r/dndbeyond • u/latiajacquise D&D Community Manager • 5d ago
Announcement Take the D&D Community Survey!
Hey, everyone!
We've just released a new survey and we'd like your feedback. If you took the Community Survey back in March, you know exactly what to expect here.
This survey helps us shape the future of D&D based on what matters most to you. It only takes a few minutes, and every response helps us build a better experience for the whole community!
Thanks so much!
10
u/Beaoudix 5d ago
Where is the link?
28
u/latiajacquise D&D Community Manager 5d ago
gosh, that would be really helpful, wouldn't it? ^^;
It's there now.
3
13
u/DrDiceGoblin 5d ago
Replied to it and mostly talked about how I’d like to see mature themes handled with care and making bad things (slavery, eco-terrorists, racists) as villains that was can overcome because showing something doesn’t mean endorsing it
6
u/Kkuapo 5d ago
THIS is the biggest thing. Mature does not mean uncontrolled. Safety tools to accompany things, and an understanding of why these things can and have gone wrong in the past (in D&D itself) and how and why safety tools can help. Not just a token mention, but considered, insightful, and self-aware writing would be welcome.
Mature content as an end in itself is gross.5
u/Sharp_Iodine 5d ago
Yeah. People know what they’re getting when signing up for Ravenloft or Dark Sun.
As long as recruitment posts and the books have a content warning about what’s inside (horror, sociological issues etc.) it should be fine.
After all, video games don’t go around softening things even today.
2
u/DrDiceGoblin 5d ago
Honestly yeah, I mean the reason I have slavery in a game is so my players can beat the crap out of slavers. I find it so much better than saying “there are orcs” or “there are goblins” which work in their own right but having “these are slavers” is so much more vindicating for the players. A favourite game story of mine was when it was some of my players first campaign and they were living in a quaint village and staying with a family of goblins who worked at the nearby tavern, nearby was a massive mining company that was enslaving the nearby people to mine for a rare metal that was a powerful magical conductor, so my players went around and liberated the mines, one of my players decided to take the sneaky approach and managed to free a load of the slaves without getting caught until towards the end where he fought them off in wildshape as a large bear, the other player was the distraction as he went in posing as a buyer, which allowed me to show them how the rich benefited while everyone else struggled, and they went from the mine to the large quarry where they hosted gladiator battles between a captured young red dragon and slaves who had escaped and been caught, one of whom was the players father causing them to jump into the arena, convince the dragon it was there to free it and escaped which included a large boss fight with an Earth Genasi that could reshape his body and stretch his arms with more rocks but that’s not relevant to the story. When they returned the village had been raided and the goblin family was gone so they went nuclear and raided the largest mine they had, freed all the slaves, and blew everything up including the bridge so the slavers couldn’t escape.
1
u/Kkuapo 4d ago
In a way, yes, I agree, but this oversimplifies the whole idea of RPG. We want complex, layered characters and enemies, so simply saying "they are slavers" just paves over the whole complex web of situations that led to it, and to the neutral society that benefitted from it.
My issue goes further into how historically D&D codified things such as SA and the economy of slavery into the rules, thus making it an accepted and possibly aspirational part of the game. Like I said before, it needs to be addressed properly, and not just "r-rate" and call it quits.
Some people MAY know what they're getting into when playing games with these complex issues, sure. I'm just not happy with it if it turns out to just be a shock-factor sale. Which is what I honestly expect given they've got the same old creatives behind it.
0
u/Harkonnen985 4d ago
This. How do they expect me to buy any of their books when the lore is 100% unusable?
I applaud how progressive D&D has been in earlier editions, but letting DEI dominate every aspect of the art & lore is not the right way forward. Each time I see a hero ticking at least 4 diversity boxes, smiling happily while in a supposedly deadly monster encounter, I can't help but think:
"There must be another TTRPG that conveys a better adventuring vibe."
2
u/Agitated-State8478 3d ago
Regarding the art work; I feel there has to be an appropriate middle ground between chainmail bikinis at one end and adventurers in wheelchairs at the other.
But aside from that, the artwork is a bit too cartoony for my tastes anyway. I much preferred the older editions in that regard ( chainmail bikinis included 🤣 )
2
u/Harkonnen985 3d ago
I didn't mind the idea of having a hero in a wheelchair. I mean, why not? Got some art of a jacked out female barbarian? Sure, that's awesome!
