We've used Obsidian Portal in the past and this is the level of expectation they've set for us regarding campaign management. But, the above items are the bare minimum.
I would agree that Obsidian Portal is rather the standard for this sort of thing. I has its issues with implementation -- especially around the CSS and the text editor -- but the broad brush strokes are exactly what I'd consider as the definition of "Campaign Manager".
I think the DDB road map is to head that way, plus add some other tools (initiative tracker, encounter builder, treasure generator, etc. -- details may differ). So, I'm not too concerned. Unreasonably impatient, yes, but not exactly concerned.
Hi - has there been any feedback on all this feedback? Just wondering if there is a summary of what might be the first steps. I miss an encounter builder and combat management screen every session. There are lots of other good ideas in the 24 pages of stuff, too. Just wondering if there’s a summary?
I also wonder what the scope of the Campaign Manager might be? My initial thought was simply organizing the content of a game - players, notes, maps, session recaps, etc. I didn't think this was a VTT substitute or a PlayByPost tool. Is this turning into an tool to use during play - like an Initiative Tracker, Combat Manager, et al?
I also wonder what the scope of the Campaign Manager might be? My initial thought was simply organizing the content of a game - players, notes, maps, session recaps, etc. I didn't think this was a VTT substitute or a PlayByPost tool. Is this turning into an tool to use during play - like an Initiative Tracker, Combat Manager, et al?
It's intended to turn into a tool to use during play, and to make the DM's job easier outside of play. Okay, there may also be a character builder and some other stuff to make the players' jobs easier, but I'm going to unfairly dismiss that out of hand.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
Hi - has there been any feedback on all this feedback? Just wondering if there is a summary of what might be the first steps. I miss an encounter builder and combat management screen every session. There are lots of other good ideas in the 24 pages of stuff, too. Just wondering if there’s a summary?
Yeah, I had the same problem. Quite hard to find if you aren't sure where to look.
I'm not sure where all this homebrew emphasis is coming from, but I think it stinks that it's eating up development bandwidth when those of us want to play the game as-is can't get things done to improve our games.
I'm not sure where all this homebrew emphasis is coming from, but I think it stinks that it's eating up development bandwidth when those of us want to play the game as-is can't get things done to improve our games.
I am not sure I fully understand your comment... could you make some examples please?
I ask because I do not particularly feel there's emphasys per-se, most of the time homebrewing is suggested as a workaround until the DDB team implements the necesary changes to make something which is intended to work a certain way do it normally, without the need for homebrewing. I might be misinterpreting your comment, though, therefore I ask calrifications :)
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Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
He means hed preffer to get the tools before any homebrew things. I understand his point because i too do not care about homebrew. I only ever take official stuff. Though i do want ua to be availlable.
I think they should concentrate on the actual tools and not the homebrew part that everyone here seems to want.
Thats not mentioning that those who want homebrew are mostly all that dont wanna pay for the books here while those who did pay are more wanting tools like campaign management and initiative trackers and encounter builders.
It just feels weird for them to put all efforts in order to please those who dont even wanna pay a thing. Right now it feels like the only tool we have is character building. That seems weird for a software who calls itself online "tools" plural.
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DM of two gaming groups. Likes to create stuff. Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games --> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
He means hed preffer to get the tools before any homebrew things. I understand his point because i too do not care about homebrew. I only ever take official stuff. Though i do want ua to be availlable.
I think they should concentrate on the actual tools and not the homebrew part that everyone here seems to want.
Thats not mentioning that those who want homebrew are mostly all that dont wanna pay for the books here while those who did pay are more wanting tools like campaign management and initiative trackers and encounter builders.
It just feels weird for them to put all efforts in order to please those who dont even wanna pay a thing. Right now it feels like the only tool we have is character building. That seems weird for a software who calls itself online "tools" plural.
I don't even use the character builder for more than the bare minimum required by the games I'm playing in. For me, the value is almost exclusively in the searchable listings.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
I'm not sure where all this homebrew emphasis is coming from, but I think it stinks that it's eating up development bandwidth when those of us want to play the game as-is can't get things done to improve our games.
I am not sure I fully understand your comment... could you make some examples please?
