What is One D&D? After 8 years, D&D shakes things up

It's a new dawn, it's a new day and it's certainly a new life for Dungeons & Dragons (D&D).

After eight years of playing the 5th Edition (or 5e, as it's colloquially known), Wizards is finally shaking things up under their new One D&D initiative, announced at Wizards Presents 2022. 

So what is One D&D?

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Well, unlike previous revision cycles, Wizards will not be introducing a new edition.

As lead designer Chris Perkins put it: "We did a smart thing with 5th 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.

"Now that we have that, we are no longer in the position where we think of D&D as an edition. It's just D&D."

Under this new philosophy, the direction of D&D (as revealed by Wizards) is not about taking things away from players or changing what they love about the game.

It's about giving players more options and choices under the current game system.

Core rulebooks to be revised

To start, after eight years, the three major core rulebooks that players use — the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual — will be revised. The new versions are slated for release in 2024.

Fans will be excited to know that Perkins is focusing on the Dungeon Master's Guide, making "structural changes" so it's friendlier for new Dungeon Masters (DMs), while fellow lead designer Jeremy Crawford will work on the other two books.

Wizards also shared that they'll be building upon the 5th Edition system and expanding its rules. However, that won't render previous adventures and supplements obsolete as the new evolution of the system will be backward compatible.

So, everything that has been released over the last 10 years will still be playable.

During a press briefing on Tuesday (Aug 16), some of the proposed rules were presented by Crawford and longtime players will quickly realise that these are existing homebrew (or fan-made) rules made official.

Like when you roll a 20-sided dice (d20) for checks and most DMs consider a natural one to be an automatic failure and a natural 20 to be an automatic success?

Now, it's official.

Oh, and you get Inspiration (a d20 reroll) every time you roll a 20 — more on that later. If you already have Inspiration, you can pass on any additional Inspiration to a fellow player who doesn't have it.

New races

With the revised rulebooks come new options for players and we all know how fun it is to build a character. Well, now it's going to be even more exciting with what Wizards has planned.

Crawford shared that the changes will be publicly available for players to test so they can provide feedback. There will be new races, followed by a whole new take on Backgrounds and finally, new (and revised) Feats.

For example, the Tiefling (a popular race in D&D) is getting two more options for their origins so players can have more agency in shaping their backstory.

A new race, known as Ardling, is going to be introduced and they're, simply put, the cousins of the Tiefling on the opposite end of the spectrum. Where Tieflings are descended from devils and demons (or other fiendish creatures), the Ardlings are supernal beings.

Some races are also going to be able to choose between being a medium-sized or small-sized creature — something D&D has never done before.

New Backgrounds

Gone are the ability score bonuses associated with race; instead, they'll now be tied to your Backgrounds as part of the facelift that the mechanic is getting.

Each Background also comes with a Feat and this will be quite the game changer as Feats are a mechanic that gives a player character a boost or special abilities. This means that right out the gate, player characters are going to have an extra 'oomph'.

As an example, a new Background called Guard will come with the Feat called Alert.

Currently, Feats are only available at selected levels or you can start with one if you choose the Variant Human as your race.

New Feats

Speaking of which, existing Feats might be getting buffed after the revamp, based on what little we've seen so far.

Adding on to the example of the Guard and Alert, Crawford shared that the proposed change for Alert will let you swap your initiative (which determines the turn order) with someone else in the group, potentially allowing allies to act faster.

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Another big change is that players can now grant Inspiration (a d20 reroll) where previously, only DMs could grant it as a form of reward.

Musician, a new Feat that was shown, allows the player to grant Inspiration to allies after a short or long rest.

In response to a question by AsiaOne on giving players more agency in this aspect of the game — a reroll is one of the most powerful things in the game as the system is based upon the d20 — Crawford explained that the team looked at things in the game over the last 10 years to see what has not been used often.

"So the Inspiration rule has been in the Player's Handbook since 2014 but we have seen that many groups don't use it. Or it's sort of in a vaguely homebrew space for a lot of groups," he said, adding that they had intended for it to be "a regular part of play".

He added: "And so that's why, in the case of Inspiration, we have rebuilt completely how you get it by default. One of those main ways is when you roll a 20. And we've also made it easier for you to distribute it to other people."

Crawford also casually slipped in that Humans (one of the playable races) get Inspiration whenever they finish a long rest.

Guess we know what everyone's going to pick next, huh?

Going phygital

With Wizards' acquisition of DnD Beyond, the official digital toolset for D&D, they are now able to provide a more holistic phygital (a combination of physical and digital) experience for players.

If you've played D&D, even if it's just once or twice, chances are, your games might already have integrated some form of digital tool.

ALSO READ: Here's everything new with D&D and Magic: The Gathering revealed at Wizards Presents

DnD Beyond has a ubiquitous influence due to the automation of character creation and its role as an online resource.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Roll20, which allows DMs to recreate a D&D game virtually, also saw its user base double to more than 10 million as many shifted their games online.

Now, Wizards hopes to bring all of that digital experience to players under one roof.

Aside from the physical-digital bundle that they'll roll out for the first time for Dragonlance (check out our article here), they're bringing a digital playspace to players and DMs.

Built with the Unreal Engine, the digital playspace recreates an immersive miniature set virtually in a 3D environment and you can play with it just like you would in a physical game. So yes, you can create a virtual (and highly customisable) mini and move it around — at least from what we've seen.

While the digital playspace is still under development and in pre-alpha, players can head over to the DnD Beyond to check out the playtest materials.

For a roundup of the announcements from Wizards Presents, read our article here.

bryanlim@asiaone.com