Dungeons & Dragons Next

Dungeons & Dragons Next was the public working title for the fifth edition of the Dungeons & Dragons tabletop role-playing game, developed by Wizards of the Coast. Rather than a video game, it was the new edition of the foundational pen-and-paper RPG that has shaped fantasy gaming since its 1974 debut. Wizards adopted an unusually open development process, running a large public playtest from 2012 onward in which hundreds of thousands of fans downloaded draft rules, ran games and submitted feedback that directly informed the final design. The goal of 'D&D Next' was to unify a fractured player base, reconciling the divergent philosophies of the third and fourth editions, by creating a flexible, modular ruleset that honoured the game's long history while remaining approachable to newcomers. The finished product launched in 2014 simply as the fifth edition of Dungeons & Dragons, and went on to become the most popular and commercially successful version of the game ever, fuelled by streaming shows, actual-play podcasts and a broader cultural resurgence of tabletop role-playing. POCG covered the playtest as part of its gaming news. The D&D brand also underpins numerous licensed video games, making news of its core ruleset relevant to digital RPG fans.