We'll have to wait and see. They mentioned they want to complement the game, not replace the entirety of its original feel.
I believe the evolution of D&D is starting with DDB. I love my paper and pencil games, soooooooo much. (Hence all the "O's" is the word so there...lol) Yet, times have and are changing. Technology is growing at such a fast pace that it's not going to be long before we are playing D&D in VR. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but how cool would that be??? The option to participate in this game and run it as you wish should be a priority. If this app lets me have access to my player's characters...oh damn! But if not, I am still impressed by what they have released so far. But we will see...waiting is always the hardest part...lol
One part of me loves what you are saying, and another part hates it. In one way D&D should become more able to use technology to its advantage (obviously there will always be those who do not wish to use it and will stick with the old ways (in a good way)), but the other part of me believes that that is where the beauty lies in D&D. That it doesn't need technology to have survived as one of the best games of all time. obviously I do not think that we shouldn't use the technology as a tool (I am on this site after all) but the game should still be based in life. It is just like how a DM needs to balance roleplay with action. For each group the balance will be different, and there will be some extremes where you use only one and not the other at all, but to keep the game the best that it can be you should be able to use part of the technology without having to use all of it, and you should be able to pick and choose the parts you would like to use.
There have been many great suggestions so far, but I wanted to make sure to add my two coppers worth.
I play pretty exclusively at a weekly AL table at my local store. I used to run a PC, but because we have so many people showing up I've started DMing as well. In my particular case, many of the innovations mentioned would be, sadly, wasted, because we are on such a tight schedule - we all show up, we jump into the module immediately, and then we go home.
What may be helpful is two versions of the Character Sheet - a basic version that can be filled out and used either on the screen during play just like the paper version (but with hyperlinks and pop-up information about spells and abilities) and an advanced version, with all of the customizable tabs and whatnot like people are talking about.
On my character sheets, I usually have to list my abilities and for things like Fighter maneuvers I have to draw boxes in ink that I can use to keep track of my superiority dice. I don't know that you need to create specific sheets for each class, but maybe have sections of text/abilities relevant to various classes and races available like an a la carte menu, where you can drag and drop sections onto a sheet template. If you're really enthusiastic, have those a la carte options expand automatically as your character gains levels.
At any rate, thanks again for what promises to be a really exciting piece of kit!
I would actually really like a "map page" option, where I can easily track which cities I've been to, and maybe even make notes about what I did there, or where major npcs reside. A lot of the time my roleplay gets lost because I can't recall if I've even been to such and such town, or where I ran into that awesome dragon, a map with little drop pins would really help track that. Oh! and little feet marks can show up to show the route that we traveled. This could also be a really cool way to share how different parties tackled major adventures.
A very general suggestion I have about character sheets, after going through many different custom character sheets in many different games, is to give players a lot of choice over what they want to display. It's especially important considering the number of suggestions in this thread that would simultaneously be awesome for some players, and kind of a waste of space for others.
Let's say I'm a DM and I want to make sheets for NPCs. I make a sorcerer. Maybe the PC version of that sorcerer would like a nice dedicated place to put their current and max sorcery points, but maybe the NPC version is hardly ever going to fight and that'll just be clutter most of the time.
Or we could be around a table that doesn't typically write the roleplaying information on their character sheet. Or a table that doesn't care all that much about weight and therefore doesn't keep track of it on the character sheets and just tries to be reasonable overall.
Anyways, my suggestion would be to give players the option to show/hide pretty much anything in their character sheets. Make them modular enough that you can hide or remove any panel, and maybe save preset configurations to use on other characters.
(I'm really excited for phase 2, it's going to be awesome)
I know beyond is a brand new take on digital D&D tools but I used the 4th edition character builder of D&D insider extensively. This tool was great. The way they had it set up worked well for all of my table top sessions. I would suggest to look at the character builder tool and grab some information off of that on how character sheets were designed and implement some of that as a starting point for the beyond builder. The character builder for insider added separate sheets for pets, mounts, summoned creatures etc. which populated based off character level and such so the stats were good. You would just have to flip pages in your character sheet and not look for things in the monster manual and such.
Note: I use the desktop version on my Surface. I have no opinion on the mobile version, since I'm an iPhone guy.
