[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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[dropbear8mybaby]

I think most people would pay at least 5$/mo for the suite of tools they've said will be included, especially if the combat tracker is any good, and you can access other people's homebrew material, create your own, build custom monsters, etc. if it gives you Compendium, CB, and encounter builder access to all the official content? I'll pay 70$ a year for that.

It all boils down to how good it is. For instance, I regret buying Hero Lab. I don't think it's worth the price tag. I wouldn't pay $5 a month for something at that level of usability, functionality and support. I wouldn't pay for OrcPub either and think Fantasy Grounds is a rip-off. Roll20 is almost about right but it's also not what I'm interested in. So sure, if it's a suite of tools that I find worth $5 p/m, I'll pay for it. But it better be, in my estimation, worth $5 a month.

Now, that may sound cheap to some people but like I've pointed out, this is competing with my other interests from a limited pool of resources. And everyone is going to be making that same decision. In a global market, companies need to realise that it's better to have more customers paying less, than less customers paying more.

 

[Mistwell]

I'd pay $5-$10/month for access to everything.

I'd pay a one-time $50 charge for access to everything.

But I won't likely pay a one-time charge and a monthly subscription fee for everything (regardless of what prices those are set to, unless the one-time is ridiculously small).

I know from a numbers perspective that doesn't make sense. If it were $20 up front and $3/month instead of $50 up front for example, it would be essentially the same price. But psychologically, I just don't like the idea of paying both a flat-fee for content/features AND a subscription fee. I feel like I should be able to choose to do one or the other, but not both, to get access to all content and features.

 

[Lanliss]

well, hopefully all this discussion of doom and gloom has not scared off Mr. Adam-from-Curse, and we might actually get some answers. Anyone else think the majority of the complaints should be saved for after we actually know anything about it?

 

[Mirtek]

. And both figures are minimums, because it only includes DDI subscribers with active subscriptions AND forum accounts, which not all DDI subs had..

Actually your DDI sub account doubled as your forum account, so those were in.

I remember much argument about this in partiular, culminating in sime users digging through the visible list oft DDIaccount namens to find the account some other user claimed was from a friend who had DDI and no forum account and thus would be missing in the figure

 

[Mirtek]

well, hopefully all this discussion of doom and gloom has not scared off Mr. Adam-from-Curse, and we might actually get some answers. Anyone else think the majority of the complaints should be saved for after we actually know anything about it?

they're used to the wow community, nothing should scare Them off anymore

 

[reelo]

they're used to the wow community, nothing should scare Them off anymore

Very true, kek!

Sent from my Nexus 6P using EN World mobile app

 

[Nylanfs]

People disagreeing civilly on the internet? What alternate universe am I in???

 

[Reynard]

The value of a subscription of any kind is simply a function of utility versus expense (not just cost, since people have different degrees of disposable income, but how big of a chunk of that disposable income the cost is). For some people $5 a month is a lot, but if that person is going to get a lot of utility out of the product they are going to be willing to shoulder the expense. For others, $5 would be a negligible expense but it just isn't something they would use so it is a "rip off." The fact is, any given person won't know the balance of that relationship until the product is launched -- and, chances are, that balance will change over time.

One thing I think is a legitimate concern is those people who don't like subscription models because they have unreliable finances. Most places that have subscription models allow customers to buy chunks of subscription time (usually at a minor discount).

 

[Warmaster Horus]

Everything is a subscription now a days. Revenue streams FTW! The product has to be worth it, though, or people will drop it like a hot potato.

 

[Azzy]

well, hopefully all this discussion of doom and gloom has not scared off Mr. Adam-from-Curse, and we might actually get some answers. Anyone else think the majority of the complaints should be saved for after we actually know anything about it?

Oh, come on! We can't be sensible or civil here! Torches! Pitchforks!