We want to hear all your feedback on what you love and how you feel it could be better. Please note: Basic Rules/SRD limitations remain in place. Please refrain from including copyrighted material in any created campaign.
Have you the mind to create adventures of mystery and danger of epic proportions? Try your hand at creating a campaign and invite wary travelers to take part in your hand-crafted journey. Assist beginning players with managing their character sheets - configure weapons, currency, XP, and damage taken. View player skills and the status of spells/items. Most of all, have fun as you develop a story with the players immersed in your world. Please bring all constructive feedback and help us understand what aspects work great, and what may need improvement. These tools are here for you - help us make them the best they can be.
Create your world, begin your campaign, and lead the community through your vision of D&D!
I would like the ability to add individual. It's on the campaign page. Right now all of the info is entered in boxes on the same page. It would be heplpful to be able to add separate notes for a story description, location description, etc
I think that I may be missing something here. Is the campaign management just a note pad? I saw no other tools but I am blind in one eye and may have missed them.
I still have to try it, but yes now it is a notes management. BadEye said that things like encounter builder and combat tracker will come in the future.
In it's current state you would be better not calling this a campaign manager. Sorry guys but there is so much that I want from a campaign manager and 3x rich text boxes doesn't come close.
If you could combine the functionality of Realm Works with the sexy web ui that you guys are obviously capable of then that would be severely interesting. Right now though this is a synchronised Character Manager for the DM. That alone is something I am incredibly interested in having but my campaign manager is a vital part of my DM Toolset and it's therefore alot more beneficial to use the character manager / combat manager that integrates with the campaign manager than it is to use DnDBeyond alongside Realm Works.
Reading through the release notes it doesn't even sound like you are building a campaign manager. This is a game/session manager.
stream integration
Encounter building
combat tracking
These things are cool but they have very little to do with managing my campaign. Where's the...
Ability to upload map
Pin the maps and document locations
Use fog of war on maps
Create, document and manage npcs
Create, document and manage locations
Create, document and manage groups
Create, document and manage events (story, not just encounters)
Ability to use flowcharts to map out my story
Relationship mapping between NPCs
Track session journals
Create custom calendars and manage events
Don't get me wrong, I get that it will be possible to document some of these things in the 3x rich text boxes provided. But with alot of information comes the requirements for information management and there's no way that will be efficient or user friendly with your current framework.
I really dislike that you need to host the images somewhere else. If i was going to use this to document my campaign then that would be really annoying. I get why you've done it, just don't like the extra effort that would cause.
I think collapsible folders and individual notes would be great. Right now a DM would have to scroll through all of their notes to find the information they need which will slow down the game. I also would love to be able to upload files so I can easily give access to maps or handouts to my players.
When a player follows a link to my campaign they are presented with the option to use my characters or create their own. As a GM I should be able to specify which of my characters are available for players to use.
I am either missing something here, or the campaign management is not really, well, anything. As Daplunk stated, this is incredibly bare bones. I hope there will be future updates to it to as for now, DnD Beyond is of no real use as there are numerous tools superior for the purpose.
For the record the campaign manager is supposed to be in p3 of the beta, we just entered p2 so needless to say they don't really have the campaign manager yet.
For the record the campaign manager is supposed to be in p3 of the beta, we just entered p2 so needless to say they don't really have the campaign manager yet.
As I see it, there are just a few essential components of a campaign: People, Places, Gods, Groups, Events, and (on the meta side) Schedule.
People: The ability to create and track villains, NPC, and the PCs. This should include both a combat and roleplay stat block, and places for notes.
Places: The ability to load maps (or copy official published ones if applicable), and create listings for nations, towns, buildings, etc, which can have their own maps, NPC lists, etc. Ideally you should have the option to annotate the maps -- I envision that I could add a map to a dungeon and have tooltips that list the monsters, traps, and treasure in the room, while a world map would have tooltips for details on towns, nations, ruins, etc.
Gods/Groups: Compendium entries for all gods/groups from existing settings, as well as the ability to add new ones and create a pantheon for your campaign (You can just pick the entire pantheon for a setting, create your own, choose ala cart from the existing lists--Wee Jas, the Silver Flame, and Umberlee in the same world, why not?).
Events: In-world calendar (again, choose from an existing one or make your own), with the ability to add events, journal entries, notes, etc.
Scheduling: A real-world calendar for scheduling and other record keeping (birthdays, campaign anniversary, etc.)
My far-flung wish is that one could purchase pre-packaged campaign D&D settings, which already have the maps, NPCs, gods, and locations of the world. Obviously some settings have significantly more detail than others, but I don't need (or want) 10,000 words for a particular city or forest -- population, ruler, and a paragraph or two for most places, maybe two or three times that for major cities like Sharn or Waterdeep. Individual DMs can expand the info to fit their campaigns.
