D&D Beyond Launches on August 15th for $3-6/m

$3/ month isn't that bad. And you really only need it if you want to use homebrew.

 

[JeffB]

I admit I have not paid much attention to DDB. I loved DDI, but don't really need tools anymore.

Anyhoo , I went over to see what all the hub-bub is about. Seems you need to have a twitch account first of all (why?) to do anything. Failing to find a FAQ, I watched the yootoob vid they have posted. While nice, it seems to me they have alot of "we want to haves" and right now not much is actually going on that you cannot do with some of the 5e srd sites and freebie character generators out there. Also it seems they are very intent on prioritizing tools to interface twitch/live streaming which I get is popular, but how many potentials really want/need that vs. actual game table functionality?

So is this thing supposed to be fully functional and the whole shebang online on 8/15 ? Or will it be adding the currently planned features/tools months (years?) down the road?

If anyone could point to a faq on their page that explains, that would be great. There may be one in the forums but I did not see nor did I want to wade through pages of threads trying to hopefully find one.

 

[Mistwell]

Once again a stupid direction for PDF's for a company that is the current market leader, I want shares to fall for WotC so they become flexible,I have to purchase a D&D beyond account and/or purchase the PDF only usable on D&D Beyond's platform.
Please everyone don't buy the PDF's so Wotc will wake up?

Hey, at least take a moment to read the briefest amount about what you're commenting about. This is not a PDF product. You're in the wrong thread.

Also, WOTC has no public shares - they're a wholly owned subsidiary of Hasbro. No matter what happens to Hasbro stock, it will never have an impact on the flexibility of the D&D team.

 

[Mistwell]

Unless I've missed something in all the announcements, DDB is not a VTT. Even with an initiative tracker and encounter builder (?) it will not work like ROll20 or Fantasy Grounds where you can have a map that all players can see, tokens to move on the maps, and virtual dice. I get that some people will find this useful, but those of us who have already invested in Roll20 or FG don't really get any benefit from this.

And if you aren't already using Roll20 or FG, consider that you can get what DDB offers and a VTT.

This is not correct. This is a complimentary product to Roll20 and FG, not a replacement. You can use them simultaneously, and you can transfer things from DDB to Roll20 and FG for example (or at least that is the plan). I use Roll20 a lot, and it's not a character generator. You can fill out a character sheet with it and it will fill in some data for you, but that's not a character generator. If you ever used the actual character generator created by WOTC for 4e (in the later part of that game's cycle) you will be more familiar with DDB. It's a series of tools to help you generate PCs, NPCs, monsters, items, all that stuff, and then you can export it to your Digital Table Top product like Roll20 of FG. If that's not your thing, cool. But it's definitely not something already done by Roll20 or FG.

Here is an example. Let's say you're running Roll20 and DDB, simultaneously. A PC get's poisoned. In Roll20 you can throw a little icon on them, but the icon doesn't tell you what that means. However in DDB, you also throw a poisoned Icon on the character sheet, and it tells you what it means and makes any temporary adjustments to the character, and a round count-down if there is a count-down in rounds until it's effects get better or require a save or get worse or whatever. It's a tool aiding your play in Roll20, not a replacement for it.

 

[Mistwell]

Nope, i'm out.

After DDI debacle, I don't do subscriptions. I've already bought the physicals, and digital for FG. I'm not buying AGAIN for something that I have to have a monthly sub for. At least FG had the brilliant idea of having a purchase there or at paizo count towards the other's digital form. THAT was brilliant. But even with PF, Looking at hero forge, i'd again be dragged over the coals after physical purchases.

There really needs to be a solution for this. A digital clearing house. You buy physical, has scratch off QR code. login into clearing house, register your purchase, bam, access to ALL the digital offerings for a stupid cheap additional price, like $5-15. Total, not each. That's FG content, rollCrappy content, Hero Forge content, Beyond, PDF, etc.

Everybody wins.

It's a one-time buy and it's yours thing for many of the elements you're talking about. You don't need the subscription. The subscription is for some things, but the one-time buy for the aspects you're talking about does in fact work that way with this product. They even explain how you don't even need an internet connection once you own most of the elements involved - you buy it, you download it, it's yours. I admit, that's not completely clear however from this announcement text.

 

[lkj]

I admit I have not paid much attention to DDB. I loved DDI, but don't really need tools anymore.

