Third-Party Designers Hold Steady to 'Old' D&D Rules Despite 2024 Update

Game designers in the third-party Dungeons and Dragons market are not inclined to update their games to Wizards of the Coast’s newest rules yet, as players seem equally slow to adopt the new rules.

2024, also known as D&D’s fiftieth anniversary, was defined for most players by the release of the updated rules for Dungeons and Dragons, which was an attempt by WOTC to adjust Fifth Edition D&D’s rules to match how people were playing the game in 2024. The new versions of the Player’s Handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and the Monster Manual (considered the three key texts a DM needs to run a game) were released over six months in hopes of providing those tools for the next generation of setting books and texts.

The public has been split on the new updates, as are designers.

“I don’t think the [2024 D&D books] are an upgrade worth buying $180 worth of additional books for,” Ben Somers, author of Songs of the Spellbound Sea, told TTRPG Insider. “The quality is probably equal to what 2014’s rules were like at initial release.”

Somers launched Spellbound Sea in June 2024, months before the release of the new PHB, successfully raising $85,000 to create a new set of naval-themed supplements for 5e players.

SRD Slow Launch Limiting Adaptation

While the new rules were known at the time, designers could not adapt their games because D&D did not release an updated version of the Standard Rules Document, also known as the SRD, until mid-April.

The SRD is a modified version of the Player’s Handbook that defines what designers can or can’t use in their content. It provides details about classes and races and the basics of the game that are available for designers to use under Creative Commons, a form of copyright. So, if I wanted to create a new type of warlock in a book I intend to sell, I would need to reference the SRD regarding spells and mechanics to see what options are available.

“Play and creation are two different activities, although in D&D they overlap quite frequently,” said Jess Lanzillo, VP of Franchise and Product for D&D told Forbes. “These things can be something that you create and then decide to commercialize or do anything like that with. That’s within the realms of the SRD.”

The SRD has added several things that designers found helpful, such as spells not included in previous additions. These spells (such as Dissonant Whispers, Hex, etcetera) allow designers to include them while building monsters or new subclasses. It also adds weapon masteries, a new feature for martial characters, so they can do more than just hit enemies for damage.

At the same time, it left out systems like the Bastion, a new feature in the DMG that allows players to build bases for their characters. It also failed to provide clear guidelines for monster creation.

For Somers, it isn’t worth changing the entirety of his game to incorporate 2024’s new rules since his book had been finished before the updated SRD, and he isn’t hearing a significant amount of desire from his supporters to create a 2024 version. Instead, he plans to release a 2024 conversion kit that will allow DMs to change the content of Spellbound Sea to fit the power levels and playstyle of the newest version if they wish. 

Conversion kits, or tools that add and adapt certain classes and monsters to fit 2024 rules, are a standard answer to the new rules for many new creators. Tom Marton, one of the main designers at Elderbrain, affirmed that this was their plan for adapting past adventures like Crown of the Oathbreaker as well as their new campaign, Scepter of the Lightbringer, and several Kickstarter campaigns have affirmed that they intend to release similar tools alongside their new books. Even WOTC is getting in on the practice by releasing its own 5.1 to 5.2 SRD conversion guide this week.

Such adaptations may not be enough to win other players over. Some of the designers that TTRPG Insider talked to were uninterested in incorporating the 2024 rules altogether. Morgan Eilish, co-author of the newly released Book of Divine Initiations, said she didn’t consider including the 2024 in the book because the DMG lacked details about making a monster stat block using the new style, and that she prefers the way that monster stats look in the 2014 rules. 

She does recognize the pressure that third-party creators face to adapt, however. 

“I know a lot of designers who told me that ‘we're kind of forced to jump on board now because this is what WOTC is doing. And if we want to stay current, we must do this.’ Which I fully understand and you know, to a certain extent, I agree with,” Brandt told TTRPG Insider. “But as somebody who plans to stick with the 2014 rules indefinitely, it’s not something I’m inclined toward.” 

Marton, in contrast, is a fan of the new material and the changes to the rules, although he admits that his playstyle is more roleplay-focused and not as heavy on the crunchiness that more mechanically-minded tables may lean into. His company’s fans, in contrast, did not appear eager to budge on using the new rules. Elderbrain sent a survey to its customers asking them what they wanted in the next adventure, including whether they wished the publisher to include 2024 or 2014 rules in future versions. Over half of all players said they wanted the 2014 rules, compared to only a quarter of players wanting 2024 rules, setting a very clear stand for the customer base.

Some games are trying to adapt to WOTC’s new rules. Legends of Avantris, one of the larger Actual Play series online, is releasing a 2014 and 2024 version for Crooked Moon, its new folk horror supplement.

The Incentives to Change in 2024

One of the challenges around the 2024 versus 2014 debate for designers is the effect that it might have on sales. Will enough people be playing the 2024 rules to justify writing a book around those rules, or is it better to provide both options? How much extra work will that demand? The answer will likely depend on each designer, but making objective guesses is hard without knowing how many players are using the new rules. Lanzillo told TTRPG Insider in January that the 2024 PHB, DMG and Monster Manual have been the “fastest selling” game versions. However, she declined to provide specific numbers to affirm that.

WOTC wants to encourage players to adopt the newest rules, so they can sell the latest products and provide supplements like the upcoming artificer/Eberron book. The problem is that it’s competing with a fan base that is not used to changing games and has been playing the same game for years, even fixing some of its ‘flaws’ themselves.

“2024 D&D doesn’t have to compete with the version of 5e that WOTC released in 2014; it has to compete with the version of 5e where we’ve had ten years of figuring out which loopholes are important to patch, of updating and upgrading and fixing bad rules for,” Somers emphasized.

The 2014 rules are here to stay, just as there remains a significant if small playerbase who still prefer D&D 3.5 over Fifth Edition. It will now be up to the players to determine if they are willing to try the new rules, or stick with what is tried and true for them.

Thanks to Somers, Eilish and Marton for talking with us!

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