[UPDATED!] D&D Beyond: An Official D&D Digital Toolset & Character Builder

D&D Beyond has just been announced! Coming this summer, and billed as "Your digital D&D source", it has a compendium of official content, character builder and manager, the ability to use home-brew content, D&D forums, and is usable on any device. A 1-minute announcement trailer can be seen below. D&D Beyond is produced by a company called Curse Inc, owned by Twitch. Right now, there's a signup for the Beta version. More info as/when it becomes available! [UPDATES: The D&D Beyond folks have offered some more info, which I have included below; I will be chatting with them later this week, with luck!]

"We are excited to announce development of D&D Beyond, an official digital toolset for use with the Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition rules. We have partnered with Curse to take D&D players beyond pen and paper, providing a rules compendium, character builder, digital character sheets, and more—all populated with official D&D content. D&D Beyond aims to make game management easier for both players and Dungeon Masters by providing high-quality tools available on any device, empowering beginners and veterans alike!" goes the official description.

"D&D Beyond speaks to the way gamers are able to blend digital tools with the fun of storytelling around the table with your friends,” said Nathan Stewart, Senior Director of Dungeons & Dragons. "These tools represent a way forward for D&D, and we’re excited to get them into the hands of players soon!"

The company, Curse Inc., is owned by Twitch, and is based in San Francisco, with offices in various countries. They produce tools and communities for gamers - up until now, mainly video games. They started as a way to organise the founder's World of Warcraft add-ons about 10 years ago, and grew into a multinational company from there. The company makes a desktop app called the Curse Client, along with community driven wikis, tools, guides, and databases for games like Minecraft, Diablo, Countersrike, Overwatch, and more. In 2016, it was announced that Twitch would acquire Curse.

Features, from the website, include:

• D&D Compendium with Official Content
• Create, Browse, & Use Homebrew Content
• Manage Characters - Build, Progress, & Play
• D&D News, Articles, Forums, & More
• Access Anywhere, Anytime, on Any Device

That last item makes it sound like it'll work offline, which will be a popular move. And the home-brew content mention is also important, especially because WotC supports DMs Guild.

UPDATES: I checked with WotC's Greg Tito who confirmed "D&D Beyond will work without an internet connection. That's a big deal for the devs!"

Adam over at D&D Beyond confirmed a little about the pricing model:

"At launch, players will be able to access SRD content and build and view a small number of characters with a free D&D Beyond account.

We don’t have exact pricing nailed down, but you will also be able to buy official digital D&D content for all fifth edition products with flexible purchase options. You can pay only for the D&D content you need. If you only play fighters, for example, you’ll be able to just pick up the stuff you need to track swinging that giant two-handed sword.

A small monthly subscription will be needed to manage more than a handful of characters and to enable more advanced features, like homebrew content integration. At this time, we don’t know exactly how much the subscription will cost."

He also confirmed that the pricing structure is not about microtransactions: "I'm about to get on a plane so I've got to be brief, but I wanted to check in and make it clear that "microtransactions" were not mentioned and are not what the model is about."

And also that D&D Beyond is definitely not a Virtual Game Table (VTT): "D&D Beyond is intended to enhance gameplay around a table (virtual or otherwise) - we intend this to be completely complementary and have no intention of creating a VTT."

[video=youtube;Dn8Kpmm_aJA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn8Kpmm_aJA[/video]

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[Nylanfs]

Oh man, if I could print out a monster stat block, or access them on a laptop at the table, wow, that would be a game-changer.

Currently I use Valloric's statblocks that I make my own versions of monsters with. It's not difficult, but it's time-consuming and an extra step in the prep process. I'd love a statblock that I could print out like with Valloric's.

Have you seen PCGen's output?

 

[DEFCON 1]

If you don't want to pay for a subscription because you already pay other subscriptions... then don't. Nobody cares.

But you can be darn sure that if it makes the most sense for Curse to use the subscription model, and they are fairly certain there are enough people in the hundreds of thousands out there playing D&D that *are* willing to pay a monthly subscription... then they're going to do it happily.

