Yes, but to be entirely fair, unless and until DDB shows us what they are actually working on, their frustration is entirely valid, if not necessarily accurate.
It feels bad to lose a feature we enjoy and have come to depend on, and the only thing we get in return is smoke and mirrors, marketing speak.
It's not that hard to imagine that it's just a way to save money for the company, ultimately, and the customer perception (at least those of us who pay for a sub and buy content here) is that the company must be raking it in already.
Their frustraion is valid, but their rudeness and attitude are not.
There is marketing speak, and there is customer entitlement. As a paying customer, the issue I see is customer entitlement, not marketing speak.
UA is to Beyond as utensil packs and napkins are to restaurants. It would be nice that businesses offer free perks, but customers are in no way entitled to the free perks, and businesses have every right to withdraw the free perks as well. UA and utensil packs are not and never were on the menu, and neither will they be on the receipt either. There is nothing about the transaction that suggests UA is part of any subscription. Claiming that it is on the menu is no different from entitled customers claiming they should have a free digital copy just because they bought the physical book, despite there is absolutely no confusion what-so-ever that the transaction for physical books does not include the digital copy (and the only exception to that rule right now is just the Essentials Kit box set, where it clearly states the physical products comes bundled with the digital version).
Yes, but to be entirely fair, unless and until DDB shows us what they are actually working on, their frustration is entirely valid, if not necessarily accurate.
It feels bad to lose a feature we enjoy and have come to depend on, and the only thing we get in return is smoke and mirrors, marketing speak.
It's not that hard to imagine that it's just a way to save money for the company, ultimately, and the customer perception (at least those of us who pay for a sub and buy content here) is that the company must be raking it in already.
Their frustraion is valid, but their rudeness and attitude are not.
There is marketing speak, and there is customer entitlement. As a paying customer, the issue I see is customer entitlement, not marketing speak.
UA is to Beyond as utensil packs and napkins are to restaurants. It would be nice that businesses offer free perks, but customers are in no way entitled to the free perks, and businesses have every right to withdraw the free perks as well. UA and utensil packs are not and never were on the menu, and neither will they be on the receipt either. There is nothing about the transaction that suggests UA is part of any subscription. Claiming that it is on the menu is no different from entitled customers claiming they should have a free digital copy just because they bought the physical book, despite there is absolutely no confusion what-so-ever that the transaction for physical books does not include the digital copy (and the only exception to that rule right now is just the Essentials Kit box set, where it clearly states the physical products comes bundled with the digital version).
So, do you tip extra if the waiter remembers to bring you a fork, or is it mostly other people's entitlement that bothers you? That's an awkward metaphor.
I think if the UA were gradually moved out it wouldn't have been as much of a perceived problem. I.E. remove the feywild unearthed arcana after the feywild release, and the draconic UA after the draconic release, and then not add new UA afterwards. That way you can slowly phase out a feature without causing too much turmoil on the community as well.
Business wise it would also be a smart decision I think. (I didn't study marketing, but from my experience developing games / making websites). :
1.- The entries that have already been made will continue to be there. So no further maintenance other than keeping the database entry as it is.
2.- Archiving it at the release of a book will incentivize people to buy the book and use the official release. (I.E. using the official way of mercy monk after it left unearthed arcana.) It's like getting a free preview of something and then getting the opportunity to purchase the full version.
3.- Community has time to adapt to the change. I think not adding new content is less generally better than removing things that have already been made available.
But I guess this is kind of beating a dead horse. I suppose user research and knowing the potential backlash is less relevant in the field of maintaining a website. This is just my feedback as a paying customer, and I hope DnDBeyond will take it in consideration. Disclaimer, as a huge fairy fan I was kind of bummed out that fairies were no longer "officially" on DnDBeyond, as I was really excited to have them in the first place.
So, do you tip extra if the waiter remembers to bring you a fork, or is it mostly other people's entitlement that bothers you? That's an awkward metaphor.
Beyond does not have tipping, and it is more similar to a take out only restaurant, hence why I mentioned utensil packets. I generally do not tip when I get a take out.
For me, other people's entitlement do in fact bother me greatly. As a paying customer, how other customers act and behave affects me. There are jerks out there who refuse follow COVID procedures, verbally abuse cashiers and employees, and basically shut down the entire freaking line and forcing everyone behind them to wait until they finish their tantrum. Beyond does not have COVID procedures for customers nor physical lines, but there are still rude customers, and those people are one of the reasons why many employees in the restaurant industry and customer service positions are quitting in droves right now, and that leads to slower service for all customers.