As a matter of fact, that is what I used. The mobile version used to be riddled with bugs and nigh unusable, then I checked back on it a few months ago and half of the bugs were still there, along with some new ones, and they completely redid the UI in the meantime, despite the bugs. If the mobile version is any less bug-riddled now, I may consider it again, having already bought it before, though I'm just as content to wait for D&DB to release and have all of 5E at my fingertips on my phone.
As I indicated, I just use the desktop version. I don't know that I'd say it has any "bugs", per se. There are a couple of things I'd probably like tweaked, but the most annoying thing is that my list of encounters always appears in the order entered, rather than providing a way to sort (I've been using published adventures, so I'd like to see them sorted by room key). For the old version, I built a little app to reorder the XML, but they changed the format in the update.
If that's the biggest complaint I can come up with for a free app, I really can't say I'm complaining. Of course, there's always room for improvement and there are definitely things that would get me to switch to a paid tool.
One of the obstacles I've ran into using other dynamic D&D character sheets (Roll20, etc) is that items that impact Armor Class,Ability Scores, etc are often left to the Players to manually update the impact to stats while things like Weapons have dynamic tie-ins to Ability modifiers. A lot of my Character Sheet review is typically making sure they have the correct AC because of this.
Dynamic options for Item effects to stats
Would be great if there was an item section that, when an item is entered, there are options to tie it to character stats so that things like Armor that impacts AC doesn't accidentally get overlooked at character creation. Some helpful options would be:
Automatic attribution to AC based on Armor Type (Studded Leather, Small Shield, etc)
Automatic attribution to relevant stats based on magic item type (girdle of giant strength, +2 ring of protection, etc)
Tie-in to Homebrew/Campaign Management Phase
One of the harder things for me as a DM is to recap between sessions in a way that the player's have it as a quick cheat sheet (What was the name of that NPC we talked too 4 sessions back?).
It would be great if the Campaign Management system had a "Recap", "Milestone" and "NPC" section that also tied into the character sheets that are part of that campaign.
Character Sheets for players in that campaign would have a simple "Campaign" section on their sheet that had headlines to each for quick reference during a session. This is particularly helpful if printed out for an offline session.
A way to flag/star certain Recaps, Milestones or NPCs so they could quick reference it right off their sheet without having to type it in.
Recap would be a no-frills blog that you could update as a DM (or player in the campaign) with what happened last session.
Milestone would be a no-frills micro-blog a DM could simply add a point of reference for a big event (Party Defeated Dragon on Date).
NPCs would be just a simple descriptor of a Who/What/Where for NPCs they meet along the way.
Player Dashboard
While DMs have DM screens, it'd be great to allow players to have a small area to append snippets to PHB rules they can access quickly on their sheet. Things that commonly get asked during a session could be then referenced quickly on their sheet:
Actions/Bonus Actions/Movement/Attack of Opp/Free Actions
One of the obstacles I've ran into using other dynamic D&D character sheets (Roll20, etc) is that items that impact Armor Class,Ability Scores, etc are often left to the Players to manually update the impact to stats while things like Weapons have dynamic tie-ins to Ability modifiers. A lot of my Character Sheet review is typically making sure they have the correct AC because of this.
Dynamic options for Item effects to stats
Would be great if there was an item section that, when an item is entered, there are options to tie it to character stats so that things like Armor that impacts AC doesn't accidentally get overlooked at character creation. Some helpful options would be:
Automatic attribution to AC based on Armor Type (Studded Leather, Small Shield, etc)
Automatic attribution to relevant stats based on magic item type (girdle of giant strength, +2 ring of protection, etc)
Tie-in to Homebrew/Campaign Management Phase
One of the harder things for me as a DM is to recap between sessions in a way that the player's have it as a quick cheat sheet (What was the name of that NPC we talked too 4 sessions back?).
It would be great if the Campaign Management system had a "Recap", "Milestone" and "NPC" section that also tied into the character sheets that are part of that campaign.
Character Sheets for players in that campaign would have a simple "Campaign" section on their sheet that had headlines to each for quick reference during a session. This is particularly helpful if printed out for an offline session.
A way to flag/star certain Recaps, Milestones or NPCs so they could quick reference it right off their sheet without having to type it in.
Recap would be a no-frills blog that you could update as a DM (or player in the campaign) with what happened last session.
Milestone would be a no-frills micro-blog a DM could simply add a point of reference for a big event (Party Defeated Dragon on Date).
