The 2024 Player's Handbook releases next month on September 17, with Local Game Store Early Access on September 3 for WPN locations in the U.S. and Canada. With its release, the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons truly begins!

As the release date swiftly approaches, quell player questions and use key book features to promote preorders and make this release the D&D event of the decade.

The 2024 Core Rulebooks are designed to be backwards compatible with fifth edition content.

When using the 2024 Core Rulebooks, the rule of thumb is: the 2024 Core Rulebooks replace any character creation options or game mechanics with the same name that was previously published.

For example, if a player is building a character using the 2024 core rules and wants to select the Goliath species, they should use the Goliath that appears in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, not the Goliath that appears in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse.

Similarly, if a player is building a character using the 2024 core rules and wants to select the Warforged species, they can use that species from Eberron: Rising from the Last War. Additionally, on page 38 of the 2024 Player’s Handbook there are instructions on how to use a previously published species with ability score modifiers. In the case of the Warforged species, you would not use those modifiers.

The 2024 Core Rulebooks also update conditions, actions, spells, items, weapon properties, skills, and magical items. The revised gameplay rules have been designed to make playing D&D more fun, more streamlined, and more balanced.

The one area of the new core rulebooks not designed for compatibility is mixing 2014 classes with 2024 subclasses. Certain features of the new and revised subclasses may lead to suboptimal play when used in combination with 2014 classes. The 2024 revisions were designed to best take advantage of the new class features and gameplay mechanics.

This video from Dungeon Dudes dives into a full explanation of backwards compatibility between the 2024 Core Rulebooks and 2014 content that you can pass along to players with additional compatibility questions:

Community feedback played a critical role in building each book—players had the opportunity to try out new developments with Unearthed Arcana Playtest Materials, and the team incorporated that feedback to create new and improved Core Rulebooks for Dungeons & Dragons.

It's easier for new players and Dungeon Masters to join the party than ever before.

The 2024 Player's Handbook features revised classes, 48 subclasses, and a streamlined design that includes an alphabetized Rules Glossary that makes it easier than ever for players to find what they need right in the book.

Dungeon Masters can lead parties with confidence with the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide, which includes ready-to-use maps and settings plus practical advice for new DMs. With the 2024 Monster Manual, players will meet a monstrous menagerie of over 500 creatures, crafting memorable encounters with new monsters for higher level play—and even 40 humanoid stat blocks.

Every one of the 2024 Core Rulebooks features lavish illustrations, from new class artwork in the Player's Handbook to over 300 pieces of stunning (and terrifying!) new creature art for the Monster Manual.

Players buying at WPN locations in the U.S. and Canada get their hands on traditional and alternate art covers two weeks ahead of release.

The best part? Your players can get their hands on these books—both regular and alternate-art editions—two weeks before launch! Make sure your community is in the know by downloading our new marketing materials from the marketing materials page.

Keep the party going with D&D 50th Anniversary Play Series events.

The party doesn't end at the preorder—for stores in the U.S. and Canada, September 3 – 8 is a key weekend for the D&D 50th Anniversary Play Series events! While you can schedule as many events as you like during the event window of September 3 – October 4, we recommend scheduling at least one event on the highlighted key weekend to kick off early release in a huge way.

These key weekends were selected with our overall event schedule in mind; you might consider these weekends good starting points for new and interested players to join in if you're running multiple D&D 50th Anniversary Play Series events or use them as launch parties to celebrate each book release in style. In the end, choose what works best for your store!

Each Play Series event will feature free claimable adventures on D&D Beyond, using pre-made characters and featuring content from the new core rulebooks.

We will provide you with codes to pass along to your store's Dungeon Masters so they can access the content ahead of each event on D&D Beyond. Neither Dungeon Masters nor participating players need a D&D Beyond subscription to access the content redeemed via codes, though they will need a D&D Beyond account.

The D&D event of the decade is just around the corner—make sure you've preordered enough stock for the big day and schedule a 50th Anniversary Play Series event!