[UPDATED!] D&D Beyond: An Official D&D Digital Toolset & Character Builder

D&D Beyond has just been announced! Coming this summer, and billed as "Your digital D&D source", it has a compendium of official content, character builder and manager, the ability to use home-brew content, D&D forums, and is usable on any device. A 1-minute announcement trailer can be seen below. D&D Beyond is produced by a company called Curse Inc, owned by Twitch. Right now, there's a signup for the Beta version. More info as/when it becomes available! [UPDATES: The D&D Beyond folks have offered some more info, which I have included below; I will be chatting with them later this week, with luck!]

"We are excited to announce development of D&D Beyond, an official digital toolset for use with the Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition rules. We have partnered with Curse to take D&D players beyond pen and paper, providing a rules compendium, character builder, digital character sheets, and more—all populated with official D&D content. D&D Beyond aims to make game management easier for both players and Dungeon Masters by providing high-quality tools available on any device, empowering beginners and veterans alike!" goes the official description.

"D&D Beyond speaks to the way gamers are able to blend digital tools with the fun of storytelling around the table with your friends,” said Nathan Stewart, Senior Director of Dungeons & Dragons. "These tools represent a way forward for D&D, and we’re excited to get them into the hands of players soon!"

The company, Curse Inc., is owned by Twitch, and is based in San Francisco, with offices in various countries. They produce tools and communities for gamers - up until now, mainly video games. They started as a way to organise the founder's World of Warcraft add-ons about 10 years ago, and grew into a multinational company from there. The company makes a desktop app called the Curse Client, along with community driven wikis, tools, guides, and databases for games like Minecraft, Diablo, Countersrike, Overwatch, and more. In 2016, it was announced that Twitch would acquire Curse.

Features, from the website, include:

• D&D Compendium with Official Content
• Create, Browse, & Use Homebrew Content
• Manage Characters - Build, Progress, & Play
• D&D News, Articles, Forums, & More
• Access Anywhere, Anytime, on Any Device

That last item makes it sound like it'll work offline, which will be a popular move. And the home-brew content mention is also important, especially because WotC supports DMs Guild.

UPDATES: I checked with WotC's Greg Tito who confirmed "D&D Beyond will work without an internet connection. That's a big deal for the devs!"

Adam over at D&D Beyond confirmed a little about the pricing model:

"At launch, players will be able to access SRD content and build and view a small number of characters with a free D&D Beyond account.

We don’t have exact pricing nailed down, but you will also be able to buy official digital D&D content for all fifth edition products with flexible purchase options. You can pay only for the D&D content you need. If you only play fighters, for example, you’ll be able to just pick up the stuff you need to track swinging that giant two-handed sword.

A small monthly subscription will be needed to manage more than a handful of characters and to enable more advanced features, like homebrew content integration. At this time, we don’t know exactly how much the subscription will cost."

He also confirmed that the pricing structure is not about microtransactions: "I'm about to get on a plane so I've got to be brief, but I wanted to check in and make it clear that "microtransactions" were not mentioned and are not what the model is about."

And also that D&D Beyond is definitely not a Virtual Game Table (VTT): "D&D Beyond is intended to enhance gameplay around a table (virtual or otherwise) - we intend this to be completely complementary and have no intention of creating a VTT."

[video=youtube;Dn8Kpmm_aJA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn8Kpmm_aJA[/video]

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[daplunk]

But that's me! And I disagree with you!

Why would you need another application to create and manage characters?
Why would you need another application to manage combat?
Why would you need another application to look up information?

 

[Morrus]

Why would you need another application to create and manage characters?
Why would you need another application to manage combat?
Why would you need another application to look up information?

You've got a bit in your teeth, and a point to make, clearly. I don't understand what that point is. I mean, nobody needs an application to do anything.

Let's start again. What's your point (other than "I personally don't want this" which isn't interesting to anybody but you)? What is it you're trying to say?

 

[BookBarbarian]

People disagreeing civilly on the internet? What alternate universe am I in???

I must stop this! But how?!

Uh... Warlords!

Spellless Rangers!

um what else...

This edition doesn't do things exactly the way my favorite editions(s) did!

 

[daplunk]

Mate just having discussion.

Personally I've seen lots of FG and Roll20 users posting negative feedback on this tool because it doesn't cater specifically to their needs. Which is confusing to me because it's quite clear just by looking at what it offers that it's not designed for the VTT crowd. This is where this conversation started. VTT users asking why they would pick this tool up when the VTT's over the same and increased functionality to this tool.

My point being this is not intended to offer them anything that they don't already have. There should be absolutely no reason for them to need this application short of wanting to have access (and therefore the requirement to manage the character sheet in multiple places) to the character sheet outside of their game sessions.

Personally I am absolutely the core market this product is designed for. I'm a Hero Lab user which offers exactly what this tool is stating it is going to offer just with official licensed content.

 

[Morrus]

Mate just having discussion.

Sure. Don't mistake disagreement for persecution.

Personally I am absolutely the core market this product is designed for.

And so am I. But I disagree with you. The point being, you don't speak for all of us.

 

[Shasarak]

Well let's see... how about you name the product that you were SURE no one was going to buy, and then you ended up being right? Cause I'd be very curious if your doomsaying of anything WotC has done or licensed to others has actually crapped the bed like you seem to think they always will. Because right now, your uneducated opinion that not enough people are going to sign up for D&D Beyond to make it profitable for Curse is not exactly a strong one for WotC and Curse to worry about if you ask me. Heh heh!

A lot of people said that Project: Morningstar would fail and unfortunately they were right.

Hopefully this new one does better.

 

[daplunk]

And so am I. But I disagree with you. The point being, you don't speak for all of us.

Lol which takes me back to this:

Why would you need another application to create and manage characters?
Why would you need another application to manage combat?
Why would you need another application to look up information?

I'm absolutely interested. I run a channel dedicated to testing various DM tools so this is a point of curiosity for me. If you are VTT player what is it you need from an application like this? From all my research the VTT tools do everything this is offering and more and has a reliance on you doing all this inside the VTT tool to enable the automation.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

A lot of people said that Project: Morningstar would fail and unfortunately they were right.

Hopefully this new one does better.

Curse has a few significant and important advantages over the Trapdoor crew, though. Firstly is that they're obviously experienced in creating things in the same conceptual space that this product requires, Trapdoor were most definitely not. They're also backed by bigger money and have greater access to more and variable skilled employees than Trapdoor did. Trapdoor, for instance, hired a web designer at the last minute to work on the UI. One person. After the project was already well under way and close to deadline. Curse also don't seem to want to step on WotC's toes in the marketplace whereas Trapdoor seemed to want it all.

Lastly and most importantly, I don't think Curse are promising something that they can't deliver.

 

[Morrus]

Curse has a few significant and important advantages over the Trapdoor crew, though. Firstly is that they're obviously experienced in creating things in the same conceptual space that this product requires, Trapdoor were most definitely not. They're also backed by bigger money and have greater access to more and variable skilled employees than Trapdoor did.

Even Google screws up. Apple does, too. who uses a Nintendo Wii? Samsung fails in big public ways. Governments do. Entire countries fall. Rome is just a town now. Size isn't, and never has been, the barometer of success - small companies can do incredible things. We don't know what will happen.

Curse also don't seem to want to step on WotC's toes in the marketplace whereas Trapdoor seemed to want it all.

None of us know why Trapdoor and WotC parted ways. Let's not just make stuff up to fill the gaps.

 

[Shasarak]

Lastly and most importantly, I don't think Curse are promising something that they can't deliver.

Curse has not delivered on anything yet so who can say what is vaporware or not?