Proposals to refer to One D&D as “6th Edition” in order to spite Hasbro marketing don’t go far enough. We should retroactively assign full edition numbers to every major core rules revision for which the game’s publishers declined to do so, as follows:
White box OD&D is now 1st Edition
Holmes Basic is now 2nd Edition
AD&D 1st Edition is now 3rd Edition
BX/Moldvay Basic is now 4th Edition
BECMI/Mentzer Basic is now 5th Edition
AD&D 2nd Edition is now 6th Edition
The Rules Cyclopedia is now 7th Edition
The AD&D 2nd Edition Player’s Handbook redux with the infamous “This Is Not 3rd Edition” foreword is now 8th Edition
Player’s Option is now 9th Edition
D&D 3rd Edition is now 10th Edition
D&D 3rd Edition Revised (3.5E) is now 11th Edition
D&D 4th Edition is now 12th Edition
D&D Essentials is now 13th Edition
D&D Next (later informally rebranded as “5th Edition” due to consumer pressure) is now 14th Edition
Finally, this means the forthcoming One D&D is 15th Edition.
The currently released D&D version is version 5e, previously called D&D Next during playtesting.
Over the last 2-ish years they’ve been working on an updated version. This update is supposed to be backwards compatible allowing everyone to use their current D&D 5e stuff. This was playtested under the name One D&D and commonly called 5.5e in the community.
Playtesting revealed it was not as backwards compatible as advertised, so some people call it 6e too to point out you’ll need all new rulebooks.
In the last few months WotC / Hasbro has said they are removing the name One D&D and not labeling it as 5.5e or 6e either. They are going to release it as “5e” and “2024 revision to 5e” in reprinted rulebooks. The D&D community thinks that’s long, confusing and sorta stupid, but I guess WotC wants everyone to rebuy the rule books and not have to reprint the adventures for the new version?
Prokopetz is just listing off every D&D version in history to mock this name change by pointing out we can go beyond insulting WotC / Hasbro by going lol One D&D is 6th edition, One D&D can be 15th edition if you’re pedantic enough!
I see. That really is insufferable.
The really funny part is that this isn’t even the first time this has happened. As you may have noticed in the preceding list, the 1989 version and the 1995 version of D&D were both released as “2nd Edition”, in spite of the considerable differences between them; the latter even has a faintly condescending foreword explaining that it’s not 3rd Edition. If the rebranding of One D&D goes ahead as presently planned, D&D will officially have two completely separate 2nd Editions and two completely separate 5th Editions.
I know that Mass Effect 3 gets a lot of shit - and fuck knows it deserves it - but I swear it also has the ability to make me feel more emotions than any other piece of media ever has.
Forget the endings bullshit, and the ridiculousness of Kai Leng - it’s about Javik’s voice when he asks you “Why didn’t you prepare for the reapers, human?” It’s the old lady whose daughter is dead on earth, but she doesn’t know, and doesn’t remember she’s talking to her asari daughter in law. It’s the kid in the refugee camp, waiting for her parents. It’s Mordin singing Amazing Grace, Thane’s last prayer, Legion and Tali on Rannoch - does this unit have a soul? It’s asking the elcor ambassador how many of his people you managed to save and hearing “Not. Enough.” It’s hearing the casualty reports over the radio in London - areas reporting 90, 95 percent casualties - and knowing there’s nothing you can do. It’s hearing Anderson whisper “You did good, child” as he dies. It’s hearing Hackett’s voice and standing up one last time, ready to fight, ready to die.
