WotC Adds ‘Partnered Content’ Section to D&D Beyond, Starts With ‘Critical Role’s Tal’Dorei Reborn
WotC takes a new step in the direction of bringing 3rd party content to D&D Beyond. Of course, you could always just buy the PDF.
Late last week, WotC added a “Partnered Content” section to their D&D Beyond marketplace. This is a move that’s been a long time coming. WotC themselves have said they’re looking to add some kind of 3rd party market to D&D Beyond.
Which makes sense. With WotC’s plans for D&D relying on the upcoming virtual tabletop as a primary means of play—and with the D&D Beyond at the heart of it, of course, WotC wants you to be able to use their marketplace. And while there are plenty of other places that you can buy 3rd party D&D content from, including DriveThruRPG and the DMs Guild as well as from 3rd party creators themselves, now you can get it on D&D Beyond.
At least a little bit. As of right now, there’s really only one truly 3rd-party title on D&D Beyond. And that’s the newly released on D&D Beyond Tal’dorei Reborn campaign setting. This is the revamped delve into Critical Role‘s campaign world of Tal’dorei, which is home to Exandria, Wildemount, and many more places.
It’s an interesting juxtaposition, considering that Critical Role has partnered with WotC in the past on books like Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount. Which is also one of the titles now found under “Partnered Content.”
WotC Adds Partnered Content to D&D Beyond
Of course, it’s not all 3rd Party sourcebooks, or even Critical Role, in D&D Beyond’s new Partnered Content section. Alongside two of the WotC-published Critical Role books: Call of the Netherdeep and Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount, as well as the adventure Frozen Sick that takes place in Wildemount, there’s also the Minecraft Monstrous Compendium and the Rick & Morty tie-in set.
It’s a veritable Universes Beyond but for D&D. Which calls to mind the official Stranger Things starter set that came out not too far back.
Of course, that’s far from the only sort of licensed/partnered deal that WotC could pull off. A D&D Movie related monstrous compendium might be right at home in this section. As WotC inches towards the digital future of D&D, it’ll be interesting to see what else they add once D&D Beyond takes center stage.
What do you think? How does this bode for D&D in general?