I ask because I do not particularly feel there's emphasys per-se, most of the time homebrewing is suggested as a workaround until the DDB team implements the necesary changes to make something which is intended to work a certain way do it normally, without the need for homebrewing. I might be misinterpreting your comment, though, therefore I ask calrifications :)
His point is he is seeing resources dedicated to implementing homebrew, which isn't "official" content and is very specific, while all of the official content and tools to supplement that aren't completed yet. An example would be I can now make a homebrewed feat, but i still have no way to manage a druid wild shape, or a familiar. The problem/concern is that a resource was dedicated to making the ability to homebrew feats possible before dedicating that resource to making all actual written game functions possible.
edit: obviously some things are easier and faster to implement than others and thus get created beforehand, but I believe this to be the point being made.
And to DNDPaladin's point, I can homebrew tiamat if I want to (or any other monster behind a paywall) to get around having to pay, if I have access to that stat block through another medium, and it seems that people want other ways to incorporate more things this way (being able to homebrew classes/subclasses/races/subraces) so that they don't have to actually purchase the content to get it, they can just write it in and have it then, before things like the tools that would help the official materials that paying customers have (AL support, actual campaign management, bookmarking compendium content)
He means hed preffer to get the tools before any homebrew things. I understand his point because i too do not care about homebrew. I only ever take official stuff. Though i do want ua to be availlable.
I think they should concentrate on the actual tools and not the homebrew part that everyone here seems to want.
Thats not mentioning that those who want homebrew are mostly all that dont wanna pay for the books here while those who did pay are more wanting tools like campaign management and initiative trackers and encounter builders.
It just feels weird for them to put all efforts in order to please those who dont even wanna pay a thing. Right now it feels like the only tool we have is character building. That seems weird for a software who calls itself online "tools" plural.
I don't even use the character builder for more than the bare minimum required by the games I'm playing in. For me, the value is almost exclusively in the searchable listings.
Same here - the digital content is the most value to me. I may be the minority but I do not need a VTT or any digital tools to use while we play. We play at the table, printed character sheets, sometimes mini's but sometimes digital maps on a TV. I tried using HL but I found my face more in the screen than I did in front of the players.
I would use the campaign manager to manage the stuff outside of a game session - discussion, recaps, setting or game details, calendars, that sort of thing. Having all the players' PCs in the Campaign has been great so far. I can view the sheets and we discuss via email or text. I would like to take that part to the next level.
Again, I acknowledge that I seems like it's not the majority wish.
Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 seem like they did the VTT thing right (no experience with either though). If that's what's desired they should work on more integrations, not reinvent the wheel.
My understanding is the homebrew stuff is coming first because it is the framework from which all future content is added. It shares components with the tools the moderators have been using to bugfix, it's probably linked to the interfaces the content integrators use when they merge in new sourcebooks, etc. Allowing for 3 months since release to work on those tools seems a reasonable proposition.
On the flipside, homebrew has been absolutely useless to me EXCEPT as a workaround for unmerged stuff -- for example, Opal of the Ild Rune weapon runing, etc. I'm -really- looking forward to the finalized player builder / sheet stuff to support the missing functionality like minions and shapechanging, QUICKLY followed by the basic campaign management stuff (party/shared loot, content whitelisting, sharing character sheets). In the medium term I'm hoping for AL support, both on the builder and campaign management side (AL +1 rule for builder, logsheets for campaign).
This thread seems to get a little off-track every now and then. I get that there's "healthy impatience" that happens in every fan community (the wait for The Last Jedi is seriously killing me), but I'll drop in to say that the opinions of a few people in a forum thread are not necessarily indicative of the wider user-base.
While I can understand that homebrew management is not something that most of the recent posts here value as a priority, I can assure you that is not the "majority wish" from the total data sample of feedback that we work with.
The ability to create custom homebrew content that is fully-integrated into the official toolset is a pretty big deal and important for everything that comes after.
I'll say it again - the requests here involving campaign management have been seen, documented, and are being discussed, reviewed, and debated on a daily basis. All of that will culminate in a strong vision for how we move forward. I hope everyone sees that we're not just flying by the seat of our pants on any of the things we do. We are intentional in what we execute and will make these things happen in time. Not the amount of time people are going to want to see, but it sure beats it not happening at all. ;)
Good to hear. Is there a public document that shows the DDB vision of the Campaign Manager? I feel like there is so much speculation but a lot of people seem quite confident in their remarks about what's being developed. I'm more interested in what DDB said they've committed to.
