D&D 2024 Is Unquestionably a New Edition

I’m sure this point has been made elsewhere, as there are more WOTC-takes out there than anyone can read, but I haven’t seen it made clearly and briefly, so here’s my WOTC take.

Backwards compatible as it is in some ways, the Dungeons & Dragons game presented in the 2024 Players Handbook is definitely a new edition of the game for one simple reason: if we’re playing by 2024 rules and a player pulls out a 2014 Players Handbook to check a rule, ironically one they may have purchased new in 2024, a significant proportion of what they find there will be flat wrong. The 2024 rules contradict the original 5e rules in many ways, invalidating those rules, so they represent a new edition of the game.

That’s it.

Because I’m a sicko, I can’t think about this topic without imagining a kid who’s excited to have just gotten a 2014-edition Players Handbook, shows up to play for the first time, and is immediately told their new book is worthless. (This isn’t far from what happened to me when I mentioned my Red Box to a friend who had AD&D 2E books.)