D&D Beyond – Tabletop gaming enhanced for the new age

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D&D Beyond

STOP THE PRESS! Wizard of the Coast has partnered with Curse to announce their newest set of digital tools! I can’t believe it. I no longer have to spend 15 minutes looking up arbitrary spells, rules, and picking d4s out of my forehead from banging my head against the table in utter frustration. D&D Beyond doesn’t seem to be replacing the pen and paper experience but rather seeks to enhance it through a set of user-friendly tools that minimize stress and make life easier on both the Dungeon Masters and players.

Features

So far we know that the software houses a rules compendium, character builder, and digital character sheets that are easy on the eyes and visually appealing! From the video, it looks like you’ll be able to add and subtract experience points and modify your stats as well in real time— which is fantastic.

Awesome! But … What does this mean?

Well, to be honest, we’re still not entirely sure yet. The D&D Beyond website boasts the following features:

  • 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

After reviewing the video, I’ve already got one foot aboard the hype train— but, I’ve been bruised before, and ended up with a one-way ticket to regret city. So let’s all take a deep breath and go through this journey of speculation, together.

d&d beyond

The Compendium

This is fantastic. Being able to sift through hundreds of pages of information, quickly, with a couple of taps or clicks is invaluable to a DM when they have to reference spells or smack down a rules lawyer to keep the game going smoothly. No, Randy, you can’t grapple a dragon.

A light, mobile compendium is also convenient for new players that don’t want to lug around fifty pounds of manuals when they make the trek to a friend’s home.

Will WOTC be including the entire core rulebooks? It might be interesting to see a condensed version of this for those who just want to get down to the nitty-gritty of the rules and spell descriptions.

Will they only be uploading 5e? It seems odd for the tools to only support 5e, so I’m hoping that other editions will be included as well. Also, they should add in highlighting and bookmarks! Being able to make small notes and remember pieces of information unique to my character would make my entire year.

Homebrew Content

The keywords outlined here are: create, browse and use. Does this mean that they will be implementing their kind of java based templates for Dungeon Masters to edit and upload for others to use?

How will the app approach pdfs and homebrew content in this way? I think an interesting take on this would to be able to add and remove custom pages and spells to your existing core, personal rulebooks. Even being able to select the pages by themselves (if they are being saved in a kind of folder in the app) and importing them into the character sheet would be an incredible quality of life addition. I could see my Dungeon Master creating his homebrew content and sharing it with us so that we could reference it quickly and easily.

I love the idea of uploading your work to a community database and hope that there is a forum for feedback as well. If the creators intend on holding an active presence, monthly contests on official forums could be a great way for WOTC to receive feedback through community homebrew creations on the app and possibly implementing those changes in their future supplemental books. It could open up some fresh dialogue and give them some feedback on additions that they wish to pursue.

Character Sheets

Yes, please. Adding and subtracting custom experience values and changing your stats at will without having to smudge your freshly copied character sheet with charcoal and pencil shavings is a godsend. Not having to write down lengthy spell descriptions and being able to change your spellbook ‘at will’ is also an extremely attractive feature.

This is one of my favorite features so far due to how user-friendly it is.

The integrated character sheets make the information much easier on the eyes and help to present it in such a way that makes newcomers feel welcome. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I remember how intimidated and worried I felt when I was handed my first black and white character sheet. There were so many numbers and new terms to memorize that I just couldn’t comprehend where to start.

The character sheets simplify this process, and I would be willing to bet, reduces the time of character creation down by at least half. Character creation is almost like a right of passage. You haven’t experienced the real thing until you’ve spent 5+ hours trying to learn a new system and re-doing your sheet over, and over again because you kept getting the math wrong. Then, you need a new character sheet because your friend’s pencil eraser sucks and has ripped a hole in your stat block. Anyone else? No, just me?

Sometimes, we just don’t all have time for that, and would rather skip the arduous process and get to the meat of the game.

News

Having the latest news at your fingertips is a nice inclusion to the tool set. The next time a special cover edition of Volo’s Guide to Monsters is announced— I need to know before some lady beats me to them because they are an “excellent” Christmas present for her son. Ma’am, he doesn’t need all five copies that the bookstore owns.

Also, forums. YES! Communication is an amazing thing. Here’s to hoping they have some equally amazing moderators.

Mobile Devices

Some players may not be quite as thrilled as others about this feature, as it also encourages the use of “tools available on any device” — alluding to, of course, mobile devices. We all know that one guy who can’t stay off of his phone during a campaign session. Having that information at your fingertips could lead to distractions (such as social media/emails/work etc.) It might prove to be too tempting to use your mobile device strictly for your character sheet. If you use ‘theater of the mind’ in your games like we do, it often can break immersion for the group as a whole.

With that being said, technology is always advancing, and updating D&D in this way for the modern tabletop gamer could be just the boost the game needs. I know of several DM’s that currently run games by referencing their laptops or tablets because of how much easier it is to transport all of the materials and keep their notes organized. Again, this could still be a great boon to the D&D newcomer if they have access to a condensed version of the rules and options available to their characters.

Pricing & Availability

Currently, no word on this either. I speculate that we might gain access to the default character sheets and a barebones version of the rules (like what is currently available on their website.) and will be able to make micro-transactions or purchase full pdfs of the core rulebooks and supplements to use with the app. Since their core books are still somewhat pricey, I think we will see a subscription model come into play for those who wish to “support” the app and gain lots of fancy new features such as unlimited access to all of their published books.

Give it a shot!

If you are interested in giving it a try, you can visit dndbeyond.com to sign up for their beta. Stay tuned for more news and updates as they’re released!

Looking for alternatives?

If you are feeling underwhelmed by this news and were looking for a substitution for traditional pen and paper, I would highly suggest giving my article on Roll20.net a quick glance!

1 Comment

  1. I’ll be testing this out for sure!

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