D&D: Interview about new rules of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
An interview about the new, optional ones D&D rules
PCGames: D&D changed over time with the various editions and the game adapted to the present day. Now, how are you modernizing D&D with Tasha's Cauldron of Everything?Jeremy Crawford: D&D has been enjoyed by groups around the world for nearly 50 years, and it's constantly evolving. On the D&D design team, our job is to honor the best parts of the game's legacy while helping make it “speak” to players today. As part of that work, we introduced the option in Tasha's Cauldron of Everything to design a character whose skill stats are not influenced by the character's species. The new option encourages players to personalize their characters, feeling freer than ever to pair any class with any of the game's playable races.
PCGames: Which change in the book has the greatest impact on the rules and gameplay and why did you include them?
Jeremy Crawford: The ability to customize your character's race will play a huge role in many D&D groups, as will the option to add new class traits to each class. These two things give players a lot of new ways to customize a character to their liking. In 2018 and 2019 - when we first planned this book - we wanted to create a number of new ways to tinker with the characters, so that every player can work on certain key details in order to really make a character their own br>
PCGames: D&D tries to no longer depict certain races as "mindless" monsters, such as drow or orcs. How is this portrayed in the game and in the rules?
Jeremy Crawford: The races of D&D - humans, elves, orcs, dwarves and others - have had free will and moral autonomy in the game for years. For example, the 2014 Player Guide instructs players to choose the orientation of their character regardless of which species that character belongs to, and the rules in the 2014 Monster Guide state that the Dungeon Master determines the orientation of a monster or NPC regardless of which orientation appears in the creature's status block. Confusion has arisen, however, because our books also mention the alignments that each species has been associated with in the game's past, and we have learned that such mentions have created the impression that some species are bound to particular alignments . We are therefore changing the way in which the alignment is presented in our future books to avoid depriving an entire people of moral autonomy.
PCGames: Will these rule additions be made in upcoming video games such as Baldur's Gate 3?
Jeremy Crawford: Baldur's Gate 3 and other video games based on D&D are inspired by the tabletop RPG, but each video game has its own set of rules as a video game experience is very different from a tabletop experience can. That being said, I expect elements of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything to find an echo in future video games.
PCGames: What's the Biggest Rule Change in the Book You're Really Proud of?
Jeremy Crawford: Tasha's Cauldron of Everything doesn't actually change any of the rules of the game. Instead, it's a toy box full of rule options that players and DMs (dungeon masters or game masters) can incorporate into their campaigns. And that's what I'm proud of the most - that our team created all these new toys that D&D groups love.
PCGames: Thanks for the interview.
