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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[Ilbranteloth]

Even if they didn't want the "bells and whistles" of Beyond's databases, character generator, and the like, Reader is still a poor choice because you can buy the compendium-only option for each book (which is just the book text/art, and nothing else) for $20 per book on Beyond, a full 10 dollars less than Dialect is selling it at.

All I gotta say is; hope Dialect's UI is worth $10 more per book.

Well, I haven’t seen D&D Reader yet, but a better UI than D&D Beyond is worth more to me than tools I won’t use. Of course, D&D Beyond’s mobile apps may provide what I need too. Well just have to wait until the products are out to see.

And although the interview mentioned prices, it doesn’t mean that Dialect can’t ever change them or provide discounts. Again, until the product is actually released...

 

[Ovinomancer]

Well, I haven’t seen D&D Reader yet, but a better UI than D&D Beyond is worth more to me than tools I won’t use. Of course, D&D Beyond’s mobile apps may provide what I need too. Well just have to wait until the products are out to see.

And although the interview mentioned prices, it doesn’t mean that Dialect can’t ever change them or provide discounts. Again, until the product is actually released...

This is crazy talk. Of course the reader is locked into being only the extremely limited feature set talked about in the interview. There absolutely can't be anything else added, ever never. The information we have now is utterly compete and immutable.

Don't you know how the internet works?

[/poeslawdisclaimer]

 

[Remathilis]

This is crazy talk. Of course the reader is locked into being only the extremely limited feature set talked about in the interview. There absolutely can't be anything else added, ever never. The information we have now is utterly compete and immutable.

Don't you know how the internet works?

[/poeslawdisclaimer]

Then they need to get their PR people out there explaining why $30 spent on DDR is worth as much as $30 spent on DDB, or worth more than the $20 to go Compendium Only on DDB.

Personally, if all I wanted was the book in an app; I'd be far better off waiting for DDB's app and paying $10 less than what they opted to show in the preview articles. "D&D books using Dragon+'s UI" isn't worth $10 extra compared to DDB's compendium only option.

 

[fjw70]

One thing to keep in mind is that when the question of whether DDR is connected to DDB has come up Curse has basically said no comment. As far as I know there has not been anything official from Dialect or WotC either.

So there may be something with these products going on behind the scenes. Is Curse and Dialact partnering on this? Who knows. Only time will tell.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Then they need to get their PR people out there explaining why $30 spent on DDR is worth as much as $30 spent on DDB, or worth more than the $20 to go Compendium Only on DDB.

Personally, if all I wanted was the book in an app; I'd be far better off waiting for DDB's app and paying $10 less than what they opted to show in the preview articles. "D&D books using Dragon+'s UI" isn't worth $10 extra compared to DDB's compendium only option.

Well, that's on Dialect to make their case. But people spend money in all manner of ways and are not concerned with getting the cheapest thing all the time. So Dialect will do what Dialect will do. If it works for them, great... if it doesn't, then it doesn't. Why anyone would concern themselves over their work is beyond me.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Then they need to get their PR people out there explaining why $30 spent on DDR is worth as much as $30 spent on DDB, or worth more than the $20 to go Compendium Only on DDB.

Personally, if all I wanted was the book in an app; I'd be far better off waiting for DDB's app and paying $10 less than what they opted to show in the preview articles. "D&D books using Dragon+'s UI" isn't worth $10 extra compared to DDB's compendium only option.

I'd agree with you if there was a service for sale right now. Since its still in development and not for sale, I don't. You can continue to think that Dialect should drop some marketing copy for a product they're still developing, but you're going to be awfully disappointed in the world.

 

[Shasarak]

So why would I go to a new app, which can do basically the same thing and has less functionality than D&DB?

Look we are dealing with customers that think Players Handbook 2 is an updated version of Players Handbook 1. We just have to accept that some people like to spend $20 for a product and some people like to spend $30.

 

[Remathilis]

I'd agree with you if there was a service for sale right now. Since its still in development and not for sale, I don't. You can continue to think that Dialect should drop some marketing copy for a product they're still developing, but you're going to be awfully disappointed in the world.

Then they had little business letting Mashable and Polygon in to write a preview article on it. Its not like they were responding to FOIA request, they LET writers in to preview the app, ask questions, and write about it. Furthermore, its set to release "this fall" as in the season we're in RIGHT NOW. If this was some alpha-level software being hinted at on Reddit or something, I'd agree with you; but if this a product that is slated for release between today and Christmas, they better have a DAMN SIGHT more put into this than "proof of concept" work.

 

[Ovinomancer]

Then they had little business letting Mashable and Polygon in to write a preview article on it. Its not like they were responding to FOIA request, they LET writers in to preview the app, ask questions, and write about it. Furthermore, its set to release "this fall" as in the season we're in RIGHT NOW. If this was some alpha-level software being hinted at on Reddit or something, I'd agree with you; but if this a product that is slated for release between today and Christmas, they better have a DAMN SIGHT more put into this than "proof of concept" work.

Right, no, I get that you think businesses should operate their marketing according to how you think it should be done. What I don't get is why you're so angry about them not doing it how you know it should be done.

 

[Remathilis]

Right, no, I get that you think businesses should operate their marketing according to how you think it should be done. What I don't get is why you're so angry about them not doing it how you know it should be done.

Honestly, I don't care. Let the project fail and they can offer rebates to the dozen or so people who bought books on this before they realized there are cheaper or more robust alternatives. I just don't want to see yet-another failed D&D software project added to the list.

I'd say I'm shocked how many people are willing to pay $30 for the same content they can get for $20 elsewhere, but I only need look at iPhones to realize how people are willing to pay top dollar for inferior products...