Welcome, far traveler! D&D Beyond is an official digital toolset for fifth-edition Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the bestselling tabletop roleplaying game. You can use D&D Beyond to access the 2024 D&D Free Rules of the game, create characters for free, and more. Our marketplace has digitized versions of the official sourcebooks and adventures for D&D. These add additional character creation options and material you can use to play the game.
To get started, create a free account by clicking below:
- What is D&D?
- D&D Beyond Makes Playing Easier
- For Players: How to Create a Character
- For Dungeon Masters: How to Create a Campaign
Play With D&D's New Rules Today!
The 2024 D&D Free Rules allow you to create and play characters using the new core ruleset with updated, streamlined, and revised rules. These rules are free to access on D&D Beyond, and can be used in D&D Beyond's Character Builder with a free account, so sign up today to start building your new character!
If you want access to the full character building potential offered by the new 2024 Core Rulebooks, the 2024 Player's Handbook contains 12 classes, 4 subclasses for each class, and all the feats, spells, species, and backgrounds you need to create your next adventurous hero!
What is D&D?
Dungeons & Dragons is a roleplaying game where you and your friends collaboratively tell a story of heroism and adventure. It can be played online or in person. In D&D, you'll play as either a player or as the Dungeon Master:
As a player, you will act as a character who fights monsters and overcomes challenges, such as sneaking through a cultist's lair undetected or keeping your ship afloat in a storm. You decide who your character is and how they respond to the world around them. Over time, your character will level up, unlocking new abilities.
As a Dungeon Master, you are the world and the non-player characters that surround and interact with the player characters. You guide the player characters through the story and pit them against monsters and other obstacles. You are the quest-giver, the torrential storm, and the dragon whose keep the player characters must destroy!
Playing the Game
Rolling dice is central to D&D. You might be familiar with your typical six-sided dice. But D&D also uses four-, eight-, 10-, 12-, and 20-sided dice!
As a player, you will roll these dice to determine your character's success in a variety of situations. You will roll dice when you attack monsters, dodge an explosion of fire, and even to see how well you perform in a dance competition! As a Dungeon Master, you will roll dice for similar reasons, except you play the part of the monsters and non-player characters. You will also be responsible for telling your players whether or not their characters succeed based on how well they roll.
D&D Beyond Makes Playing Easier
The D&D Beyond toolset makes it easy to play D&D. Players can use the free Character Builder that guides you through the character creation process. D&D Beyond stores your character sheet and calculates bonuses your character gets to attack monsters and make ability checks. You can track spells, organize equipment, and even roll dice all from your character sheet. Dungeon Masters will enjoy the encounter builder when planning combat and can see their players' character sheets all in one place.
Here are some of the features you'll enjoy with D&D Beyond:
- Character Builder
- Integrated dice rolling
- Access to the 2024 D&D Free Rules
- Free app for making mobile play easier
- Combat tracker to help you keep tabs on the action
- Monster encounter builder to Dungeon Masters plan challenging fights
Is D&D Beyond free?
Signing up is free and grants you access to the 2024 D&D Free Rules, which contains everything you need to start playing. You can store up to six characters with a free account. As you purchase sourcebooks and adventures from the marketplace, you will unlock material that can add new character building options, as well as monsters and content to run your game.
D&D Beyond has two paid subscription tiers: Hero and Master. Learn about the perks of these options by clicking here.
For Players: How to Create a Character
Creating characters in D&D Beyond is easy! The character builder walks you through the character creation process. Quick Build is a great option when making your first character — you will simply choose a species and class and enter a name for your character:
If you would like full control over the character creation process, choose the Standard option. This is best for players who have played D&D before. You can turn on Help Text to walk you through the process, however. Characters you create can be found on the My Characters page.
Finding a Group to Play D&D With
Once you have created a character, it's time to play! Because D&D is a multiplayer experience, you will need to find a group of players and a Dungeon Master to play with. You can ask friends or family members to join you on an adventure. You can create a campaign for your game to keep track of all of the players' character sheets. (More details on this below.)