@Jay_Lane: Thank you for your thoughtful post. Obviously we do disagree on what was promised in the past or what implied obligations DnDB should assume, but at the very least, your follow-up post is not off-putting and I can understand where you are coming from. Cheers.
EDIT: I realize that I didn't answer your questions regarding campaigns. I am unsure myself. I never investigated this before. It might be worth exploring in a UA Test before proceeding. I would even be willing to give it a try with you, to help you understand whether it is possible if people leave the campaign later. If you are interested, please send me a PM.
"We will integrate all appropriate Unearthed Arcana content from January 2018 going forward into D&D Beyond."
It's really just this line from the article that cemented it as a staple/expectation of DnDbeyond up until this post for me. I agree with many people in this post they can change their business direction at any time but that's also worrying in itself. It's disappointing/frustrating to see new commitments at the expense of the old (in my view). Internally these probably had nothing to do with each other but time/money needed to be spent on either.
UA may have not have had a visible direct impact on revenue but it was what made me start using dndbeyond for all my games and lead to my purchase of all content here despite having the rest up to date physically and on roll20 - I'm sure there were others out there that did the same/similar. More characters than not in my campaigns have/had some UA that gets flipped to the official version when it is released. Sub perks have an obvious impact on revenue and it may not be a bad business decision for the bottom line. I'm sure there's people out there who don't use UA and would prefer the customization options. On the other hand pulling a less demanding/required role for game content (social mod, volunteer from the community, or other non developer role) and having them homebrew it and releasing it as best as possible would have been acceptable to me.
I'll send you a PM about the campaign. Again, thank you for your response and helpfulness.
Their frustraion is valid, but their rudeness and attitude are not.
There is marketing speak, and there is customer entitlement. As a paying customer, the issue I see is customer entitlement, not marketing speak.
UA is to Beyond as utensil packs and napkins are to restaurants. It would be nice that businesses offer free perks, but customers are in no way entitled to the free perks, and businesses have every right to withdraw the free perks as well. UA and utensil packs are not and never were on the menu, and neither will they be on the receipt either. There is nothing about the transaction that suggests UA is part of any subscription. Claiming that it is on the menu is no different from entitled customers claiming they should have a free digital copy just because they bought the physical book, despite there is absolutely no confusion what-so-ever that the transaction for physical books does not include the digital copy (and the only exception to that rule right now is just the Essentials Kit box set, where it clearly states the physical products comes bundled with the digital version).
Any business for takeout that didn't offer cutlery for me to eat my food on the go would not get my business. I also don't have permanent food that I pay for once and can only get at that restaurant(digital books) or pay for a subscription to be able to share my food or order an unlimited amount at a restaurant. Just because something is free at a restaurant doesn't mean it isn't built into the cost or a necessity to keep customers coming back.
It was DNDBeyond's own statement that they will release UA going forward they walked back on. It's in their right to do so but still a statement they made in writing. It's more they advertise they give out free bread baskets with no end date in their newsletter. Then later say they are no longer giving out free bread baskets without changing their pricing to compensate (those bread baskets are built into the cost of other things).
Now with this analogy in the real world clearly way more goes into the cost of things - maybe costs for the restaurant went up (covid) they can afford to keep prices the same but only if they slash bread baskets. In dndbeyond's case they believe they can only release other features in a timely manner if they slash UA. Unfortunately this comes shortly after an announcement for new sub perks every month which is what puts a bad taste in my mouth. I no longer get the bread but get some new crown molding to look at in the restaurant. This is my perception of it maybe yours is it went from uncomfortable broken seating to recliners. Maybe you never ate the bread, I/my friends filled up on it and in fact it's why we went to the restaurant originally.
As per my other posts I don't expect nor want devs to be pulled to create new systems/tools for UA. Current systems - best as possible would have been good enough for me it's what they are asking us to do now. I don't need perfect artisan bread.
I have to say I'm a little disappointed, one of, if not my favourite feature was the UA, Ive had so much fun making characters and testing them out using the UA and I'm really sad to see it go.
I understand that you've already made this decision, but as a top tier subscriber who's essentially purchased all the content on this site, this has left me a little disenchanted. Would there not have been a way to continue one of the most loved features of the site? Clearly I'm not the only one who is disheartened by this news...what would make you reconsider? Maybe make it a subscription only feature?
