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.

 

[SkidAce]

[SARCASM]You know, I purchased the Star Wars trilogy on VHS. I was pretty cheesed off when Lucasfilm made me pay AGAIN for the SAME movie when they released the films on DVD. And now, if I want the SAME movies AGAIN streaming, I have to pay full price a third time!!![/SARCASM]

I bought them on VHS, and then again when they re-released them on VHS with Dolby Stereo....bought DVDs, but I have not switched to BR.

I feel your pain.

 

[Aaron L]

rotfl. someone failed their UX roll. oh yeah, in 5e, you can't learn a new skill that you didn't start with...

Of course you can. All it takes is time and money.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

I see no issue on wondering what the price is and hoping for some form of lower pricing is natural. I own all the 5e materials in hardback and Fantasy Grounds version. Bought them either from Amazon or on sales and with bundle discounts for Fantasy Grounds, so I am 25% less than retail or more, so you can save money if you are patient.

I get all the content in the WoTC books in Fantasy Grounds, plus all the automation built in, so I am not paying for exactly the same thing. I really doubt I would pay for this, I just do not make enough characters and FG has enough functionality for me.

 

[lkj]

I keep repeating this same thing. Amen brotha.

We... still... can't... buy... legal... PDFs...

It's crazy.

While I understand this sentiment, I have to say that I'm finding that some of these new mediums make the pdf's kind of obsolete. For rules or mechanics references, compendiums are much easier for finding information. For adventures, when playing online, the organization in a Roll20 or FG package is organized in a much more usable fashion.

PDF's, I suppose, are still useful for having a version of the book that can be stored on a tablet. But I'm wondering whether it will become an outmoded medium with some of these new offerings. I have no idea if D&D Beyond will offer adventures. But if they do, I hope it would be put together in a more useful format than a pdf. Makes me wonder if this question about pdf availability will become irrelevant in the next several years.

Just thinking about it. Not at all saying you shouldn't be able to get pdfs.

AD

 

[Satyrn]

If the back-end is COBOL, the whole project is screwed.

They've been working on this since 1e?!?

 

[rooneg]

While I understand this sentiment, I have to say that I'm finding that some of these new mediums make the pdf's kind of obsolete. For rules or mechanics references, compendiums are much easier for finding information. For adventures, when playing online, the organization in a Roll20 or FG package is organized in a much more usable fashion.

PDF's, I suppose, are still useful for having a version of the book that can be stored on a tablet. But I'm wondering whether it will become an outmoded medium with some of these new offerings. I have no idea if D&D Beyond will offer adventures. But if they do, I hope it would be put together in a more useful format than a pdf. Makes me wonder if this question about pdf availability will become irrelevant in the next several years.

Just thinking about it. Not at all saying you shouldn't be able to get pdfs.

AD

That is absolutely 100% true, but I don't trust that compendium to live forever. I want to be able to play this game after WotC and every single one of their partners has decided it's no longer cost effective to keep the servers running and any local application would require 3 or 4 levels of emulation to make the original app work. A PDF (or even better yet, a pile of text files containing the text of the game) will work forever, or as close to forever as matters to me. An app with a server side component and probably some DRM is not close to the same thing.

 

[Mercule]

They've been working on this since 1e?!?

My employer has a small pocket of folks who still advocate for new development in COBOL and green screens. We're currently replacing all the COBOL/iSeries stuff and these guys are due for retirement about the same time the project finishes, so it's something of a win-win. I think.

Sometimes IT really does belong in a corner in the basement.

 

[lkj]

That is absolutely 100% true, but I don't trust that compendium to live forever. I want to be able to play this game after WotC and every single one of their partners has decided it's no longer cost effective to keep the servers running and any local application would require 3 or 4 levels of emulation to make the original app work. A PDF (or even better yet, a pile of text files containing the text of the game) will work forever, or as close to forever as matters to me. An app with a server side component and probably some DRM is not close to the same thing.

For me, the printed book serves this purpose. But for a digital medium (which I agree has some additional archival advantages in terms of portability and backup), I'd go with the text files, as you say.

That said, I don't think that this need provides much incentive for WotC. I know you weren't making that argument. But if pdf's are becoming less relevant to the market, then they won't have much of an incentive to makes sure they are available. Anymore than they have an incentive to make csv files of the books available.

AD

 

[Jacqual]

I want PDF's myself and would be thrilled to get them, the biggest issue I have with this is where I read in the first article you need a subscription for the home brew content. This to me is a deal breaker as a DM I want to be able to add my own stuff to the game, if I have to pay monthly for this and it them goes belly up say a few years down the road, then at that point my home brew stuff I added is gone to waste. If I could buy each book to add to it as a onetime purchase and keep the home brew free as well cool, but a subscription to be able to handle more then a couple of characters is a joke.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I want PDF's myself and would be thrilled to get them, the biggest issue I have with this is where I read in the first article you need a subscription for the home brew content. This to me is a deal breaker as a DM I want to be able to add my own stuff to the game, if I have to pay monthly for this and it them goes belly up say a few years down the road, then at that point my home brew stuff I added is gone to waste. If I could buy each book to add to it as a onetime purchase and keep the home brew free as well cool, but a subscription to be able to handle more then a couple of characters is a joke.

But if there is not some kind of paywall for adding homebrew stuff, there will be nothing to stop people from illegally adding in everything that is not included with the free subscription. A one-time charge to unlock the ability to add in your own content would be much better than a monthly sub for that feature.