Anyhoo , I went over to see what all the hub-bub is about. Seems you need to have a twitch account first of all (why?) to do anything. Failing to find a FAQ, I watched the yootoob vid they have posted. While nice, it seems to me they have alot of "we want to haves" and right now not much is actually going on that you cannot do with some of the 5e srd sites and freebie character generators out there. Also it seems they are very intent on prioritizing tools to interface twitch/live streaming which I get is popular, but how many potentials really want/need that vs. actual game table functionality?

So is this thing supposed to be fully functional and the whole shebang online on 8/15 ? Or will it be adding the currently planned features/tools months (years?) down the road?

If anyone could point to a faq on their page that explains, that would be great. There may be one in the forums but I did not see nor did I want to wade through pages of threads trying to hopefully find one.

I think that FAQ would be a great idea for them, since a lot of the same questions get asked over and over again. But, since I happen to have been fairly obsessively following their progress (yes, I know. I could spend my time better), I can partly answer some of your questions:

1) Twitch: They are a twitch owned company. They are twitch. Therefore their login is through twitch.

2) They are planning a lot of feature additions down the road. From what I understand, it will launch with the following:
--A compendium that is fully searchable with a host of nice filters. I've found this very useful at the table. There are SRD sites that have similar functionality, but the layout and search filters are above and beyond anything else I've used. Just the tooltips where within a spell description you can hover over another rules element (like a condition caused by the spell) and get a summary to pop up is surprisingly useful. It will offer the SRD/Basic/Elemental companion for free. Any books or pieces of books you buy will be fully integrated into the compendium and character builder. I'm pretty sold on this part.
-- fully functional easy to use character builder and accompanying digital character sheet. Character sheet will be exportable and printable. The digital sheet is usable on a computer, tablet, and even on a phone. They've done a pretty good job even with the small phone format on making the character sheet usable. They are still improving the builder, which is what I'm watching. It's pretty good now but there are definite improvements I expect (and need) to see before launch.
-- Homebrew tools that let you create any spells, magic items, monsters and subclasses you like (subclass part hasn't appeared in the beta yet). These homebrew items are available for you and those in your campaign. You can make them available publicly for other groups (though they have to be approved before they'll be released to avoid IP problems)
-- Bare bones campaign manager. At this point it is mostly a platform that allows you to invite other players to your campaign. Let the DM see and edit player sheets. It also has barebone campaign notes. Some that are visible to players, and some that aren't. This is clearly just putting a stake in the ground for what they have planned down the road.

Future features that I've seen mentioned:
-- mobile apps with offline functionality
-- encounter builder, intiative tracker, and other tools that let you track things at the table while your playing. Conditions, spell durations, etc.
-- export capability for character sheets to Fantasy Grounds and Roll20
-- many more campaign management tools (not clear exactly what those are yet)
-- twitch stream integration (of no interest to me)

There's probably other stuff. But that's what I got.

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[JeffB]

[MENTION=18646]lkj[/MENTION]

That was awesome. Thanks. You should suggest doing their FAQ for them and getting comp'ed a year sub!

 

[darjr]

If you're willing to buy the book twice to get the PDF then do that. I own the PDF for the PHB and I have had it since the book first came out. There are companies that will scan your book, then destroy the book and send you a PDF. There is nothing stopping you from doing this. I can tell you searching the PDF is a lot slower than DDB.

Erg, good point. But that PDF will be subpar compared to the digital copies that they already have and the ones that have been pirated

And really thats more like buying the book three times. Hardcopy, destoyed hardcopy, and paying for the bad PDF scan. Or a ton for a good scan.

 

[lkj]

Also worth mentioning, I suppose, in light of the pdf 'discussion'. The books will be part of the searchable database with all the items there to find. But the full text will also be available to go through, chapter by chapter, linked, etc. With maps. So you get all the content in a readable form as well, with hyperlinks and the like in a format that looks a lot nicer than a straight pdf (to me).

As I've mentioned before, I find the pdf format to be clunky now and this appears to be much better (taking better advantage of the digital format). I understand that it does tie you to their app. Not a big deal to me but I understand why it might be for others. Certainly wouldn't work on an e-ink reader. Though I'd argue that it will be far more usable on a phone or any other small form factor than a pdf.

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[darjr]

Yea, you can read it in their clunky interface in the way and with adds unless you subscribe. Sounds like a great reading exp.

 

[lkj]

[MENTION=18646]lkj[/MENTION]

That was awesome. Thanks. You should suggest doing their FAQ for them and getting comp'ed a year sub!

Well, I will suggest they check what I wrote in case I got something wrong. But thank you.

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