If the 2024 Player’s Handbook and 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide released while your gaming group was mid-campaign, you may have wondered how and when to incorporate the new rules. Some adventures last months or years, but your players may already be looking at new class features that they’d like to use as soon as possible. Well, there’s no need to wait to update to D&D’s new rules!

Here, we’ll review what Dungeon Masters should consider when moving a game from the 2014 to 2024 rules during an ongoing adventure.

• When to Switch
• Narrative Considerations
• Getting Characters Ready for the New Rules
• Flexibility is Key
• Rule Changes for DMs to Remember

The 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide is Now Available

Create unforgettable adventures using the invaluable tools and expert advice in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide! Encompassing 400+ magic items, new rules for Bastions, the Greyhawk campaign setting, and more, this trove of tools will help you weave epic tales for your friends and save you time on your prep.

If you want all three core rulebooks, you can save $60, get exclusive digital bonuses, and immediately access the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide and 2024 Player's Handbook when you pre-order the Digital & Physical Core Rulebook Bundle.

When to Switch

Artist: Axel Defois

While the easiest time to make the switch is between campaigns, a campaign may still have a long way to go before its conclusion. In this case, you may want to make the switch mid-campaign.

Before switching to the new rules as a group, it’s important to include a discussion to ensure everyone is on the same page, similar to a session zero. In this transitional conversation, you should discuss:

• Overview of the Updates: What rules have changed and how? This is a good time for someone with access to the 2024 rules to present them to those that aren’t familiar yet.
• Changes to Characters: What’s changed for the players’ characters? Review each character and how their features, spells, feats, or magic items have been adjusted to ensure everyone is ready to play.
• Explore New Systems: Review new features, like Weapon Mastery, Bastions, and crafting. If your players are above level 5, you could also use this time to discuss how and when players will get access to a Bastion.

Once everyone is familiar with the updates, your group can decide on a time to start using the new rules. This might be the beginning of the next session or a more transitional moment, such as the end of the current campaign arc. Whatever you decide, ensure the entire table agrees on the timeline and implementation before rolling it out.

If your players are unsure about the timing for when to switch but are interested in trying out the new rules, consider running a one-shot or non-canon side quest first to see how they go.

Narrative Considerations

While some rules have changed, there isn’t an inherent need to address them narratively. For most groups, the easiest way to update will be simply to incorporate the new rules and continue playing.

But, as the DM, you may want to make the rule changes part of a larger narrative. If you plan on going this route, here are three examples of how the updates can be addressed in-game:

• Gaining New Powers: During the course of their adventures, characters grow stronger and gain new powers. For example, a Sorcerer may wake up knowing new spells after a level-up. So, you can treat any new abilities the characters gain in the new rules as a result of their experience and training.
• Magical Gift: If your party has a powerful supernatural ally such as a dragon, fey, or genie, perhaps there is an opportunity in your story for that entity to grant the group new powers and abilities. A devil, demon, druid circle, or witch coven could offer these gifts in exchange for help with a quest.
• Extraplanar Exposure: When adventurers travel outside the Material Plane, they often encounter unpredictable magical forces. For example, the Feywild’s effects on time, magic, and memory are well-known. If your adventure includes interplanar travel, you could switch your group to the 2024 rules as the party moves from one plane to another. Similarly, the party might catch a glimpse of an extraplanar entity like a Great Old One or deity and be permanently altered by the experience.

Getting Characters Ready for the New Rules

Artist: Chris Rallis

The 2024 rules introduce a wide range of improvements, but there’s no need to become an expert in everything at once. Mistakes will happen as your group gets more comfortable with the rules, so make sure everyone feels supported during the learning process.

Players should focus on the updates that matter most to their characters, such as class features, spells, feats, and other character options. A perfect opportunity to dive into these changes is when transitioning their character to the updated rules.

