A Few More Tidbits About D&D Beyond From The Developer

Adam Bradford, the senior product manager of upcoming D&D digital toolset D&D Beyond has answered a few questions about the product over at the Tribality website. You can read the full interview at the link below, but here are the highlights. Nothing major, but a few bits like filtering content, roadmap features like initiative trackers, color-coded tabs, etc.

• Alpha testing is finished.
• Beta testing emails go out "very soon".
• The software has table with colour codes (see images above and below) to make it easy to tell where you are.
• Adam has played D&D for 20 years.
• Additional features later will include "encounter builder, combat/ initiative tracker, dice rolling and automation, stream integration, and much more".
• There will be easy ways to filter content - for example "Want to see every spell that requires a Charisma saving throw in the game? Or every healing spell? Every spell that does force damage?"
• Their license does not restrict them on delivery mechanisms. They "are fully aware of the offline capability concerns and are working to mitigate those concerns". A few days ago, WotC's Greg Tito confirmed "D&D Beyond will work without an internet connection. That's a big deal for the devs!"
• You an read the full interview here.

 

[Inglorin]

The criticism is not that it needs a Twitch account, but that it didn't occur to them to say so beforehand. They have made assumptions about their potential user population but made no attempt to validate those assumptions. A rookie mistake. I have no time for them.

But you know that Curse is owned by Twitch which is owned by amazon, don't you? Of course they rely on developed and working infrastructure. I would be quite worried if they wouldn't. Escpecially if they are going to take money from me...

 

[BoldItalic]

But you know that Curse is owned by Twitch which is owned by amazon, don't you? Of course they rely on developed and working infrastructure. I would be quite worried if they wouldn't. Escpecially if they are going to take money from me...

Nope. Their blurb didn't mention Twitch. Only now do we find out that what was touted as a D&D product is actually a Twitch app. They assumed it was obvious, because it was obvious to them. But they omitted to make it obvious to outsiders. That was a mistake. The mistake was not to set about developing a Twitch app, their mistake was in not realising that they needed to tell people that's what they were doing. As I said before, a rookie mistake that professional software developers should not make. My opinion of them as software developers is already low enough for me to give them the thumbs down. But I don't expect anyone else to agree with me, so there's no need to defend them here. Go enjoy what they have made. I won't be missed.

 

[Corwin]

...their mistake was in not realising that they needed to tell people that's what they were doing.

I just want to say (mainly to them) that they *didn't* need to tell me something I consider less than inconsequential.

I won't be missed.

You sure are making an awful lot of stink for someone who won't be missed...

 

[Mercule]

But you know that Curse is owned by Twitch which is owned by amazon, don't you? Of course they rely on developed and working infrastructure. I would be quite worried if they wouldn't. Escpecially if they are going to take money from me...

I certainly didn't. For all I knew, they were a start-up in someone's basement that may or may not have been vetted by anyone at WotC. Not really any skin off my nose, during the beta. I was certainly surprised that I needed a Twitch account.

Honestly, I still don't really know what Twitch does. I gather it has something to do with MMOs, which I generally despise (I do like Arena mode on Smite, but that's about it). Actually looking at the Curse site makes it clear that it's owned by Twitch, though I wouldn't have gambled on that being the right Curse site before I'd been told that they were owned by Twitch.

Looking at the Twitch site, now that I have a Twitch account, I still can't tell what they do beyond stream some games. I can't even figure out if they have other subsidiaries like Curse that I might care about. I also don't see anywhere that they're owned by Amazon.

I think folks who are somehow already invested in/aware of the Twitch brand family are making some pretty big assumptions about what others should know.

 

[Morrus]

A Few More Tidbits About D&D Beyond From The Developer

I certainly didn't. For all I knew, they were a start-up in someone's basement that may or may not have been vetted by anyone at WotC.

You should totally read a popular RPG news website! I think there's one hereabouts.

 

[Mercule]

You should totally read a popular RPG news website! I think there's one hereabouts.

I thought I'd read all the EN World news on DnD Beyond, honestly. I must have missed a passage, somewhere. Regardless, I'm not actually hot about having to create a Twitch account (don't care one bit). I'm just commenting that ignorance of the relationship isn't necessarily absurd.

Speaking of a "popular RPG news website", I watched all the "GM Tips" videos on Geek and Sundry, recently. EN World is the only site Matt Mercer calls out by name. I thought that was pretty cool.

 

[Zaukrie]

It would be cool if they could figure out how to send me a link to reset my password.... Seems like something they should be able to do.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

 

[Lanliss]

I certainly didn't. For all I knew, they were a start-up in someone's basement that may or may not have been vetted by anyone at WotC. Not really any skin off my nose, during the beta. I was certainly surprised that I needed a Twitch account.

Honestly, I still don't really know what Twitch does. I gather it has something to do with MMOs, which I generally despise (I do like Arena mode on Smite, but that's about it). Actually looking at the Curse site makes it clear that it's owned by Twitch, though I wouldn't have gambled on that being the right Curse site before I'd been told that they were owned by Twitch.

Looking at the Twitch site, now that I have a Twitch account, I still can't tell what they do beyond stream some games. I can't even figure out if they have other subsidiaries like Curse that I might care about. I also don't see anywhere that they're owned by Amazon.

I think folks who are somehow already invested in/aware of the Twitch brand family are making some pretty big assumptions about what others should know.

That is pretty much all twitch does. It is a live-streaming service, for all sorts of stuff. Geek and Sundry has Critical Role on their twitch channel, some (most) people run video games. A little while ago Twitch started a marathon of all the old Bob Ross painting show, which they do something like once a month now. Not just video games, but they are a streaming service. Beyond that, I am not familiar with the inner workings, and only know about Curse being connected to them because a lot of people mentioned it in the first DnDBeyond thread.

 

[Morrus]

I thought I'd read all the EN World news on DnD Beyond, honestly. I must have missed a passage, somewhere. Regardless, I'm not actually hot about having to create a Twitch account (don't care one bit). I'm just commenting that ignorance of the relationship isn't necessarily absurd.

Speaking of a "popular RPG news website", I watched all the "GM Tips" videos on Geek and Sundry, recently. EN World is the only site Matt Mercer calls out by name. I thought that was pretty cool.

He's a man of exceedingly good taste.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

If they had said even as late as yesterday that you would need it, you could have been prepared.

Prepare for what? It's a simple case of signing up. Takes like 60 seconds to do.

If not being told in advance that you'll need to sign up for a free account to make use of a product is the sort of thing that gets you so offended that you no longer want to use that product, I really don't know what to say.

It's like you're trying to make a mountain out of a molehill, except I'm not even sure there's any sort of hill at all it's that much of a non-issue for most people.