So I am not sure if this is something you would actually be interested in because it would allow people to make money off content on D&D Beyond, but its kind of an idea.
So DM's Guild has a bunch of wonderful resources that you can buy and then homebrew into D&D Beyond. However, I thought it might be a cool idea to allow those creators the ability to create and export homebrew items from D&D beyond. They could then share those items via DM's Guild.
Then on this site, you could add the option to import the item(s) (imported items couldn't be shared to protect the original creator's rights).
I actually really like this idea. The hang up being of course, how do you restrict someone from homebrewing official content, then exporting it and uploading it for free somewhere?
It would be awesome to be able to include your homebrew items / monsters in your DM's Guild content, but can't you do that already with a published homebrew listing? Sure there's no way to "charge" for it, as if it's publicly listed, it would be available to everyone, but it's still a service that a creator could provide if they wanted to?
I actually really like this idea. The hang up being of course, how do you restrict someone from homebrewing official content, then exporting it and uploading it for free somewhere?
It would be awesome to be able to include your homebrew items / monsters in your DM's Guild content, but can't you do that already with a published homebrew listing? Sure there's no way to "charge" for it, as if it's publicly listed, it would be available to everyone, but it's still a service that a creator could provide if they wanted to?
As for the first part, there are a few things they could do. The first and probably the most restricted way would be to run the imported homebrew content through their new automated verification system. If it says it is copyrighted material, don't allow the import.
The second is not worry about it really since, a lot of peoples general answer to missing official content is to just homebrew it yourself. It would really depend on how D&D Beyond wants to handle that situation. They can basically try their best to prevent it but limit a lot of homebrew items or they could take their current approach where they don't verify homebrew content isn't official content.
As for the second part, yes the creator of the content could share it publically on D&D Beyond for free. Have you ever been to DM's Guild? There is so much amazing content their (that I have even bought and homebrewed here) that I just don't find on this site. That could be because their ability to search homebrew content is horrible or simply because those creators don't use or want to give away their content for free.
I think this would be a wonderful solution and mix between those two worlds. Take Morgrave Miscellany, for example, this was Unofficial Content created by some of the Authors who created The Wayfinders Guide to Eberron. Wouldn't it be cool if instead of having to re-create all of their content as a homebrew in D&D Beyond that they had a way to create and export that content? That way people could quickly get access to those archetypes and items right on here? That content isn't free because some amazing authors put a lot of thought and time into their work. I believe they should be compensated for it, that's the whole reason a place like DM's Guild exists. But I also heavily use D&D Beyond and would love a way to quickly access that content other than me having to homebrew it myself. I mean, I am going to, I already bought their book.
I just thought this would be a cool way for creators to share homebrew items from paid resources found on DM's Guild. Can someone abuse the system? Sure. That is why I am not sure if this will ever be a feature they include. Just thought it was a cool idea and thought I would share it.
I agree 100% mouse0270, I think it would be an awesome system! There's a ton that could be done, and I'd love to see something similar to what you suggest! I was merely pointing out the ease with which it could be abused. I like the idea though of passing anything imported through a content filtering system to automatically detect "official" content. That would actually be a really elegant solution.
I wonder if some solution couldn't be created that ties your D&D Beyond account directly to a DM's Guild account. That would remove the need for import, but still allow creators to author "homebrew" content inside D&D Beyond and then tie those things to a product on the DM's Guild. Then when you buy said content on the DM's Guild, it would be automatically "unlocked" and added to your account. It's like selling 3rd party content on Beyond without Beyond having to actually do the transaction / host the content in an official capacity.
I agree 100% mouse0270, I think it would be an awesome system! There's a ton that could be done, and I'd love to see something similar to what you suggest! I was merely pointing out the ease with which it could be abused. I like the idea though of passing anything imported through a content filtering system to automatically detect "official" content. That would actually be a really elegant solution.
I wonder if some solution couldn't be created that ties your D&D Beyond account directly to a DM's Guild account. That would remove the need for import, but still allow creators to author "homebrew" content inside D&D Beyond and then tie those things to a product on the DM's Guild. Then when you buy said content on the DM's Guild, it would be automatically "unlocked" and added to your account. It's like selling 3rd party content on Beyond without Beyond having to actually do the transaction / host the content in an official capacity.
