D&D Beyond Launches -- Electronic Tools For D&D Are Here!

D&D Beyond, the official online toolkit for 5th Edition D&D, is now live - just in time for Gen Con! With a character builder, online rules compendium, digital character sheet, and more, the software has been in beta testing for a while. D&D's relationship with electronic tools has never been an easy one -- Master Tools, Gleemax, DungeonScape all being failed initiatives - but D&D Beyond looks like it might be the one which actually breaks that curse.

D&D Beyond, the official online toolkit for 5th Edition D&D, is now live - just in time for Gen Con! With a character builder, online rules compendium, digital character sheet, and more, the software has been in beta testing for a while. D&D's relationship with electronic tools has never been an easy one -- Master Tools, Gleemax, DungeonScape all being failed initiatives - but D&D Beyond looks like it might be the one which actually breaks that curse.


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Here's their launch announcement:

This morning, we launched D&D Beyond - an official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition.

For over 40 years, Dungeons & Dragons has been bringing players together at tables all over the world. D&D Beyond, our new digital companion web app, aims to enhance the D&D experience by making game management easier by putting all of the game information you need to tell fantastic stories with your friends into a digital format, eliminating the need to manually search through books, and taking the load off of players through other features.

At launch, D&D Beyond offers a compendium with all the game rules, lore, and adventures, as well as sought-after tools like a character builder and an interactive digital character sheet. It’s built with official D&D content and the ability to create and add your own custom homebrew spells, magic items, and monsters. Groups can play with digital versions of every official D&D sourcebook within the compendium. They can build characters using all the material published by Dungeons & Dragons for fifth edition, while adding custom magic items or spells created using the homebrew system. That homebrew content can then be shared with the community for other players to use in their own games.

We never could have gotten to where we are without the incredible support of over 200 thousand beta testers. For all of the help, for enduring "Basic Rules only" content and the accompanying forum posts for all these months, we sincerely thank you. You have already built nearly 300 thousand characters and 25 thousand homebrew creations. You have shared feedback that has been vital to the development of the toolset, and we have taken great strides to build confidence that we not only listen to that feedback, but we move quickly to act on it when it's needed.Our team has an extensive roadmap for D&D Beyond, including implementing features such as a native mobile app, monster and encounter building, digital dice rolling, combat tracking, and much more. D&D Beyond is excited to continue to work closely with the D&D team at Wizards of the Coast to introduce all new adventures and rules material into the toolset, such as Tomb of Annihilation and Xanathar’s Guide to Everything coming this fall, the new mystic and artificer classes and other Unearthed Arcana playtest material, and Adventurers League support.

With the launch of the toolset, we are also excited to also unveil our new video and content initiative. We have a vision for DDB to be your hub for all things D&D - your companion both at the table and between sessions - whether you're looking up spells or watching Mike Mearls geek out about ogre magi. We'll tell the story of Dungeons & Dragons and help you play out your own D&D stories. We can't wait to see where all of it leads.

This truly is only the beginning for us and for what D&D Beyond will become in the upcoming weeks, months, and years. We welcome you to the adventure. Pack your gear and let's hit the trail!


Check it out over at the official website.

The pricing is subscription based, with costs ranging from $2.99 per month to $5.99 per month, depending on the features you require. You also buy official D&D content (rulebooks and adventures) for $24.99 for adventures and $29.99 for rulebooks, or you can engage in micropurchases and grab single classes, races, feats, monsters, etc. for $1.99 to $3.99. Full pricing info can be found here.

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lkj

Hero
If they can find a way for all of this to function with Roll20 i'm in.

I'm eager for this as well, though my ambitions are more modest-- being able to export characters to roll20. They've said they are developing export to roll20 and FG. No idea where that fits in their timeline or how good the export will be. But that would a 'killer app' for me.

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dropbear8mybaby

Banned
Banned
For those who find the prices insulting like I do, there are tools online that are free that do most of what D&D Beyond does you just need to spend some time finding them instead of cash.

Promoting the use of illegal tools. Well done. Excellent observation. That you can get away with not paying to support your hobby. Awesome work.
 


Echohawk

Shirokinukatsukami fan
Does it have a monster builderincluded or is that planned for the future?
Yes, there's a "Create a Monster" option which lets you create a new creature from scratch, or by modifying an existing one. Once created, you can also choose to submit your critter to be considered for the "Homebrew Monsters" section, which means it gets shared with everyone.
 

Ricochet

Explorer
Tried running my Out of the Abyss session last night with the digital tools. Was very handy to have it all on-screen, with monster stats when I moused over things etc. :)

Perhaps a way to pin bits of the module would make it even better, because I ended up opening three distinct tabs to have everything on-screen at once.

In any case, initial impressions are very good for me! This will save me a ton of time and page-flipping !
 

dave2008

Legend
If what I read is true, there's a really good chance they just shot themselves in the foot.

It looks like you need to read more carefully. The microtransactions are option and the go the purchase of the whole book. You can use it free, or purchase the books, or add a subscription, or purchase via microtransaction.
 

Nikosandros

Golden Procrastinator
Tried running my Out of the Abyss session last night with the digital tools. Was very handy to have it all on-screen, with monster stats when I moused over things etc. :)

Perhaps a way to pin bits of the module would make it even better, because I ended up opening three distinct tabs to have everything on-screen at once.

In any case, initial impressions are very good for me! This will save me a ton of time and page-flipping !

So far I've bought only the three core books. Thanks for sharing your experience about running an adventure. How accessible are the maps? What resolution are they?
 


Ricochet

Explorer
So far I've bought only the three core books. Thanks for sharing your experience about running an adventure. How accessible are the maps? What resolution are they?

So far, I haven't found the maps very cleverly implemented.

I can view them in a standard galleri-like feature where the surrounding webpage fades somewhat. Not particularly helpful. No map tools or seperate views for DM and player maps. There is zoomed parts of the maps though in seperate images. They look quite nice for the dungeon parts for instance. Overall quite lackluster though to be honest, and resolution isn't the greatest either.

Unlike other images on the site, I can't seem to open the images in the adventure in full screen either, but that might be due to my incompetence. :)
 

ddaley

Explorer
Wait... I thought reddit was polarizing? I guess I don't know enough about Twitch to be polarized by it.

Requiring a Twitch account was also a really bad idea. Twitch is very polarizing, it's going to be a deal breaker for some number of people. Forcing people to sign up for social media sites, especially single purpose sites whose popularity may very well be only due to people dreaming about being the next Pewdiepie, isn't a selling point.
 

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