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.

 

[darjr]

Cubicle 7 will send you the PDF for free if you send them a photo of the book with a receipt from a bits and mortar book store, as proof of purchase. I've heard that they will sometimes do the same even if it's not a bits and motar store.

A much smaller company at much higher risk and it's easy.

 

[JRedmond]

I disagree with your first point.

Your second I think is a very good point.

That's fair I don't have the number of 1st printings that were run off from the East Longmeadow Hasbro factory that had the issue.

 

[Jester David]

Cubicle 7 will send you the PDF for free if you send them a photo of the book with a receipt from a bits and mortar book store, as proof of purchase. I've heard that they will sometimes do the same even if it's not a bits and motar store.

A much smaller company at much higher risk and it's easy.

Yeah. I imagine it's less than one photo a day. Heck, one a month would be generous.
If WotC did that, it'd be dozens of photos each day and endless messages to customer services about how a receipt was lost...

 

[guachi]

Does D&DB allow you, with any tier of purchase, to print your characters, campaign notes, monsters, whatever?

I bring my cellphone to games but I only use it if I've forgotten something from home. It's far too small to routinely and adequately use at the table. I could bring my laptop but the game shop doesn't have wireless access (or I don't think it does). So what I do know is put my campaign notes in Word or Excel and print the relevant portions up.

How is D&DB better than Word or Excel for creating content? Has anyone used it? I'm struggling to think how even a free service is of any value to me over the tools I already have.

 

[JRedmond]

Does D&DB allow you, with any tier of purchase, to print your characters, campaign notes, monsters, whatever?

I bring my cellphone to games but I only use it if I've forgotten something from home. It's far too small to routinely and adequately use at the table. I could bring my laptop but the game shop doesn't have wireless access (or I don't think it does). So what I do know is put my campaign notes in Word or Excel and print the relevant portions up.

How is D&DB better than Word or Excel for creating content? Has anyone used it? I'm struggling to think how even a free service is of any value to me over the tools I already have.

Yes you'll be able to print your character. I'm not sure on the other stuff so I won't comment.

 

[Shasarak]

The irony of this whole thing of course being that while on the one hand we have people here complaining about having to spend money on DDB... while at the same time we have people still complaining that WotC isn't releasing product fast enough and that they "want to give them my money!" I'd be curious to see the Venn diagram of those two groups.

Since when does releasing the same product twice count as releasing two products?

Man, I would like to see the Venn diagram of the people who believe that is true.

 

[kenmarable]

Since when does releasing the same product twice count as releasing two products?

Man, I would like to see the Venn diagram of the people who believe that is true.

It's not the same product being released twice. The extra functionality and usefulness might not be of interest to everyone, but they are in no way the same product twice.

 

[guachi]

Actually checked the free service!

The eternal bane of the internet - had to sign up for an account. At least there's a chance you already have a Twitch account (I didn't)

The character generator is fine and with linkable content (didn't really check) I think this is a great thing for brand new players. I doubt I'd ever use it but for a newb who had no books it's a good and free start along with the free srd and Basic rules.

The other thing I checked was the monster creator. It's as fast as the basic layout I have in Excel. Slap some information down and off I go. I don't know if there is a way to make the spells and abilities linkable the appropriate descriptions, but I hope there is. It would (or could) save a bit of typing by having a link instead of typing a short version of the effects of the spell or condition, which is what I do now.

It's really fast and easy. The fact it's as fast as me typing into Excel is good.

My major complaint about this and a big turnoff is it's not built for a PC screen. It's far too space inefficient. What takes about 1.5 inches of vertical space on my piece of paper takes an entire screen on D&D Beyond. There really needs to be a way to get this information down to the size of an index card or less.

The space usage is really, really bad.

EDIT: The animal icons next to the ability scores are cute. LOL.

 

[eayres33]

It's not the same product being released twice. The extra functionality and usefulness might not be of interest to everyone, but they are in no way the same product twice.

They are not the same product twice, but they are the same content which I think was the point about the venn diagrams. While this is a new product it doesn't provide any new content. If I was upset there was not more player options, or different campaign settings this doesn't resolve that issue. So saying you asked for more products (when most are asking for more content) and then being upset at another product isn't genuine.

I'm not overly impressed by what I've seen and while I understand they have to charge for the work they do, $30 per book is too steep for the use I'd get out of it. For some people it will be worth it, so I hope it does well for them.

 

[darjr]

Yeah. I imagine it's less than one photo a day. Heck, one a month would be generous.
If WotC did that, it'd be dozens of photos each day and endless messages to customer services about how a receipt was lost...

Oh yeah to bad. Maybe if there was some kind of automatic machine that could take numbers and compute and such. Too bad really.