelevant in that context.

          And that’s their right. I mean, I have opinions about them using a very Gameist system for a non-Gameist game, but I learned to stop imposing. It’s not my place, never will be. I share my insights if asked, otherwise the only game I care about are the ones at my table. Or write a book or system and publish that if I must yell into the void.

          And if WOTC has any good R&D, they’ll focus on this newer, bigger audience. They’re a company in Capitalism, money gotta get made, and if the bigger audience likes cool characters, jumping dragonkin with lutes and flashy set pieces… well. Good luck telling stock-tanking Hasbro why you just, ignored that potentially paying market of customers because of some vague notion of tradition.

          Reply
  2. OZ

    As 5e has moved towards even the undead have souls worth caring about in the new edition I wonder if 6e will be conflict free edition and battles will be fought using the ninth school of magic “The power of Friendship”. – lucky Hasbro owns the My Little Pony trademarks.

    6e will offer things for sure but honestly I’ve years left in 5e and and the supplements and it’s likely easy to bring things into it and Fantasy Grounds which I use.

    I would like 5e to add the One DND -1 penalty for exhaustion instead as a life drain feature like the undead of old and keep the current exhaustion 5e mechanic which I apply if a PC hits 0hp which is fair as you shouldn’t take a beating and not have a consequence (also an extra exhaustion for each death save you fail). Life drains like that adds depth and uniqueness to undead I think is missing.

    In 5e I feel the fighters and barbarians are outplayed but other classes and limiting critical hit increases to just the weapon damage dice (not sneak attack) and spells that require a to hit roll from the caster would make these classes shine at what they do.

    Have started with the blue box. 5e is a great edition and only needs minor refinement. The initial pitch for backwards compatibility is great and the jump to patch and refine that is needed is way less than the jump from 1e to 2e.

    Unlike Magic the Gathering a D&D table doesn’t need to relate to others and players they share their stories and experiences and not the details of the games mechanics (I played this card sequence) when talking to others. A conversation between D&D players about experiences spans the decades with ease.

    Congrats on your kickstarter too.

    Reply
  3. Pingback: One D&D Feats from playtests 1 and 2 - Melestrua's Musings

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