I guess we can still add UA content as homebrew, so it isn't the end of the world....still....
Can you add the archived UAs to the homebrew and just put archived in their titles please? I have what was supposed to be a drakewarden ranger but our campaign got put on pause and my third ranger level was delayed. I just got that third level tonight and now I can't add the drakewarden subclass to my character.
Can you add the archived UAs to the homebrew and just put archived in their titles please? I have what was supposed to be a drakewarden ranger but our campaign got put on pause and my third ranger level was delayed. I just got that third level tonight and now I can't add the drakewarden subclass to my character.
That’s never been how it worked and more than likely not allowed by the licencing agreement with WotC. Keep in mind that homebrew based on someone else’s IP is not allowed to be published on DDB, and that includes homebrew UA content.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
For those of you who are disappointed by UA getting axed, there is a survey at the top of this forum above the pinned threads, and I guess that is where you can voice your demand for UA! I did not notice the survey until just now. The survey stops at September 30, so you still have quite a bit of time.
Hopefully, with enough of us demanding UA, maybe Beyond will consider bringing UA back sooner, or maybe even talk to Wizards to allow us to buy archived UA and old unerrata'd stuff. Beyond already has a lot of archived UA and old unerrata'd stuff just sitting around doing nothing, so I think they might as well ask Wizards if they can monetize all the work Beyond put in. If allowed and the monetization is financially successful, they may be more incentivized to implement UA in the future when they are ready again.
ALL NON CANON IS THEN PUBLIC CONTENT ANYONE CAN USE AKA FAIR USE.
IF NONE PREVIOUS EDITIONS OR D&d universe or lore arent gonna be followed nor count as canon now THEN WE HAVE PUBLIC ACCESS TO ALL OF IT.
THIS WAS THE SAME MISTAKE BY StarWars EVIL KATHLEEN'S BS RAYVERSE BUT NOW THAT IS GONE AS NON CANON BECAUSE IT FORGOT THE COMMUNITY AND SOCIETY THAT BUILD THERE MASSIVE BUSINESS PROFITS AND POPULARITY.
HOPE D&D beyond can learn from starwars disneys mistake and fix there abandoning past canon misstep.
That is not how IP works, and that is not fair use. Just because past editions are no longer actively supported does not mean that Wizards should make it free. You still have to buy them and it is illegal to pirate it.
While we will no longer be officially supporting this content, you are welcome to use our homebrew tools to create UA content you'd like to use.
Yeah that's great except that your homebrew tools are still a complete dumpster fire. Any plan to use some of the newly freed-up time and resources to improve that?
100% this. The tools they want their users to use are trash, so maybe fix the things you're suggesting people spend their time to use.
It’s the exact same tool the Devs use to implement everything on DDB.
Well then it would be a great idea to make the tools better especially since you've got your own employees wasting time using the terrible kludgy tools.... Maybe if you made the tools more streamlined for everyone then your developers would have more time to spend on things like UA that clearly a lot of users love..... Then you wouldn't need to force your customers to duplicate work that has already been done....
Also it's super annoying to be forced to Homebrew UA and know that potentially hundreds or thousands (?) of other users are having to do the same exact tedious work that you're being forced to do because DDB won't let you share UA Homebrew. It's simply exasperating.
Hold on, time out! *whistles sharply* Two points:
Not my employees, nor my bosses for that matter. (I don’t work here, I just live here.)
Making the tools “more streamlined for everyone [so the] developers would have more time to spend on other things” is a fantastic idea!! Who do they have for that?!? Oh yeah, that’s right, the Developers. If only they weren’t so busy continually getting pulled off of that project to work on other stuff that doesn’t earn the company any money…. What could they cut that would save a bunch of time and effort like that…? …? …? OH WAIT!! I’ve got it!! They could cut UA! That would mean that the Devs wouldn’t have to stop what they’re doing every couple of months and spend a week or three making those. Brilliant!! Thank you ryanpaton, your idea to cut the costly and time consuming UA program so the Devs can focus on stuff like the upgrades they’re working on to the content creation software will save DDB millions and give the consumers a better product in the long run. Genius, DDB should give you a promotion. Well done, 👏 👏 bravo!!
The UA indirectly made them money. My own anecdotal evidence showing that in a previous post - they made money from me and my group of friends because of UA - I'm sure there are others. How much and how often? Probably not known or unmeasurable - but considering it was their own statement that it was the most requested feature when they committed to it a few years back I'm going to assume it was more than just my group.
