Today Wizards of the Coast announced the next phase of D&D with the code name "One D&D."
https://www.dndbeyond.com/one-dnd
The first playtest packet covers Character Backgrounds/Origins.
What do we know so far?
The new core rules will be backward compatible with D&D 5 to the point of all existing D&D 5 materials work with the new rules. This fits my prediction that rules were going to be closer to something D&D 5R or Edition 5.5.
They will be taking feedback, giving people time to playtest first.
The new edition/revision will have new core rule books. There will be a closer tie to the books and D&D Beyond as well as their own new digital service. [source]
Wizards will also be including more features for inclusivity, so among other things I expect more species options as PCs and dropping the default alignment for characters, but maybe not necessarily so for monsters. I think we have seen some of these changes for monsters in the Spelljammer Monstrous Compendium and Monsters of the Multiverse.
So to me, this feels like the changes 2nd ed did to 2nd ed revised, 3.0 did to 3.5, or 4e did to Essentials.
Beth Rimmels over at ENWorld has a complete coverage of what is going on.
https://www.enworld.org/threads/one-d-d-takes-5e-to-new-digital-places.690754/
In any case, it is going to be fun to see where this new D&D goes.
Grabbed the playtest. Looks like we get a "Primal" spell source for Druids now. No Goblins though as a playable species!
