[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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[Mistwell]

Simply because the market they are aiming this at doesn't need or want the digital table element. It's over kill and takes away for the game for us.

Sure I get that. But...why would it cost MORE than something that does the same thing and also supports a DTT (for dozens of RPGs) and adventures, including all the avatars and maps and monsters and npcs etc...?

I mean, at $20/month PLUS $50 per product, we're talking way more than any other product offering out there - digital or paper. I was just saying I was surprised someone would want to pay what would amount to $340 a year for this product. To me, that just seems off the chart way beyond what I could conceive of paying.

 

[daplunk]

Sure I get that. But...why would it cost MORE than something that does the same thing and also supports a DTT (for dozens of RPGs) and adventures, including all the avatars and maps and monsters and npcs etc...?

I wasn't aware anyone was discussing price yet since its an unknown.

 

[BoldItalic]

I wasn't aware anyone was discussing price yet since its an unknown.

But, but, if enough people complain that it costs too much even before they know how much it's going to cost, they will make it free, won't they?

Won't they?

Oh.

 

[DEFCON 1]

A lot of people said that Project: Morningstar would fail and unfortunately they were right.

Hopefully this new one does better.

True. But I will point out that it failed because the company couldn't deliver the product, not that nobody sign up for it. Which was Corpsetaker's contention-- that Curse wouldn't make any money because no one would subscribe to the service.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

I just stumbled on this and hadn't seen it in this thread. Sorry if it's already been posted or old news:

http://www.tribality.com/2017/03/15/dd-beyond-qa-with-curses-senior-product-manager-adam-bradford/

 

[Reynard]

I just stumbled on this and hadn't seen it in this thread. Sorry if it's already been posted or old news:

http://www.tribality.com/2017/03/15/dd-beyond-qa-with-curses-senior-product-manager-adam-bradford/

Interesting interview.

The vibe is definitely a player first utility, intended so that everyone around the table is using the app not just the DM. I wonder what that means for DM specific capabilities (the interview mentions encounter builder in the future) and whether DM utilities will be more expensive -- which is fairly typical for the hobby in general and certainly electronic utilities (I pay A LOT to be able to run 5E on FG for my players, most of whom spend $0).

 

[Mistwell]

I wasn't aware anyone was discussing price yet since its an unknown.

But, but, if enough people complain that it costs too much even before they know how much it's going to cost, they will make it free, won't they?

Won't they?

Oh.

I was replying to someone who specified the price they were willing to pay, saying I was surprised he'd be willing to pay that much given it's more than other products that also offer more things for that money, and that's how we got here. If you guys were not aware of the discussion of price, I am not sure how you ended up quoting me to begin with

 

[BoldItalic]

I was replying to someone who specified the price they were willing to pay, saying I was surprised he'd be willing to pay that much given it's more than other products that also offer more things for that money, and that's how we got here. If you guys were not aware of the discussion of price, I am not sure how you ended up quoting me to begin with

Sorry, [MENTION=2525]Mistwell[/MENTION], my reply wasn't directed at you. I shouldn't have quoted [MENTION=6778883]daplunk[/MENTION] out of context. My bad.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

https://twitter.com/dndbeyond/status/842436498251255810

Looks like we won't have long to find out what it's like.

 

[Queer Venger]

For my part Im glad there will be no VTT, I think that is not what we need. Also happy that this is only for 5e; I can imagine the burdensome behemoth of crap that supporting previous editions would result in.