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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[Jan Bernd ten Berg]

So I just tweeted the author asking if this was different from the Beyond apps. He said it was. If that's the case I really don't understand it, because it then just sounds like a less useful version of the D&D Beyond Compendium.

I agree. I haven't paid for any of the books for things like Roll20, but wen D&D Beyond was launched, decided to make a go at it. And I'm quite pleased with what D&D Beyond offers thus far. The character builder is quite decent (though still not half as good as ForgedAnvil's spreadsheet character sheet) and getting better all the time. But the true revelation are the books. I bought the basic books (PHB, DMG, MM) and some of the more interesting parts of other books (playable character races from Volo's, and spells from Sword Coast Adventurers' Guide). And looking up things in these digital books is a delight, on any device. It is easy, quick, and efficient. (There's no true search function in D&DB, but I think it'll come.) Another thing I bought was Tomb of Annihilation. (For $ 24.99 on the day it came out.) And I'm going to run that campaign without actually buying the physical book. From what I now have gleaned, the D&DB version of Tomb will be more than enough to run the game. Maybe I'll buy some of the maps from the Mike Schley directly, so that I can print them and blow them up. Because the maps in D&DB are ridiculously small scale and not very good to scale up and print. But otherwise very pleased with D&DB. So why would I go to a new app, which can do basically the same thing and has less functionality than D&DB?

 

[Echohawk]

Because the maps in D&DB are ridiculously small scale and not very good to scale up and print. But otherwise very pleased with D&DB.

I think clicking on the maps usually brings up a larger scale version, which you can then right click to save.

 

[DEFCON 1]

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

You wouldn't. Which is fine. They're not expecting every customer to buy every single electronic thing that comes out.

But there are thousands of people who didn't buy Beyond, and quite possibly some of them will want the books in an electronic format that doesn't have all the bells and whistles of Beyond. And thus they'll perhaps buy this app. Which is fine.

 

[Ilbranteloth]

So it's the 2e problem reimagined.

Rather than too many settings dividing up a limited pool of dollars it's too many websites offering the same products dividing up a limited pool of dollars.

Vastly different.

In 2e there were too many products released. Each product has a production cost that must be recouped before you start making a profit on that product. In a great many cases, none of the products recouped their cost, they were cannibalizing their own sales.

With the current approach, it's providing the same content (no additional cost of production) to new channels. For WotC it's entirely profit. They've already produced the content and paid for it's production.

The companies producing the digital tools are taking on the expense of developing and supporting the product, and the risk of failure.

This is new channels for the same content. That's very different from too much content.

 

[Ilbranteloth]

I am unclear on whether this is actually a WOTC product, or a Dialect product, or a joint venture?

Best I can tell (which is a lot of speculation so far) is that it's a Dialect product. I am skeptical with WotC current staffing and direction that they would be developing an "official" or "in-house (even if outsourced)" digital delivery system for D&D. That would be a direct move against their existing (and potential future) digital providers.

While it's a niche market, it's also a relatively inexpensive market to enter, if all you have to do is pay a royalty on each sale of WotC content.

 

[Ilbranteloth]

"Confusing" in the sense of "why the hell would you do this," not "I don't know what it is." Obviously.

There's already a delivery method for this sort of product, it's proven, it works, and people like it. The only reason to do it this way is if you want to keep a stranglehold on an IP. Which they can't, and have already failed to do.

Thus their decision is confusing. Because it doesn't make any sense.

On another note, if you could cease being condescending, that would be amazing.

Unless it's a different company (that is, it's not a WotC product) that wants to take part in the business.

Dialect is a company that makes digital content delivery products.
Dialect sees that WotC has content that people want delivered in a digital product.
Dialect sees other companies that have released digital products with that content, and several seem to be successful.
Dialect thinks they can do it better, or at least well enough that they can make a profit by adding another line of digital content to their offerings.

I think that makes perfect sense. If I was a decent developer, I'd jump in the ring personally, because I have yet to see a product that does what I want it to do.

 

[Ilbranteloth]

Options don't bother me one bit. What I'm highly dubious about is the pricing model that offshores all risk onto partners and the consumer and are strongly premised on multiple purchases of the same content.

Of course, in the past they were much better, only producing physical books and expecting that somebody else would take all of the risk and expense of, you know, opening a book store.

Most books nowadays are available in print, ebook (sometimes multiple competing formats), and audiobook. This isn't really any different, other than they are allowing other companies to share in the profits of their work too.

In business, accepting risk also allows you to potentially participate in the profits too.

Best I can tell, WotC is collecting a royalty on each sale, instead of requiring a lot of money up front. Making it possible for small companies to either leverage their existing product, or develop a new delivery system that they think is different or better. Even more important, if I were a developer, I'd drop any possibility of developing a product is WotC was funding one of my potential competitors.

They seem to have a very fair approach.

I don't see how they are premised on multiple purchases. If you use Roll20, then purchase it once. No need to purchase it more than once. There's no content that is held back. If you want a hard copy, then it's probably easiest to buy the book(s) too, but it's certainly not required. Roll20 could certainly opt to be a reseller of the books too, and offer a package book/digital deal, for example.

WotC is, at its heart, a publisher, a creator of content. They could opt to be the only source of that content. Then if they decide a digital delivery system is something, they'd do it. If not, then no digital content for you. Or they design a digital delivery system that you don't like. With no alternatives, you're stuck.

I also suspect that the folks that own/work for D&D Beyond, Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, etc., are probably pretty happy that they can provide D&D content for their products. I would guess they have much higher sales (and profitability) than without.

 

[CapnZapp]

With the current approach, it's providing the same content [] to new channels.

This is new channels for the same content.

A-HA!

I'm gonna tell that to the "no, you aren't buying the same content three times" crowd right away!

*runs out of thread*



Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[DEFCON 1]

Sure, you're buying the content three times... unless you happen to realize you don't NEED to buy it three times, at which point you won't.

Now if you happen to have the inane belief that if you buy something once it means you should therefore receive every single other iteration of it for perpetuity at no cost, you're going to be utterly flummoxed when the world laughs at you for holding that belief.

Sent from my SM-J320V using EN World mobile app

 

[Remathilis]

You wouldn't. Which is fine. They're not expecting every customer to buy every single electronic thing that comes out.

But there are thousands of people who didn't buy Beyond, and quite possibly some of them will want the books in an electronic format that doesn't have all the bells and whistles of Beyond. And thus they'll perhaps buy this app. Which is fine.

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.