D&D Reader App Coming This Fall? [UPDATED]

Many people have been asking for official D&D PDFs, and WotC has been addressing the need for electronic reference materials at the table in various ways. According to Mashable, WotC is releasing a D&D Reader App this fall. It's not a PDF, but it's basically a D&D-specific Kindle-esque app for iOS and Android. Mashable reports that "Each book is broken up into different sections. So with, say, the Player's Handbook, you can tap on little thumbnails in your library to check out the introduction, a step-by-step guide to character creation, a rundown of races, individual sections for each character class, equipment, and all the other pieces that, together, form the D&D Player's Handbook."

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It's possible they are just referring to D&D Beyond (some of the details below correspond very closely with that), but it may be that a separate D&D Reader is in the pipeline.

UPDATE -- EN World member TDarien asked Adam Rosenburg (the author of the article) whether this was different to D&D Beyond, who replied "Yup. Beyond is more activity-oriented, so it can handle stuff like dice rolls. Reader is basically Kindle, with good, clear chapter divides."

UPDATE 2 -- EN World member kenmarable has spotted that Polygon also has an article about this. It is a separate app called D&D Reader - not D&D Beyond - being made by Dialect, the company which does Dragon+ for WotC. They tried a beta version, although it wasn't complete at the time.

Other items from the report include:

• You can favourite specific pages.
• Some of it is free, and the rparts of books are paywalled. "If, for example, you'll only ever care about rolling a bard, you can just buy that. Prices for individual sections are $3 or $5 (depending on what you buy) and the three full rulebooks — Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide — are $30 apiece for everything."
• If you buy parts of a book then buy the full thing, the cost is pro-rated.The free sections include "character creation, basic classes, gear, ability scores, combat, spellcasting, and all the other sort of ground-level features that everyone needs to understand in order to play."

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[seebs]

If anyone wants to play D&D 5E via PDF, they can. They can download the Basic Rules.

If someone is choosing not to do that, and also is choosing not to buy the 5E hardcover books because they can't also get it in PDF... my personal opinion is that that person doesn't really care to play 5E or not. Which means they are probably playing a different game (quite possibly another version of D&D)... and if that's the case, then Wizards of the Coast is fine with that.

After all... if having a full suite of PDFs of the edition of D&D you are playing is a requirement to you... you have many previous editions of D&D you can play right now. Most books from most of the previous editions all available to you on DMsGuild. Congrats! Happy gaming!

I just hope no one is cutting off their nose to spite their face. Deliberately not playing in a 5E game they actually really want to play in but won't, just because they can't get a book in PDF. That seems ridiculously self-flagellating to me. But hey... if playing a High Elf Noble Thief, a Mountain Dwarf Folk Hero Champion, or a Human Criminal Evoker doesn't do it for you (all things you can play in 5E via PDF)... c'est la vie.

Oh, I play 5E. I just have a worse play experience than I would if they released PDFs, and I probably buy fewer books than I would if they released PDFs.

I do think you're underestimating the significance of accessibility concerns. Physical books don't allow screen readers. Having only a small subset of the game in textual format, and that for free, means no income at all from people who would need disability accommodations...

 

[seebs]

What!?!? A company (Dialect) that wants to sell you their product? I can’t believe it.

Dialect doesn’t have any skin in the game about piracy.

And like I said, I think that this, along with several other digital content providers selling this content is a pretty strong argument that WotC isn’t providing PDFs because it would compete directly against the companies that are buying their content to sell digitally.

Let’s see...we can sell or provide PDFs to our customers directly, or we can sell the same content to multiple companies competing in the open market to develop innovative products to add value?

Sell at a discount/give away with purchase or....sell more stuff?

Seems pretty obvious to me. And from what I can tell, of the three (more?) sources already selling the content, they all seem to be doing quite well in selling the content. Each company isn’t really concerned about getting their product in every gamer’s hand, not that they would mind. No, they each have their sales goals, their own business model, and they measure success off of that.

There's a lot of people who'd buy a PDF from Wizards, but won't buy the various third-party things. (I won't, because I have no confidence that they will last and be accessible later.) So they're throwing away a large portion of the prospective market for digital copies, but in exchange, they're letting someone else siphon lots of the profit away from the sales they do make. Brilliant!

I don't think it would be very direct competition. PDFs are not competing with Beyond very effectively; if you want Beyond, what it does is way better for you than what a PDF does would be.

But the net result is, people who have "pirated" copies of the game get a play experience that I would like much better than anything Wizards is willing to sell me. And that's sort of the essence of "anti-piracy" measures; they don't hurt pirates, they do hurt paying customers.

 

[Azgulor]

There’s only one other movie in the series.

A-FRAKKIN-MEN!!!!

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

Just weighing in to shake my head in disbelief over WotC's crazy pdf allergy this edition.

As far as I know, WotC has never released PDFs of the current edition of D&D, certainly not widely.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

Oh, I play 5E. I just have a worse play experience than I would if they released PDFs, and I probably buy fewer books than I would if they released PDFs. <...> Having only a small subset of the game in textual format, and that for free, means no income at all from people who would need disability accommodations...

Or just want to be able to avoid having to carry a giant pile of books and instead have things available on a tablet in the event that a monster, magic item, spell, or some text/description needs to be looked up. I've taken a tablet with the PDF and the dead tree book to the same session so I can have the PDF open to a page I know I'll need quickly and be able to flip through the book.

 

[Jay Verkuilen]

There's a lot of people who'd buy a PDF from Wizards, but won't buy the various third-party things. (I won't, because I have no confidence that they will last and be accessible later.)

I totally agree with you and that really crystallizes my issue with the pricing model. WotC has talked about how TSR in the 2E days fragmented its market, creating a lot of fratricidal competition. In this case, they've managed to offshore the risk but by having so many different digital offerings they've created a fragmented market. However, I'm very much of the mind that at least one of these companies, possibly more, will go belly up in a few years. So the "lifetime access" I'm buying is decidedly temporary in an unpredictable way.

 

[darjr]

As far as I know, WotC has never released PDFs of the current edition of D&D, certainly not widely.

4e was released on drive thru in PDF.

In fact they took it down citing piracy. https://m.slashdot.org/story/116889

 

[Nikosandros]

As far as I know, WotC has never released PDFs of the current edition of D&D, certainly not widely.

4e was released in PDF from Drivethru until they stopped PDF altogether for some years and pulled all of them (including the previous editions ones) from all the vendors.

 

[Charles Kovacs]

such convoluted ways to just deliver something you already have with the books. Searchable? I think most don't care, sticky notes and those little adhesive page tabs work just fine for me.

If you don't have a book then maybe these eSolutions are cool(or if your a DM and have to lug all the crap around. But most players only bring their char sheets to sessions and maybe their PHB. I have only met a few players that drag all their books with them to a session.

 

[darjr]

Edit to add that yea, I'm probably full of it.


I think they are testing the waters.

I'll further add that this WILL lead to a PDF of the core set.

I think it's just a matter of time now.