I imagine this would require negotiation with WotC, since thus far only Forgotten Realms (and to an extent Ravenloft) have been published under 5E. While most of the setting info is edition neutral, I still assume it would require license modification. Given the level of effort required, you'd probably need to poll to see what settings to prioritize, and perhaps even get some sort of commitment from potential buyers (I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding interest in FR, Eberron, and Dark Sun, but probably less so for Birthright or Council or Wyrms). I'll bet you could even find an army or volunteer editors for virtually every setting though.
The question is what will you be able to do with the source books.
Will they be a copy of the book like the Compendium is here? A static piece of information?
Or will it have functionality like a tool like Realm Works has where I can modify the content and add to it? An extra shop here and new NPC there. Maybe I want to flesh the existing NPCs out more than the book does.
The question is what will you be able to do with the source books.
Will they be a copy of the book like the Compendium is here? A static piece of information?
Or will it have functionality like a tool like Realm Works has where I can modify the content and add to it? An extra shop here and new NPC there. Maybe I want to flesh the existing NPCs out more than the book does.
The PHB, DMG, etc. will have similar layouts to how the compendium works now (with boxes for chapters).
A campaign management tool that would be incredible for the DM would be an encounter builder / tracker. Below are some features I would love to see in a tool like this:
Encounter Builder
Encounters should be able to built either ahead of time or on the fly.
The player characters that are tied to the campaign should be considered present by default, but it should be possible to select/deselect which characters are involved in the encounter.
When building the encounter, an "Add Monster" button would take you to the monster list to allow you to select monsters with the nice search features already implemented.
Once monsters have been added, it should be possible to specify the number of each type present.
Allow for monsters to be renamed. For example, rather than Bugbear and wolf, it's possible to rename them Klarg and Ripper.
Monsters that are built into the encounter should allow for easy access of their description / stats.
There should be a difficulty rating calculator based on monster CR/EXP, number of monsters, party size, and level.
Encounter Tracker
Once the encounter starts, it should allow for either automatic initiative rolling for combatants individually, or for manual entry. For example, players roll their physical dice for initiative which gets manually entered. DM presses button to auto-determine initiative for each individual NPC.
Allow for toggling condition & status effects
Incorporate spell options and effects - For example: Bard casts vicious mockery on Monster, tracker asks "Save success or failure," when selecting failure, tracker flags monster to have disadvantage on next attack, after next attack disadvantage gets removed by tracker.
Track spell concentration
Allow for easy HP adjustment
Track Death Saves if HP = 0
Character and Monsters should be shown as an expandable banner. When not expanded, the banner shows: Name, HP, AC, Movement, Conditions, Concentrating (if Yes) On [Spell], & the name of any buff / debuff. When expanding monster banner, it shows their stat block & actions.
A set of buttons to resolve the encounter once it's begun. To include: End Encounter Award XP, End Encounter - No XP. The Award XP option automatically divides the xp amoung the party and gives it to the characters who participated in the encounter.
It should be possible to add more monsters in the middle of the fight. For example, after the 3rd round of combat: "the sounds of fighting in the hall has alerted the group of bandits in the room ahead, they rush out and join the fight." This could be accomplished by the "Add Monster" button, or by merging prepared encounters mid-fight.
I currently use Kobold Fight Club on an iPad to prepare and track encounters while I DM. It does an adequate job, but it's far from being the comprehensive tool that WotC can create.
Regarding maps, I seem to remember BadEye saying at some point that DDB isn't looking to compete with VTTs like Roll20 and FantasyGrounds, but they are considering looking at integration into those systems.
In it's current state you would be better not calling this a campaign manager. Sorry guys but there is so much that I want from a campaign manager and 3x rich text boxes doesn't come close.
I just had to quote this. Don't get me wrong, I'm super excited to see where this is going, but this guy (@daplunk) hit the proverbial nail on the head.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Be careful what you Wish for... your DM may just give it to you!
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Welcome to Phase 3 - Campaign Management!
We want to hear all your feedback on what you love and how you feel it could be better.
Please note: Basic Rules/SRD limitations remain in place. Please refrain from including copyrighted material in any created campaign.
Have you the mind to create adventures of mystery and danger of epic proportions? Try your hand at creating a campaign and invite wary travelers to take part in your hand-crafted journey. Assist beginning players with managing their character sheets - configure weapons, currency, XP, and damage taken. View player skills and the status of spells/items. Most of all, have fun as you develop a story with the players immersed in your world. Please bring all constructive feedback and help us understand what aspects work great, and what may need improvement. These tools are here for you - help us make them the best they can be.
Create your world, begin your campaign, and lead the community through your vision of D&D!
Please make sure you check out the Phase 2 & 3 Release Notes
[ Site Rules & Guidelines ] --- [ Homebrew Rules & Guidelines ]
Send me a message with any questions or concerns
I would like the ability to add individual. It's on the campaign page. Right now all of the info is entered in boxes on the same page. It would be heplpful to be able to add separate notes for a story description, location description, etc
I think that I may be missing something here. Is the campaign management just a note pad? I saw no other tools but I am blind in one eye and may have missed them.
She/Her College Student Player and Dungeon Master
I still have to try it, but yes now it is a notes management. BadEye said that things like encounter builder and combat tracker will come in the future.
