D&D (2024) D&D's Upcoming Digital Tabletop

Perhaps the showstopper of todays D&D Direct event was a preview of the upcoming D&D digital playspace. Hosts Gina Darling and Ify Nwadiwe met with Kale Stutzman, principal game designer of D&D Digital, where he ran them through an adventure using the technology. The video shown in the presentation, though, was labeled “Pre-alpha gameplay footage.”

The upcoming D&D VTT uses Unreal Engine 5 to power it.

“There are a lot of ways to play D&D online and we don't think a lot of them hit the big three things we think are important – fun, convenience, authenticity,” said Stutzman.

In the demo, you see the dice roll on the screen, and it bursts into the result. Encounter mode is when you roll initiative

“The DM can set the mood, the lighting, what time of day is it. Is it raining? Are there fire embers falling from the sky?” said Stutzman.

The community will be able to create and share assets. “We want to make content that's building blocks that people can break apart and make their own content with. That remix is core to the DNA of D&D, said Stutzman.

Stutzman didn't answer when the VTT will release, but he did say that D&D staff and limited friends and family are trying it now and that they're going to gradually open it up. “...and a lot of people listening will be able to play it this year,” Stutzman added, which means a play test in “late 2023.”

 

[Hurin70]

Looks nice. I am hoping though that you can remove the bases from the figures? I don't need them in a VTT.

 

[Zaukrie]

Well, i own foundry and the patron thing I can stop at any time and will not impact the stuff I own, I suspect that with the others this is not going to be the case. I don't need any more add-ons as of now for my VTT as I downloaded all that I need, so I have nothing going out as payments. With the D&D one, you will have microtransactions for skins, different dice, and other art assets to get you to spend more money. But as it is not out yet I could be wrong and they might out of the goodness of their heart not do this.

You don't need skins or different dice. You can stop any time. Yes, no doubt there will be things you want to buy....

 

[Zaukrie]

They talk about user produced content (good) being able to be shared (good), but they also refer to is as a "marketplace" so I suspect it will be shared like Roll20's marketplace, and they will take a cut of anything sold on it. I also notice the Ankheg was labelled Ankheg (painted), I really hope there isn't tiered microtransaction prices for miniature assets of painted and unpainted.

However I could be on board with unpainted minis for free, and you can pay to get them painted.

I really wonder how much can be input by the actual Keeper Dungeon Master (sorry too much CoC) that aren't assets bought from the marketplace.

They mention in the faq everything will be painted, this is early demo stuff

 

[doctorhook]

Regarding your complaint about it being strongly locked into the core D&D ruleset. For me, that the is its strongest selling point. PLEASE do not try to make it system neutral. Make it the VTT with the best support of the 5e/OneDnD ruleset. Optimize the interface around this. Make using automations in the VTT convenient.

If they can pull off outstanding support for the ruleset, I could care less if the graphics look dated. If it fully support the official rules and offers a convenient and responsive interface, the rest is eye candy that I don't care too much about.

One thing that bothers me more and more with many VTTs is the emphasis on making things look cool for your screenshots and video streams but which are just a time consuming pain to prep in regular gaming. I'm really getting tired of running D&D in Foundry. So, while I'm retaining a healthy level of skepticism, I'm still going to jump on any early test or beta access to the WotC VTT in the hopes that it delivers quality of life improvements to make running the game easier.

Cheers! Yeah I can see real value in having a dedicated environment for the ruleset. My disappointment lies in the fact that I love hacking the rules of the games I play, so locking it strictly to RAW will be a negative to me. (Also I like to play enough games that aren’t 5E, but I’d like to preserve the same environment.)

I fully agree about the “looks pretty for streaming” part. If only we all had all day to work on our games like some streamers, lol. It’s frustrating that some tools are more about form than function, I agree.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Considering I used the 4e vtt to run games…vapor ware is an exaggeration, IMO. It never left beta because the developer died, but it was already easy and fun to use, in beta. And integrated with the 4e character builder pretty well.
if they’d finished that suite of tools, the state of digital tools in TTRPGS would be a lot different.

I remember trying to go from the 4e tools to roll20 or one of its competitors, trying multiple programs, and even years later never having quite as easy a time, or having as much fun with as low a barrier to entry.


I doubt they’re going to halfway integrate it with ddb.

Yeah the potential to use procedural generation to help the DM improvise new scenes on the fly is pretty cool.

Lolwut?

You saw people playing pretty normal D&D with a digital tabletop instead of physical minis, complete with improvisation and bending the rules to facilitate play, and…someone see the end of D&D ? Hwhat?

This is laughable. Not as bad as the comment above this one, but still quite out there.

Yeah video games at this fidelity never get fan made mods lol

From all I’ve read, the engine should support fan mods just fine. And the goal is explicitly to allow users to make new stuff.

Just to say ditto to all of above

While I don't necessariliy trust a publicly traded corporation for doing the right thing all the time, in this case I think they'll put out something that's pretty darn good and will only get better as time goes on

It's not going to be tough to beat out Roll20... I've already been considering moving to DDB just because the character sheet works way better than the R20 sheet (at least as a player); and then use Owlbear Rodeo for maps because that works much better for mapping. If only I hadn't already spent ~$300 on books for R20. And then would have to spend similar again in DDB. I wish DDB was subscription based like the 4e character tool was

 

[dave2008]

Yeah, that's a hard pass for me on the animated 3D isometric video-game stuff. It looks like it was written to sell asset packs, avatars, skins, and the like, and "oh and you can play D&D with it too" was an afterthought.

I just need a VTT that will let me drop in a map, screen it, and then get out of the way. Roll20 and Discord have everything we need:

View attachment 280124

Didn't they say you could use 2D maps too and just assign monster stats to tokens? It seems like it can go very simple if you want to / don't want to purchase a bunch of stuff.

 

[Sacrosanct]

My big question is, how hard is it for the DM to override a result or recon something? It's pretty easy in Roll20 because you just ignore the roll. With the graphics and automated calculations to targets, etc., that's an important question.

 

[Vincent55]

You don't need skins or different dice. You can stop any time. Yes, no doubt there will be things you want to buy....

these are just examples, how about special creatures or extras for books and all kinds of things which will all be add-ons? don't think they will just hand over all the stuff up front how about expansions for things or special adventures that are digital only? My point is with foundry i can down load tuns of free content or make my own, bet you can't do that with this as they will not let us make our on add-ons, unlike foundry.

 

[mellored]

Cheers! Yeah I can see real value in having a dedicated environment for the ruleset. My disappointment lies in the fact that I love hacking the rules of the games I play, so locking it strictly to RAW will be a negative to me. (Also I like to play enough games that aren’t 5E, but I’d like to preserve the same environment.)

They said it would NOT be strict RAW. Specifically mentioning "DnD where the first modding community" or something like that.

Movement, for instance, seems to show a circle for your speed, but doesn't seem lock you in that circle.

 

[Vincent55]

Didn't they say you could use 2D maps too and just assign monster stats to tokens? It seems like it can go very simple if you want to / don't want to purchase a bunch of stuff.

I can do this with what is out there already and so this brings nothing to my table other than giving them money.