WotC’s ‘D&D Studio Update’ Sheds Light On 2024 Core Rulebooks
WotC just released a new “D&D Studio Update” that outlines the future of the 2024 core rulebooks, the coming playtests, and more.
A new “Studio Update” from the D&D team wants you to know that the new 2024 core rulebooks are going to be backwards compatible. Oh, and also there’s a little bit about the survey results from the last ‘Unearthed Arcana’ and some teases of what to look forward to with next year’s books.
At least that’s the impression you get from the 28:30 video that D&D just released. And don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of good stuff in there. But the first 17-18 minutes are spent reiterating that D&D 2024 is going to be backwards compatible. With a healthy dose of “so don’t worry, you can still buy all the newest books coming out, they won’t be obsolete” subtext mixed in. But beyond that, the video provides some good insights about the state of the game.
D&D Studio Update – 2024 Core Rule Books
Chris Perkins and Jeremy Crawford update us on the 2024 Core Rulebooks, design, monsters art and Unearthed Arcana feedback.
No Really, New Rulebooks are Backwards Compatible!
But seriously. There’s a significant chunk of the video explaining that these new books are going to be backwards compatible. And not only that, they’ll help make the existing stuff feel a bit fresher, since there will be new monsters, new spells, new things to play around with in the old adventures.
Which feels… iffy to me. I’ll believe it when I see it. And I say that because when WotC transitioned from 3rd edition to 3.5, also promising backwards compatibility, the rules were different enough and the change came on suddenly enough that many third-party publishers were stuck with out-of-date products and went under as a result. You could still use all the old stuff. But the rules had shifted. It was different, and better. Which is the hope for 2024.
So far, the test results are very satisfying. In the video above, they finally start going into the feedback around the 21 minute mark. The new Warlock is testing phenomenally, with the new versions of the Archfey and Great Old One Warlocks testing extremely positive. But overall, all the subclasses in the Warlock/Fighter/Wizard Unearthed Arcana did well. Except for the Brawler Fighter, and some of the features in the Barbarian.
The Brawler class is going away, probably forever. But the next playtest will feature the Barbarian, Druid, and Monk. Everything else is moving forward to internal development only, but we’ll see more before the end of the year.
They also mentioned that most of what is happening now will be in internal testing, and we won’t get to see until the core books come out.
So keep an eye out for more from D&D 2024/One D&D as we head into the final two “player-focused” playtests!
