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D&D 5.5E: The Exciting Possibilities for the Future of Dungeons and Dragons

What is next?

By Parliament HomebrewPublished 2 years ago 3 min read
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D&D 5.5E: The Exciting Possibilities for the Future of Dungeons and Dragons
Photo by Alperen Yazgı on Unsplash

Dungeons and Dragons is a game that has been around for decades. The fifth edition of the game was released in 2014 and it has been very successful. It is exciting to think about what this game could be like in the future.

The new evolution of Dungeons and Dragons has been teased by Wizards of the Coast in their recent D&D Celebration 2021 Panel. WotC have confirmed that work on new versions of the core rulebooks of 5th edition has started, set to be released in 2024 to celebrate 50 years of D&D.

There are many things (rumoured) that are being planned for this new edition, including a new combat system, new races, and an updated skills list. There will also be a new storyline which will include an evil god who will try to take over the world while also trying to corrupt all of the other gods as well.

While an official name has yet to be revealed, fans of D&D have given this new version the placeholder name of 5.5e, referencing 3.5e — the second iteration of D&D 3rd edition — which bears similarity to this teased reworking of the core rulebooks: rather than a completely new edition, with a ground-up rewrite of the rules, Wizard of the Coast will only be refining the rules that enjoyers of 5th edition will be familiar with. Indeed, Wizards of the Coast have asserted that this new version of D&D will be completely backwards compatible with 5e, so major fundamental changes to the gameplay is unlikely, and sourcebooks released until now and all the way through 2024 will still work with the new iteration.

One minor addition that went somewhat under the radar with the release of Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, but could be a hint to interesting things to come, is the inclusion of school-specific backgrounds — in particular, the additional spells and feat granted by taking one of those backgrounds. While this may be a setting-restricted change that never comes back to D&D, it is also possible that this spells the beginning of a major mechanical reworking of how races and backgrounds work. Recently, Wizards of the Coast have been moving away from bioessentialist stereotypes in D&D, especially with the way races work; in light of that, by making backgrounds mechanically meaningful, they could be taking their first steps towards replacing races with backgrounds. Even if this is the only example so far, there is every possibility that we see more of this in the years to come as 5.5e comes ever closer.

By Clint Bustrillos on Unsplash

Finally, Wizards of the Coast have also expressed a desire for greater fanbase feedback for these new rulebook revisions. They have already put out several surveys for players to voice their opinions on classes, subclasses, spells, and more — and, having already received thousands of responses, they plan on maintaining a steady stream of them in the future, placing an emphasis on listening to the desires of players for future developments. Finally, while very little information is available as of now, Wizards also stated that they will have lots more to talk about next year.

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About the Creator

Parliament Homebrew

Games, RPG and D&D homebrew (5th edition mostly, but can branch out on commission). All of my content is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy.

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Comments (2)

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  • Samuel Wright7 months ago

    I think you need to take another look at this issue...

  • A very interesting read!

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