On August 18 2022, Wizards of The Coast dropped a major announcement regarding the future of Dungeons and Dragons!! And it’s called One D&D!!

Scheduled for release in 2024, One D&D is the next evolution of Dungeons and Dragons! It will include a re-release of the core rulebooks; the Players Handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide and the Monster Manual, but as the name suggests, this is more than simply D&D 6E.

Before we jump into how this affects you as a new player, here is Jeremy Crawford and friends to explain more…

More than simply D&D 6E

As the name suggests, One D&D is going to be so much more than simply the 6th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons.

With fifth edition, WOTC made the most comprehensive, playable and welcoming edition of the game to date, embraced by both new and old players. 5E has expanded the game’s audience immensely over the last 8 years, and WOTC clearly has no intention of alienating these new 5E fans or halting the rise in D&D’s popularity.

To quote Chris Perkins from the World Reveal Trailer above:

“We did a smart thing with Fifth Edition by listening to the fans, and what came out of that process was a system that is stable, that is well loved, that incorporates the best elements of earlier editions”

Hence why we are not simply seeing an advert for 6E. One D&D is something else!

In short, One D&D will introduce exciting updates and new mechanics, but this new material will be just that, updates to the existing core mechanics of 5E. “Building on top of Fifth edition”, to quote the release video above. The core structure of the game seems to be staying the same, and they will be tweaking things around that core to improve on an already great game.

One D&D is not a complete rules rewrite, as you may have seen with previous new editions. Rather, One D&D looks to be more of an amalgamation of all the changes we have seen over the last few years, in various 5E rules expansions like Tasha’s and XGE, a re-defining of certain game mechanics we all currently play with (such as critical successes and failures), and exciting proposed updates to existing base mechanics: such as to feats, backgrounds and inspiration.

I for one love the new direction character creation has taken since Tasha’s, and can’t wait to see what One D&D has in store. I love that we are moving away from tropes being built into the core mechanics of D&D, such as elves having to be dexterous or wizards intelligent, and we are moving towards a more open, inclusive identity for player characters. You can still play a half-elf rogue who slinks through the shadows, but you are no longer restricted to certain class and race combinations when making great characters. This break from race defining class was an important step for D&D as a whole, and it sounds like we have more exciting character creation options coming our way with One D&D.

Online and Virtual updates

Another aspect of the new One D&D announcement is an update to their online toolset: D&D Beyond. D&D Beyond officially became part of WOTC in April 2022, so I’m not surprised to see it featured heavily here. So many people use online tools to play, be it character creators, character sheets, virtual tabletops, soundscapes or encounter builders, so the fact they are including online tools in this update shows how much they know their players and know how we play. Can we expect official playlist releases with new campaign books or more content collections like the current Roll20 campaign packages? I’m excited to find out!!

One D&D also includes an online digital playspace called D&D Digital. Now this is something I have no experience with as a player or a DM, and honestly haven’t been too interested in before now, but it’s still a new direction for WOTC to peruse, and I’m intrigued by what they have in store for future announcements.

How does One D&d affect YOU as a new player

So, you’re new to D&D. Maybe you recently read my article on How To Get Started Playing D&D, and you’re excited to get your hands dirty and start rolling some dice. What does this new update mean to you?

Well, you’re in luck. One D&D’s future release doesn’t actually change much for where you are at right now. Everything I wrote in my previous Getting Started article is still 100% valid, and great advice to get you ready for your first game.

The 5E Players Handbook is still the best place to start for learning the core game mechanics of D&D. As I mentioned above, One D&D is going to build on and revise those core mechanics, but the way the game works; attack actions, ability checks, saving throws, will remain the same. Having a base understanding of 5E will set you up to easily incorporate the new revisions and updates into your game when they arrive in 2024

Let me give you an example. One of the proposed updates in One D&D is to the mechanic of inspiration. The new update proposes that players can gain inspiration after they roll a natural 20 in an attack roll, saving throw or ability check. This is a cool idea, and one I’m excited to play with in my games, but as you can see, this update doesn’t change the previous roll mechanics, it simply adds to the existing structure. And don’t worry if that explanation means nothing to you right now, that’s ok, and actually, it kind of proves my point. Changing when a player gains inspiration is only relevant if you know what inspiration is, and how the original game mechanic already works.

Now, I am not saying those players who start playing One D&D in 2024 will be lost without a base understanding of 5E. I can guarantee that WOTC will make it just as easy to start with One D&D as it was for those of us starting at 5E with no knowledge of 4E. What I am saying, is that for those of you who are interested in playing now, getting started with 5E is not going to be a hindrance for you when One D&D is released, and if anything, it will help you understand the game more fully, and make the transition to One D&D even easier.

