Big Changes at D&D Beyond
There's been an exodus of some of the most visible members of the team at D&D Beyond over the past weeks and its unsettled some, though the timing could be coincidental.
It started in mid-January with the announcement of James Haeck's departure. Announced on D&D Beyond's main page, Haeck says a warm goodbye to his coworkers of the last years and to all the fans that followed his work. Haeck has not yet announced a new position but continues to be actively engaged on Twitter.
Haeck, in addition to his work at Beyond, co-authored a number of Wizard's most recent releases including Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, and Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.
It was then announced, in the most recent Dev update, that community manager Lauren Urban, Todd Kenreck, and Adam Bradford were all leaving the company as well. (You can watch it here.)
These departures follow the end of Silver and Steel, the hugely popular liveplay game run by Jasmine Bhullar, and produced on the D&D Beyond YouTube channel.
What does all this mean? Well, nobody knows, for certain. Bradford was keen to point out, which was echoed by Lauren repeatedly in the chat, that the developers who are creating new content, and patching bugs, are still with the company and doing what needs to be done.
Many community members who were present for the dev update were alarmed by the news, particularly by so many visible representatives of the company leaving all at once. The mods did their best to remain calm and provide encouraging words and support for those folks. It helped. But there is still a lot of fear about what it means for the future of D&D Beyond.
Lauren and Adam couldn't yet reveal where they are going, but promised that they are both excited about it. Todd is moving over to content creation and will be actively engaged in developing cool stuff for Twitch and YouTube, and teased a campaign with his wife, Meagan, called Widdle & Rend.
No matter what it means, we wish them well on their future endeavours.