So as much as I would love for D&D Beyond and DM's Guild to integrate with one another, I am going to make an assumption that isn't going to happen. At least not anytime soon. Starting off, to the best of my knowledge, DM's Guild has not API that others are able to use to integrate their content with other systems, and they really have no reason to develop one. Yes it would be awesome for the community, but I am not sure what the overlap is of users using DM's Guild Content and D&D Beyond, but I am sure it's just a small Percentage.
Even if DM's Guild did create an API that allows D&D Beyond to read purchased products of users, DM's Guild would than need to make sure that products had a set standard so that D&D Beyond would be able to read that content in and display it on their site. Which is where I think the whole system would fall apart.
So yes, I think that would be awesome, for now, I would be happy if they would just provide a way to export/import content.
I understand reasons for not being able to export content from D&D Beyond. But what would be the problem with imports? If there was an ability to import content into D&D Beyond, it would make it much better for people to add home brew, and the rules for doing so could stay the same. That is, each added piece of content could have the same criteria for the system allowing or disallowing the content from becoming public.
While doubtful, I hope that could be an option for the future. As a DM, I like to put a lot of homebrew into my campaigns, and adding content one by one in the interface can be cumbersome. If I could put it all in a CSV with the right column headings, that would be helpful. Just a thought.
You do realize that there is no magic [IMPORT] button, right? That “cumbersome interface” you mentioned is not just for homebrew, it is the exact same system that the DDB Devs use to “import” the official content from WotC, one-by-one.
Before you start creating homebrew, please be aware that you have access to the same tool that the development team use to create content. This means it is both powerful and complex - and can be confusing at first.
The staff team have provided release notes, which are worth reading before you delve into these tutorials.
So the “problem” is that someone would have to sit there and manually recreate each and every one of those homebrews individually from scratch in order to have the data entered into DDB’s system, just like we do now to “import” our own homebrews. So, in a sense you can already import anything you want any by recreating it from scratch yourself one-by-one in the Content Builder.
Thank you for the info. And, I'm by no means complaining. I absolutely love D&D Beyond; it's one of the best things I've seen for D&D since I started playing 40 years ago. I think I'm probably not expressing myself well. I do some programming and database work for my job, and I have ideas for how a person could more quickly and efficiently get home brew content into D&D beyond, Such as, if I have 40 items to put into home brew, I'd like to be able to put it into a CSV file with appropriate column names and upload them all at once, and they could populate the database as if they had been entered in the GUI. In some cases, that could be quicker and more efficient than filling out the home brew form(s). But, it isn't a big deal by any stretch. Just a thought. And, I suspect most people wouldn't know how to make use of the alternate method anyway. Also, I'm somewhat new to this as far as actively using it, so my familiarity is lacking. I probably didn't need to bring it up. Anyway, kudos to D&D Beyond and the teams involved. I love it! It has made DM'ing easier and more fun, and so much more!
You're totally right, that person just doesn't understand how software works. Just because there's an interface for people to enter data, doesn't mean there can't be a way to do it programmatically.
I came here looking for the exact same feature, because it should be entirely possible from a technical point of view. I suspect that the reason that it doesn't exist is, like someone mentioned, it would take the only hurdle out of basically being able to distribute copyrighted content.
When this site was built they were under orders from WotC not to allow any homebrew whatsoever. It took them a year and a half of back and forth with WotC to get the restrictions lifted. When they finally got the green light they didn’t build a homebrewer, they simply granted us user privileges to the official content creator that the devs use. There’s no way to automatically import anything (at least in part) because it was not built to allow for that in the first place. (Really, this site was originally put together with chewing gum and bailing wire. You have no idea.)
I'm in software. I have some idea. I get that there's no feature that allows this for business reasons, but implementing it would be relatively trivial. When you manually fill out the form and press "save" the website sends a request to the server with a payload that looks something like:
name: Item Name version: rarity: 5 item-base-type: type: 10 base-armor: dexterity-modifier: strength-requirement: stealth-check: base-weapon: requires-attunement: y attunement-description: item-description-type: 1
The technical task to add the option to read a file with those values and generate the exact same request to the server for each entry in the file is far from impossible.
Oh, I know. But my point was that homebrew is not the point of the content creator, it’s for implementing official content. We’re lucky we can homebrew at all. And that system can’t actually even implement the official content properly, it still needs a shedload of work to be able to do even a halfway better job of that.
