D&D Reader App Coming This Fall? [UPDATED]

Many people have been asking for official D&D PDFs, and WotC has been addressing the need for electronic reference materials at the table in various ways. According to Mashable, WotC is releasing a D&D Reader App this fall. It's not a PDF, but it's basically a D&D-specific Kindle-esque app for iOS and Android. Mashable reports that "Each book is broken up into different sections. So with, say, the Player's Handbook, you can tap on little thumbnails in your library to check out the introduction, a step-by-step guide to character creation, a rundown of races, individual sections for each character class, equipment, and all the other pieces that, together, form the D&D Player's Handbook."

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It's possible they are just referring to D&D Beyond (some of the details below correspond very closely with that), but it may be that a separate D&D Reader is in the pipeline.

UPDATE -- EN World member TDarien asked Adam Rosenburg (the author of the article) whether this was different to D&D Beyond, who replied "Yup. Beyond is more activity-oriented, so it can handle stuff like dice rolls. Reader is basically Kindle, with good, clear chapter divides."

UPDATE 2 -- EN World member kenmarable has spotted that Polygon also has an article about this. It is a separate app called D&D Reader - not D&D Beyond - being made by Dialect, the company which does Dragon+ for WotC. They tried a beta version, although it wasn't complete at the time.

Other items from the report include:

• You can favourite specific pages.
• Some of it is free, and the rparts of books are paywalled. "If, for example, you'll only ever care about rolling a bard, you can just buy that. Prices for individual sections are $3 or $5 (depending on what you buy) and the three full rulebooks — Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide — are $30 apiece for everything."
• If you buy parts of a book then buy the full thing, the cost is pro-rated.The free sections include "character creation, basic classes, gear, ability scores, combat, spellcasting, and all the other sort of ground-level features that everyone needs to understand in order to play."

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[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[seebs]

Wow, I'm impressed. At a cost of multiple years of delays and tens of thousands of dollars, they've made a thing that doesn't remotely address any of my reasons for wanting PDFs. That's brilliant!

 

[Nikosandros]

I'm a bit confused by the Kindle part. It seems that it is an proprietary app for iOS and Android. Is it somehow related to Amazon? Or is the article using "Kindle" as a synonym of electronic book with text re-flow on a proprietary app?

 

[ArwensDaughter]

It's odd to me that there's no link (in the Mashable article) to an official WOTC announcement.
If this is accurate, it is an interesting/puzzling choice given that DnD Beyond is working on apps for iOS and Android that would do this and more.

 

[Emirikol Prime]

By this time everyone who wants a PDF has one. The market who was more than willing to give them money passed them by.

 

[Mercule]

It's odd to me that there's no link (in the Mashable article) to an official WOTC announcement.
If this is accurate, it is an interesting/puzzling choice given that DnD Beyond is working on apps for iOS and Android that would do this and more.

This was my thought, exactly. Unless they're somehow speaking of the same app (which I don't think), this is very, very bizarre.

 

[DEFCON 1]

By this time everyone who wants a PDF has one. The market who was more than willing to give them money passed them by.

Right. And they don't care, they didn't want your money. Why does that upset you?

I mean, if you have a PDF of the D&D books at this point (however you acquired them) and yet still have this undying need to give WotC money for it... then why not just go to the store and buy another set of books, then donate them to your local library or something? Then you get to feel good TWICE! Once for "paying" WotC for your PDF, then again for helping out other people who might not have the possibility of buying the books themselves.

 

[Nikosandros]

It's odd to me that there's no link (in the Mashable article) to an official WOTC announcement.
If this is accurate, it is an interesting/puzzling choice given that DnD Beyond is working on apps for iOS and Android that would do this and more.

Maybe the article is actually referring (in a confusing way) to the apps that D&D Beyond has announced?

 

[JRedmond]

I feel like they're clueless and it's referring to D&D Beyond. Otherwise it seems like an odd decision.