NPCs would be just a simple descriptor of a Who/What/Where for NPCs they meet along the way.
Player Dashboard
While DMs have DM screens, it'd be great to allow players to have a small area to append snippets to PHB rules they can access quickly on their sheet. Things that commonly get asked during a session could be then referenced quickly on their sheet:
Actions/Bonus Actions/Movement/Attack of Opp/Free Actions
Saving throws
Long Rest/Short Rest
Dazed/Prone/etc rules
Grapple/Charge/etc rules
Appreciate you taking the time to share this. There are some really solid ideas here, and I can confirm that all of them will either be included at launch or are on the roadmap!
I also want to suggest the ability to send a built or partially built character to another person. I mean, clearly the GM will have access to them, but I, as a player, have built characters for new players to our group multiple times and would love the ability to send hem to the player as well as the GM.
I also want to suggest the ability to send a built or partially built character to another person. I mean, clearly the GM will have access to them, but I, as a player, have built characters for new players to our group multiple times and would love the ability to send hem to the player as well as the GM.
Or to even share them on forums, such as this one. This was one of the benefits of the text page that noted all the character-building choices made in one short sheet in the 4e character builder.
I've never actually played before (but am eager to once I find a group) so feel free to take all of my advice with a grain of salt.
I think that character creation for newer players would be easier if the compendium had more helpful, consistent information. I'm sure that the character builder will be very helpful to guide beginners through the process, but I'm also sure that there are plenty of people that will want to just read about it first, to get their bearings. For example, all casters except the Cleric and the Druid have suggestions as to the starting cantrips they should choose in the quick build section. Some spells that are mentioned in the compendium have a very helpful tool-tip pop up with more information, while others don't. Also, it can be a little confusing using only the basic rules and SRD content. I think it would be helpful if the compendium ever mentions premium content (e.g. spells or class specializations) that you don't have, it clearly notes that they are available in the Player's Handbook (or wherever they live).
An example of when this could be an avoidable problem is notably in the Warlock class. Let's say that someone looks through the options and sees that it recommends to take witch bolt (in the quick build guide, which I assume is made for beginners that don't know what to do), so a player goes to over to the spell search (because there is no tool-tip on witch bolt) and is confused because it doesn't show up. He then spends a few minutes searching the web to come to the conclusion that it is probably in one of the rule books. He then moves on to see the Archfey mentioned a few times and is confused when there is no information about them at the bottom and it talks about the Fiend instead. A similar web search happens.
That wasn't just a hypothetical example (it was me last night) and I can easily see that happening for others in every class. Even though this is only a problem that will affect people that have yet to become paying customers, I feel like making a few changes will make it easier for newcomers to DnD and will help people understand what to buy to take things to the next step.
You make some good points, KnightofNi. It's great to see entirely new to the game players here because us old dogs who have been playing one version or another from 1980 only have to worry about mixing up changes, but pretty much some things have basically been the same. We know the lingo. But I've noticed the SRD/Basic rule suggestions comment on things that are paid for info only without clarifying or having been set up with a freebie setup choice instead.
If you get into liking the game and really want to play more seriously at least get the Players Hand Book (PHB). If you have a DM that likes some of the other free stuff like Unearthed Arcana (UA), they should be sure to get you the info to use so you don't have to dig for it yourself. It is hinted that sometime after this goes live we might see this free stuff here, but we shall see.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
PbP - Beregost Blues - Portia Starflower, Half Elf, Cleric, Life Domain PbP - Tome of Annhilation - Vistani Mocanu, Human, Bard
An example of when this could be an avoidable problem is notably in the Warlock class. Let's say that someone looks through the options and sees that it recommends to take witch bolt (in the quick build guide, which I assume is made for beginners that don't know what to do), so a player goes to over to the spell search (because there is no tool-tip on witch bolt) and is confused because it doesn't show up. He then spends a few minutes searching the web to come to the conclusion that it is probably in one of the rule books. He then moves on to see the Archfey mentioned a few times and is confused when there is no information about them at the bottom and it talks about the Fiend instead. A similar web search happens.
...
