D&D 5E (2024) D&D Beyond's Development Roadmap Is A Complete Rebuild Of Platform

D&D Beyond has announced its roadmap for the future, including features in active development and those planned for later down the line. These include a full rebuild of the game platform's engine, a new character builder, tools for Dungeon Masters, and more.

Over the past few months, we’ve launched a new homepage, a revamped and more sortable content library, image reveals in the Maps VTT to help DMs immerse their players more easily, and several other quality-of-life improvements.

2026 is a year of refocusing and rebuilding D&D Beyond to make it easier to play D&D your way. Three major initiatives will drive most of our work:

• Rebuilding D&D Beyond’s Game Platform
• Improving Player Onboarding and Revamping the Character Builder Experience
• Launching a Suite of Dungeon Master Tools

 

[Dire Bare]

Again though, wotc stewarded D&D is one of the only games that completely reinvents itself every release, software don't do it as a rule, scholarly books don't go with totally new information or rewrites from the ground up.

Not quite.

Certainly, the shift from the white box to AD&D, then 2E to 3E, then to 4E, then to 5E created almost entirely different games.

But there was an incremental series of revisions between the white box and the Rules Cyclopedia. All mostly compatible.

The transition from AD&D 1E to 2E was significant, but the games remained largely compatible.

AD&D 2E's revision didn't change much . . . except for the terribly ugly logo and trade dress of the new books . . .

Folks argue about it, but the shift from 3.0 to 3.5 was minor and the two games were mostly compatible. Same with the shift from 5.0 to 5.5.

Every change to the D&D rules . . . was either big or small. We've seen both throughout the history of the game. And of course, it all started with TSR, long before WotC took over.

 

[Clint_L]

5e in 2015 was already measurably different from 5e in 2014, if you worry too much about the details.

Back in the day we were forever adding homebrew, stuff from Dragon Magazine and other sources, different options from the official books, etc. I agree that a lot of the arguments come from us all wanting to stan for our favourite iteration of an ever-evolving game.

For me the litmus tests are: A) can I easily keep using all my old stuff? (yes) and B) did my players have any trouble adapting to or even notice the differences? (no).