If that means you get left out... too bad. Play the game as you always have. It's your choice. But it's not their job to make your life easier, its their job to make their product profitable for them.

 

[DEFCON 1]

And let us also never forget that if you own a pencil, some pieces of paper, and either some dice or you have a way of downloading a dice app... this hobby is literally free of charge. It's only if you want the extra bells and whistles that it starts costing more money. Whether or not you wish to spend that money for those bells and whistles is up to you, but none of the makers are obligated to offer them to you cheaply or easily. You have to decide how far down the aisle you wish to go.

 

[BoldItalic]

I'll happily participate in the beta (I've signed up) to help these guys make a good product better. Good luck to them, I hope the project succeeds.

I'm not too worried about the pricing model - market forces will sort that out fairly rapidly - what matters at this stage is that it functions well as a product, is easy and fun to use, is relatively easy to maintain behind the scenes and actually delivers something that people need (or, at least, want).

 

[Nylanfs]

And let us also never forget that if you own a pencil, some pieces of paper, and either some dice or you have a way of downloading a dice app... this hobby is literally free of charge. It's only if you want the extra bells and whistles that it starts costing more money. Whether or not you wish to spend that money for those bells and whistles is up to you, but none of the makers are obligated to offer them to you cheaply or easily. You have to decide how far down the aisle you wish to go.

And there's always the option of PCGen...

 

[Satyrn]

I'll happily participate in the beta (I've signed up) to help these guys make a good product better. Good luck to them, I hope the project succeeds.

I'm not too worried about the pricing model - market forces will sort that out fairly rapidly - what matters at this stage is that it functions well as a product, is easy and fun to use, is relatively easy to maintain behind the scenes and actually delivers something that people need (or, at least, want).

Easy to use - specifically "quick to use while playing" - is what I want. Something unobtrusive that speeds up the ordinary tasks of tracking hit points, ticking off a use of superiority dice or a spell slot, and the like. That is the important feature for me.

I have not yet found any tool that is actually quicker at that than using pencil and paper. I wonder if this one will be, and if I can help them make it so. That's why I'm looking forward to participating in the Beta.

 

[fantasmamore]

Defcon 1, I am not sure if you are responding to me. If that's the case then...

If you don't want to pay for a subscription because you already pay other subscriptions... then don't. Nobody cares.

That's not very kind of you. You know that I can respond "nobody cares" to anything you say about... anything, right? But that's not the point. We "gather" here to talk about our hobby and, sure, if you don't care about something, move on, forget about it! That's what I do when I don't care.

But it's not their job to make your life easier, its their job to make their product profitable for them.

And I quote myself "So, please, do whatever is best for your company and the publisher but give me the alternative to buy things that I can own. I will never go back to the DDi model, ever again."
So,what I say is that they can do whatever is best for them but also give the alternative to buy stuff. Which they actually did. We will be able to buy stuff, we will be able to use it offline. That's all I wanted.

And as for the second message, I know that playing RPG is free if you have pencils etc... But what does it have to do with the app? I never said that if the app is expensive I will not play DnD. If the app is expensive I will not buy/ subscribe to the app.

 

[Corpsetaker]

Just once it would be interesting to see what a positive post from you would look like.

Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not a Wizards fanboy who does positive just for the sake of positive. My parents taught me to always be honest so I'm just calling it as I see it.

 

[DM Magic]

Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not a Wizards fanboy who does positive just for the sake of positive. My parents taught me to always be honest so I'm just calling it as I see it.

You must be fun at parties.

 

[DM Magic]

I'll happily participate in the beta (I've signed up) to help these guys make a good product better. Good luck to them, I hope the project succeeds.

I'm not too worried about the pricing model - market forces will sort that out fairly rapidly - what matters at this stage is that it functions well as a product, is easy and fun to use, is relatively easy to maintain behind the scenes and actually delivers something that people need (or, at least, want).

Well said!