Dungeons & Dragons — the table-top role-playing game where players act out stories as warriors, wizards and more — has been around for decades, but has seen a big resurgence in recent years. That was party due to the pandemic, when a lot of people were stuck inside and figured that a good way to pass the time would be to enter a dream world of magic and beat the crap out of a dragon or two.
Playing remotely meant they were using a variety of tools to recreate the experience of playing in person: Roll20 to calculate dice rolls, HeroForge to make miniatures, and so on. Now, the people at Wizards of the Coast are preparing a new form of D&D that will include all of these tools in one place. It’s called, appropriately enough, One D&D.
“Currently, players are cobbling together all kinds of different apps and websites to have a true integrated D&D experience,” said Kale Stutzman, Principle Game Designer for D&D Digital, in an introductory video. “What we want to do is actually just provide all the tools that the players need to play themselves in one space.”
What’s coming with One D&D?
But that’s not the only thing that’s new about One D&D. Like every new iteration of the game, there will be new rules and updates, although in this case the popular Fifth Edition of Dungeons & Dragons will serve as the foundation. “We did a smart thing with Fifth Edition, by listening to the fans,” said Chris Perkins, D&D’s Game Design Architect. “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.”
Still, there will be shifts. For instance, if you roll a one under current rules, it’s still possible for you to succeed at whatever you’re doing if you have insane bonuses. No more. If you roll a one in One D&D, you fail. Sorry about it.
Of course, the appeal of Dungeons & Dragons has always been the flexibility; at the end of the day, you can accept or ignore rules as you please. And per IGN, One D&D will feature an expansion of D&D Beyond, a popular digital compendium, and a set of digital tabletop tools that can help players and dungeon masters customize their experiences.
“We might give you a pre-made campaign from us that has an exciting castle or keep with a dungeon inside of it,” said Carlo Arellano, Principle Art Director on D&D Digital. “But then you’re going to be able to take this place, take it apart, and build your own. We’re going to have a really robust tool for you to be able to create your own dungeons.”
One D&D is expected to launch in 2024.
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