The whole system was originally designed for a monolith, and then got partitioned onto siloed servers about 4 years later. Just getting those servers to talk to each other requires a 15-20 minute cycle, hence the lag between [SAVE CHANGES] and updating the character sheet. The system used to only be one solid mass and not a network.
The system is so janked it’s a miracle that they can make their updates without crashing things. (We barely notice the lights flickering, a tribute to the Devs.) Making it more homebrew friendly is so far down the list of priorities that we’re likely to be in 6e by then. So I know it is possible, but even if they want to do it they got higher priorities.
This is a feedback forum for people to suggest changes that they want to see in the application; I'm not sure who you are, but I don't know that it's your job to decide what is and isn't a priority to the devs. It's great that the application has come a long way - we can take a moment of silence for everyone who's been working overtime to get that to happen, but that shouldn't preclude us from discussing what else could be improved.
With the way it's implemented right now, I can actually see a way to do bulk imports from a file using a chrome extension, albeit in a very sloppy way. It would violate the TOS, but it would technically work because the framework for what that person was asking for is already in place.
I don’t decide what’s a priority for the devs. I just happen to know that homebrew isn’t a priority for them and was letting you know. Basically it was a long-format version of “don’t hold your breath.” My apologies for trying to be helpful, won’t happen again.
This is a feedback forum for people to suggest changes that they want to see in the application; I'm not sure who you are, but I don't know that it's your job to decide what is and isn't a priority to the devs. It's great that the application has come a long way - we can take a moment of silence for everyone who's been working overtime to get that to happen, but that shouldn't preclude us from discussing what else could be improved.
With the way it's implemented right now, I can actually see a way to do bulk imports from a file using a chrome extension, albeit in a very sloppy way. It would violate the TOS, but it would technically work because the framework for what that person was asking for is already in place.
IamSposta, well in my opinion but go into the homebrew forum and you should come to the same conclusions, is a homebrew guru. They've worked exclusively with the systems in place since they allowed it, has been with DnDBeyond since around the beginning (if not the beginning) which is why they know how much the existing system works and why the devs do not consider it on their to do list (which especially given the acquisition this would be even more of a lesser priority if that's even a thing). I mean also a lot of companies when they build something to work one way, and based off the knowledge I know it seems to be the case, they would have to overhaul the entire system to get it to work for the way people are asking (and that's just building the system, not factoring any other hurdles for such a system) and since it was a low priority to begin with I doubt they would want to consider something a massive overhaul to their system.
They’ve already done a massive overhaul (soft & hardware) and are currently doing another one to help them better implement the official features, like adding Actions to magic items (and hopefully adding Spells & Modifiers to feat options, but I’m not holding my breath on that one). It would apparently take a major overhaul of some section of something just to fix the issues with them not having a Modifier for passive insight, and that’s been an issue since 2014 for them not being able to properly implement some official content. 🙄 When they made the system they made it IMMUTABLE, and now they have to make it hot swappable while people are using it without crashing everything. (I don’t envy the devs the headaches they must go home with every night.)
So I am not sure if this is something you would actually be interested in because it would allow people to make money off content on D&D Beyond, but its kind of an idea.
So DM's Guild has a bunch of wonderful resources that you can buy and then homebrew into D&D Beyond. However, I thought it might be a cool idea to allow those creators the ability to create and export homebrew items from D&D beyond. They could then share those items via DM's Guild.
Then on this site, you could add the option to import the item(s) (imported items couldn't be shared to protect the original creator's rights).
Just an idea. Thanks for all your hard work.
I actually really like this idea. The hang up being of course, how do you restrict someone from homebrewing official content, then exporting it and uploading it for free somewhere?
It would be awesome to be able to include your homebrew items / monsters in your DM's Guild content, but can't you do that already with a published homebrew listing? Sure there's no way to "charge" for it, as if it's publicly listed, it would be available to everyone, but it's still a service that a creator could provide if they wanted to?
As for the first part, there are a few things they could do. The first and probably the most restricted way would be to run the imported homebrew content through their new automated verification system. If it says it is copyrighted material, don't allow the import.
The second is not worry about it really since, a lot of peoples general answer to missing official content is to just homebrew it yourself. It would really depend on how D&D Beyond wants to handle that situation. They can basically try their best to prevent it but limit a lot of homebrew items or they could take their current approach where they don't verify homebrew content isn't official content.
