For questions specific to the playtesting packet materials for the D&D Next Playtest” (packets dated from May 24, 2012 to September 20, 2013, plus the “final playtest packet” from October 2013). Use [dnd-5e] for questions about D&D 5e not related to the original playtest packets.
D&D 5th edition was playtested during 2012 and 2013 as “D&D Next”. The playtest rules were released in a series of “packets” containing PDFs of various rules and play material. Dated packets were released between May 24, 2012 and September 20, 2013. When the playtest concluded, one “final playtest packet” was released in October 2013, allowing players to continue with the final version of the playtest rules until D&D 5th edition was officially published over a year later.
Because of the evolving nature of the rules and the rules text, questions that are specific to the rules and materials in the playtest packets use this tag to keep them separate from later D&D 5e questions, and to avoid attracting answers based on newer rules. (Questions from the playtest period that remained relevant to D&D 5e players were rewritten and placed under the dnd-5e tag.)
- Use dnd-5e for questions about D&D 5e not related to the original playtest packets.
- For questions about the playtesting materials published after D&D 5e's release — known as the “Unearthed Arcana” series — use dnd-5e unearthed-arcana instead of this tag.
