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...

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[cbwjm]

Is this a sign of impending doom for D&D Beyond?

I'd say it's the opposite. Less resource spent on UA means more resource spent on overall improvements of the system.

 

[lkj]

I keep waiting for them to finally reveal all this exciting news that seems to be related to their 'game space'. They've been hinting about it for a month or two. Of course, I've learned over the years that 'soon' for developers is on the 'months' not 'days or weeks' time frame.

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[Aarkvard]

So it was that darn Unearthed Arcana that has prevented them from doing the oft-requested "put inventory items in the bag of holding so they don't count against Encumbrance" feature FOR THE LAST 3 YEARS??!?

 

[Xotli]

... I'd be willing to bet you that most of those new players don't spend all that much time watching those advice channels. Again, most players are casual players. They're not scouring the Interwebs for every last bit of content they can find. They're playing with a few friends in the library. Hell, a lot of them are going to be little kids who have myriad hobbies that take up the rest of their free time.

Most of the players out there are not going to know who Matt Colville is. They'll have never seen Deborah Ann Woll outside of Daredevil or True Blood. They're not going to know who Satine Phoenix is. The name Dael Kingsmill won't mean a thing to them. But, sure, they'll all know who Matt Mercer is, because, well, he's Matt Mercer.

Sure, I agree that few players are going to be watching all the content. But I was just pointing out that if we accept that streaming is bringing in a majority of the new players, they have to be watching something. They can't all be watching Critical Role. Maybe some of them checked out Relics & Rarities because they knew DAW from her acting. Maybe some of them got exposed to B. Dave Walters because they play Idle Champions. Following any number of Twitch streamers (e.g. Jasmine Bhullar, Nathan Sharp, dozens of others) could have led them to D&D. So, no: the majority of the new players don't know any given one of those folks. But I bet the majority of them know at least one of them, even if we throw out Mercer.

Homebrew what, though? Again, I'm speaking very specifically about homebrew classes here. Has Colville released a homebrew class other than the Illrigger, which is commonly known as an overpowered class and which Colville himself has stated is not likely to appeal to the majority of tables and playstyles.

Not yet. But he did mention in the Q&A for Arcadia #6 that they're working on a second one, hopefully to be released before year's end ...

What do you think the level of experience was for the tiny team that put together the MVP for D&D Beyond? I'm not even sure if Adam Bradford himself had any sort of hand in designing that since, as far as I can tell from his LinkedIn profile, he isn't actually a software engineer (I think he had a short stint as a quality engineer at one point)? Curse wasn't even in the application development business — they primarily ran a bunch of video game websites and maintained a number of game fan communities. That's not to say that they couldn't possibly have a strong engineer who graduated from a "traditional" computer science or engineering background, but I'm not sure how likely that would be given that they weren't a massive business that might feel it pertinent to pay someone with that sort of background the salary that they would need to.

Wait, I thought your viewpoint was that they didn't start with a bad design ...

We're hiring.

Awesome! While I deeply suspect that the job I have now is the one I'll retire from, I would welcome a DM with a job listing, just to check out what's out there.

 

[jasper]

They...they can't keep up with a few pages of mechanics that comes out barely every 2-3 months...?

I'd hate to see how they keep up with anything if they can't manage that.

As a programmer I would pound my head against the desk but I quit doing that a decade ago when people talked about programming. They need advance notice. My shop has a two month turn around on new systems WHICH TOTALLY fit the laws, rules, best practices, and we have the data already. Four months if the government is making new laws. And we have people watching out for laws which will change our programming.

 

[jasper]

Oh anyone know what language they program in, and have their data dictionary.

• Expertise in a modern form of 1 or more of the following languages: Java, Python, Golang, Kotlin
• Designing and architecting scaled-up back-end systems (Kafka, MySQL, NoSQL, MongoDB, Neo4j), with expertise in both relational and nonrelational systems and when it is necessary to choose each one
• I know only ONE of these. But I an old Cobol dude.

 

[darjr]

I think their help wanted pages or Glassdoor might give some insight to what they use.

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

Sure, I agree that few players are going to be watching all the content. But I was just pointing out that if we accept that streaming is bringing in a majority of the new players, they have to be watching something. They can't all be watching Critical Role. Maybe some of them checked out Relics & Rarities because they knew DAW from her acting. Maybe some of them got exposed to B. Dave Walters because they play Idle Champions. Following any number of Twitch streamers (e.g. Jasmine Bhullar, Nathan Sharp, dozens of others) could have led them to D&D. So, no: the majority of the new players don't know any given one of those folks. But I bet the majority of them know at least one of them, even if we throw out Mercer.

You're definitely right about that. While Critical Role is the definitive gateway drug, not even close to everyone is watching it. But most of the people you're referring to aren't pumping out homebrew classes, which is what I'm entirely focused on here. Homebrewing something is uber common, but homebrewing entire classes is a whole different thing.

Not yet. But he did mention in the Q&A for Arcadia #6 that they're working on a second one, hopefully to be released before year's end ...

I almost cringe at what it could be given what he has already produced. LOL

Wait, I thought your viewpoint was that they didn't start with a bad design ...

Oh hell no. Even the developers that I talked to at PAX admitted that aspects of the design could have been done better and that the classes were too entangled in the core architecture to open up for people to play with. Adding Mercer's blood hunter was quite the endeavor for them.