I thought all CritRole content was “partnered content” now. At least, that’s what the toggles in the builder imply.
This is correct.
To use the Gunslinger class, one must have “Critical Role content” toggled on. Having “Homebrew content” toggled on does not enable it, because it’s not “homebrew” in any sense beyond the sense that Tal’dorei content, Echo Knight, etc. is “homebrew.” Likewise, it isn’t listed under the “Homebrew” tab on the website, etc.
ETA: feel like the relevant distinction here is that if one can access the content in a published manner, and/or can use it in the Character App, etc. without being subscribed and without having to build it themself, it’s not (or no longer)“homebrew” in the most widely-understood sense. Yes, to some extent, EVERYTHING that wasn’t originally written by DnD’s in-house designers is “homebrew” - but that doesn’t seem a relevant distinction with regard to content that’s officially published on the site by the site devs.
EDIT 2: It should be noted that if Critical Role content is “homebrew” because it was made by Matt Mercer and he’s not an official creator, then by the exact same logic Echo Knight is also “homebrew” - yet Echo Knight does appear in the mobile app. At best it’s wildly inconsistent.
I thought all CritRole content was “partnered content” now. At least, that’s what the toggles in the builder imply.
So before the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn came out, Critical Role content toggle controlled two sets of content:
Homebrew Critical Role content: The Gunslinger subclass, Blood Hunter class, and briefly the Way of the Cobalt Soul and Oath of the Open Sea subclasses
Official, first party Critical Role content: everything from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and Call of the Netherdeep
When the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn came out, the Critical Role content toggle was moved under the new Partnered Content subheading, which now means it covers:
Homebrew Critical Role content: The Gunslinger subclass, Blood Hunter class, but no longer the Way of the Cobalt Soul and Oath of the Open Sea subclasses
Official, first party Critical Role content: everything from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and Call of the Netherdeep
All third party Critical Role content: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn including the Way of the Cobalt Soul and Oath of the Open Sea
The Critical Role content toggle is the only one that enables/disables:
Official first party content
Homebrew content
Third party (partnered) content
These are the three distinction D&D Beyond uses. Gunslinger and Blood Hunter are displayed differently from all other homebrew because that was the only means to make them available to use without a subscription. They are still 100% homebrew, which is a relevant distinction for what is and is not displayed in the app compendium
These are the three distinction D&D Beyond uses. Gunslinger and Blood Hunter are displayed differently from all other homebrew because that was the only means to make them available to use without a subscription. They are still 100% homebrew, which is a relevant distinction for what is and is not displayed in the app compendium
Is there an easily-accessible FAQ or other clarification of these classifications? If it exists, I (and apparently many others) have never seen it.
I feel like more than a bit of the recent drama here could be said to have been caused by poor communication. In this case, it appears that there’s an expectation that users are familiar with these classifications—to the point that, when a question is asked why something happens (or doesn’t happen) the way it does, the response offered is “it’s homebrew” with no further elaboration until pressed.
To users, it’s pretty logical to assume that the relevant definition of “homebrew” refers to things that are found under the “Homebrew” tab of the website, that are enabled by toggling “Homebrew content” on, and that aren’t usable unless created oneself (“private homebrew”) or a subscription is purchased (“public homebrew”).
If, in fact, “homebrew” means something different than that, it has not been well communicated—which causes frustration when someone simply replies “it’s homebrew” to a question but doesn’t bother to explain what they mean.
Is there some expectation thaT users would already understand the unintuitive three-way distribution? If so, how/where/when has it been communicated to users? If not, why isn’t it explained by default at times when it becomes relevant to answers?
(I’d go so far as to state that this one thread is not the only recent instance of poor communication creating frustration among users—but that’s getting off topic so I’ll stop now.)
I thought all CritRole content was “partnered content” now. At least, that’s what the toggles in the builder imply.
So before the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn came out, Critical Role content toggle controlled two sets of content:
Homebrew Critical Role content: The Gunslinger subclass, Blood Hunter class, and briefly the Way of the Cobalt Soul and Oath of the Open Sea subclasses
Official, first party Critical Role content: everything from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and Call of the Netherdeep
When the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn came out, the Critical Role content toggle was moved under the new Partnered Content subheading, which now means it covers:
Homebrew Critical Role content: The Gunslinger subclass, Blood Hunter class, but no longer the Way of the Cobalt Soul and Oath of the Open Sea subclasses
Official, first party Critical Role content: everything from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and Call of the Netherdeep
All third party Critical Role content: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn including the Way of the Cobalt Soul and Oath of the Open Sea
The Critical Role content toggle is the only one that enables/disables:
Official first party content
Homebrew content
Third party (partnered) content
These are the three distinction D&D Beyond uses. Gunslinger and Blood Hunter are displayed differently from all other homebrew because that was the only means to make them available to use without a subscription. They are still 100% homebrew, which is a relevant distinction for what is and is not displayed in the app compendium
When the CritRole toggle was moved to underneath the Partnered Content toggle, it gave at least some users (including myself) the impression that all CritRole content was Partnered Content now. Something to pass along to the powers that be.
I thought all CritRole content was “partnered content” now. At least, that’s what the toggles in the builder imply.
