The 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook Updates
In case y’all don’t know: I love Dungeons & Dragons. Love might not even be a strong enough word.
A lot of D&D players were pretty wary about the 2024 rules updates Wizards of the Coast announced for Dungeons & Dragons. This is not a new edition of the game, but rather a revision of the 5e ruleset. I was more optimistic than wary, particularly because if I didn’t like the new ruleset, the original 5e ruleset is still there to use whenever I want.
That said, I’m very happy with almost all of the changes. There were some changes that seemed kind of pointless, and some nerfs that seemed unnecessary to me, but overall the changes are largely positive. As an editor, I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t clear up some of their spells that are complexly worded and hard to parse in the moment, but they did clarify a lot of rules and made a lot of things seem simpler. The addition of the large glossary of terms in the PHB was very welcome as an easy go-to reference point.
In any case, if you’re a 5e player and you’re on the fence whether or not to buy the 2024 sourcebooks, I highly recommend them. The new books are intended to be backwards compatible with the original 5e rules, so you can even have some characters made with 5e rules and some made with 5.24e rules in the same party. Likewise, if you’re a new player just wanting to start playing, the 2024 books are a great place to start.
BTW: I’m presently doing a TTRPG survey. I did this a couple of years ago about just D&D, but now I wanted to find out about Cypher, Pathfinder, and Tales of the Valiant. If you play any of those things (including D&D), fill it out!