The D&D Beyond Discord and the Looking for Players & Groups section of the D&D Beyond forums are also a great place to start. You will find friendly Dungeon Masters who are willing to help new players learn how to play. The Discord and forums also offer places for you to ask rules questions and just chat with other people who love D&D!
For Dungeon Masters: How to Create a Campaign
A campaign in D&D Beyond is a central hub for players in your game. You can create one with your free account and can include details on the adventure, store campaign notes, and review characters who will be part of your game. If you have a Master-tier subscription, you can enable content sharing, which unlocks for your players any content you have purchased in the marketplace.
To create a campaign, navigate to the My Campaigns page under Collections. Then, select Create a Campaign.
Inviting Players to Your Campaign
Once your campaign is created, click on the name of your campaign on the My Campaigns page. Near the top-right of your campaign's page, you will find an automatically generated URL. Share that URL with your players so that they can join your campaign. If your players have already created characters, they can choose a character to add to your campaign. If they haven’t created characters yet, they’ll have the option to create one and have it automatically added to your campaign.
Adding Notes to Your Campaign
On your campaign’s page, you can create both public and private Dungeon Master notes. Public notes are great for sharing campaign details or images with your players. Private notes are good for planning ahead, taking notes of consequential player character actions, and keeping tabs on your game.
Next Steps on D&D Beyond
The 2024 D&D Free Rules are a great way to get started playing Dungeons & Dragons. But if you're ready to learn more about the game, there are a few great books you can pick up.
For new players, the 2024 Player's Handbook is the first sourcebook you'll want to purchase. It includes information on the core races and classes of the game, in addition to spells, equipment, and all the rules you need to level up your play.
New Dungeon Masters will similarly want to snag a copy of the Player's Handbook, in addition to the Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual. The Dungeon Master's Guide contains rules and resources you can use to run your game. This includes information on magic items, building encounters, creating non-player characters, and more. The Monster Manual is a collection of creatures you can throw at your players. Your purchase of these sourcebooks on D&D Beyond unlocks the material for your account.
If you're a Dungeon Master who is looking for a good starter adventure, I recommend Intro to Stormwreck Isle, which you can access for free with your D&D Beyond account. This adventure leads into Dragons of Stormwreck Isle and is a great way to get your table familiar with the game. Dragon of Icespire Peak is available in the marketplace and is a similarly good adventure for new DMs.
D&D is a great way to spend time with friends and to meet new people. You'll traverse through endless worlds on your adventures as player characters or as the Dungeon Master. As you begin your journey into D&D, you will find a lively and kind community that is excited to share in the joy that the game offers. Welcome, and happy dice rolling!

Michael Galvis (@michaelgalvis) is a tabletop content producer for D&D Beyond. He is a longtime Dungeon Master who enjoys horror films and all things fantasy and sci-fi. When he isn’t in the DM’s seat or rolling dice as his anxious halfling sorcerer, he’s playing League of Legends and Magic: The Gathering with his husband. They live together in Los Angeles with their adorable dog, Quentin.
I just want to know, how do I join another's campaign????
DnD beyond is great, and i have a Master Monthly sub
I just miss two feature :
The Forge (popular foundry host) is partnering with DnDBeyond: https://forums.forge-vtt.com/t/d-d-beyond-integration/13331
So, DMs are still getting the short end of the stick.
As The DM for my Father's college buds(7 yrs old!) D&D, basic & expert the few source materials, then produced; my loyalty to tt absolute! Years later, adult DM hearing the advent of online material ( ed3 ) I went almost berserk! I have always been 3 main archetypes: Dungeon Master, Rogue Scholar, Psychic Environmental Terrorist! Invading the ETHER w' data *spit* along with formatting of ETHER in order to Manipulate/ Compress/ Transfer/ Compile...etc Abhorrent behavior generally, what else is new?
