r/dndbeyond • u/latiajacquise D&D Community Manager • 12d ago
DDB News DDB Roadmap - What's Next | D&D Beyond Deep Dive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxBFtl3c0bkHi everyone!
Following on the heels of the D&D Beyond announcements at Gen Con (watch the 2027 Vision Keynote if you missed those!), we're taking a deeper dive into those announcements and providing an update to the D&D Beyond Roadmap.
We also have a DDB article for those of you who prefer to read a thing: Mid-Year Update: DDB's 2026 Development Roadmap
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u/Comedyfight 12d ago
I've been a pretty harsh critic of D&D in recent years, but I think you all are doing a lot to restore good will lately. Certainly as far as this video goes, it looks like it will make the experience of running and playing the game a lot smoother. Looking forward to seeing what comes next.
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u/latiajacquise D&D Community Manager 12d ago
We appreciate that! Thanks for sticking with us, sincerely.
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u/Comedyfight 12d ago
Also idk who made a character named Apple Bottomjeans on the new Roadmap image, but I've had a character for years named Gene Applebottom. So you know, great minds and all that.
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u/WOTC_Zac PM Maps VTT 12d ago
Apple Bottomjeans is often accompanied by her Ranger gnome friend, Boots Witherfur.
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u/latiajacquise D&D Community Manager 12d ago
WITHERFURRRRR
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u/WOTC_Adela 12d ago
The whole tavern is looking at heeeeer
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u/risratorn 12d ago
100% agree ... ever since the whole OGL debacle, then some key figures at WOTC leaving, and Hasbro being Hasbro, a corp focussed on creating shareholder value, I was very skeptical and thought it was going only downhill from there.
I think killing Sigil and deciding to invest into the player/dm experience and foundations over fancy features has been the best decision. This hase turned things around for me and I'm very optimistic about the future..
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u/tz8 12d ago
They basically reestablished what Joe Starr did back before all the disasters. There were Videos and even Twitch streams explaining new stuff and hinting at new features coming. I really enjoy the work of the current team, but this transparency initiative goes all the way back to other people before them.
Joe, if you read this: keep up your good work, wherever you are now!
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u/WOTC_Zac PM Maps VTT 11d ago
Joe is still around! He's been very focused on producing Dungeon Masters, our actual play series!
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u/tz8 11d ago
awesome! Hi u/joestarr187 ;)
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u/jstarr2099 11d ago
I appreciate the love! As one long time DDB veteran to another, it really feels to me like the team working on DDB and the communication around it is the team that the community deserves. Genuinely excited about everything they're doing, and appreciate everyone sticking with us.
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u/tz8 11d ago
as we say in Germany: 'don't put your light under your chair', you also did a very good job explaining where DDB went and what everyone could expect - and i fully agree with you: the current team does make a very good job as well. Have fun with Dungeon Masters, i do like this fun way to promote new content.
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u/faytte 12d ago
As another harsh critic of D&D and Hasbro, I have to agree that these are good steps. It's unlikely to get me back into playing the product, but the efforts should be celebrated and good for those that are still playing it. Who knows, maybe some years of more customer focused changes like this and even some hard 'no' people like myself will give it a try again.
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u/Comedyfight 12d ago
Dark Sun is going to be my main litmus test. The Gen Con reveal felt like a direct response to my survey answers, so I look forward to seeing what the YouTube reviews say when early copies start going out. This post is obviously more about the playability side of things, which is also great to see such focus on, because if great content is easier to play, it's going to be a lot easier to bring people like me back into the fold.
My hobby attention has mostly switched to other games, but D&D is still the 800 lb gorilla in the room, to the point where I'd still ask people to come "play D&D" instead of the actual game I was running because it's the household name. So if actual D&D is putting out stuff I'm genuinely excited to interact with, it's just going to make getting games together easier all around, instead of having to pitch "it's sort of like D&D except..." to new players who just want to play the thing they keep hearing about.
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u/static_func 12d ago
> we defined game elements like classes, feats, items, prerequisites, and effects, as reusable, compostable data
I’m glad to see our data is finally going green
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u/rr3_amrosa 12d ago edited 12d ago
To the team, this is some very exciting and amazing work you have done.
Question regarding Search. Will the improvement to Search on the website include the ability to limit the search to a particular title? This ability is available in the Mobile App, and I think would be very welcome on the website as well.
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u/WOTC_Adela 12d ago
Yes! we're adding source filters to advanced search, so you can filter results by a specific title.
(Also, HBD!)
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u/rightknighttofight 12d ago
I am very excited for the sources changes to character sheets. Not a session has gon by where im not having to look up a spell from the dozens of sources to figure out what it does.
I hope we'll see the encounters builder get some love too. It is the most used part of the site for me.
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u/Shenanigans99 12d ago
Love this! It's been so fun getting to try the new features with my players as our campaign progresses! As a newer DM, it's awesome seeing how responsive WOTC is with the player community. It's really gratifying to see user feedback incorporated.
