[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]

SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave
SaveSave​

 

[Mouseferatu]

Oof. I really like the looks of this, and I've been eagerly awaiting 5E digital tools, but...

Look, I get the costs associated with this. RPG products are, in general, already under-priced for their value. I will happily pay a subscription, if the service looks worth it. Or I would be willing to pay for individual books or data packs.

But asking us to do both? Unless the costs are way lower than I'm expecting, even with my understanding of the industry, that's a non-starter for me.

 

[mflayermonk]

Looks like they get you when you try to multiclass, so you have to buy both add-ons. If they're smart, feats will also be its own microtransaction.

 

[discosoc]

I want to be more excited about this, but I just know it's going to drown us in microtransactions or some kind of monthly subscription.

 

[Dualazi]

I was tentatively excited when I saw curse was involved, since despite being owned by Twitch they've been pretty reliable providers of modding support. That said, while I appreciate the information given so far by reps from the service itself, I'm less than enthused with what I'm seeing here. Microtransactions are almost always poisonous, and an ongoing subscription on top of that seems like a pretty shameless double-dip, particularly since homebrew options are gated behind it. Price for the full book options will also be suspect, because if wizards/curse thinks I'm paying another full 50$ for a digital convenience they've got another thing coming.

A lot of the features asked for or described are also provided reasonably well by roll20 for free, such as initiative tracking and character sheets/macros. The UI they've teased looks well made, but it's really going to come down to what they can offer that more established VTTs* can't.

* The reason I focus on VTTs more than apps, aside from personal preference, is that I doubt a subscription-based app is going to work well. I honestly think people will simply use paper and pencil if that's their main target audience.

 

[Li Shenron]

Mumble, mumble...

The sneak peak looks nice, but I am not sure how this product would really enhance the way I play D&D.

- I have used a laptop in the past as a DM screen, to look at a hyperlinked SRD while playing 3e. But one of my favourite features of 5e is that I don't actually need to look at the rules that often. I still like my D&D to be very "pen & paper" in nature, it's what makes it complementary to videogames.

- Similarly, I don't get all these people having difficulties with the math, so that they need a digital aid. The math of 5e is so simple that you could avoid the traditional character sheet full of precalculated stuff. The small math required is also part of the fun for me.

- A general problem I have with digital tools, is that they seem to need a lot of stuff to look attractive and thus sell well. They aim at having lots of information + gorgeous artwork on the same page, to look worth their price. However this works against usability. For my preferences, the less the information, the smoother the game.

- I think the price model makes sense from the producer's point of view: the SRD is already free and so asking to pay for it would require the tool to be REALLY a major improvement to the management of the game; allowing custom material for free however would open up the possibility for gamers to copy official supplements material into the tool (and maybe even share it online), so requiring a subscription for this makes sure that at least some revenue is generated. However, this means you need the subscription to incorporate even small house rules and additions, or be forced to apply them "off the tool". I think part of the attractiveness of the digital tool is to have everything at hand, otherwise it'll always feel an insufficient tool... so the choice is between increased & recurring costs, or just forget about the whole thing.

- I tend to buy RPG books as long-term resources with a broad scope. I would never buy "just what I need" because what I need is the idea of a complete game at my hand for a very long time. Not interested in purchasing small bits.

- If you have a subscription, you'd better have time to keep up with it. Unfortunately, I don't usually know if I'm even going to play the game next month. Not interested in subscription either.

- So that leaves me off with either buying the digital version of the full PHB+MM (I could skip the DMG) one-time, or just avoid the digital tool altogether. But I already bought the books, so it's going to be hard for them to provide a cheap enough offer and substantial reasons to use the tool to win me over.

It's not that it doesn't look cool, it's that it doesn't seem it would truly make me play or run the game better.

 

[Hastati]

It's not that it doesn't look cool, it's that it doesn't seem it would truly make me play or run the game better.

I agree with you. I either play face to face or use Fantasy Grounds. I don't see how this will enhance my FG experience and I don't see how it enhances having a PHB and my character in hard copy at the table. It does look "gee whiz awesome", but it doesn't look "must have" to me (but I do get that others will love it, and that's totally cool).

 

[Ricochet]

Looks great and I can't wait to read more!

And of course it'll cost something.

 

[DnDBeyond]

I was tentatively excited when I saw curse was involved, since despite being owned by Twitch they've been pretty reliable providers of modding support. That said, while I appreciate the information given so far by reps from the service itself, I'm less than enthused with what I'm seeing here. Microtransactions are almost always poisonous, and an ongoing subscription on top of that seems like a pretty shameless double-dip, particularly since homebrew options are gated behind it. Price for the full book options will also be suspect, because if wizards/curse thinks I'm paying another full 50$ for a digital convenience they've got another thing coming.

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. "Flexibility" was definitely mentioned.

I know we will never succeed at making everyone on the internet happy, but I do assure you as a 20+-year D&D player and fan, I have expressed most everything I've seen in this thread to one degree or another over the course of the development of the product.

Of course we've got to make money - there's a truly incredible amount of work that goes into crafting something like what we're building and we intend to build out the entirety of our huge roadmap with ongoing updates/ enhancements. I'm looking forward to sharing more about the pricing model soon - I really do think many folks will be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks!

 

[speculart]

The massive good will that would be engendered by giving these tools for free. Unlocked with each purchase of each hardcover..or online equivalent, would be immense.
This should be a tool that makes the game easier to play...across the country, the world, or across the street! Imagine kids using these tools to hook up with their friends in the evenings.

You should be thinking of a google hangouts/ skype like equivalent, with rules and content. Easy play, for theater of the mind.

 

[raleel]

With new rules content every six months? That means at least one full time developer at $50,000 per year.
Just covering her salary would be 1000 people each month at $5/ month. Plus office space, servers, bandwidth, computers, benefits, etc. You'll probably want at least a few thousand subscribers.

That's just for upkeep. You also need to recoup the initial six to twelve months of development costs.

You are underpaying your developers! I hire new guys out of school for more than that, with benefits.