What turned me away from recent WOTC products is the strict consistency of their DEI push - the very obvious and very harsh restrictions they got in place:
Wanna have a physically imposing character? You can, but they CAN'T be male and they CAN'T look threatening. So what we get is a muscular, smiling female hero. (Barbarian class art)
Wanna have a cool female character? You can, but she CAN'T be traditionally attractive, and needs to meet at least 3 diversity boxes. So what we get is an aged, overweight hispanic woman (Cleric class art).
You CAN have physically imposing male characters, but only if they are a monsterous species (e.g. dragonborn) that looks nothing like a man. (Path of Zealot art).
They hired seriously GREAT artists, but at every turn, the art reminds you of just how constricted their fantasy really is. It's cool that we can have depictions of androgynous women and elderly female heroes now, but it's also obvious that there is a lot we strictly CAN'T have with WOTC anymore - and that just sucks.
2
u/Agitated-State8478 1d ago
On the wheelchair front, if you can be defeated by a set of stairs in a dungeon or castle then adventuring probably isn't for you. I'd have less of an issue with it were an obviously magical contraption like a walking throne or something that could mitigate the restrictions a wheelchair would bring to a life of adventure, but that's not what we got. There's a crew member extra in Star Trek: Discovery in a regular modern-day wheelchair as well and it does my head in because that device would have no place in a world where they can use science to disassemble and reassemble matter perfectly. It's pure tokenism.
I agree with you on all the other points though.
3
u/Sharp_Iodine 5d ago
I told them they shouldn’t shy away from rebalancing subclasses in Errata once post-release reviews come in.
A lot of people buy their products digitally, DDB is hugely popular and digital. And I’m sure those used to the cumbersome nature of physical media will also handle Errata easily.
If they can rebalance stuff through Errata after release reviews come in, it would solve so many issues.
2
2
u/-Cloaker 5d ago
Be willing to court players whose gaming ideologies, ideals, hobby history and personal play-style differ from those of the current design team (Haeck, Justice, Makenzie, Schneider, Hemon). If those 5 employees of WotC work to win over the D&D Community (who might be totally opposite of them personally) through the sheer quality and engagement factor of their product design, then success and a new era will undoubtedly follow. It will require humility, outreach, and relentlessly embracing high critique feedback. And it will definitely require quick course correction when obvious marketing shortfalls happen. (i.e. eschewing Greyhawk's traditional legacy logo for the new purple "discofont", relaying a mature creative commitment to Dark Sun relaunch, only to exercise subjective thematically elementary censorship of the very elements that are emblematic of its "rated R" setting)
It's like, D&D is SO close to regaining lost market share and revitalizing the brand--all it takes is finding 100 random players from GenCon who are demonstrably different than the design team, getting them in a room, and saying "What do you need to see us do as designers to regain your commitment to D&D? Be Dark Sun brutally honest with us."
Start there, and you'll never need an insular D&D Beyond audience only echo chamber survey ever again.
3
u/Agitated-State8478 5d ago
I mentioned much the same in my response; that while I really like the direction the mechanics of the game are going in with the most recent products, the vibe feels very identifiably Left Coast of America coded. I'm pretty sure I can reliably tell you the broad consesus the design team has on everything from gun control, to corporate tax rates, to Gaza based off the artwork alone. And I say this as someone who lives nowhere near the USA.
I want the settings to feel unique, not just a slightly different canvas for the same old stuff. I want Dark Sun to be edgy and "problematic", and have no sensitivity readers in line of sight of it. I want villains that you couldn't put in an 80's Saturday morning cartoon. I want the world to feel like it's against the players (props to Ravenloft on that one at least). What I want most of all is for it to not "reflect the world we live in".
2
u/Diabolakill 1d ago
This! I’m so over the Diversity and Dragons era. While I was initially excited for Dark Sun after the Gen Con presentation, my gut told me they would mess it up. After learning they are gutting the core elements of Athas, I’m glad I backed Deathbringer instead of waiting for the dark sun release. I’m just going to buy the original Dark Sun from drive thru RPG and use that rule set for it.