Backwards Compatible

Another awesome thing about the new updates for One D&D is that they are all being made “Backwards compatible” with current books. This means that if you own a current campaign book, such as Rime of the Frost Maiden or Wild Beyond The Witchlight, you will still be able to run that campaign with this new ruleset. Of course, you can always run old versions of games by updating the rules yourself, but One D&D is specifically being made with this in mind, so you don’t need to do any campaign tinkering or adjusting to run a seamless game when the new books come out.

This means you don’t need to worry about investing in campaign books now, knowing the new core rule set is coming in 2024. Anything on your shelf will be equally as playable now as when One D&D drops, so collect away.

2024…

Another reason why you shouldn’t let this announcement hinder you from getting started is that 2024 is still a while away! There is a lot of playtime between now and then. Many a weekend where dice can be rolled and goblins slayed. And if you do start playing now, when the 2024 release finally does come around, you’ll be a D&D pro, ready to seamlessly add all the new revisions and updates to your existing games.

So should you just ignore All The One D&D updates?

Hell No!!

The release of One D&D, and all the new material surrounding it, is an incredibly exciting time for Dungeons and Dragons nerds everywhere! And that includes you! Even as a complete beginner, you can be involved in shaping the next evolution of D&D.

The new One D&D books and their content are by no means set in stone yet. Over the next few years, WOTC will be releasing playtest material to the community and asking for feedback, to ensure everything that ends up in the new books is the best it can be. And you can and should get involved.

Game mechanics aside, I think it’s incredible to be part of a community where the creators and owners of the thing we all love, genuinely care about our feedback. They don’t have to consult with us before making any changes, it is their IP after all, and they can do with it what they will. But they are all players as well as creators, you only have to watch Jeremy Crawford speak to see how much love he has for this game, and to see a massive corporation genuinely care about its fans, give a shit about what we think, and ask us before changing the thing we love, it warms your heart a little and makes me proud to be part of this incredible group of nerds.

Playtesting and Unearthed Arcana

Unearthed Arcana is a series of official articles released periodically by WOTC to playtest new and proposed material. They have done this for years with new rule expansions for 5E, and it looks like the creation of One D&D will be no different.

UA (Unearthed Arcana) releases include updates and mechanics that the game designers want to try out before said revisions are included in later books. Unearthed Arcana is a dry run so to speak, where the game designers ask the community what they think of new ideas, what went well, what went poorly, and what they should change before the rules go officially to hardback print. New rule options offered in UA content tend to be more drastic than the ones that make it into final rulebooks, as the game designers want to see how the content works to its most extreme, to fix any bugs and make sure the changes will work for everyone at the table.

WOTC will be releasing new UA Playtest material every month over the next year, showcasing their thoughts for One D&D, and asking us all for feedback.

How you Can get involved

Head on over to D&D Beyond here where you can download the new UA material and give it a read for yourself.

You don’t need to be a hardcore gamer to understand these releases. If this is the first D&D material you have ever read, some of the small mechanic changes might not make perfect sense to you, but don’t let that stop you from getting involved. Read the material, see what you think, and if you have any questions- check back in with your handy rules reference.

Remember, the material here is all proposed changes, nothing is set in stone, so if you read something you don’t like (*cough* like the new rules for critical hits *cough*) don’t lose your excitement for the whole process. Everything proposed in UA has hundreds of edits, rewrites and changes to go through before making it to hardback print. So if some things don’t gel with how people want to play their games, chances are they won’t make it past round one of playtesting.

If you have feedback or opinions on the material, great! WOTC will be opening their feedback questionnaire 2 weeks after each release, where they want to hear everything you thought about the proposed material

And if you don’t have to have feedback, that’s ok too! If you’re a new player, perhaps you don’t know how these proposed changes will affect your game. You can still read the new material, get involved, and see what other people in the community are saying about the updates.

So what’s next?

One D&D marks the start of an exciting new journey for Dungeons and Dragons. There will be some members of the community who are unhappy with the change, but that’s to be expected, as with any update to a beloved franchise.

Over the next year, there will be a string of these UA releases and YouTube announcements to tell us all more about One D&D, and what the future of Dungeons and Dragons has in store.

As a new player you shouldn’t see this move as a barrier to getting started, but instead, as a way to help you get involved with and get to know this incredible game. Stay up-to-date on the releases here, read the material here…

Get involved.

Get excited.

And get playing!

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