KnightOfNi, your comments are valid, but they actually made me realize that there is more in the beta than the Basic Rules currently (which is a good thing, but could be better labeled). Firstly, the despite all of the classes being listed with a source of "Basic Rules", the Basic Rules document does not include warlock, or indeed any classes other than Cleric, Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard (and limited archetypes of those at that). The additional classes are included in both the SRD and the Player's Handbook. However, the SRD does not include that extra paragraph with Quick Build (for Warlock at least). Possibly because some of the recommendations like Witch Bolt are not actually in the SRD.
Personally I'm glad the Quick Build paragraph is included here because it seems silly to separate the versions in the SRD and Player's Handbook for something this small. (Consider it "bonus" material. Or maybe WotC could just add this paragraph and those recommended spells to the next version of the SRD?) Until then, would you prefer this paragraph were omitted from D&D Beyond unless/until the user bought access to the Player's Handbook? Actually, have we heard that SRD portion of D&D Beyond will be available for free to users after launch? Or are you going to need to purchase/subscribe to see any of it (but this includes at least the Core Books, if not everything)?
Actually, have we heard that SRD portion of D&D Beyond will be available for free to users after launch? Or are you going to need to purchase/subscribe to see any of it (but this includes at least the Core Books, if not everything)?
Basic Rules/SRD will remain free to all users post-launch. This is freely distributed content from WOTC, and will remain such here as well. Paid content, such as core books, will arrive in the subscription models, as the intellectual property is required to be licensed.
Personally I'm glad the Quick Build paragraph is included here because it seems silly to separate the versions in the SRD and Player's Handbook for something this small. (Consider it "bonus" material. Or maybe WotC could just add this paragraph and those recommended spells to the next version of the SRD?) Until then, would you prefer this paragraph were omitted from D&D Beyond unless/until the user bought access to the Player's Handbook?
I don't believe it should be omitted. I think that if there was a tooltip on that spell (as well as others) that brought up a box saying something like "Part of the Player's Handbook" instead of spell information as it would for people that "own the spell," it would be a lot more clear. Same thing for the Archfey, it doesn't need to be cut for clarity. What might help is under the "Otherworldly Patrons" heading, you could include it and instead of saying the traits, have something flavorful like "Adventure under the Archfey's guidance by purchasing the Player's Handbook." This way, people will understand what everything is referring to and can see that there is a paywall, should they want more customization options for building their character.
I think this kind of extra attention to detail will go a long way with regards to whether players and DMs really start integrating the toolkit into their games on a regular basis; if developed with respect to the responses given via player feed-back, we will soon begin seeing this digital application become a regular staple amongst D&D culture...
"It was in fairy-stories that I first divined the potency of the words, and the wonder of things, such as stone, and wood, and iron; tree and grass; house and fire; bread and wine."
I think the quick build stuff should be before the flavor text.
What are you considering the flavor text? The Warlock Class Details (starting with "With a pseudodragon curled on his shoulder")? If so, I disagree. Things are currently shown in the order that they are shown in the original source (tables aside, which have been changed from call-outs because of the medium and are instead inserted logically). I think they should remain that way... presented in the order originally intended, and consistent so you know where to look for the same info in the books. That said, Quick Build could have its own subsection in the index under Creating a Warlock just like The Warlock Table does, for easy lookup if the reader already knows what a warlock is and if they might want to play one.. Not a must-have for me, but would be nice. Consistency is the key.
a wish i have is the things i would like to see is the ability to add object to inventory and have it sort some stuff for you, like add a certain pack and get it to put all items in for you, add a weapon and have it added to your attacks section, or equip armor and get your armor class, and ability to add custom items or GMs give players items and to add spells and it figure it out, with ability to turn off, for old fashion players who want to add them self.
I know beyond is a brand new take on digital D&D tools but I used the 4th edition character builder of D&D insider extensively. This tool was great. The way they had it set up worked well for all of my table top sessions. I would suggest to look at the character builder tool and grab some information off of that on how character sheets were designed and implement some of that as a starting point for the beyond builder. The character builder for insider added separate sheets for pets, mounts, summoned creatures etc. which populated based off character level and such so the stats were good. You would just have to flip pages in your character sheet and not look for things in the monster manual and such.
One of the obstacles I've ran into using other dynamic D&D character sheets (Roll20, etc) is that items that impact Armor Class, Ability Scores, etc are often left to the Players to manually update the impact to stats while things like Weapons have dynamic tie-ins to Ability modifiers. A lot of my Character Sheet review is typically making sure they have the correct AC because of this.