In it's current state you would be better not calling this a campaign manager. Sorry guys but there is so much that I want from a campaign manager and 3x rich text boxes doesn't come close.
Head on over and check out Realm Works (GM Tour Video / screenshots). That... is a Campaign Manager.
If you could combine the functionality of Realm Works with the sexy web ui that you guys are obviously capable of then that would be severely interesting. Right now though this is a synchronised Character Manager for the DM. That alone is something I am incredibly interested in having but my campaign manager is a vital part of my DM Toolset and it's therefore alot more beneficial to use the character manager / combat manager that integrates with the campaign manager than it is to use DnDBeyond alongside Realm Works.
Reading through the release notes it doesn't even sound like you are building a campaign manager. This is a game/session manager.
These things are cool but they have very little to do with managing my campaign. Where's the...
Don't get me wrong, I get that it will be possible to document some of these things in the 3x rich text boxes provided. But with alot of information comes the requirements for information management and there's no way that will be efficient or user friendly with your current framework.
I really dislike that you need to host the images somewhere else. If i was going to use this to document my campaign then that would be really annoying. I get why you've done it, just don't like the extra effort that would cause.
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
I think collapsible folders and individual notes would be great. Right now a DM would have to scroll through all of their notes to find the information they need which will slow down the game. I also would love to be able to upload files so I can easily give access to maps or handouts to my players.
When a player follows a link to my campaign they are presented with the option to use my characters or create their own. As a GM I should be able to specify which of my characters are available for players to use.
I am either missing something here, or the campaign management is not really, well, anything. As Daplunk stated, this is incredibly bare bones. I hope there will be future updates to it to as for now, DnD Beyond is of no real use as there are numerous tools superior for the purpose.
For the record the campaign manager is supposed to be in p3 of the beta, we just entered p2 so needless to say they don't really have the campaign manager yet.
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
We are in phase 3. The campaign management is just a basic version, there will be nice developments.
Oh snap.
As I see it, there are just a few essential components of a campaign: People, Places, Gods, Groups, Events, and (on the meta side) Schedule.
People: The ability to create and track villains, NPC, and the PCs. This should include both a combat and roleplay stat block, and places for notes.
Places: The ability to load maps (or copy official published ones if applicable), and create listings for nations, towns, buildings, etc, which can have their own maps, NPC lists, etc. Ideally you should have the option to annotate the maps -- I envision that I could add a map to a dungeon and have tooltips that list the monsters, traps, and treasure in the room, while a world map would have tooltips for details on towns, nations, ruins, etc.
Gods/Groups: Compendium entries for all gods/groups from existing settings, as well as the ability to add new ones and create a pantheon for your campaign (You can just pick the entire pantheon for a setting, create your own, choose ala cart from the existing lists--Wee Jas, the Silver Flame, and Umberlee in the same world, why not?).
Events: In-world calendar (again, choose from an existing one or make your own), with the ability to add events, journal entries, notes, etc.
Scheduling: A real-world calendar for scheduling and other record keeping (birthdays, campaign anniversary, etc.)
My far-flung wish is that one could purchase pre-packaged campaign D&D settings, which already have the maps, NPCs, gods, and locations of the world. Obviously some settings have significantly more detail than others, but I don't need (or want) 10,000 words for a particular city or forest -- population, ruler, and a paragraph or two for most places, maybe two or three times that for major cities like Sharn or Waterdeep. Individual DMs can expand the info to fit their campaigns.
I imagine this would require negotiation with WotC, since thus far only Forgotten Realms (and to an extent Ravenloft) have been published under 5E. While most of the setting info is edition neutral, I still assume it would require license modification. Given the level of effort required, you'd probably need to poll to see what settings to prioritize, and perhaps even get some sort of commitment from potential buyers (I'm sure you'll have no trouble finding interest in FR, Eberron, and Dark Sun, but probably less so for Birthright or Council or Wyrms). I'll bet you could even find an army or volunteer editors for virtually every setting though.
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
All the 5th edition source books will be available at the final release. The price for that is still to be announced.
The question is what will you be able to do with the source books.
Will they be a copy of the book like the Compendium is here? A static piece of information?
Or will it have functionality like a tool like Realm Works has where I can modify the content and add to it? An extra shop here and new NPC there. Maybe I want to flesh the existing NPCs out more than the book does.
Daplunk's YouTube Channel: Realm Works and Hero Lab Videos / Campaign Cartographer 3+ Videos
Realm Works Facebook User Group
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A campaign management tool that would be incredible for the DM would be an encounter builder / tracker. Below are some features I would love to see in a tool like this:
I currently use Kobold Fight Club on an iPad to prepare and track encounters while I DM. It does an adequate job, but it's far from being the comprehensive tool that WotC can create.
Regarding maps, I seem to remember BadEye saying at some point that DDB isn't looking to compete with VTTs like Roll20 and FantasyGrounds, but they are considering looking at integration into those systems.
Be careful what you Wish for... your DM may just give it to you!