D&D’s final hardcover book for 5th edition promises that it will be compatible with what comes next

If there’s one thing Dungeons & Dragons has done well over the past decade, it’s anthologies: hefty volumes filled with disparate adventures loosely connected by a common theme. Titles like Candle Mysteries, Stories from the Gaappoortand the Nebula Award nominee Traveling through the shining citadel are among the best official materials of this generation. At the start of a much-publicized overhaul of the 5th edition ruleset, publisher Wizards of the Coast is making one last attempt at greatness. The final anthology for the current ruleset, Quests of the infinite staircasewill hit retail stores on July 16.

But as managing game designer Justice Ramin Arman said during a recent press conference: Infinite staircase is more than just the last book published for the original 5th edition. It’s also one of the first published for the 2024 rulebook revision, making it an example of how the legendary tabletop role-playing game plans to address the issue of backwards compatibility.

Historically, each new edition of D&D has been pretty much a clean break, with little other than lore connecting one to the other. The result is a fragmentation of the gaming community along generational fault lines. The most recent example came in 2008, when Wizards launched 4th Edition. Some people – myself included – found Fourth Edition just fine, and dove headlong into the game and all its tactical, miniature-friendly glory. Other people, not so much. They either moved on to other hobbies or games altogether, or turned to Paizo’s Explorerwhich at least when it was founded was very close to the third edition.

Wizards and the company owner Hasbro would really like this to not happen again. Over the past decade it has managed to catapult the groundbreaking TTRPG back into the public consciousness, growing its player base to what it claims are new heights. With Wizards only recently coming off the painful fiasco of the OGL debacle, the narrative is eager to change with this newly revised ruleset.

Arman said that Infinite stairs‘s adventures are “truly playable, regardless of whether you” Player’s Guide (2014) or the soon to be released Player’s Guide (2024), and the same goes for the Monster Manual (2014) and the Monster manual (2025). So how was that achieved?

One way is by changing the way adventures provide Dungeon Masters with good guidance.

“Something I’ve seen in older books of ours is that when a monster shows up, sometimes it can have a tactical suggestion or mention a specific monster ability,” Arman said. “Often that’s great, but if something happens in our (2025) Monster manual that the name of an ability changes, we don’t want to confuse a DM who has (only access to) the updated version of that text.

To be more honest, Arman said that Infinite staircase will not summon specific spells or abilities for a particular monster to use in a particular encounter. Instead, Wizards will give DMs broader advice on what to do instead.

“When you see that there is a Cloaker in this room, the text doesn’t say, ‘The Cloaker uses Phantasmal Illusions to create three illusory duplicates of itself,'” Arman said. “It could just specify what the Cloaker does, without referring to that one-to-one text. What that does is almost give more general guidance in places that is more intuitive (than might have been the case before), rather than feeling like you have to point to a specific skill or trait (in a book you do not know). not have). Which, honestly, I think makes the adventures more user-friendly anyway. Because if you’re a new DM picking up this text, you don’t need to know what a Cloaker’s capabilities are (were in 2014). You just need to know that it hides and attacks.”

Is that guidance meant for harried DMs on the go? Hard to say until we see all the updated rules – something that won’t be possible until the revised rules are changed Monster manualthe last of the three main rulebooks currently in production will finally be published in early 2025. But Arman says the team at Wizards is ready.

“Look, I was a D&D fan (…) for a long time (before I joined Wizards of the Coast), and I realize that there may be a certain subset of people who don’t stick to the revised core rulebooks” , Arman said. “Is it really backwards compatible? Let’s wait until it comes out, and let’s see. But you know, I encourage you to do that if you want to. And if not, you can trust us. Look for the book when it comes out. You can see it on (D&D Beyond) and find out for yourself with the previews we’ve already had for the new one PHB (on YouTube). It’s still just as compatible with the new stuff as it was with the 2014 stuff.”

Quests of the Infinite Trap will be available at retail on July 16, including a version with a special alternate art cover only available at local game stores. Those who pre-order the physical and digital bundle directly from Wizards of the Coast will receive their materials two weeks early on July 9. Learn more about the Player’s Handbook (2024) is now available on Wizards’ YouTube channel.