BadEye, I just want to thank you for being so active and responsive with regards to this and everything. The product is pretty awesome, and the progress made has been great, I have no doubts that the things said to be coming will come :). Starting a new campaign soon, I use this site extensively for searching/monster stats and rule lookups on the fly -- it's fantastic for that. Just looking forward to running the campaign here soon too, other than just sharing content between sessions.
I don't even use the character builder for more than the bare minimum required by the games I'm playing in. For me, the value is almost exclusively in the searchable listings.
I have 43 characters and counting...
Creating characters, for me, is both fun and also teaches me the system in a way that's far more engaging and interesting than simply reading through the content. Not only that, but I tend to understand the content far better because in being a power-gaming, optimising, munchkinator, I review all the possible permutations of classes and races and feats and backgrounds while building those characters.
While I can understand that homebrew management is not something that most of the recent posts here value as a priority, I can assure you that is not the "majority wish" from the total data sample of feedback that we work with.
I love the homebrew ability. I have... ooh... three pages of homebrew stuff so far? That's like, 60ish things. Which reminds me, I really need to get around to finessing those backgrounds...
I don't even use the character builder for more than the bare minimum required by the games I'm playing in. For me, the value is almost exclusively in the searchable listings.
I have 43 characters and counting...
Creating characters, for me, is both fun and also teaches me the system in a way that's far more engaging and interesting than simply reading through the content. Not only that, but I tend to understand the content far better because in being a power-gaming, optimising, munchkinator, I review all the possible permutations of classes and races and feats and backgrounds while building those characters.
Power-gaming? Check. Optimizing? Yup. Munchkin? Love that game. Reading? One of my favorite pastimes. Learning by reading? My favorite way to learn. Lots of characters? Naturally. Review all feasible choices during character creation? Of course. Subscription? Absolutely not. Paper character sheet? Always worked for me. Make my own character sheet template for my PbP games? Sure. Digital character sheet that doesn't have all the content I use and won't let me make up a language? Rather not.
While I can understand that homebrew management is not something that most of the recent posts here value as a priority, I can assure you that is not the "majority wish" from the total data sample of feedback that we work with.
I love the homebrew ability. I have... ooh... three pages of homebrew stuff so far? That's like, 60ish things. Which reminds me, I really need to get around to finessing those backgrounds...
Not to one-up you or anything, but I have 11 pages.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Just following the details given into the developpement videos on youtube... i can safely say that campaign managing coming up near next years end, is very very very very very far away to me. I know you said in there that you preffered not give any time, but you did say that campaign management was a "long term road" meaning that it was not on your plate right now. Everything i'm saying up to this point as been considered by what was said in the development vids.
sorry but i fail to see how feat homebrew is important for say initiative trackers ? i also fail to see how feat homebrew is important for features all of the other websites are giving us ?
want to know the real reason your infos are all saying homebrew is important ? because your website is free and costing much less then others. in a business model where you want people to pay for your work, which is to me appreciated in all manners. You'd have to work on actually having tools done, not just allow for database additions by people who just want a free tool on the net. Right now, those who actually pay for this service, actually pay for the books, because let's be honest, you charge far less then Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds which offers the very same deals and have been since 2 years ago. so in all honesty you are literally 2 years behind everyone. But since you offer for less then the others, we're giving you the benefit of the doubts here and just hope you get things done. which we're sure you are, otherwise we wouldn'T be here discussing this matter. But while i do want UA to be a thing so badly... i'd preffer having anything else that helps with managing books and official stuff.
they are right you know... we still don't have any familliars implementation andt hats official matter. we still don't have anything to help manage wildshapes either. heck we still don't have AC calculation corrected on character sheet yet. sorry but i fail to see how feat homebrew actually has to do with a correctly working character sheet ?
as for information.... i'd be willing to ask you, how many of that population actually paid for your books compared to those who talk here that have actually paid ? i can't say for certain, but i can at least believe i'm almost right when i say those who want homebrew are those who do not pay for stuff and thus thats why they homebrew stuff to begin with.
don't get me wrong badeye, i really love the work you guys do and am willing to wait. i waited a long time for xanathars guide or something of the sort. so i can wait for sure. but when i see a character sheet claiming to be awesome and yet it has lots of quircks in it still and then i see features like homebrew feats coming out... i can't help to wonder who the hell made these priorities ?
for me right now, if it was me deciding, as a GM i'd want the features i am using the most to be a thing. for now homebrew races was a way higher priority to me then feats. though i do understand that homebrew feats were easy to add compared to races. just saying, it is odd to me that you claim to be a tool set, yet have only one actual tool after 2 years of development.