Creating a New Character Sheet

When transitioning to the 2024 rules, I recommend setting aside 30 to 60 minutes at the start of a session—or scheduling a separate time altogether—to work on creating new character sheets as a group. Players using D&D Beyond digital character sheets will want to create a copy of the sheet and update the name of the old sheet with “2014” or something similar.

Then, using the new character sheet, they can head to the Character Builder and delete the old class. They can then add the 2024 version of the class, set the character to the level their character was previously at, and mirror their old class choices. Then do the same for their background, species, and ability scores.

Duplicating their character sheet will ensure their characters keep their inventory, so they can skip over starting equipment unless there are any changes they’d like to make.

Backgrounds and Species Not in the 2024 Player’s Handbook

If you’re using a background or species that doesn’t appear in the 2024 Player’s Handbook, consult the Backgrounds and Species from Older Books sidebar in the 2024 D&D Free Rules for guidance.

Flexibility is Key

Characters will experience more streamlined gameplay when they adopt the rules from the 2024 Player’s Handbook. Some will also see improvements to the way their class, feats, spells, or magic items function. However, there may be instances where a player doesn’t want to adopt the new version of a class feature, spell, magic item, or feat—likely because the player selected that option with a specific build in mind. It’s perfectly fine for a player to wait until the current campaign wraps up or their character’s story comes to a natural conclusion before switching to a character built with the 2024 rules, so long as that’s alright with the group.

Rule Changes for DMs to Remember

When a player wants to use a feature from the 2024 rules, encourage them to refresh themselves on how the rule works and summarize the details for the group. By the same token, you, as the DM, should refamiliarize yourself with rules that come up regularly in play.

Here's a short list of frequently used rules from the 2024 Player’s Handbook and 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide, along with changes worth keeping in mind:

• Crafting: The 2024 Player’s Handbook and 2024 Dungeon Master’s Guide have rules for crafting various items. Review them at your leisure, but don’t feel compelled to memorize these tables and costs. Just bookmark where to find this information for quick reference later.
• Grapple and Shove: Grapple and shove rules have changed a bit, and they’ll probably come up in combat on both sides of the table. A creature may now make an Unarmed Strike and choose to damage, grapple, or shove their target.
• Healing Magic: Spells that restore Hit Points, like Cure Wounds and Healing Word, have seen upgrades, doubling the dice that restore Hit Points from their 2014 versions. Similarly, other healing spells like Aura of Vitality and Prayer of Healing have been powered up.
• Heroic Inspiration: Players can now expend Heroic Inspiration to reroll any die immediately after rolling it, so that means a player could use it on anything from a Death Saving Throw to a damage roll!
• Potions as a Bonus Action: Potions can now be consumed or applied to another creature as a Bonus Action. Your players will be able to down a brew or use it on others on the same turn they use a Magic action to cast a spell or an Attack action to swing a weapon.
• Stunned: Stunned creatures no longer have their Speed reduced to 0. Keep this in mind, particularly when using monsters like Mind Flayers or when members of your group are playing Monk characters.
• Weapon Mastery: The new Weapon Mastery class feature lets characters unlock special properties of chosen weapons. You don’t need to memorize every property, but remember that weapon-focused characters will have more tools at their disposal.

If you want a quick way to reference the new rules, the 2024 D&D Dungeon Master's Screen is a handy resource to have on hand! This four-panel screen has reference material on the Dungeon Master-facing side, so you can easily find whatever information you need during play.

Understanding the Updates Together

When you and your group have familiarized yourselves with the 2024 rules and discussed how you want to incorporate them into your game, it’s time to dive in.

Remember that everyone's learning and that errors will occur as part of that, so don’t sweat minor mistakes. Once you’ve got the hang of things, your group will find fun new rules and more options to customize their characters and gameplay!

Damen Cook (@damen_joseph) is a lifelong fantasy reader, writer, and gamer. If he woke up tomorrow in Faerûn, he would bolt through the nearest fey crossing and drink from every stream and eat fruit from every tree in the Feywild until he found that sweet, sweet wild magic.