We are excited to announce that D&D Beyond will soon be joining Hasbro as part of the Wizards of the Coast family!
On May 18, 2022 or soon after, your D&D Beyond account will transfer to Wizards of the Coast, at which point (and going forward) the Wizards Terms of Use will apply to your use of D&D Beyond, and the Wizards Privacy Policy will apply to the personal data associated with your account. If you are located in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, Wizards of the Coast LLC will become the “data controller” of your personal data once it transfers.
For more information on this transaction, please click here. If you wish to delete your account prior to the transfer, you will find instructions for doing so here.
Frequently asked questions
When will the D&D Beyond Terms of Service be updated?
The Terms of Service will be updated to Wizards of the Coast Terms of Service on or around May 18, 2022.
Why are they being updated?
As part of Wizards of the Coast acquiring D&D Beyond, we will extend the Wizards Terms of Service to cover this new service.
What is changing in them?
We need your permission to put your user content on D&D Beyond and operate the D&D Beyond service, and we’re working to ensure that the scope of the permission you give us is tailored to that goal. The Wizards Terms of Service will therefore be updated with a section specific to D&D Beyond to allow us to host your content and otherwise operate the D&D Beyond service.
Will Wizards own my homebrew content created on D&D Beyond?
Wizards has no intent of taking ownership over user content you put on D&D Beyond, and the Terms of Service will not grant us such rights. The permissions we will need for user content will relate to allowing us to operate the D&D Beyond service, including displaying that content on our site.
Do these changes affect homebrew content that was created before May 18?
Any content that remains on the D&D Beyond service will be subject to the updated Wizards Terms of Service. The updated Terms of Service should not impact how you've used the site or owned your content prior to May 18.
If I delete my D&D Beyond account, will my homebrew content remain on D&D Beyond? If so, will my username still be credited?
While your homebrew content will remain on D&D Beyond, the credited username will change to “user-[number].”
Will Wizards own any character or account information I upload (e.g. character sheets, profile pictures)?
Wizards has no intent of taking ownership over user content you put on D&D Beyond, and the Terms of Service will not grant us such rights. The permissions we will need for that content will relate to allowing us to operate the D&D Beyond service, including displaying that content on our site.
Will I need a Wizards account to access or sign up for D&D Beyond after May 18?
No. You can continue to use your Twitch or Google account or Apple ID to sign into D&D Beyond. New users will still need a Twitch or Google account or Apple ID to sign up for D&D Beyond after May 18.
just out of curiosity
wouldnt the intent to shift liability/blame to the user rather then the company show an intent to (at minimum) look through the content to see if there is anything for them to use??
couldnt the people themselves choose whether or not they wish to share their created content with others, rather then the company sharing it, ultimately making that decision regardless of the creators??
if not would the creators atleast be contacted before any of their content be used or sold by the company??
or since it becomes royalty-free, does that mean no compensation/credit/consent could be sought by the creators?? since they are waving their rights to their work (based of 5.2. License to Wizards.)
even though fandom/dnd beyond seem to have the same section in their ToS, it seems to be more to do with "CONTENT SUBMITTED TO DISCUSSIONS FORUMS OR QUIZZES" rather then homebrew content - me probably wrong though, ignore if already answered (didnt read all 30 pages)
The Fandom section does apply to homebrew. As for the credit thing: If you delete your account any public homebrew will instead display User-[number] as your username is also deleted. Lawyers decided decades ago that this exact bit of licensing is required to interact with user content, and you'll find it all over, including places like for Google Docs or Roll20 or pretty much everywhere. You aren't assigning nor transferring your copyright in the work though, you're just providing a license. As for the agreement to not uploading anything you don't own the copyright or ability to license under the terms to, again that's a lawyer thing.
so user keeps ownership of content and company gets right to use/show the content?? that sounds fair, thank you
was mainly curious if it did apply to homebrew - thanks again for clarifying
any chance you know if the option to make homebrew "private, never published" on dnd beyond and if that factored into it?? like if its private or never published can they still use it
also can the creators seek to have their content counted as "Company Original Content"??
If it's not published it still requires the license according to the lawyers, as they've determined that transferring it from the web server to the data server is creating a copy and violating copyright without a license to do so. That's the level of "needed" this is according to lawyers everywhere. As for company original content, that's stuff created by the company not the users.
much appreciated - thank you
Will this merge allow me to upload content that I physically own, or will I still need to purchase through dndbeyond in order to use it?
There have been no announcements about free books.
Does this mean we will receive PDF when obtaining physical copy of adventures and manuals?
There are no PDFs, and there have been no announcements about free books.
Looks like by the licensing agreement under WoTC's terms (section 5.2), WoTC will have an unlimited, royalty-free, etc. license to use any material on your account, including homebrew and character sheet content. That means you technically still own the content, but WoTC can use if for whatever they want (including "derivative works", which means creating content from it) without your permission and without giving you anything for it.
And yet it's been explained repeatedly here what that's about. It's required. Just to store and display your homebrew. If you want the site to function then those are the rights you have to license. Since when an account is deleted any public homebrew is instead credited to user-[number] they need to be able to do so without crediting you. You'll also find those same terms pretty much everywhere with user content.
fandom had that as well.
Add Homebrew in App!!!!!!!! Wooo!
Will there be a way to get an access token for digital copies of my physical books?
There have been no announcements about free books.
No one cares about this TOS stuff. Can we finally get combo print + online versions of books?
Then you're commenting off topic as the entire purpose of this article is to notify users of a legal change. As for free books, they haven't announced anything about that.
This is a misleading answer. According to their ToS:
So technically they are not lying; they are not assuming copyright ownertship. However, they are getting a free license to use your homebrew any way they like without crediting you or paying royalties. They can publish your homebrew class in a book, and if they change even a single word, it becomes a derivative work that they (not you) own the copyright to. The license explicitly gives them the right to do this. I'm going to be extremely careful when deciding what to put on D&D Beyond from here on out.
This is a misleading comment. The quoted part of the FAQ explicitly explains why they legally need the rights you license them.
The FAQ does claim to have a reasoning for this, but this is extremely permissive language for what the FAQ claims they need. As someone who regularly creates IP for a living, I would never consent to terms like that unless I doing work for hire.