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DM of two gaming groups. Likes to create stuff. Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games --> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
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Hi - has there been any feedback on all this feedback? Just wondering if there is a summary of what might be the first steps. I miss an encounter builder and combat management screen every session. There are lots of other good ideas in the 24 pages of stuff, too. Just wondering if there’s a summary?
I also wonder what the scope of the Campaign Manager might be? My initial thought was simply organizing the content of a game - players, notes, maps, session recaps, etc. I didn't think this was a VTT substitute or a PlayByPost tool. Is this turning into an tool to use during play - like an Initiative Tracker, Combat Manager, et al?
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
I would deeply appreciate an aggregate list of spells prepared by players; presented similarly to how player spells are.
Tooltips | Snippet Code | How to Homebrew on D&D Beyond | Subclass Guide | Feature Roadmap
Astromancer's Homebrew Assembly
"The relevant equation is: Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass; a good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read." - Terry Pratchett
Most Recent Development Update Video
Try these. Then search for BadEye's posts in these Forums.
I'm not sure where all this homebrew emphasis is coming from, but I think it stinks that it's eating up development bandwidth when those of us want to play the game as-is can't get things done to improve our games.
I ask because I do not particularly feel there's emphasys per-se, most of the time homebrewing is suggested as a workaround until the DDB team implements the necesary changes to make something which is intended to work a certain way do it normally, without the need for homebrewing. I might be misinterpreting your comment, though, therefore I ask calrifications :)
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
He means hed preffer to get the tools before any homebrew things. I understand his point because i too do not care about homebrew. I only ever take official stuff. Though i do want ua to be availlable.
I think they should concentrate on the actual tools and not the homebrew part that everyone here seems to want.
Thats not mentioning that those who want homebrew are mostly all that dont wanna pay for the books here while those who did pay are more wanting tools like campaign management and initiative trackers and encounter builders.
It just feels weird for them to put all efforts in order to please those who dont even wanna pay a thing. Right now it feels like the only tool we have is character building. That seems weird for a software who calls itself online "tools" plural.
DM of two gaming groups.
Likes to create stuff.
Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses
If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games
--> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
How do you get a one-armed goblin out of a tree?
Wave!
Same here - the digital content is the most value to me. I may be the minority but I do not need a VTT or any digital tools to use while we play. We play at the table, printed character sheets, sometimes mini's but sometimes digital maps on a TV. I tried using HL but I found my face more in the screen than I did in front of the players.
I would use the campaign manager to manage the stuff outside of a game session - discussion, recaps, setting or game details, calendars, that sort of thing. Having all the players' PCs in the Campaign has been great so far. I can view the sheets and we discuss via email or text. I would like to take that part to the next level.
Again, I acknowledge that I seems like it's not the majority wish.
Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 seem like they did the VTT thing right (no experience with either though). If that's what's desired they should work on more integrations, not reinvent the wheel.
My understanding is the homebrew stuff is coming first because it is the framework from which all future content is added. It shares components with the tools the moderators have been using to bugfix, it's probably linked to the interfaces the content integrators use when they merge in new sourcebooks, etc. Allowing for 3 months since release to work on those tools seems a reasonable proposition.
On the flipside, homebrew has been absolutely useless to me EXCEPT as a workaround for unmerged stuff -- for example, Opal of the Ild Rune weapon runing, etc. I'm -really- looking forward to the finalized player builder / sheet stuff to support the missing functionality like minions and shapechanging, QUICKLY followed by the basic campaign management stuff (party/shared loot, content whitelisting, sharing character sheets). In the medium term I'm hoping for AL support, both on the builder and campaign management side (AL +1 rule for builder, logsheets for campaign).
