Dungeons & Dragons’ Designer Explains How Playtests Have Moved From Experimental to Focused

Dungeons & Dragons was fully prepared to adopt any of the “experimental” changes seen in early One D&D playtests, had they received high enough feedback from players. At Gen Con, ComicBook.com had the chance to speak with Jeremy Crawford, the lead rules designer of Dungeons & Dragons, in a wide-spanning interview about the game and its upcoming rules revision, which will be featured in a set of revised Core Rulebooks released next year. In the interview, ComicBook.com asked Crawford about the public playtest process and how the 2024 rules revisions initially seemed like almost a new edition in the early playtest documents. “I like to talk about the first five Unearthed Arcanas being our experimental phase,” Crawford said. “And we were very intentionally swinging hard with a number of those options. But that’s exactly why we led with them. Because we wanted the community to have time to talk about them, debate them, give us their feedback.”

ComicBook.com also asked whether the designers had accounted for any of these changes actually being embraced by the community, or if these experiments were just that…experiments. “There was a hundred percent chance that if any of those options were enthusiastically embraced by the community, they would end up in the new version of the rules,” Crawford said. “So yes, any of those experiments in the first five Unearthed Arcanas could have ended up in the [2024 Core Rulebooks.].

Interestingly, many of the bigger changes reached the threshold that Wizards considers to be a success – a 70% success rate. “The thing is, the scores are not the full story,” Crawford said. “We also look at what are people saying in the written feedback and what they are saying in online discussion forums. And while people were often excited by a number of these experiments, there was also a lot of concern about what would this do to the existing game.”

While Crawford was confident that some of the experimental rulesets wouldn’t disrupt the game as much as some players thought, the early Unearthed Arcana rules provided “different paths of development” based on feedback. He also pointed out that some of experimental rules systems were going in the game, such as the Weapon Mastery system. “Probably one of the biggest swings in the UA process is Weapon Mastery,” Crawford said. “Which is an entirely new subsystem, and I love it, for the record. That’s not even a revision to anything – it’s a brand new subsystem, and we’re thrilled that people have embraced it.”

As for some of the other proposed changes that tested well, Crawford noted that there was still a chance that they might appear in a future book as optional rules. “Some of the other things that scored well but then had a mixed reception in terms of people’s commentary on it, all of those things still have a chance to appear as optional rules in a future book.” He also added that they could save some of those designs for a future edition “years from now.” 

Cawford also pointed out that more content from early Unearthed Arcana playtests were being incorporated into the rules revisions than what people might have thought. “When we look at those first five [Unearthed Arcanas], the lion’s share of the content is actually going to make it into the new books,” Crawford said. “In that very first Unearthed Arcana we had the rules glossary, which had a lot of admitted experiments. But in that same Unearthed Arcana, the bulk of it were the revised species and the new background system and. all of that’s going into the new player’s handbook. With the exception of the Ardling and that initial version of the Dragonborn, all the revised species were across the board were enthusiastically embraced. So, that new version of the Dwarf you saw, that new version of the Elf you saw, those in refined form are going to be in the new Player’s Handbook along with the new background system.”

Crawford pushed back on the idea that the 2024 Rules Revisions were just glorified errata, because of the amount of new content that will be appearing in the 2024 rules revisions. “There are some significant changes that go way beyond what we would ever do in errata, in terms of new subsystems showing up,” Crawford said. “The Dwarf has brand new traits, for instance. So those meaty things that have been appearing in Unearthed Arcana, many of them are going to be in the new Player’s Handbook. When people get that book, pretty much everything they look at when they’re going through classes, and species options, and background options, and equipment…they’re going to see meaningful updates and improvement everywhere.” He also noted that some spells were also being upgraded, including some not included in the Unearthed Arcana process. 

Ultimately, Crawford describes the 2024 rules revisions as having “enhancements” and improvements, but still being the same 5th edition that people have been playing. “I think what people are going to experience when they get the new Core Rulebooks…it’s definitely the game we’ve all been playing, but enhancements everywhere,” Crawford said. “And brand new things, too. Focusing on  on Weapon Mastery for a moment, it’s not only a brand new subsystem, it’s a subsystem that’s going to change how six of our twelve classes feel, and several of those classes are among the most played classes in our game. What that means is a huge number of D&D players are going to have a brand new play experience once they are playing with the 2024 versions of their classes.”