One D&D’s playtest is already bigger than D&D 5E's
Next ‘evolution’ of RPG sees more sign-ups since August than whole two-year test for 5E.
One D&D, the next major iteration of the tabletop RPG, has already been playtested by more people than Dungeons & Dragons 5E.
Wizards of the Coast president Cythia Williams revealed the statistic during Hasbro’s Investor Day presentation, announcing that One D&D’s playtest had seen more sign-ups since it launched on August 18th than D&D 5E’s playtest saw during its entire two-year pre-release phase ahead of the game's release in 2014.
One D&D was unveiled over the summer as an ambitious “evolution” for Dungeons & Dragons, aiming to combine a major update to the RPG’s ruleset planned for release in 2024 with the digital tools of D&D Beyond - which Wizards acquired earlier this year - and a virtual tabletop app currently in development.
A playtest version of One D&D was revealed alongside the game’s announcement, introducing a number of major changes to character creation, dice rolls and inspiration, among other elements.
Wizards of the Coast said it would continue to update the work-in-progress rules on a monthly basis until the end of 2023. This month’s first update to the playtest saw the publisher roll back changes to rolling one or 20 on a die, now granting players inspiration on a critical fail, as well as making further changes to ‘expert classes’ and spell lists.
The publisher previously revealed that more than 40,000 people filled out a survey in response to their experience with One D&D, adding that a “record-breaking” number of players had downloaded the playtest.