Hi everyone,

I’ve been a Dungeons & Dragons player since the 3.0 edition — born and raised in Italy, part of a community that’s been keeping the game alive here for decades. I’m also a programmer and database/BI expert, with 10 years of experience designing and managing corporate databases. This gives me insight into how digital content can be structured efficiently and scalably.

I’d like to propose a feature that could both improve accessibility and open a strong new revenue stream for Wizards of the Coast and D&D Beyond: modular language packs.

Here’s the idea:
Keep the core content in English — the mechanical data, references, and IDs — exactly as it is now. Then allow users to purchase language modules for each book (Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, etc.) that replace only the textual layer with the localized version (Italian, Spanish, French, German, and so on).

This model has several advantages:

• Unified content: all data stays linked to the same core version, so tools, sheets, and future VTT integrations work seamlessly across languages.

• No double purchases: players who already own a book in English can simply buy the language add-on instead of re-buying the entire product.

• Sustainable profit model: Wizards can monetize translations directly while lowering duplication and maintenance costs.

• Community expansion: easier access for non-English-speaking players and potential for verified community translations in smaller languages.

I also want to note that, as my English is not perfect, I had help translating this proposal to make sure it is clear and professional.

Essentially, it’s a scalable, fair, and profitable approach — much better than releasing completely separate localized versions of each manual.

As a long-time Italian player, I’d gladly pay for high-quality language packs that enhance usability without fragmenting the ecosystem. It would make D&D Beyond truly global.

Thanks for considering this!

The PHB 2014 was translated into Italian.  I would imagine that they'd look at how well that sold, vs the cost of getting true translations, before they consider keep doing that.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/it/phb

I know but if you read my post there was no real request. It is a suggestion for all languages and for a businness model that could be "useful" for Wizard and for us at the same time. It makes no sense to have different version of the same book on web. The structure is bad designed. I think that a lot of users would buy a language module. It's easier and scalable.

This suggestion is how digital localisation works as an industry standard and it's almost impossible you're suggesting anything novel to the team. The reason the site doesn't have a localisation option is almost certainly not a technical code issue, but one of team bandwidth or RoI or scope limitations. Each localisation pack would require a team that can test in that localisation, as the requirements of each language can vary greatly. Some languages require expanded or special character sets which would need to be supported by any proprietary fonts used on the site. Other languages—German is a great example of this—can pose significant issues in terms of text bleed due to some words and phrases being much longer than their English versions, or fewer spaces and thus fewer line breaks.

In fact, I believe they already trialled exactly what you're suggesting with the Italian 2014 Player's Handbook which was its own separate compendium purchase. So not only are they very much likely aware of this technical approach, they appear to have already tested it and, for one reason or another, not found there to be compelling data to implement it further.

Quote from Davyd >>

This suggestion is how digital localisation works as an industry standard and it's almost impossible you're suggesting anything novel to the team. The reason the site doesn't have a localisation option is almost certainly not a technical code issue, but one of team bandwidth or RoI or scope limitations. Each localisation pack would require a team that can test in that localisation, as the requirements of each language can vary greatly. Some languages require expanded or special character sets which would need to be supported by any proprietary fonts used on the site. Other languages—German is a great example of this—can pose significant issues in terms of text bleed due to some words and phrases being much longer than their English versions, or fewer spaces and thus fewer line breaks.

In fact, I believe they already trialled exactly what you're suggesting with the Italian 2014 Player's Handbook which was its own separate compendium purchase. So not only are they very much likely aware of this technical approach, they appear to have already tested it and, for one reason or another, not found there to be compelling data to implement it further.

Part of the confusion in this regard comes from no one knowing who in Hasbro, WotC or Beyond actually issues orders & allocates budgets based on data that's not public.

& if shown data & given reasons, it's immediately made out to be an conspiracy by people who have a parasocial adversarial relationship with a corporation.