Extending Content

Aurora comes bundled with all content that is included in the System Reference Document released under the Open Gaming License. In this section you will find some guidance to extend Aurora without creating content files yourself. Supporting the project will allow for more additional content to be created over time and providing updates and fixes to existing content.

Why does the SRD only have one background and one feat? Why do the PC races not include all of the subraces? The goal of the SRD is to allow users to create new content, not to replicate the text of the whole game. We encourage players, DMs, and publishers to come up with their own backgrounds and feats.

Wizards of the Coast Website
Extend with Existing Content (Recommended)

When you’re just starting out this is the recommended way to go. Much of the official core content and supplements is already made publicly available (read below) and can be included in a matter of minutes.

You can extend Aurora by including content using index files. Go to the Additional Content tab in Aurora, enter the URL of the index file, and have Aurora download the content to the custom folder for you. When these files get updated, Aurora will be able to keep content files up to date automatically. Should you want to, you can turn off automatic updates in the application settings and check for updates manually.

Everyone that wants to create and share content files can also host them this way to make it easy for anyone to include it in Aurora.

Extend Manual

You can also add content files to the custom/user folder. This folder gets loaded last and is the recommended folder to store files when extending content with files that are not hosted online, creating your own (test) content, or overriding existing content. This is not a place to put your index files.

You can find the custom folder in: your_documents/5e Character Builder/. Details on how to create index files and content files is documented in the documentation.

Content Repository (Archived)

Update: To avoid more take down requests in the future, the public content repository is currently archived and will not receive updates. While you can currently still include the archived content as normal this might not be for long. An archive of the recent content is available for download from the Patreon page.

Much of the official core content and supplements is already made publicly available in a repository on GitHub. This uses the index files mentioned above and content can be easily added after you install Aurora. This is also the best source of examples out there, a great starting point for when you want to create your own files.

ContentIndex Url
Core (official content, required)core.index
Supplements (official content, recommended) supplements.index
Unearthed Arcana (playtest material) unearthed-arcana.index
Third Party (optional content) third-party.index

To include this content; go to the Additional Content tab in Aurora, enter the URL of the index file, and have it download the content to the custom folder for you. When these files get updated, Aurora will be able to keep content files up to date automatically.

It is required to include at least the core index when adding index files. This will override the content from the bundled system reference document and will have the latest updates. Including the supplements index is highly recommended.

When adding unearthed-arcana or third-party content including the core and supplement index files are required as they will often rely on basic content such as spells from these sources and will not function without the content from the core and supplement files.

Extending Content

Community Driven Content

While the Aurora content repository is focusing mainly on official content it does provide certain third-party sources. That being said, there is too much content out there to possibly include in the repository.

Community Content

Anyone who wants to manage a repository of additional content from a certain third-party / homebrew source is welcome to do so. This way not all content needs to go through the developer of the project but can be managed by the community directly. The community can create it, test it, and provide feedback, all without having to involve the developer.

It’s recommend to host the content files also on GitHub in the same structure as the Aurora repository is presented, this way it’s familiar for people who contribute content to difference sources, and people who want to request content or report issues. Also, this will still allow the developer of the project to also contribute content and provide fixes to these sources in the future.

You can send an email or a message on discord if you want manage a repository for a specific source (make sure it doesn’t already exist). It might be included in the list on the website. You can also receive a role on the discord server linked to the specific source so people can identify you, and a dedicated channel under the community driven content section for the source if needed.

Community Content List

A list of community driven content with links to the landing page and a direct link to the index file. This is not a place to request non-reddit content.

SourceRepository PageIndex Url
Redditreddit repositoryreddit.index