D&D 5E D&D Beyond No Longer Supporting Unearthed Arcana

Announced on their livestream Dev Update, D&D Beyond will be refocusing development on new features and content, citing an inability to keep up with Unearned Arcana in a timely fashion.

We at D&D Beyond regret to inform you that we will no longer be supporting Unearthed Arcana content on our platform.

While we have loved giving users the opportunity to use new Unearthed Arcana playtest material offered by Wizards of the Coast on D&D Beyond, there are a multitude of factors that have made it difficult for us to do so in a way that presents the content the way it was intended, and in a timely way that does not divert our development resources.

[News] The Future of Unearthed Arcana & DDB - News & Announcements - D&D Beyond General - D&D Beyond Forums - D&D Beyond

We at D&D Beyond regret to inform you that we will no longer be supporting Unearthed Arcana content on our platform. While we have loved giving use...

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[Garthanos]

b) I use a ton of homebrew which D&D Beyond doesn't support.

For me that is a rather vital component

 

[TwoSix]

For me that is a rather vital component

Same. I looked into it, but once I saw it didn't support homebrew design, I dropped it.

 

[Garthanos]

Same. I looked into it, but once I saw it didn't support homebrew design, I dropped it.

The 4e offline Character builder didnt get to be an awesome tool for me until a third party enabled me to put my custom content into it.

I have been considering building a gui for that so that others less technical might enjoy it and allow sharing of your custom ideas too.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I was just making a joke at my own expense. You see, when I first started buying products at D&DBeyond, I was incredibly confused because I couldn't find the option to download the PDF of what I bought.

Ah, I see. Yeah. I don't really get the appeal of PDFs compared to the format of a database that includes all the content I own, but yeah a lot of folks were confused by that.

I think the evidence points to them doing a half-assed job, you're absolutely correct that I'm insulting them. That doesn't bother me in the slightest. People do half-assed jobs all the time! That's just life. Screwing something up doesn't make them bad people.

Fortunately, I never bothered to pay for D&D Beyond because
a) 5e character creation is pretty simple
b) I use a ton of homebrew which D&D Beyond doesn't support.

DnD Beyond supports literally everything but homebrew full classes. Every one of the PCs I run the game for has homebrew items, feats, spells, often races and subclasses.

Heh. We have very different experiences in the industry, then.

Or very different outlooks toward other people.

Oh, I know for a fact there are. But I'm perfectly aware of being a just-competent-enough coaster whose primary skill is knowing what project to get on to avoid actual problems.

Why do you think I identified D&D Beyond as being a problem so quickly? Game recognizes game.

It isn't a problem, though.

For me that is a rather vital component

Me too. That's why I use DDB.

Same. I looked into it, but once I saw it didn't support homebrew design, I dropped it.

I adopted pretty early and I can't recall it ever not supporting homebrew design.

 

[TwoSix]

I adopted pretty early and I can't recall it ever not supporting homebrew design.

If it doesn't support homebrew classes, that's not good enough to pay for.

 

[Oofta]

If it doesn't support homebrew classes, that's not good enough to pay for.

If you're creating classes from scratch you are a tiny market niche for a niche application.

I find DndBeyond incredibly useful and PC maintenance is just one piece. To each their own.

 

[TwoSix]

If you're creating classes from scratch you are a tiny market niche for a niche application.

I find DndBeyond incredibly useful and PC maintenance is just one piece. To each their own.

Fortunately, I've never asserted my preferences as anything other than my own.

 

[Bolares]

I don't really get the appeal of PDFs compared to the format of a database that includes all the content I own, but yeah a lot of folks were confused by that.

yeah, when the service was just starting I was on the complain train about the lack of PDF's, but damn, DDB is great as a database.

 

[Dausuul]

I'm not surprised they quit supporting UA. A week's notice to turn those things around is a rough deadline to hit, and it's not like they were getting paid for it.

That said... you can get a (small, dim) window into the underlying structure of D&D Beyond by using their homebrew content creator, which lets you get a sense of how they are representing all this stuff behind the scenes. Monsters aren't too bad, but races, feats, and subclasses are a hideous mess. It's very clear that they just kept bolting on new options as the need arose, without ever stepping back to consider the larger design. Sometimes I think I can actually hear it screaming "Refactor me! For the love of God, refactor me!"

This does not mean the DDB developers were or are bad at their jobs. They could not possibly have accounted for all the interactions when they were building the data layer, and the market won't wait around for you to design the perfect product. Comes a point when you've just got to slap duct tape on the broken bits and ship the damn thing. Technical debt is like financial debt; you often need to take on a bunch of it to get a project off the ground.

But if you don't pay down your tech debt eventually, the interest will slowly crush you. And I think that's happening to DDB. So many of their features remain in a half-assed state, years after release, while new half-assed features get cranked out.

 

[CleverNickName]

Well that is a surprising turn of events.

But I think DDB still has all of the tools necessary for adding your own house rules and custom content. (Correct me if I'm wrong.) It's a little more work to set up, but at least people who currently use the UA content (or plan to do so in the future) will have a work-around.

EDIT: What @Dausuul said.