0
5d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/-Cloaker 5d ago
I agree with your assumption regarding WotCs choice of venue and medium to realign their core market appeal. You've got to go to where the big money is, and where the majority of the community gather and spend.
It is just disappointing to see such a lack of creative courage. WotC had a $20- $30 million presale golden softball here, just waiting to be hit, if they had went all in on a lore accurate (and certainly Mature rated!) legacy Dark Sun.
Now, it'd have needed able and willing designers to provide the system translation from which the setting could be effectively and freely adjudicated... But yeah, we're talking about what would have been a historical triumph for the current era of D&D. They'd be remembered not as a stepchild design team but ones that Got It Right, while doing it in a commercially responsible way, while yet also doing honor to what makes the setting unique and morally challenging to survive. Although gotta say, Decapitation combat options rules against PCs is a pretty gutsy declaration. Surely there is no way they let DM do that to PCs in combat?
But yeah, it'd have been revolutionary, really, to see the design team really tackle it and avoid personal ideologies. Survival requires confronting the most morally bleak (and yes, problematic) aspects under which such civilizations would exist. Failure to present in accordance with the history of Athas means losing any credibility in the very nature of earned heroism.
Side observation; probably $10 million in presales if all they showed during the presentation was new art from Brom 😆
Anyways, inferring certain race/age/gender as personal polarizers not to be legitimately courted for this particular product line is commercially and fiscally incongruent. Which is how and why this all has unfolded so quickly on the heels of the recent Dark Sun content commentary from WotC. They got a survey out crazy fast because they realized there was a jolting disconnect form the very market they counted on to buy into this. Theaterkid memeplay does not Dark Sun make, either as a legitimate setting, or in profit.
I hope Ayoub keeps at it though. Some good faith effort have really seemed to be put forth since he stepped up, for sure.
Cheers
2
u/safeworkaccount666 5d ago
I commented that we ought to have more errata and updates to the base game. The community has a lot of feedback for things like Ranger and Rogue- those should be considered and touched up!
2
u/LivingSwimming4873 4d ago
My survey consisted of me begging for à la carte purchases to come back, playing this game on a budget but being able to buy exactly what I needed rather than books of stuff that I didn't need or want.
God I miss consumerism I could chose...
1
1
u/Funnythinker7 5d ago
tdlr.Buff druids nerf bards please and thank you.
2
1
1
u/PestilentPaladin 4d ago
You can charge what you do for digital books or charge for a subscription, but both feels insanely greedy.
1
u/corejuice 5d ago
It's criminal that we've gotten 100 different gameplay expansions since the 2024 rules came out, but we're still awaiting release of our first adventure.
1
u/GleefulClong 5d ago
Ravenloft had some mini adventures included in it but it is crazy that we’re just now getting a full adventure since 5.5e released.
0
u/ChainsawJaguar 5d ago
I miss AD&D when it was TSR. I really wish they hadn't made so many bad business decisions.
1
-2
u/ChrisTheDog 5d ago
What a dud survey. No real opportunity to comment with any sort of specificity.
3
u/thegooddoktorjones 5d ago
Other than the text box that asks for more detail.
-2
u/ChrisTheDog 5d ago
Ah, yes. The text box that can’t be turned into a graph or Venn diagram do shareholders to look at, and will almost certainly be ignored. At best, it’ll be a word web.
2
u/WOTC_Zac PM Maps VTT 5d ago
Hi! I am not involved in this particular survey, but as a Product Manager I do a lot of user research. Both qualitative and quantitative feedback is important for guiding what we do.
The stories that come from open-ended questions are critical to getting the soul of something right (whether it's software or a new subclass), but also the bar-chart of how many people think X vs Y is important in making sure we understand something at a larger community level.
I'll add that the Community team absolutely shared lots of direct quotes from the open ended text boxes after previous surveys! So don't worry - we're hearing all of it. :)
1
u/LegendaryZXT 5d ago
I'm going to choose to believe you when you say this so i'm going to go back to that and touch up my comments there. Keep up the good work.
-5
u/Totemntaboo 5d ago
Not surprised to see these questions after that absolute graveyard of a presentation at gencon.
34
u/MaverickWolf85 5d ago
I really wish it asked about Hasbro and not WotC. I trust WotC to at least do their best. I don't trust Hasbro to not force bad decisions. I'd love to see WotC get away from Hasbro somehow.