So before the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn came out, Critical Role content toggle controlled two sets of content:
Homebrew Critical Role content: The Gunslinger subclass, Blood Hunter class, and briefly the Way of the Cobalt Soul and Oath of the Open Sea subclasses
Official, first party Critical Role content: everything from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and Call of the Netherdeep
When the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn came out, the Critical Role content toggle was moved under the new Partnered Content subheading, which now means it covers:
Homebrew Critical Role content: The Gunslinger subclass, Blood Hunter class, but no longer the Way of the Cobalt Soul and Oath of the Open Sea subclasses
Official, first party Critical Role content: everything from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount and Call of the Netherdeep
All third party Critical Role content: Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn including the Way of the Cobalt Soul and Oath of the Open Sea
The Critical Role content toggle is the only one that enables/disables:
Official first party content
Homebrew content
Third party (partnered) content
These are the three distinction D&D Beyond uses. Gunslinger and Blood Hunter are displayed differently from all other homebrew because that was the only means to make them available to use without a subscription. They are still 100% homebrew, which is a relevant distinction for what is and is not displayed in the app compendium
When the CritRole toggle was moved to underneath the Partnered Content toggle, it gave at least some users (including myself) the impression that all CritRole content was Partnered Content now. Something to pass along to the powers that be.
I have to admit, the Critical Role content toggle has always caused no small amount of confusion since Explorer's Guide to Wildemount released and we had official and homebrew content managed under the same toggle. The Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn and the Partnered Content category has only compounded this. Don't worry, this is feedback that has already been passed to the team, along with a plethora of other suggestions for the content management system
Fighter gunslinger not viewable on the mobile app, I have to go to the website to look up anything about the class
That's because it's homebrew and the app doesn't support homebrew at this time
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Respectfully, it's not homebrew. It "unofficial material" but it has its own entry on the website's Fighter page:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/classes/fighter#Gunslinger
It's very much homebrew, made by Matt Mercer, along with the Blood Hunter class.
It's listed in the fighter class page as part of its integration to allow every member of the community to use it without a subclass
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I thought all CritRole content was “partnered content” now. At least, that’s what the toggles in the builder imply.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
This is correct.
To use the Gunslinger class, one must have “Critical Role content” toggled on. Having “Homebrew content” toggled on does not enable it, because it’s not “homebrew” in any sense beyond the sense that Tal’dorei content, Echo Knight, etc. is “homebrew.” Likewise, it isn’t listed under the “Homebrew” tab on the website, etc.
ETA: feel like the relevant distinction here is that if one can access the content in a published manner, and/or can use it in the Character App, etc. without being subscribed and without having to build it themself, it’s not (or no longer)“homebrew” in the most widely-understood sense. Yes, to some extent, EVERYTHING that wasn’t originally written by DnD’s in-house designers is “homebrew” - but that doesn’t seem a relevant distinction with regard to content that’s officially published on the site by the site devs.
EDIT 2: It should be noted that if Critical Role content is “homebrew” because it was made by Matt Mercer and he’s not an official creator, then by the exact same logic Echo Knight is also “homebrew” - yet Echo Knight does appear in the mobile app. At best it’s wildly inconsistent.
So before the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn came out, Critical Role content toggle controlled two sets of content:
When the Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn came out, the Critical Role content toggle was moved under the new Partnered Content subheading, which now means it covers:
The Critical Role content toggle is the only one that enables/disables:
These are the three distinction D&D Beyond uses. Gunslinger and Blood Hunter are displayed differently from all other homebrew because that was the only means to make them available to use without a subscription. They are still 100% homebrew, which is a relevant distinction for what is and is not displayed in the app compendium
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Is there an easily-accessible FAQ or other clarification of these classifications? If it exists, I (and apparently many others) have never seen it.
I feel like more than a bit of the recent drama here could be said to have been caused by poor communication. In this case, it appears that there’s an expectation that users are familiar with these classifications—to the point that, when a question is asked why something happens (or doesn’t happen) the way it does, the response offered is “it’s homebrew” with no further elaboration until pressed.
To users, it’s pretty logical to assume that the relevant definition of “homebrew” refers to things that are found under the “Homebrew” tab of the website, that are enabled by toggling “Homebrew content” on, and that aren’t usable unless created oneself (“private homebrew”) or a subscription is purchased (“public homebrew”).
If, in fact, “homebrew” means something different than that, it has not been well communicated—which causes frustration when someone simply replies “it’s homebrew” to a question but doesn’t bother to explain what they mean.
Is there some expectation thaT users would already understand the unintuitive three-way distribution? If so, how/where/when has it been communicated to users? If not, why isn’t it explained by default at times when it becomes relevant to answers?
(I’d go so far as to state that this one thread is not the only recent instance of poor communication creating frustration among users—but that’s getting off topic so I’ll stop now.)
When the CritRole toggle was moved to underneath the Partnered Content toggle, it gave at least some users (including myself) the impression that all CritRole content was Partnered Content now. Something to pass along to the powers that be.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I have to admit, the Critical Role content toggle has always caused no small amount of confusion since Explorer's Guide to Wildemount released and we had official and homebrew content managed under the same toggle. The Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn and the Partnered Content category has only compounded this. Don't worry, this is feedback that has already been passed to the team, along with a plethora of other suggestions for the content management system
Find my D&D Beyond articles here