I submit; Damage done, time there is not: left to us now is the but to await the end! So, I have STARTED my 1st (our last) online campaign: "From 0 to HOLY RPG's"! *pomp&circumstance* . Challenges have not been advanced, yet the terrain is fraught with encounter upon encounter of " I'm far to important a detail to merely mitigate, for you must understand my origins to defeat me once and for all never hazarding another weary traveler as well as freeing me to join the band of yon ventures ungrained as yet!
Point being, much like this comment; I like it. Thank you for adding the color to our wonderous slip: The Spiral Darkly
All good but we want a VTT... Ooor some 3D environment where we can build a map, place 3D character models and let players see them in action against fearsome foes controlled by the DM-lich... Imagine being a 3D Eladrin Paladin (Ancients) / Warlock (Archfey) getting swarmed by CR 1 foes but Misty Stepping into melee to burn them with righteous fire!
I know that sounds like I want a videogame, but no, I want D&D with 3D models in a 3d environment that allows the DM and Players to alternate between top down view and FP view / 3P view.
hi
Yeah, this was really helpful! Thank you for writing it. I'm a fairly new player, but so far am enjoying everything I've done, and I'm also thinking of becoming a DM after a few more adventures (and a LOT more reading). And I think if I did become a DM, I would use a combination of physical DnD and DnD Beyond, or maybe more based off of what my players would like better. So far I'm seeing advantages and disadvantages to both ways of playing the game. I think DnD Beyond looks relatively easier to use, but I haven't even tried the physical version yet, so I can't really make a fair judgement without trying both. What are everyone else's opinions on the differences, pros and cons of both versions?
If it's not too late, all you have to do is have them send you the campaign link, then you can join with a character and you're all set.
Set up Avrae: Copy and paste links into a search bar on your browser to follow links.
You will need a Free Discord account. https://discord.com/
Invitation player to the Discord server with invite code.
You will also need a Free D&D beyond account. https://www.dndbeyond.com/
After getting those accounts set up you need to link them by going on Discord and clicking on your profile picture. It will show your user name followed by # and a few numbers. Copy the user name and numbers. Take this to your D&D beyond account. On the upper right corner click on your profile and then “account” in the drop-down that will pop up. Scroll down to Discord and click link account and paste in your Discord user name.
Create your character on D&D Beyond https://www.dndbeyond.com/
Invitation to D&D Beyond campaign with campaign URL
Link PC to Discord !beyond <URL>
DM codes for Avrae to link your campaign and players:
!campaign [campaign_link] Links a D&D Beyond campaign to this channel, displaying rolls made on players' character sheets in real-time.
!campaign list Lists all campaigns connected to this channel.
!beyond <url> Loads a character sheet from D&D Beyond, resetting all settings. Use the sharable link in character sheet settings.
Is it possible for me to pre-build characters for my players, and then transfer the character to them to play?
Can I use my own home brew content without publishing it publicly?
No support for Foundry yet, i have stopped my subscription.
Yes
hi we r new and we don't understand if there is a button or something to actually start a game
nope, it all starts with your DM. you wont be able to just find a game here to play. gotta have a DM that sets one up. and if you dont have a DM, i suggest picking up the Starter Kit, the PHB and Monster Manual and begin learning yourself. Best way to get started imo. I also suggest installing the AboveVTT plugin on Chrome as well. That way you can have a free virtual tabletop to play on top of dndbeyond with.
Any plans to buy/create anything along the lines of FantasyGrounds? We play there after creating characters in DnDbeyond and just transferring the info over. Having a functional digital playground would be fantastic, and I know our DM would buy in.
I put some info in my campaign (text and images) and the page looks good on a computer, but on a mobile app or webpage nobody can read the left part of the screen. Kind of hard to guess what the first few words of the left of every line says.
have your DM check out AboveVTT if you all are using DNDbeyond for character sheets and everything. Makes running a game a breeze
We really... really... REALLY need even the most basic of virtual tabletops here...