I know you've probably heard this before, but D&DBeyond character management and similar working with tabletops (especially Fantasy Grounds, which is the official Wizards tabletop) would go a far way in convenience of use. I'm dropping this here just to continue to encourage this branch of thinking.
I understand there are likely content ownership issues, but there are solutions available (such as checking for ownership on both softwares). For me, more valuable than dice or initiative tracker (since those are usually done elsewhere), the best additional value D&DBeyond can bring is character integration as shown with Avrae.
I also understand the strenuous task of cooperation with and continuously ensuring compatibility with differently-owned software.
especially Fantasy Grounds, which is the official Wizards tabletop
This isn't actually true, Wizards of the Coast doesn't have an official (virtual) tabletop, although they are closely partnered with roll20 as evident by the fact they host a Learning roll20 playlists on their youtube channel, as well as several roll20 presents series.
As for your original suggestion, I'm not actually sure what functionality you're advocating. You say that the content ownership issue could be resolved by "checking for ownership on both softwares", and you say this would be "more valuable than dice or initiative tracker (since those are usually done elsewhere). If your solution advocates owning the software on the VTT as well as D&D Beyond, and doing dice rolling and initiative tracker on the VTT as well, what would the connectivity actually do? You're not transferring content and you're not transferring dice rolls or combat information. If it's just accessing data, can't that be accomplished by simply having your D&D Beyond character sheet open in a different tab from the VTT? I'm not actually understanding the functionality you're asking for.
Integration can mean many things. What features do you want to centralize across services, and keep in mind that it decentralizes those features from the originating services. Which services do you want to decentralize to be accessed from which other service?
Why do I keep typing "decentralize"? Centralized features that stay within a single service are far easier to maintain. Features exporting live to 3rd party sources outside of the original service's control, "decentralized", is much more difficult by far to both implement and maintain.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Character integration (like shown in Avrae), as I've stated in my post. Essentially, allow characters to be easily transferred or updated to other tabletops.
Additionally, Fantasy Grounds has the license to cover pretty much all D&D products, which none of the other tabletops have. They're as close to official as they can get, beyond roll20 and other tabletops.
I know you've probably heard this before, but D&DBeyond character management and similar working with tabletops (especially Fantasy Grounds, which is the official Wizards tabletop) would go a far way in convenience of use. I'm dropping this here just to continue to encourage this branch of thinking.
I understand there are likely content ownership issues, but there are solutions available (such as checking for ownership on both softwares). For me, more valuable than dice or initiative tracker (since those are usually done elsewhere), the best additional value D&DBeyond can bring is character integration as shown with Avrae.
I also understand the strenuous task of cooperation with and continuously ensuring compatibility with differently-owned software.
This isn't actually true, Wizards of the Coast doesn't have an official (virtual) tabletop, although they are closely partnered with roll20 as evident by the fact they host a Learning roll20 playlists on their youtube channel, as well as several roll20 presents series.
As for your original suggestion, I'm not actually sure what functionality you're advocating. You say that the content ownership issue could be resolved by "checking for ownership on both softwares", and you say this would be "more valuable than dice or initiative tracker (since those are usually done elsewhere). If your solution advocates owning the software on the VTT as well as D&D Beyond, and doing dice rolling and initiative tracker on the VTT as well, what would the connectivity actually do? You're not transferring content and you're not transferring dice rolls or combat information. If it's just accessing data, can't that be accomplished by simply having your D&D Beyond character sheet open in a different tab from the VTT? I'm not actually understanding the functionality you're asking for.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Integration can mean many things. What features do you want to centralize across services, and keep in mind that it decentralizes those features from the originating services. Which services do you want to decentralize to be accessed from which other service?
Why do I keep typing "decentralize"? Centralized features that stay within a single service are far easier to maintain. Features exporting live to 3rd party sources outside of the original service's control, "decentralized", is much more difficult by far to both implement and maintain.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
Character integration (like shown in Avrae), as I've stated in my post. Essentially, allow characters to be easily transferred or updated to other tabletops.
Additionally, Fantasy Grounds has the license to cover pretty much all D&D products, which none of the other tabletops have. They're as close to official as they can get, beyond roll20 and other tabletops.
I'm curious which D&D products Fantasy Grounds has, but Roll20 is missing. I use both.
As far as I can see, it's just the Extra Life (noncore) content, plus the two cross promotional starter sets (Stranger Things and Rick and Morty)
Find my D&D Beyond articles here