As for the second part, yes the creator of the content could share it publically on D&D Beyond for free. Have you ever been to DM's Guild? There is so much amazing content their (that I have even bought and homebrewed here) that I just don't find on this site. That could be because their ability to search homebrew content is horrible or simply because those creators don't use or want to give away their content for free.
I think this would be a wonderful solution and mix between those two worlds. Take Morgrave Miscellany, for example, this was Unofficial Content created by some of the Authors who created The Wayfinders Guide to Eberron. Wouldn't it be cool if instead of having to re-create all of their content as a homebrew in D&D Beyond that they had a way to create and export that content? That way people could quickly get access to those archetypes and items right on here? That content isn't free because some amazing authors put a lot of thought and time into their work. I believe they should be compensated for it, that's the whole reason a place like DM's Guild exists. But I also heavily use D&D Beyond and would love a way to quickly access that content other than me having to homebrew it myself. I mean, I am going to, I already bought their book.
I just thought this would be a cool way for creators to share homebrew items from paid resources found on DM's Guild. Can someone abuse the system? Sure. That is why I am not sure if this will ever be a feature they include. Just thought it was a cool idea and thought I would share it.
Thank you for sharing these ideas out loud! I have thought the same thing before. Not in as much detail, that is.
I agree 100% mouse0270, I think it would be an awesome system! There's a ton that could be done, and I'd love to see something similar to what you suggest! I was merely pointing out the ease with which it could be abused. I like the idea though of passing anything imported through a content filtering system to automatically detect "official" content. That would actually be a really elegant solution.
I wonder if some solution couldn't be created that ties your D&D Beyond account directly to a DM's Guild account. That would remove the need for import, but still allow creators to author "homebrew" content inside D&D Beyond and then tie those things to a product on the DM's Guild. Then when you buy said content on the DM's Guild, it would be automatically "unlocked" and added to your account. It's like selling 3rd party content on Beyond without Beyond having to actually do the transaction / host the content in an official capacity.
So as much as I would love for D&D Beyond and DM's Guild to integrate with one another, I am going to make an assumption that isn't going to happen. At least not anytime soon. Starting off, to the best of my knowledge, DM's Guild has not API that others are able to use to integrate their content with other systems, and they really have no reason to develop one. Yes it would be awesome for the community, but I am not sure what the overlap is of users using DM's Guild Content and D&D Beyond, but I am sure it's just a small Percentage.
Even if DM's Guild did create an API that allows D&D Beyond to read purchased products of users, DM's Guild would than need to make sure that products had a set standard so that D&D Beyond would be able to read that content in and display it on their site. Which is where I think the whole system would fall apart.
So yes, I think that would be awesome, for now, I would be happy if they would just provide a way to export/import content.
I understand reasons for not being able to export content from D&D Beyond. But what would be the problem with imports? If there was an ability to import content into D&D Beyond, it would make it much better for people to add home brew, and the rules for doing so could stay the same. That is, each added piece of content could have the same criteria for the system allowing or disallowing the content from becoming public.
While doubtful, I hope that could be an option for the future. As a DM, I like to put a lot of homebrew into my campaigns, and adding content one by one in the interface can be cumbersome. If I could put it all in a CSV with the right column headings, that would be helpful. Just a thought.
You do realize that there is no magic [IMPORT] button, right? That “cumbersome interface” you mentioned is not just for homebrew, it is the exact same system that the DDB Devs use to “import” the official content from WotC, one-by-one.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/homebrew-house-rules/3625-everything-you-need-to-know-about-homebrew
So the “problem” is that someone would have to sit there and manually recreate each and every one of those homebrews individually from scratch in order to have the data entered into DDB’s system, just like we do now to “import” our own homebrews. So, in a sense you can already import anything you want any by recreating it from scratch yourself one-by-one in the Content Builder.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Thank you for the info. And, I'm by no means complaining. I absolutely love D&D Beyond; it's one of the best things I've seen for D&D since I started playing 40 years ago. I think I'm probably not expressing myself well. I do some programming and database work for my job, and I have ideas for how a person could more quickly and efficiently get home brew content into D&D beyond, Such as, if I have 40 items to put into home brew, I'd like to be able to put it into a CSV file with appropriate column names and upload them all at once, and they could populate the database as if they had been entered in the GUI. In some cases, that could be quicker and more efficient than filling out the home brew form(s). But, it isn't a big deal by any stretch. Just a thought. And, I suspect most people wouldn't know how to make use of the alternate method anyway. Also, I'm somewhat new to this as far as actively using it, so my familiarity is lacking. I probably didn't need to bring it up. Anyway, kudos to D&D Beyond and the teams involved. I love it! It has made DM'ing easier and more fun, and so much more!