Also why would they need to pull devs to use the homebrew(or their version of it) tool. They were pulling devs to make new tools for UA. Instead of stopping completely and asking us to use the homebrew tool they could have taken the approach of pulling a non-dev to use the tool to make best as possible UA- while the devs continue their work elsewhere.
Unless the idea is they think the homebrew tool requires a dev to use and they think all their customers are devs capable of doing so. However, I doubt that's what they think as they stated it couldn't be released as intended without pulling devs. Very few other features/content published or otherwise gets released 100% in working condition here. Again I don't know why UA had to be especially as it's temporary content.
What would have not disappointed me so much would have been, we will release it using the available tools (what they are now asking us to do) but we won't be committing dev resources to build new systems. This would have accomplished the same goal for them - freeing up dev resources while also giving us semi functional UA (lots of UA has been semi functional anyway).
Instead of stopping completely and asking us to use the homebrew tool they could have taken the approach of pulling a non-dev to use the tool to make best as possible UA- while the devs continue their work elsewhere.
Then you get this really grey area of where if you do not develop anything new for UA specifically, you might only get to implement 20% of what gets released as UA, and if you develop only something quick and easy it becomes a judgment call to be second-guessed as much as the current decision. It'd very likely still cause disappointment, over something (whatever WotC decides to pull out of a hat next) DDB has no control over.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
there is vast of amount of nerds like me that would love to fix and develop ua content that they will pay to play later, so then some developer testers can keep there test characters incase they where a little bit overpowered yet not broken but it posed dm complication or complexity d&d beyond wishes to avoid and stabilize to not annoy the mass dm community.
So pay to homebrew UA with a community?
franchising the development allows the development grow and expand and we get regular content to test, fix or create, of course they would have oversight and can regulate to not lose control of the direction d&d beyond is going, this also would allow vast inspiration they could be driven to implement.
Bolding the presumption that sails passed the reality check. D&D Beyond is dropping future support of UA because managing it had become untenable. The number of actual staff working on implementing UA in the past I'm pretty sure is dwarfed by your proposed subscription community (again, basically pay to.home brewers), and you expect D&D Beyond to task managerial oversight to it (when freeing up D&D Beyond's in house resources is clearly an aspect of this move)?
Using the vast creative populous to create content allows d&dbeyond a level of advantage over all competitor systems.
Leveraging a user base, I think that's what you mean by creative populace, would create an advantage hitherto unknown by its past in house UA support ... support which their own in house analysis determines wasn't really worth continuing in order to maintain their present position and growth?
i have a healthy coffee franchise but all prefer starbucks or free coffee but what other tabletop game allows you to develop for the d&d world you love for the entire d&d community to enjoy-NONE.
I don't really understand what you're saying here other than sharing the claim you own a coffee franchise (or maybe an independent shop). Plenty of TTRPG communities develop fan/community content ... Is D&D Beyond Starbucks, free coffee, or your franchise? I really don't know what you're getting at here.
develop for the d&d world you love for the entire d&d community to enjoy
That's homebrew. Which you can already do, including making public for the entire community, albeit within the limitations of the available tools if you want it functionally implemented. If you just want to create content and make that available in a text format, players and DMs have been doing that since day 1.
If you're thinking of having the community homebrew UA content and publishing it, that latter step is a no-go. Not because of anything DDB decides, but because WotC won't allow it (to protect their IP).
Then you get this really grey area of where if you do not develop anything new for UA specifically, you might only get to implement 20% of what gets released as UA, and if you develop only something quick and easy it becomes a judgment call to be second-guessed as much as the current decision. It'd very likely still cause disappointment, over something (whatever WotC decides to pull out of a hat next) DDB has no control over.
True but we weren't getting all of the UA implemented anyway. Now we get nothing. Even if they took the route of things that mechanically aren't possible with their current tools they just filled in the text in the homebrew tool it would have been better. If we can do it, as per their suggestion, it would have been nice for them to at least offer that.
I never expected them to implement everything (even their original commitment didn't include everything). Yes, it would still be disappointing but not as disappointing in my view - other people probably disagree with that. I know you threw out the 20% as an example but I feel a larger portion of the UA can be homebrewed, at least partially, than that. Heck even the multiclass subclasses the majority could be homebrewed if you give it the same treatment they do for feats - making multiple feats for 1 feat - or in the this case multiple subclasses for each subclass. Best as possible would have been nice.