Dynamic options for Item effects to stats
Would be great if there was an item section that, when an item is entered, there are options to tie it to character stats so that things like Armor that impacts AC doesn't accidentally get overlooked at character creation. Some helpful options would be:
Tie-in to Homebrew/Campaign Management Phase
One of the harder things for me as a DM is to recap between sessions in a way that the player's have it as a quick cheat sheet (What was the name of that NPC we talked too 4 sessions back?).
Player Dashboard
While DMs have DM screens, it'd be great to allow players to have a small area to append snippets to PHB rules they can access quickly on their sheet. Things that commonly get asked during a session could be then referenced quickly on their sheet:
I also want to suggest the ability to send a built or partially built character to another person. I mean, clearly the GM will have access to them, but I, as a player, have built characters for new players to our group multiple times and would love the ability to send hem to the player as well as the GM.
My 5e Houserule Considerations. Please comment freely.
Ensuring printability would be swell! Trying to handwrite in all of the features & abilities can be a bit of a pain.
I've never actually played before (but am eager to once I find a group) so feel free to take all of my advice with a grain of salt.
I think that character creation for newer players would be easier if the compendium had more helpful, consistent information. I'm sure that the character builder will be very helpful to guide beginners through the process, but I'm also sure that there are plenty of people that will want to just read about it first, to get their bearings. For example, all casters except the Cleric and the Druid have suggestions as to the starting cantrips they should choose in the quick build section. Some spells that are mentioned in the compendium have a very helpful tool-tip pop up with more information, while others don't. Also, it can be a little confusing using only the basic rules and SRD content. I think it would be helpful if the compendium ever mentions premium content (e.g. spells or class specializations) that you don't have, it clearly notes that they are available in the Player's Handbook (or wherever they live).
An example of when this could be an avoidable problem is notably in the Warlock class. Let's say that someone looks through the options and sees that it recommends to take witch bolt (in the quick build guide, which I assume is made for beginners that don't know what to do), so a player goes to over to the spell search (because there is no tool-tip on witch bolt) and is confused because it doesn't show up. He then spends a few minutes searching the web to come to the conclusion that it is probably in one of the rule books. He then moves on to see the Archfey mentioned a few times and is confused when there is no information about them at the bottom and it talks about the Fiend instead. A similar web search happens.
That wasn't just a hypothetical example (it was me last night) and I can easily see that happening for others in every class. Even though this is only a problem that will affect people that have yet to become paying customers, I feel like making a few changes will make it easier for newcomers to DnD and will help people understand what to buy to take things to the next step.
You make some good points, KnightofNi. It's great to see entirely new to the game players here because us old dogs who have been playing one version or another from 1980 only have to worry about mixing up changes, but pretty much some things have basically been the same. We know the lingo. But I've noticed the SRD/Basic rule suggestions comment on things that are paid for info only without clarifying or having been set up with a freebie setup choice instead.
If you get into liking the game and really want to play more seriously at least get the Players Hand Book (PHB). If you have a DM that likes some of the other free stuff like Unearthed Arcana (UA), they should be sure to get you the info to use so you don't have to dig for it yourself. It is hinted that sometime after this goes live we might see this free stuff here, but we shall see.
PbP - Beregost Blues - Portia Starflower, Half Elf, Cleric, Life Domain
PbP - Tome of Annhilation - Vistani Mocanu, Human, Bard
[ Site Rules & Guidelines ] --- [ Homebrew Rules & Guidelines ]
Send me a message with any questions or concerns
I think the quick build stuff should be before the flavor text.
I think this kind of extra attention to detail will go a long way with regards to whether players and DMs really start integrating the toolkit into their games on a regular basis; if developed with respect to the responses given via player feed-back, we will soon begin seeing this digital application become a regular staple amongst D&D culture...
"It was in fairy-stories that I first divined the potency of the words, and the wonder of things, such as stone, and wood, and iron; tree and grass; house and fire; bread and wine."
-Tolkien on Faerie Stories
a wish i have is the things i would like to see is the ability to add object to inventory and have it sort some stuff for you, like add a certain pack and get it to put all items in for you, add a weapon and have it added to your attacks section, or equip armor and get your armor class, and ability to add custom items or GMs give players items and to add spells and it figure it out, with ability to turn off, for old fashion players who want to add them self.
hope you find feed back useful