For those who don’t know me, I’m Dan Ayoub. I’m no stranger to D&D, both professionally and personally. I previously worked with Wizards of the Coast on their digital products, and I’ve recently become the Head of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise.
I’ve also been playing D&D since I was twelve years old, when the Basic Set got me hooked. I know firsthand the power D&D has to ignite your imagination and foster friendships—I’ve been playing with the same group as when I started all those years ago.
I’m lucky enough that the game I love has shaped not only my friendships but my entire career. Every morning, I still have to pinch myself because I get to help guide the future of the game I’ve loved since the first roll.
I’m here to open a dialogue with you—the players, Dungeon Masters, live stream watchers, and storytellers. You’ve filled taverns with laughter, launched spells across the multiverse, and rolled death saving throws with anxious hearts.
Dungeons & Dragons belongs to you, and we’re putting it back where it belongs: at your table.
- A System That Belongs to You
- A Stronger SRD, Step by Step
- Run Your D&D Beyond Content on Maps—No Subscription Required
- From the Community, For the Community

A System That Belongs to You
The new Core Rulebooks were shaped by ten years of community play, feedback, and love for fifth edition.
This upgrade doesn’t replace the previous rules; it enhances them. It makes this beloved system more player-friendly, better to create content for, and evolve rather than replace the fifth edition books you already own.
A Stronger SRD, Step by Step
Alongside the content provided in the new Core Rulebooks, we’re updating the System Reference Document (SRD) on a rolling basis.
We’re committing to long-term access and support of this resource through the errata process. This ensures the SRD will remain up to date with the latest standards and mechanics for creators to use in their works.
Run Your D&D Beyond Content on Maps—No Subscription Required
Starting September 16, in time with the release of Heroes of the Borderlands, all D&D Beyond registered users can run games on the Maps virtual tabletop (VTT) —no subscription required.
The core experience will be made available to everyone: If you own a map, module, or adventure on D&D Beyond, you can use it on Maps and invite your friends to play. Period.
Our Master Tier subscription will unlock more customizability for DMs who need it. You’ll be able to upload homebrew maps, custom tokens, and access exciting tools built just for you.
From the Community, For the Community
We’re laying the groundwork for a new initiative that will bring community voices directly into the room. Our goal is to create a rotating advisory group made up of creators, publishers, educators, and fans who can help us shape future tools, policies, and content in a real, ongoing way.
We’re still finalizing the structure and process, but our intention is clear: this isn’t a one-time survey or a PR move. It’s about building lasting collaboration with the people who make D&D what it is.
More details to come, but we are also developing a creator spotlighting program that will highlight third-party creations across our official channels. If you’re making something incredible, the world should see it.
At D&D, we understand that the community is the beating heart of the game we all love, and we want it to thrive so more people can experience adventures with their friends and family.
We’ve stumbled before. We’ve learned from it. And now, we’re committed to clearer communication, more transparency, and consistent support—for players, creators, and publishers.
This Is Just the Beginning
This new direction for Dungeons & Dragons is already underway. We’re here to earn your trust, not ask for it.
We're building a game that honors the past, listens in the present, and opens new doors for the future. Together.
We’re investing long-term in this game, this community, and the stories we collectively tell. That means better digital tools, more open development, and more content built alongside players.
We’ll see you at the table.
—Dan Ayoub, Head of the Dungeons & Dragons Franchise
It's all great, but could we have working invocations for warlock 2024 and non-reprinted extended rules (sculptor of flesh, eldritch sight, etc...)?
I'll believe a new leaf has been turned over when WotC honors previous promises such as putting older editions into the Creative Commons.
If you need help remembering that you said this WotC and have yet to deliver:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/community-update#AutumnCommunityUpdate <--- Community update post of them mentioning it. "Review Previous SRD Editions for Inclusion in Creative Commons: Before adding previous editions into Creative Commons, we need to review the materials in detail as it has been many years since their publication."
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1717-2024-core-rulebooks-to-expand-the-srd <--- Community update post where they state they have "made the decision to wait until after the 2024 rules revisions were released to begin reviews of those documents.
https://youtu.be/Z8-2yiFT2PU?si=B8PsA2jJzciJOPg5&t=962 <--- 16:06 in this video
https://youtu.be/smyRYVzB_jQ?si=Npc66_fV5J6OM9z_&t=366 <-- 6:06
https://youtu.be/JPHirlVGkKM?si=AhZ3hjya9VFwJQjR&t=1039 < --- 17:16
https://youtu.be/vk9FuEAz53M?si=x6WqaFJ-iqwxJvOr&t=847 < ---- 14:06
https://youtu.be/qRVkrWvqKTQ?si=W3arF-dnU3D_7-j4&t=2893 <--- 48:13
https://youtu.be/JPHirlVGkKM?si=daC5B_8WT1bVyX7c&t=1265 < --- 21:05 (for the mention of 4E and older editions)
Well met, Dan!
Good strategy, and happy to read that the map tool will be available for usage by more people. As a DM i love the tool and where its going. It has made our game sessions so much fun.
I know teaser announcement means nothing. I saw so many video game projects fallen before they can even show the overview of the game. Don't get cocky until you can ACTUALLY show something.
Rules. Maybe focus on that since that seems to be where you've failed with 2024. And the latest playtest material was embarrassingly bad. Surveys aren't going to be enough to save that hot mess. Maybe hire back some actual game designers.
And for anyone doubting that the 2024 Rules have been a failure, just go to Amazon. The 2014 PHB sold 900+ copies in the last 30 days. The 2024 PHB didn't even hit the 50+ mark. Ouch. Same with the bundle. The 2014 slipcase set was 400+, the 2024 bundle, again, didn't even hit the 50+ threshold despite being considerably cheaper. People still want to play 5e, just not the new version so much.