To play devils advocate the only reason I would really accept for it to have to work 100% as intended is if it was screwing with WotC surveys and they were getting, by far and large, non-sense feedback because of the way Dndbeyond was implementing it. However, if that was the reasoning I assume (probably incorrectly) they would tell us that. This would also imply that the Dndbeyond community was one of the largest contributors to the feedback process otherwise it would be easy to filter out the few. This being a hypothetical though I still stick to my statement of wishing they would have at least done what they are now asking us to do.
I'll also say that most all of their decisions on what to work on lead to someone being disappointed. This includes other work that definitely requires developers that don't have a direct impact on revenue/sales ex. containers, dark mode etc. (as highly requested as those features are) It's hard to please everyone especially when there's millions of us.
Their frustraion is valid, but their rudeness and attitude are not.
There is marketing speak, and there is customer entitlement. As a paying customer, the issue I see is customer entitlement, not marketing speak.
UA is to Beyond as utensil packs and napkins are to restaurants. It would be nice that businesses offer free perks, but customers are in no way entitled to the free perks, and businesses have every right to withdraw the free perks as well. UA and utensil packs are not and never were on the menu, and neither will they be on the receipt either. There is nothing about the transaction that suggests UA is part of any subscription. Claiming that it is on the menu is no different from entitled customers claiming they should have a free digital copy just because they bought the physical book, despite there is absolutely no confusion what-so-ever that the transaction for physical books does not include the digital copy (and the only exception to that rule right now is just the Essentials Kit box set, where it clearly states the physical products comes bundled with the digital version).
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/marketplace >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
So, do you tip extra if the waiter remembers to bring you a fork, or is it mostly other people's entitlement that bothers you? That's an awkward metaphor.
I think if the UA were gradually moved out it wouldn't have been as much of a perceived problem. I.E. remove the feywild unearthed arcana after the feywild release, and the draconic UA after the draconic release, and then not add new UA afterwards. That way you can slowly phase out a feature without causing too much turmoil on the community as well.
Business wise it would also be a smart decision I think. (I didn't study marketing, but from my experience developing games / making websites). :
1.- The entries that have already been made will continue to be there. So no further maintenance other than keeping the database entry as it is.
2.- Archiving it at the release of a book will incentivize people to buy the book and use the official release. (I.E. using the official way of mercy monk after it left unearthed arcana.) It's like getting a free preview of something and then getting the opportunity to purchase the full version.
3.- Community has time to adapt to the change. I think not adding new content is less generally better than removing things that have already been made available.
But I guess this is kind of beating a dead horse. I suppose user research and knowing the potential backlash is less relevant in the field of maintaining a website. This is just my feedback as a paying customer, and I hope DnDBeyond will take it in consideration. Disclaimer, as a huge fairy fan I was kind of bummed out that fairies were no longer "officially" on DnDBeyond, as I was really excited to have them in the first place.
Hi
Beyond does not have tipping, and it is more similar to a take out only restaurant, hence why I mentioned utensil packets. I generally do not tip when I get a take out.
For me, other people's entitlement do in fact bother me greatly. As a paying customer, how other customers act and behave affects me. There are jerks out there who refuse follow COVID procedures, verbally abuse cashiers and employees, and basically shut down the entire freaking line and forcing everyone behind them to wait until they finish their tantrum. Beyond does not have COVID procedures for customers nor physical lines, but there are still rude customers, and those people are one of the reasons why many employees in the restaurant industry and customer service positions are quitting in droves right now, and that leads to slower service for all customers.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/marketplace >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
"We will integrate all appropriate Unearthed Arcana content from January 2018 going forward into D&D Beyond."
It's really just this line from the article that cemented it as a staple/expectation of DnDbeyond up until this post for me. I agree with many people in this post they can change their business direction at any time but that's also worrying in itself. It's disappointing/frustrating to see new commitments at the expense of the old (in my view). Internally these probably had nothing to do with each other but time/money needed to be spent on either.
UA may have not have had a visible direct impact on revenue but it was what made me start using dndbeyond for all my games and lead to my purchase of all content here despite having the rest up to date physically and on roll20 - I'm sure there were others out there that did the same/similar. More characters than not in my campaigns have/had some UA that gets flipped to the official version when it is released. Sub perks have an obvious impact on revenue and it may not be a bad business decision for the bottom line. I'm sure there's people out there who don't use UA and would prefer the customization options. On the other hand pulling a less demanding/required role for game content (social mod, volunteer from the community, or other non developer role) and having them homebrew it and releasing it as best as possible would have been acceptable to me.
I'll send you a PM about the campaign. Again, thank you for your response and helpfulness.
How to get your dice to look like the ones in my profile picture and a full site dark mode.
Tutorial thread by Hyrkali
Any business for takeout that didn't offer cutlery for me to eat my food on the go would not get my business. I also don't have permanent food that I pay for once and can only get at that restaurant(digital books) or pay for a subscription to be able to share my food or order an unlimited amount at a restaurant. Just because something is free at a restaurant doesn't mean it isn't built into the cost or a necessity to keep customers coming back.
It was DNDBeyond's own statement that they will release UA going forward they walked back on. It's in their right to do so but still a statement they made in writing. It's more they advertise they give out free bread baskets with no end date in their newsletter. Then later say they are no longer giving out free bread baskets without changing their pricing to compensate (those bread baskets are built into the cost of other things).
Now with this analogy in the real world clearly way more goes into the cost of things - maybe costs for the restaurant went up (covid) they can afford to keep prices the same but only if they slash bread baskets. In dndbeyond's case they believe they can only release other features in a timely manner if they slash UA. Unfortunately this comes shortly after an announcement for new sub perks every month which is what puts a bad taste in my mouth. I no longer get the bread but get some new crown molding to look at in the restaurant. This is my perception of it maybe yours is it went from uncomfortable broken seating to recliners. Maybe you never ate the bread, I/my friends filled up on it and in fact it's why we went to the restaurant originally.
As per my other posts I don't expect nor want devs to be pulled to create new systems/tools for UA. Current systems - best as possible would have been good enough for me it's what they are asking us to do now. I don't need perfect artisan bread.
How to get your dice to look like the ones in my profile picture and a full site dark mode.
Tutorial thread by Hyrkali
I have to say I'm a little disappointed, one of, if not my favourite feature was the UA, Ive had so much fun making characters and testing them out using the UA and I'm really sad to see it go.
I understand that you've already made this decision, but as a top tier subscriber who's essentially purchased all the content on this site, this has left me a little disenchanted. Would there not have been a way to continue one of the most loved features of the site? Clearly I'm not the only one who is disheartened by this news...what would make you reconsider? Maybe make it a subscription only feature?
I guess we can still add UA content as homebrew, so it isn't the end of the world....still....
Can you add the archived UAs to the homebrew and just put archived in their titles please? I have what was supposed to be a drakewarden ranger but our campaign got put on pause and my third ranger level was delayed. I just got that third level tonight and now I can't add the drakewarden subclass to my character.
That’s never been how it worked and more than likely not allowed by the licencing agreement with WotC. Keep in mind that homebrew based on someone else’s IP is not allowed to be published on DDB, and that includes homebrew UA content.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
For those of you who are disappointed by UA getting axed, there is a survey at the top of this forum above the pinned threads, and I guess that is where you can voice your demand for UA! I did not notice the survey until just now. The survey stops at September 30, so you still have quite a bit of time.
Hopefully, with enough of us demanding UA, maybe Beyond will consider bringing UA back sooner, or maybe even talk to Wizards to allow us to buy archived UA and old unerrata'd stuff. Beyond already has a lot of archived UA and old unerrata'd stuff just sitting around doing nothing, so I think they might as well ask Wizards if they can monetize all the work Beyond put in. If allowed and the monetization is financially successful, they may be more incentivized to implement UA in the future when they are ready again.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/marketplace >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
Is there a way we can find the archived content on D&D Beyond?
You cannot. Your best bet is to ask someone who has it or made a homebrew copy and have them share it with you.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/marketplace >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
That is not how IP works, and that is not fair use. Just because past editions are no longer actively supported does not mean that Wizards should make it free. You still have to buy them and it is illegal to pirate it.
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Thank you for a reply that makes sense.
Hold on, time out! *whistles sharply* Two points:
OH WAIT!! I’ve got it!! They could cut UA! That would mean that the Devs wouldn’t have to stop what they’re doing every couple of months and spend a week or three making those. Brilliant!! Thank you ryanpaton, your idea to cut the costly and time consuming UA program so the Devs can focus on stuff like the upgrades they’re working on to the content creation software will save DDB millions and give the consumers a better product in the long run. Genius, DDB should give you a promotion. Well done, 👏 👏 bravo!!
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The UA indirectly made them money. My own anecdotal evidence showing that in a previous post - they made money from me and my group of friends because of UA - I'm sure there are others. How much and how often? Probably not known or unmeasurable - but considering it was their own statement that it was the most requested feature when they committed to it a few years back I'm going to assume it was more than just my group.
Also why would they need to pull devs to use the homebrew(or their version of it) tool. They were pulling devs to make new tools for UA. Instead of stopping completely and asking us to use the homebrew tool they could have taken the approach of pulling a non-dev to use the tool to make best as possible UA- while the devs continue their work elsewhere.
Unless the idea is they think the homebrew tool requires a dev to use and they think all their customers are devs capable of doing so. However, I doubt that's what they think as they stated it couldn't be released as intended without pulling devs. Very few other features/content published or otherwise gets released 100% in working condition here. Again I don't know why UA had to be especially as it's temporary content.
What would have not disappointed me so much would have been, we will release it using the available tools (what they are now asking us to do) but we won't be committing dev resources to build new systems. This would have accomplished the same goal for them - freeing up dev resources while also giving us semi functional UA (lots of UA has been semi functional anyway).
How to get your dice to look like the ones in my profile picture and a full site dark mode.
Tutorial thread by Hyrkali
Then you get this really grey area of where if you do not develop anything new for UA specifically, you might only get to implement 20% of what gets released as UA, and if you develop only something quick and easy it becomes a judgment call to be second-guessed as much as the current decision. It'd very likely still cause disappointment, over something (whatever WotC decides to pull out of a hat next) DDB has no control over.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
So pay to homebrew UA with a community?
Bolding the presumption that sails passed the reality check. D&D Beyond is dropping future support of UA because managing it had become untenable. The number of actual staff working on implementing UA in the past I'm pretty sure is dwarfed by your proposed subscription community (again, basically pay to.home brewers), and you expect D&D Beyond to task managerial oversight to it (when freeing up D&D Beyond's in house resources is clearly an aspect of this move)?
Leveraging a user base, I think that's what you mean by creative populace, would create an advantage hitherto unknown by its past in house UA support ... support which their own in house analysis determines wasn't really worth continuing in order to maintain their present position and growth?
I don't really understand what you're saying here other than sharing the claim you own a coffee franchise (or maybe an independent shop). Plenty of TTRPG communities develop fan/community content ... Is D&D Beyond Starbucks, free coffee, or your franchise? I really don't know what you're getting at here.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
That's homebrew. Which you can already do, including making public for the entire community, albeit within the limitations of the available tools if you want it functionally implemented. If you just want to create content and make that available in a text format, players and DMs have been doing that since day 1.
If you're thinking of having the community homebrew UA content and publishing it, that latter step is a no-go. Not because of anything DDB decides, but because WotC won't allow it (to protect their IP).
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
True but we weren't getting all of the UA implemented anyway. Now we get nothing. Even if they took the route of things that mechanically aren't possible with their current tools they just filled in the text in the homebrew tool it would have been better. If we can do it, as per their suggestion, it would have been nice for them to at least offer that.
I never expected them to implement everything (even their original commitment didn't include everything). Yes, it would still be disappointing but not as disappointing in my view - other people probably disagree with that. I know you threw out the 20% as an example but I feel a larger portion of the UA can be homebrewed, at least partially, than that. Heck even the multiclass subclasses the majority could be homebrewed if you give it the same treatment they do for feats - making multiple feats for 1 feat - or in the this case multiple subclasses for each subclass. Best as possible would have been nice.
To play devils advocate the only reason I would really accept for it to have to work 100% as intended is if it was screwing with WotC surveys and they were getting, by far and large, non-sense feedback because of the way Dndbeyond was implementing it. However, if that was the reasoning I assume (probably incorrectly) they would tell us that. This would also imply that the Dndbeyond community was one of the largest contributors to the feedback process otherwise it would be easy to filter out the few. This being a hypothetical though I still stick to my statement of wishing they would have at least done what they are now asking us to do.
I'll also say that most all of their decisions on what to work on lead to someone being disappointed. This includes other work that definitely requires developers that don't have a direct impact on revenue/sales ex. containers, dark mode etc. (as highly requested as those features are) It's hard to please everyone especially when there's millions of us.
How to get your dice to look like the ones in my profile picture and a full site dark mode.
Tutorial thread by Hyrkali