Dungeons & Dragons' 2024 rules overhaul is underway, albeit awkwardly caught between "not a new edition" and "design updates. "The 2024 rules set will be released on September 17 with a revamped Player's Handbook, on November 11 with the Dungeon Master's Guide" on November 11, and the "Monster Manual" on February 18, 2025.

As part of their debut, Wizards of the Coast has announced details of pre-order benefits.

Usually when confronted with this sort of thing, I come out swinging with some scathing jab or break down its pros and cons for nuanced interest. But here is my reaction to this:

This sucks. We can all agree that this sucks, right?

I'm a TTRPG enthusiast, and I look at this and think, "Gosh, I can't wait to unlock 2 weeks of early access with my D&D Beyond Master Tier subscription(™), and I'll get D&D's officially licensed gold 3D models for my virtual tabletop. You also get a 3D model of the dragon.

In the interest of proper pricing, we have not gone beyond the savings in this table, but if you pre-order the digital and physical versions of the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and Monster Manual separately from the D&D Beyond storefront, you will pay about $80 each, for a total of for about $80 each, for a total of $240. As advertised, the bundled version is about $180. This is a real savings of $60.

The extras are (digital) dice, frames, and backgrounds, but the best selling point is the early access period, where you can see the new rules a week early with a Hero subscription (about $2/month) or Master subscription (about $5). You also get a digital art book and a 3D model of the Gold Dragon, again (yay). This is more than just putting on pants. I can't imagine any lonely souls who would be thrilled by this.

Now that Hasbro owns D&D Beyond, there's no reason why the code can't come standard with the book; the PDF can be tracked to arrive at your digital doorstep before the premium copy, but the "Early Access" period gated behind a few extra bucks a month, It's also a twist of the knife.

After all, this reeks of big business desperately trying to treat tabletop games as something they can milk for money like video games. Well, here it is.

I sincerely hope this is not a preview of the annoying nonsense of the next few years, when in 2040, access to "forgotten territory" via databanks will likely require an Ultra subscription and WizardsKey.