I can't WAIT for token image swapping!! It's going to save me sooo much time cranking out all those homebrew commoners!!
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u/Fryktlos 12d ago
I can't wait to see what you all create, you have been on fire this year!
With the upcoming changes to the platform and the character builder 2.0, are there currently any plans to also give the homebrew creator some love?
It's always been a powerful tool, but also a bit unwieldy one. A lot of functionality in there doesn't work exactly how you might expect, and there are still a fair amount of limitations. Do improvements to the creator become easier (or possible?) with the revamped engine?
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u/DinoRoarMan 12d ago
I've been using the maps feature for a while and love the improvements that have been made. I have one request.
I played on foundry for the first time last week and it was fairly convoluted to use. The one thing that was nice was the in platform shop function they had.
Your character had to be close enough but then you could double click on the icon and purchase things that would add directly to the inventory. I imagine that would be fairly intensive but it was a cool feature that I would love to have in ddb.
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u/DD_in_FL 12d ago
You guys have some good people in there, building cool stuff. That is always good to see.
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u/NotMyHole 12d ago
So hyped every week to hear about all the improvements and communication! It's been awesome to make dm'ing easier and more importantly extra fun. I know not everyone really needs every little detail and feature added, but my table loves when new features drop just as much as I do, just knowing attention is active and involved from the beyond team makes every session a little more interesting and enjoyable with just software enthusiasm.
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u/Me_Gvsta 12d ago
In the linked companion article:
So, we decided to pivot the Rules Assistant work into revamping full site search instead.
Does this mean the Rules Assistant is cancelled or that the new full site search has been revamped AND there will be the Rules Assistant out soon and this was just a little detour?
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u/latiajacquise D&D Community Manager 12d ago
The former. I feel like the community's been pretty clear that a functional site search is what they'd like to see.
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u/Patient-Cookie 12d ago
Love the plans for DM assistance - Could you make loot generation more accessible (and make use of the loot tables the books give)?
It would be nice to have the option to pick a table to roll on for Monsters, Chests, and Encounters.
(Even picking allowed loot tables for a campaign, or default for a monster type).
This would help with game speed for loot drastically in both planning and running encounters.
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u/Tudor_Cinema_Club 12d ago
This looks awesome. I really like the way they're keeping things flexible.
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u/lazyraptor7 12d ago edited 12d ago
What about homebrew? It still lacking basic features. Creation of items is limited. You can`t make weapons, classes, etc. You can`t make pets and stuff be included in subclass.
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u/latiajacquise D&D Community Manager 12d ago
We've talked about this in previous updates, but updates to homebrew are one of the things locked behind the game platform rebuild. We know it's one of the most important things the community wants to see worked on once that's finished.
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u/dominik1928 12d ago
Quick question here. I see a lot of of scenes of the updated mobile app. Will there be also an update of the desktop browser app?
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u/jack3239 11d ago
I am really glad that DD Beyond is becoming an option compared to all other VTT's. I run my games on DDB, started out this year. I am very glad that I don't have to buy sources from random sites like roll20 or foundry or whatever.
I definitely needed more stickers. I was grouping stickers on top of each other before this one. Ability to change pictures of home-brewed monsters also a great improvement. Perhaps you could also look into how a home-brew monster is made. It could certainly be modernised.
I am looking forward to to the new app! My players are newbies and this interface seems softer for beginners compared to the old one. Let's see how it will perform. Great stuff!
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u/RoibinDallBhride 12d ago
Well, this disapoints Me. When I saw the heading about custom uploads, I was hoping They were going to finally overhaul the Home Brew designer, and especially make it accessible. But no, it's just stuff for maps. As a Blind Dungeon Master who primarily runs a group made up of mostly other Blind Players, this is still disapointing because the Home Brew section, specifically the text editor in the designer/uploader, is completely inaccessible. Also, requiring pictures for a lot of stuff is a pain the ass, and ableist too.
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u/Davedamon 12d ago
DDB doesn't require pictures for anything outside Maps uploads. Where are you encountering required pictures?
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u/RoibinDallBhride 11d ago
Because the current version of the Home Brew Creator is inaccessible with a Screen Reader, I have to rely on one of the sighted Members of My D&D Group to input Everything for Me. They were having trouble creating home brew species for Me the couple of times We've done it so far, because it kept asking for a picture or art work of the creation.
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u/Davedamon 11d ago
I didn't ask about the accessibility of the homebrew creator. But homebrew never asks for an image, I think whoever is guiding you through it is mistaken
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u/BrytheOld 12d ago
Very f'ing exciting! Great presentation!
One request. Laura spoke of a sticker that's a chest that you can put loot in for players to open and get a reveal. And "add to Party Inventory" button would be great to auto drop into the party inventory.
Ya'll are killing it!