Dungeons and Dragonsis planning on giving up theOne D&Dbrand name shortly. In the future,Dungeons and Dragonswill be marketing itsOne D&Dproducts more directly as a revision of the5th Editionruleset.
Last year,Dungeons and DragonsrevealedOne D&D, its evergreen evolution of5th Edition. It has since released several Unearthed Arcana playtests under this branding with the intention of moving away from specific editions, as it had in the past.
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However, during the recentDungeons and DragonsCreator Summit, Wizards of the Coast revealedOne D&Dwas an in-progress title for the project. The slides shown in the presentation did not useOne D&D, instead referring to the upcoming rules update as the “2024 Revision to5th Edition.” Likewise, it has no plans of calling it 5.5e or 6th Edition either–it would simply continue to be5th Edition.
Dungeons and Dragonsis likely choosing to do this because of feedback it received fromitsOne D&Dplaytests. Though it had claimedOne D&Dwould be fully backwards-compatible, many fans did not think the content from the Unearthed Arcana would play nicely with previousDungeons and Dragonsbooks. To many,One D&Dfelt like a new edition ofDungeons and Dragons, rather than a simple evolution of the ruleset.
It is possibleDungeons and Dragonsis distancing itself from theOne D&Dname to drive home the fact that it isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel. The 2024 Revision is not trying to make a new edition, so using the same name for the system gives credence to the playtests and helps make players feel like they are still playing the same game. Attempting to rebrand would also confuse new players, who might thinkold5th Editionadventure paths and productscouldn’t be used withOne D&Dbooks.
That said, plenty of players are irritated that Wizards of the Coast refuses to give the rules revision a proper name. Many fans think the rules changes inDungeons and Dragonsare far too drastic to still call5th Edition, and that not giving it a proper name will cause confusion over what features their Dungeon Master is using. Others wantDungeons and Dragonsto give it some way of easy identification, rather than having to call it the 2024 Revision of5th Editionevery time. If it doesn’t, theDungeons and Dragonscommunity will probably still call itOne D&Dor 5.5e for simplicity’s sake.
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