Digital D&D marketplace D&DBeyond predicts 12 hours of downtime on May 18 as it begins the ownership handover to Wizards of the Coast. “As the D&D Beyond site wind walks to our new Wizards of the Coast family, the D&D Beyond service may have downtime from 1:00 am – 1:00 pm EDT / 6:00 am – 6:00 pm BST on May 18”, D&DBeyond said in an email to users on Thursday.
Fans of D&D have been expecting changes since Hasbro’s D&D Beyond acquisition was announced on April 13. Though a relatively small upheaval, D&DBeyond does recommend exporting character sheets to PDFs during the downtime to minimise disruption to your DnD games.
It was also recently announced that D&D Beyond removes two books on May 17, the day before the handover begins. Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes and Volo’s Guide to Monsters will be “removed from sale” on the site around the same time that Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse (MotM) releases worldwide. In a tweet on Thursday, Wizards of the Coast announced MotM will release on May 16, a day early, “in order to smooth the transition between universes”.
As well as technical updates, D&DBeyond’s terms of service will change from May 18. “On May 18 2022 or soon after, your D&D Beyond account will transfer to Wizards of the Coast,” D&DBeyond said in a blog post on April 22, “at which point (and going forward) the Wizards terms of use will apply to your use of D&D Beyond, and the Wizards privacy policy will apply to the personal data associated with your account”.
The blog post provides an FAQ for some of the most common questions asked by tabletop RPG fans. When asked what will change in its terms of use, D&DBeyond said “we need your permission to put your user content on D&D Beyond and operate the D&D Beyond service, and we’re working to ensure that the scope of the permission you give us is tailored to that goal.” “The Wizards terms of service will therefore be updated with a section specific to D&D Beyond to allow us to host your content and otherwise operate the D&D Beyond service”, the post added.
D&DBeyond also claimed that Wizards of the Coast “has no intent of taking ownership over user content you put on D&DBeyond”. The terms of service will reportedly not grant these rights, and they supposedly will not impact how user content is used or owned through the platform.
For more info on different sourcebooks, check out our D&D books guide. We also have a guide to D&D 6E – so you can stay clued up on D&D’s future before it arrives.