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

 

[GarrettKP]

The look at the new character builder alone is enough to get me hyped. It looks fantastic!

 

[mearls]

I've been so happy using Maps as my VTT. The existing scripting for homebrew is great, and excited to see things getting better.

 

[darjr]

I've been so happy using Maps as my VTT. The existing scripting for homebrew is great, and excited to see things getting better.

The rules as data and not hard logic seems really promising. I wonder if that is part of an effort to better support things like Adventurers in Middle Earth? Or other games?

 

[Zaukrie]

The rules as data and not hard logic seems really promising. I wonder if that is part of an effort to better support things like Adventurers in Middle Earth? Or other games?

They can't even implement so their own rules. So it's partly that. It's also just awful development to do what they did, and they know new stuff will come.... That they likely can't implement, at least not easily.

 

[darjr]

Also there will be an AMA.

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[mearls]

They can't even implement so their own rules. So it's partly that. It's also just awful development to do what they did, and they know new stuff will come.... That they likely can't implement, at least not easily.

FWIW, the original D&D Beyond site was cobbled together as a demo. When WotC greenlit it, the team never had time to go back and build out a code base that was better for supporting a living game. I believe a lot of functionality is hard coded, so adding stuff is a nightmare. The new approach will hopefully fix that.

@darjr - Regarding other games, it would be fantastic if they did that. I like that Maps just gets out of the way. A simple interface to track die rolls and script some basic tests (roll X d20s, report the lowest roll, for instance) would be cool. I already do all my playtesting on Maps. Having a die log is very useful for looking at how mechanics play out.

 

[Zaukrie]

FWIW, the original D&D Beyond site was cobbled together as a demo. When WotC greenlit it, the team never had time to go back and build out a code base that was better for supporting a living game. I believe a lot of functionality is hard coded, so adding stuff is a nightmare. The new approach will hopefully fix that.

@darjr - Regarding other games, it would be fantastic if they did that. I like that Maps just gets out of the way. A simple interface to track die rolls and script some basic tests (roll X d20s, report the lowest roll, for instance) would be cool. I already do all my playtesting on Maps. Having a die log is very useful for looking at how mechanics play out.

Yup, I knew that, and I'm glad they are fixing it (if I stay, which people are convincing me maybe I should).

Also, still want to know how you do your markup thing to run your homebrew/Moldavy....

 

[bedir than]

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE allow DMs to black and greylist material for use in the Character Builder at the campaign level.

 

[mearls]

Yup, I knew that, and I'm glad they are fixing it (if I stay, which people are convincing me maybe I should).

Also, still want to know how you do your markup thing to run your homebrew/Moldavy....

It's a bit hacky, but I use three things:

* I'm testing the DM material, so the players are using 5e characters. That makes it far easier. Trying to get the new classes to work would be impossible. However, I think this is an overall better testing approach since it keeps on side of the equation a constant. I'm not changing both sides at once.

* Monsters are very easy. I can script it any die roll, as long as I'm summing things. The monster stats are inputs. It does none of the HD or stat math, which makes the stat block a blank slate.

* For elites and solos, I model their multiple turns per round by adding more than one copy of the creature to a fight, breaking them into separate groups, and assigning them static initiative.

The real benefit is in tracking data. In yesterday's game, I could use the die log to see how often the creature was hit, how often it hit, what HP the PCs ended the encounter at, and so on. That's hugely helpful.