So ...a D&D-specific Roll20
and a focus on Streamers/ContentCreators
Got it.
And you will never get quality information from your player until you stop making hour long surveys that prevent meaningful data from being collected from exhausted fans who give up halfway through or make a mistake sending them back to the beginning of the survey for another hour of minutia-level banality.
The fans you received answers from are but a decimation of the assault upon our patience for specifics. This reduces your actual responses to "hurry up and click C for every non-first question in a set" or rage-quitting what could have been important data-plotting.
And you think we want to do a survey for 20 minutes?
That is the problem right there. We don't want to invest 20 minutes of answering 500 questions with one-word-changed each time. The boring minutia that is supposed to be avoided in the game becomes the very obstacle injected into he gatekeeping survey offered to change the game.
It's like saying "If you want to change the game to the simplicity of Hawaiian, please solve the historical and categorical differences in why "ough" is sounded out the way it is in the English word we are thinking of."
This banality should have been the antithesis of D&D and the very kids meant to be drawn in are being skirted away.
This sounds great, but I must confess the content reads and sounds like AI writing.
Can we get confirmation: did you use an LLM to help you write this letter to the community?
I would appreciate the first bit of transparency just on this message alone. My feelings and trust regarding D&D's future will ultimately hinge on this initial impression.
I love the new rules, but I don't want to see AI in D&D.
If the answer is no, then you don't care. Glad we settled this.
Coming fron a 35+ year DM, D&D starts and ends with good stories, the underdog winning the day. Stop being concerned with politically correct discourse and focus on story. I'm all about representation, but don't make the game just about equal rights commentary; make it about good stories and well-written adventures. If you're concerned about racial and other sensitivity, first remember these are not real world correlations and you should state that in your literature. Second, culture or kingdom should be the player character theme, not race or species. Any claims of racism or other agendas become moot.
Also, just write good adventures and make more source material with fair pricing. We eat that up and the slow drip the last 10 years from WOTC is incredibly annoying, that's why our creator community is so beloved, they make lots of content at reasonable rates. Finally, give us modular adventures again. Most of us don't want a giant campaign arc that is badly written and hard to follow. We want small, bulletin board adventures that PCs can go on and be done in a few sessions.
I envy you Dan, getting the reins to this wonderful game. Please don't waste this opportunity.
All the best!
To clarify, don't care ENOUGH TO DO THEIR JOB FOR THEM. Why should we?? Do we get a discount for doing the work they used to hire game designers to do??
The words are right,but they're currently still just words. Thanks for the roadmap of sorts, but WotC is in a real dire spot right now so I hope the whole "we're going to earn trust, not ask for it" bit is true. The follow-through will be critical here, especially since this comments section is already displaying all the bad blood earned from DDB's mishandling of the 2024 books. You guys are gonna have to build quite the ladder to climb out of the pit you're in, but I'll give that this is a reasonable first rung of the climb.
Only a few hundred more to go.
I'm definitely taking these words with a grain of salt when useful digital pre-order bonuses are locked behind "ULTIMATE" bundles.
I don't have room in my home to store a bunch of extra physical crap that I will never use as every game I currently play has participants from two or more countries and I also have no interest in trying to sell new physical DND content on a secondary market.
Not being able to sort owned content out of the marketplace makes trying to purchase new products annoying enough that I no longer try to stay on the cutting edge of available content.
If Maps content sharing will not be supported, my primary DMs have no incentive to switch to the Maps VTT. They have already left DNDB from what they consider breach of trust and will not be willing to put any money back into DNDB until that trust is rebuilt. No trust will be rebuilt if they are financially bound to the play systems they are currently using.
HOWEVER, with all that being said I'd consider myself cautiously optimistic that this is an excellent opportunity for the brand to reverse-course on some issues that have been very unpopular with the community. I'd love to see the D&D IP owners become a guiding light for the future of D&D again instead of the warning signal that moving forward in their direction will only lead to disaster.
I miss the half orc or elfs. I miss the kobold wear weak but had to make up for it via street smarts. I really dont care how the new 5.5 edition rules force you to take a background thst shape your ability scores vs take a background that dhape your story and place the ability scores were you want. I doubt i be playing in the current AL setting due to these changes cause folks got angry over half orcs or drow and their own inner prejudice
All of this sounds great. Hopefully its not just a bunch of empty promises.
o7. Awesome 👍
Here's the thing; there is zero way to engage the entire D&D community to canvas feedback on future products. It's literally impossible. The only thing you can do is canvas those who want to share their input. That still doesn't mean it's made "for" that small segment. It's just made with the input of that small segment.
But that's objectively better than with no input of the community at all.
Looking forward to the future of DnD, but have to inquire, when will we allowed to create works for the core settings that haven't been authorized, specifically Mystara, Dark Sun and Birthright?
Birthright would be especially attractive with the new bastion system considering it would give you a setting built around one of the mechanics that you've introduced in your new addition.
Dark sun has mature themes and a devoted fan base to put it mildly. You could market this is a more mature setting and target older players with more disposable income.
Mystara, aside from being the best setting D&D has ever had, was originally marketed outside the US far more than the other worlds. It's well known in Europe and Asia, specifically because of the real world parallels it does with the countries. Plus on the player's handbook you have the king and queen of Ierendi represented. So it's already tied to the New edition.
Wizards said that they were going to open up the guild to all the old settings but so far they've only done seven. Not representing the remaining three is just throwing away money as they would be manufactured entirely by third party content creators generating passive income for Wizards
Thank you,
From a very long time player like you starting with Basic D&D then AD&D I am very glad to read the direction D&D is now heading.