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.

 

[Shasarak]

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.

So what new content does this "new" product have?

 

[kenmarable]

So what new content does this "new" product have?

Rather than a bunch of prose text on a page, I have all the information contained in that text parsed into usable data in a set of online tools. As anyone who tried to do that knows, that is a massive, time consuming task that adds a lot of value to it. It might not be useful to everyone, but to a lot of us that is extremely useful.

No there are no new text of classes or monsters. But if all you want is text, then this isn't the product for you. If you want it as data - which is a very different sort of beast than raw text - then this is certainly a different and far more useful product.

As I said with my analogy earlier, with the raw steak from the grocery store and the the fine meal prepared by a world class chef at the restaurant, why should I pay the chef? They are both just steaks, right? What content is added by the chef?

 

[Remathilis]

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

You seem convinced WotC has a computer which can scan digital images and determine if two different pictures of the same book with the same cover are in fact two separate copies which belong the sender of said picture.

 

[Uchawi]

If they provide the tools to create adventures, characters, monsters, items, etc. and share the materials then it would be worth the price. I am paying for a service to reach beyond my local base of players, or just make it easier to play in general. However, I want the feature to download and own anything I create. That includes purchasing PDF books. So there is a fine line between owning what you purchase and leasing a mechanism to make playing easier.

 

[Nebulous]

What kind of monster builder capability will D&D Beyond contain?

 

[darjr]

You seem convinced WotC has a computer which can scan digital images and determine if two different pictures of the same book with the same cover are in fact two separate copies which belong the sender of said picture.

Never said that. But image scanning and processing has come a long long way.

Still your scanning idea sounds not smart.

I do think WotC is thinking of some kind of book purchase verification, they've thought about it before and have recently hinted about it again.

I wouldn't be surprised if they have some idea to do it and the smarts they've shown with DMsGuild and the OGL it might be cool.

 

[Shasarak]

Rather than a bunch of prose text on a page, I have all the information contained in that text parsed into usable data in a set of online tools. As anyone who tried to do that knows, that is a massive, time consuming task that adds a lot of value to it. It might not be useful to everyone, but to a lot of us that is extremely useful.

I guess it is a difficult distinction to draw between people asking for new content and new products that are serving up the same old content that we have already gotten.

To continue your steak analogy, it is like asking for Chicken and then the chef cooking up beef steak a different way. I am sure it is great beef steak but not what I ordered.

 

[kenmarable]

What kind of monster builder capability will D&D Beyond contain?

It is currently available even in the Beta if you want to try it out. But you first have two options:

1. Use an existing monster as a template
2. Create from scratch

It looks like it functions the same either way (I haven't used it heavily yet, but played around a little), just using an existing monster pre-populates the fields.

Things like ability scores, size, type, alignment, CR, AC, Immunity/Resistance, hit points, skills, senses, movement types, and such are all data fields. Special traits, actions, reactions, legendary actions, etc. are text areas you can enter formatted text.

The data fields then all tie into their filters, and the textboxes are searchable as plain text. It is not there currently, but the developers have said there will be the ability to increase or decrease the CR of monsters and have some of the values change automatically. I'm interested to see how that will work and whether it will be with homebrew monsters.

Ideally, they could turn the attacks (or at least their standard melee and ranged attacks) into data fields rather than plain text, but they are not that way right now. However, they have said they will continually improve upon it over time.

So it's a decent start, but with room to grow. Every field that is an actual data field rather than plain text is a great hook for future functionality. I hope it's successful enough to start making use of more of those hooks.

 

[kenmarable]

I guess it is a difficult distinction to draw between people asking for new content and new products that are serving up the same old content that we have already gotten.

To continue your steak analogy, it is like asking for Chicken and then the chef cooking up beef steak a different way. I am sure it is great beef steak but not what I ordered.

No it is not a difficult distinction. Getting new books and getting the same content in different usable forms are, of course, not the same thing.

But a physical book on my shelf and the data in an online tool are also, of course, not the same thing.

Defcon 1's point (I think it was them) was that knowing human nature, it's interesting to notice fans saying they want to give WotC more money to support D&D, but then saying "Oh no, but not like THAT." Of course you can ask for more books but not be interested in D&D Beyond. Yes, I agree with you that those aren't mutually exclusive ideas. I took Defcon 1's point as a general comment "Huh, people can be funny sometimes." not "You bunch of hypocrites!"

However, the flip side you replied with went too far the other way claiming that D&D Beyond is just buying the same book again. The physical book on your shelf and the data in an online tool are very different things, not the same book twice. Maybe the data in the online tool isn't worth anymore to you than the book on your shelf. That doesn't make it the same thing. No added value to ME is a very different thing from no added value at all.

(It's a point a lot of people seem to be missing an awful lot. I think it was over on the DDB forums that someone said they "can put a music CD in their computer and get all of the songs in iTunes. What's the difference here?" To which someone replied "Ok, shove your Players Handbook into your computer and see if a tool like DDB comes out.")

 

[Shasarak]

No it is not a difficult distinction. Getting new books and getting the same content in different usable forms are, of course, not the same thing.

But a physical book on my shelf and the data in an online tool are also, of course, not the same thing.

Defcon 1's point (I think it was them) was that knowing human nature, it's interesting to notice fans saying they want to give WotC more money to support D&D, but then saying "Oh no, but not like THAT." Of course you can ask for more books but not be interested in D&D Beyond. Yes, I agree with you that those aren't mutually exclusive ideas. I took Defcon 1's point as a general comment "Huh, people can be funny sometimes." not "You bunch of hypocrites!"

However, the flip side you replied with went too far the other way claiming that D&D Beyond is just buying the same book again. The physical book on your shelf and the data in an online tool are very different things, not the same book twice. Maybe the data in the online tool isn't worth anymore to you than the book on your shelf. That doesn't make it the same thing. No added value to ME is a very different thing from no added value at all.

(It's a point a lot of people seem to be missing an awful lot. I think it was over on the DDB forums that someone said they "can put a music CD in their computer and get all of the songs in iTunes. What's the difference here?" To which someone replied "Ok, shove your Players Handbook into your computer and see if a tool like DDB comes out.")

You say that it is not a difficult distinction while failing to see the distinction between wanting new content and getting old content in a new way.

Anyone who claims that DnD Beyond is the new content that we have been waiting for is , well lets just say mistaken.