You're totally right, that person just doesn't understand how software works. Just because there's an interface for people to enter data, doesn't mean there can't be a way to do it programmatically.
I came here looking for the exact same feature, because it should be entirely possible from a technical point of view. I suspect that the reason that it doesn't exist is, like someone mentioned, it would take the only hurdle out of basically being able to distribute copyrighted content.
When this site was built they were under orders from WotC not to allow any homebrew whatsoever. It took them a year and a half of back and forth with WotC to get the restrictions lifted. When they finally got the green light they didn’t build a homebrewer, they simply granted us user privileges to the official content creator that the devs use. There’s no way to automatically import anything (at least in part) because it was not built to allow for that in the first place. (Really, this site was originally put together with chewing gum and bailing wire. You have no idea.)
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I'm in software. I have some idea. I get that there's no feature that allows this for business reasons, but implementing it would be relatively trivial. When you manually fill out the form and press "save" the website sends a request to the server with a payload that looks something like:
The technical task to add the option to read a file with those values and generate the exact same request to the server for each entry in the file is far from impossible.
Oh, I know. But my point was that homebrew is not the point of the content creator, it’s for implementing official content. We’re lucky we can homebrew at all. And that system can’t actually even implement the official content properly, it still needs a shedload of work to be able to do even a halfway better job of that.
The whole system was originally designed for a monolith, and then got partitioned onto siloed servers about 4 years later. Just getting those servers to talk to each other requires a 15-20 minute cycle, hence the lag between [SAVE CHANGES] and updating the character sheet. The system used to only be one solid mass and not a network.
The system is so janked it’s a miracle that they can make their updates without crashing things. (We barely notice the lights flickering, a tribute to the Devs.) Making it more homebrew friendly is so far down the list of priorities that we’re likely to be in 6e by then. So I know it is possible, but even if they want to do it they got higher priorities.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
This is a feedback forum for people to suggest changes that they want to see in the application; I'm not sure who you are, but I don't know that it's your job to decide what is and isn't a priority to the devs. It's great that the application has come a long way - we can take a moment of silence for everyone who's been working overtime to get that to happen, but that shouldn't preclude us from discussing what else could be improved.
With the way it's implemented right now, I can actually see a way to do bulk imports from a file using a chrome extension, albeit in a very sloppy way. It would violate the TOS, but it would technically work because the framework for what that person was asking for is already in place.
I don’t decide what’s a priority for the devs. I just happen to know that homebrew isn’t a priority for them and was letting you know. Basically it was a long-format version of “don’t hold your breath.” My apologies for trying to be helpful, won’t happen again.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
IamSposta, well in my opinion but go into the homebrew forum and you should come to the same conclusions, is a homebrew guru. They've worked exclusively with the systems in place since they allowed it, has been with DnDBeyond since around the beginning (if not the beginning) which is why they know how much the existing system works and why the devs do not consider it on their to do list (which especially given the acquisition this would be even more of a lesser priority if that's even a thing).
I mean also a lot of companies when they build something to work one way, and based off the knowledge I know it seems to be the case, they would have to overhaul the entire system to get it to work for the way people are asking (and that's just building the system, not factoring any other hurdles for such a system) and since it was a low priority to begin with I doubt they would want to consider something a massive overhaul to their system.
They’ve already done a massive overhaul (soft & hardware) and are currently doing another one to help them better implement the official features, like adding Actions to magic items (and hopefully adding Spells & Modifiers to feat options, but I’m not holding my breath on that one). It would apparently take a major overhaul of some section of something just to fix the issues with them not having a Modifier for passive insight, and that’s been an issue since 2014 for them not being able to properly implement some official content. 🙄 When they made the system they made it IMMUTABLE, and now they have to make it hot swappable while people are using it without crashing everything. (I don’t envy the devs the headaches they must go home with every night.)
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting