This is a bit disappointing, but understandable. If we look back at some complex UAs, like Class Feature Variants and Strixhaven subclasses, it would have taken a lot of development effort to support those, without knowing for sure if they would ever show up in print. If the DDB team implements something that never gets an official release, then it just gets archived and that's wasted development effort.
Given the backlog of officially published content that isn't fully supported today on DDB, not to mention the combat tracker and other great quality of life features that are being built, I'd rather see development efforts focused on those instead of temporarily supporting each UA as they come.
Absolutely pathetic. You're completely out of touch with your customers and what they desire from the platform. Implementation is the most important aspect of what you do yet the only teams you seem interested in supporting are the microtransaction/virtual dice teams. Careful, your greed is showing.
Huge shame, all my players really appreciated the UA content and having to make all that stuff via homebrew is going to eat up a lot of my time.
Homebrewing stuff can be very fulfilling. instead of doing UA stuff (which, btw, someone else will likely do it first), I prefer to come up with custom items to put in my campaigns.
I already do a ton of homebrew as it is. I don't have all of them on DDB yet but in my personal homebrew compendium I have over 30 subclasses, 5 classes (which we can't do here yet anyway), lots of errata, items, feats, backgrounds, etc. It's just more to add to my pile, and it's quite disappointing that now everyone will have to take time to do this if they want it versus handling it in a mass-use fashion.
Huge shame, all my players really appreciated the UA content and having to make all that stuff via homebrew is going to eat up a lot of my time.
But will it? Honestly making something like a Subclass via Homebrew takes a half hour. I don't really buy the "Development resources" argument, and I do have a background in web programming.and database management.
Huge shame, all my players really appreciated the UA content and having to make all that stuff via homebrew is going to eat up a lot of my time.
But will it? Honestly making something like a Subclass via Homebrew takes a half hour. I don't really buy the "Development resources" argument, and I do have a background in web programming.and database management.
Still, that's half an hour I could better spend creating my own content, prepping for the handful of campaigns I run, sleeping, etc. That's half an hour each individual person has to spend doing something over and over again, and clogging up storage space on the servers with multiple copies of, that could be handled much cleaner.
Absolutely pathetic. You're completely out of touch with your customers and what they desire from the platform. Implementation is the most important aspect of what you do yet the only teams you seem interested in supporting are the microtransaction/virtual dice teams. Careful, your greed is showing.
There is nothing wrong with greed. I am sick and tired of people sitting on their moral high horse talking down to companies as if companies owe them something. Companies got human mouths to feed and bills to pay too just like you and me, and they certainly do not need this kind of disrespect. The microtransactions and virtual dice that you so detest are additional revenue streams that help keeps the Beyond team fed so they can keep working on core features and functionality. If customers were not being such pennypinching cheapskates in the first place, the gaming industry as whole would not have been forced down this path. I know because I am one of those pennypinching cheapskates; besides a small handful of items, 99% of the stuff I have on here were bought on sale or with discount codes.
I do not like the fact that they no longer support UA, and I am quite frankly disappointed by it. As much as I like UA and I want it to have the same priority as published material, for the community as a whole, it is best that Beyond drop UA and focus on implementing official publications as that is what matters most.
Not only can D&D already be played completely for free, Beyond even lets people who have financial difficulties to use their digital tools completely for free too. Beyond even went through the trouble of implementing UA as much as they can for the past several years, even though they get no financial compensation out of it. You want people to work for your benefit but you do not want to pay them for it? Who is the greedy one here?
As someone who's played since 3.5, I feel like the lack of keeping up with additional content is honestly gonna kill the appeal of using this site to me. I get people can still make homebrewed content, and hopefully authors of 3rd party content may add to this site (Hopefully), but I honestly can't think of anything more important than keeping up Mechanical Innovations to the game and the builds that those additions with constitute.
I get it. It sucks but I get it. I just wish the homebrew versions of UA could be released publicly since not everyone has the time or patience for the homebrew tool. I understand why officially released content is locked but UA seems...weird not to allow for public release since it's unofficial content. I guess the concern is that it will eventually become official content right? Or maybe it doesn't matter since I've seen some dirt old UA floating around publicly. I don't know...I'm not happy about it but I do understand it.
If this gets us Actions attached to Magic Items faster, I’m okay with it. The better the content creation platform is, the likely they will be to bring UA support back some day.
This will heavily impact future campaigns, but very little on my current one. I certainly can understand why though.
It won't though. If some UA gets officially published, dndb will make it here (obviously), and if you have a player who really wants to try some UA, they can make it themselves.
I completely understand and agree with the decision to focus resources, thanks for being so direct and transparent with us all!
My only concern is with your suggestion that almost every single player or DM who wants to use UA will have to recreate it themselves as homebrew. Sure, we can share with others in our campaigns, but I reckon most UA will only be used by a single player per campaign--especially subclasses.
I understand there is a concern with publishing someone else's work as your own, but we still are going to have a more severe unmet User Need here:
"As a DnDBeyond gamer, I want to be able to share material I haven't authored, but did enter into DnDBeyond, such as UA and other unofficial sources."
Might I suggest two potential Feature options to solve this:
A) attribution of content to someone else (ideally with link to original source), to properly recognise their authorship even when a user has otherwise entered it into the homebrew system. This might allow UA to be published by end users (as UGC) instead of forcing us to keep it private and each have to recreate it
B) private sharing of unpublished homebrew content, e.g. by direct links. This might allow end users to share homebrewed UA without publishing it.
Both have merit, and I'm especially keen on the first as a way to improve attribution, but of course I'm sure your tech stack will be a major factor in options.
Please make an extension of the Homebrew area so users can recreate the UA content we all love so much, without putting undue strain on DDB staff. Forcing every DM to recreate every UA they want to use in DDB will be incredibly taxing. A large draw of DDB is the amount of effort it saves DMs and Players alike, and leaving us with no way to publicly recreate UA content flies in the face of that.
This is a bit disappointing, but understandable. If we look back at some complex UAs, like Class Feature Variants and Strixhaven subclasses, it would have taken a lot of development effort to support those, without knowing for sure if they would ever show up in print. If the DDB team implements something that never gets an official release, then it just gets archived and that's wasted development effort.
Given the backlog of officially published content that isn't fully supported today on DDB, not to mention the combat tracker and other great quality of life features that are being built, I'd rather see development efforts focused on those instead of temporarily supporting each UA as they come.
I get it. We still love the pasta outta you guys! <3
Absolutely pathetic. You're completely out of touch with your customers and what they desire from the platform. Implementation is the most important aspect of what you do yet the only teams you seem interested in supporting are the microtransaction/virtual dice teams. Careful, your greed is showing.
I already do a ton of homebrew as it is. I don't have all of them on DDB yet but in my personal homebrew compendium I have over 30 subclasses, 5 classes (which we can't do here yet anyway), lots of errata, items, feats, backgrounds, etc. It's just more to add to my pile, and it's quite disappointing that now everyone will have to take time to do this if they want it versus handling it in a mass-use fashion.
But will it? Honestly making something like a Subclass via Homebrew takes a half hour. I don't really buy the "Development resources" argument, and I do have a background in web programming.and database management.
I’ve done that with many UAs, you should see my vault.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Still, that's half an hour I could better spend creating my own content, prepping for the handful of campaigns I run, sleeping, etc. That's half an hour each individual person has to spend doing something over and over again, and clogging up storage space on the servers with multiple copies of, that could be handled much cleaner.
I’m fine with this but then the D&D Beyond team is clearly pushing but can we get back important/useful functionality?
How is this subscription shortcut useful? I get that you guys want more money, but for people who are subbed this is pointless.
There is nothing wrong with greed. I am sick and tired of people sitting on their moral high horse talking down to companies as if companies owe them something. Companies got human mouths to feed and bills to pay too just like you and me, and they certainly do not need this kind of disrespect. The microtransactions and virtual dice that you so detest are additional revenue streams that help keeps the Beyond team fed so they can keep working on core features and functionality. If customers were not being such pennypinching cheapskates in the first place, the gaming industry as whole would not have been forced down this path. I know because I am one of those pennypinching cheapskates; besides a small handful of items, 99% of the stuff I have on here were bought on sale or with discount codes.
I do not like the fact that they no longer support UA, and I am quite frankly disappointed by it. As much as I like UA and I want it to have the same priority as published material, for the community as a whole, it is best that Beyond drop UA and focus on implementing official publications as that is what matters most.
Not only can D&D already be played completely for free, Beyond even lets people who have financial difficulties to use their digital tools completely for free too. Beyond even went through the trouble of implementing UA as much as they can for the past several years, even though they get no financial compensation out of it. You want people to work for your benefit but you do not want to pay them for it? Who is the greedy one here?
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As someone who's played since 3.5, I feel like the lack of keeping up with additional content is honestly gonna kill the appeal of using this site to me. I get people can still make homebrewed content, and hopefully authors of 3rd party content may add to this site (Hopefully), but I honestly can't think of anything more important than keeping up Mechanical Innovations to the game and the builds that those additions with constitute.
I get it. It sucks but I get it. I just wish the homebrew versions of UA could be released publicly since not everyone has the time or patience for the homebrew tool. I understand why officially released content is locked but UA seems...weird not to allow for public release since it's unofficial content. I guess the concern is that it will eventually become official content right? Or maybe it doesn't matter since I've seen some dirt old UA floating around publicly. I don't know...I'm not happy about it but I do understand it.
On another note Character Folders...please...
I wonder why they don’t have a “vault” of unpublished UA that we can access? Some of it was fun playtest content…
Dungeon Master - Content Creator - Software Engineer - Fitness Enthusiast
If this gets us Actions attached to Magic Items faster, I’m okay with it. The better the content creation platform is, the likely they will be to bring UA support back some day.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
WotC requires it be removed from the platform
This will heavily impact future campaigns, but very little on my current one. I certainly can understand why though.
It won't though. If some UA gets officially published, dndb will make it here (obviously), and if you have a player who really wants to try some UA, they can make it themselves.
I completely understand and agree with the decision to focus resources, thanks for being so direct and transparent with us all!
My only concern is with your suggestion that almost every single player or DM who wants to use UA will have to recreate it themselves as homebrew. Sure, we can share with others in our campaigns, but I reckon most UA will only be used by a single player per campaign--especially subclasses.
I understand there is a concern with publishing someone else's work as your own, but we still are going to have a more severe unmet User Need here:
"As a DnDBeyond gamer, I want to be able to share material I haven't authored, but did enter into DnDBeyond, such as UA and other unofficial sources."
Might I suggest two potential Feature options to solve this:
A) attribution of content to someone else (ideally with link to original source), to properly recognise their authorship even when a user has otherwise entered it into the homebrew system. This might allow UA to be published by end users (as UGC) instead of forcing us to keep it private and each have to recreate it
B) private sharing of unpublished homebrew content, e.g. by direct links. This might allow end users to share homebrewed UA without publishing it.
Both have merit, and I'm especially keen on the first as a way to improve attribution, but of course I'm sure your tech stack will be a major factor in options.
Thanks for listening and considering the above.
May the community support you and help lighten the load with homebrew versions of UA material. Totally understandable.
Please make an extension of the Homebrew area so users can recreate the UA content we all love so much, without putting undue strain on DDB staff. Forcing every DM to recreate every UA they want to use in DDB will be incredibly taxing. A large draw of DDB is the amount of effort it saves DMs and Players alike, and leaving us with no way to publicly recreate UA content flies in the face of that.
Why not leave current UA alone and still available and just not add any further UA?