Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of StartPlaying TTRPG news, where we sum up the big headlines so you can get back to picking spells.

This week: D&D Beyond Drops gives subscribers bonus content but it’s not sharable, WotC ignores MTG: Arena developers’ union, and Stormbringer gets double the TTRPG goodness.

D&D Beyond Drops Gives Subscribers New Spells, Feats, etc. And Some Are Worried 

Wizards of the Coast made something of a shadow drop this week by suddenly launching D&D Beyond Drops: a series of bonus content exclusive to subscribers. The first D&D Beyond Drop contains reimagings of DnD 1e spells for 5.5e, a new background centered around forming pacts without being a Warlock, and Planar Pact Feats which express those pacts mechanically. There are also maps from 3e and 4e plus 250 images to be used in the Maps VTT. More D&D Beyond Drops are scheduled for Thursdays.

The idea of Drops garnered mixed reactions from DnD players and creators. Some celebrate the return of classic spells like Sticks to Snakes. Others cite it as a worrying push towards the digital future of DnD due its exclusivity to D&D Beyond subscribers. A common criticism is that D&D Drops cannot be shared via campaigns like other content. That means that many DMs will have access to these character creation options but can’t let their players use them. During a Reddit AMA this morning, D&D Beyond EP Brian said that making Drops subscriber-exclusive was the tradeoff to properly pay the designers and artists.

Wizards Of The Coast Does Not Recognize MTG Arena Union

Last week, a group of Magic: The Gathering Arena developers declared their intent to unionize and gave WotC a deadline of May 1 to recognize them. As reported by En World, WotC did not voluntarily recognize this union and in fact did not even communicate with the workers at all. Now, the National Labor Relations Board will oversee an election by employees on whether or not to unionize. Given that the original union announcement was made by a majority of employees, it looks likely to pass. 

Gee Stormbringer, How Come Mom Lets You Have Two TTRPGS? 

The fantasy novels of Michael Moorcock are getting two TTRPG adaptations in the near future. First is an official game by none other than Free League. It is called Legends of Stormbringer and uses the Dragonbane rules system. Free League recruited Richart Watts, who worked on the previous Stormbringer RPG, for this project.

The other Stormbringer TTRPG products will come from Goodman Games. They call their stuff The Classic Era of Elric and plan to release several sourcebooks, adventures, and supplements for both 5e and Dungeon Crawl Classics. Both projects seek to hit crowdfunding soon with 2027 release dates.

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A few headlines this week, but a lot to talk about? Will D&D Beyond Drops end up sharable after the backlash? Will other WotC employees unionize? And how will the two Stormbringer TTRPGs fare when releasing around the same time? We’ll have to see as the stories unfold. Until then, thanks for reading and may your dice be kind! 

Sergio Solórzano is the best Dungeon Master in the USA (according to a Wizards of the Coast competition, anyway). He loves minis and terrain but also goes all-in on improv!