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D&D had big plans to make the game easier to play a few years ago, but admits they lost the plot... now they're trying again

D&D Beyond is getting a revamp with new features to make finding a group and playing Dungeons & Dragons easier.

Art from Dungeons & Dragons 2024 — Image credit: Wizards of the Coast

News by Trent Cannon, Senior Contributing writer

Published on Fri Jul 31 2026

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It is hard to really innovate in D&D. It is a game system that is both propped up and weighed down by its 50-year history, after all. One of the biggest changes to it in the past decade is its embrace of the digital age with D&D Beyond, but, according to one executive at Wizards of the Coast, even that veered away from its original mission. Now, they want to get back to what D&D Beyond was always meant to be – a tool to make playing easier.

“I want to start with the fact that, 9 years ago now, D&D Beyond launched with the mission to make D&D easier to play,” explained Brian Perry, Executive Producer of D&D Beyond, in a pre-recorded message ahead of Dungeons & Dragons keynote presentation at the opening night of GenCon 2026. “And then at some point, we forgot. We forgot our mission, but we are back here, now, to make D&D easier to play… together. Yes, we’re adding one more word to that mission statement.”

To rectify this, D&D Beyond is launching a couple of big initiatives over the next few years to help make it easier to get together and play D&D. “We are going to launch DnDBeyond.com/lfg,” explained Perry. “If you are having a hard time finding people to play D&D with, this is your hub.” That hub will include a revamped D&D Discord server that has a dedicated find-a-game section. There is also going to be a D&D Event Finder that will list “Wizards Play Network” stores with local events. Finally, the company is building a partnership with StartPlaying, a company that connects players with professional Game Masters who run sessions for a fee. As part of this partnership, new D&D players can get their first DM setup for just 99 cents.

Perhaps the biggest news for players who already use D&D Beyond is the fact that they are “rebuilding site search” for the site, which the company acknowledges as their biggest pain point.

Will all these tools help get D&D Beyond back to their intended mission of making it easier to play Dungeons & Dragons? Certainly not on their own, but they are a good step in that direction. Anything that brings new players into the game is better for the hobby as a whole, whether you play D&D or prefer one of the countless other TTRGPs out there.

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