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D&D Beyond FoundersThis thread seems to get a little off-track every now and then. I get that there's "healthy impatience" that happens in every fan community (the wait for The Last Jedi is seriously killing me), but I'll drop in to say that the opinions of a few people in a forum thread are not necessarily indicative of the wider user-base.
While I can understand that homebrew management is not something that most of the recent posts here value as a priority, I can assure you that is not the "majority wish" from the total data sample of feedback that we work with.
The ability to create custom homebrew content that is fully-integrated into the official toolset is a pretty big deal and important for everything that comes after.
I'll say it again - the requests here involving campaign management have been seen, documented, and are being discussed, reviewed, and debated on a daily basis. All of that will culminate in a strong vision for how we move forward. I hope everyone sees that we're not just flying by the seat of our pants on any of the things we do. We are intentional in what we execute and will make these things happen in time. Not the amount of time people are going to want to see, but it sure beats it not happening at all. ;)
Thanks!
Good to hear. Is there a public document that shows the DDB vision of the Campaign Manager? I feel like there is so much speculation but a lot of people seem quite confident in their remarks about what's being developed. I'm more interested in what DDB said they've committed to.
BadEye, I just want to thank you for being so active and responsive with regards to this and everything. The product is pretty awesome, and the progress made has been great, I have no doubts that the things said to be coming will come :). Starting a new campaign soon, I use this site extensively for searching/monster stats and rule lookups on the fly -- it's fantastic for that. Just looking forward to running the campaign here soon too, other than just sharing content between sessions.
How do you get a one-armed goblin out of a tree?
Wave!
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
Just following the details given into the developpement videos on youtube... i can safely say that campaign managing coming up near next years end, is very very very very very far away to me. I know you said in there that you preffered not give any time, but you did say that campaign management was a "long term road" meaning that it was not on your plate right now. Everything i'm saying up to this point as been considered by what was said in the development vids.
sorry but i fail to see how feat homebrew is important for say initiative trackers ? i also fail to see how feat homebrew is important for features all of the other websites are giving us ?
want to know the real reason your infos are all saying homebrew is important ?
because your website is free and costing much less then others. in a business model where you want people to pay for your work, which is to me appreciated in all manners. You'd have to work on actually having tools done, not just allow for database additions by people who just want a free tool on the net. Right now, those who actually pay for this service, actually pay for the books, because let's be honest, you charge far less then Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds which offers the very same deals and have been since 2 years ago. so in all honesty you are literally 2 years behind everyone. But since you offer for less then the others, we're giving you the benefit of the doubts here and just hope you get things done. which we're sure you are, otherwise we wouldn'T be here discussing this matter. But while i do want UA to be a thing so badly... i'd preffer having anything else that helps with managing books and official stuff.
they are right you know...
we still don't have any familliars implementation andt hats official matter. we still don't have anything to help manage wildshapes either. heck we still don't have AC calculation corrected on character sheet yet. sorry but i fail to see how feat homebrew actually has to do with a correctly working character sheet ?
as for information.... i'd be willing to ask you, how many of that population actually paid for your books compared to those who talk here that have actually paid ?
i can't say for certain, but i can at least believe i'm almost right when i say those who want homebrew are those who do not pay for stuff and thus thats why they homebrew stuff to begin with.
don't get me wrong badeye, i really love the work you guys do and am willing to wait. i waited a long time for xanathars guide or something of the sort. so i can wait for sure.
but when i see a character sheet claiming to be awesome and yet it has lots of quircks in it still and then i see features like homebrew feats coming out... i can't help to wonder who the hell made these priorities ?
for me right now, if it was me deciding, as a GM i'd want the features i am using the most to be a thing.
for now homebrew races was a way higher priority to me then feats. though i do understand that homebrew feats were easy to add compared to races.
just saying, it is odd to me that you claim to be a tool set, yet have only one actual tool after 2 years of development.
DM of two gaming groups.
Likes to create stuff.
Check out my homebrew --> Monsters --> Magical Items --> Races --> Subclasses
If you like --> Upvote, If you wanna comment --> Comment
Play by Post Games
--> One Shot Adventure - House of Artwood (DM) (Completed)