Hi ! I'm a french DM. As many others here, I don't have too much of a problem reading english but I'd rather have access to the rules in french. First because, as long as DDB in only english, I can't recommend it to my players who are not as fluent as I am. Second because of course we play with the french rule books, so it can be pretty cumbursome when looking for a spell or effect or abilty in DDB then you have go through the french rule book to find how the name is officially translated (as some times the translations are not specially straightforward) then give the explanation to the players. And finally and most important, it breaks the immersion going from one language to another.
Spanish speaker from Chile here. Translating on the fly for other players is far from seamless, as other users have said. To put in simple terms, once you are fluent in another language, reading, listening and understanding it is a chore, but translating it to another language is an art (CR 31 if on the fly).
It would also be great to have content in Latin American Spanish, since Peninsular Spanish (the official translation currently available in physical books) is awkward for us Latin Americans to read aloud. Reading an understanding it is automatic, but reading it aloud to other players feels weird because of the regional differences in verb conjugations, vocabulary and grammar.
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I am The Dungeon Hamster. Roll for initiative if you want to live.
French DM here. I have no trouble understanding english ; but that's not the case of all the players around my table (~6 to 9 people). I'm a tech-savvy ; as a DM, I'm using a laptop in game to track initiative & HP, and a TV to display battlemaps. I'd rather buy digital content than actual books... but never did because of lack of translation.
On personal priorities :
Top priority is character building & management. Letting players access the builder with full content, so that they can see options and make choices directly, would save so much time!
Second comes digital campaigns - for ease of reference for NPCs, digital maps, and ease of access while on the go.
Actual rules come third ; as SRD has already been translated, and is easily found.
On pricing :
You might consider selling language packs, or even separate copies for each language. I suggest you don't :
Keeping access to english content remains useful when in doubt of a rule interpretation, and we all use english when contributing online (thinking of rpg.stackexchange).
Purchasing all the digital content, and adding a subscription to share them among the group, already comes at a hefty price.
There is some kind of escalation of commitment here ; should French translation have been available (or announced as included) from the start, I'd have directly purchased digital content on D&D Beyond. I purchased hardcover french books instead, and now I'm reluctant on "paying twice" for the same content, especially as I'll also need some kind of subscription for my use. Once translation is officialy announced, I'll probably wait for some black friday deal to purchase it.
On the survey :
Language name translations seem odd ; I suggest you use "French (Français)" and "German (Deutsch)". Moreover, I fear there is a huge bias in your survey : people that are not familiar with english will never find it. Mandarin Chinese is the language the most spoken in the world - yet I wouldn't be able to find and answer a survey that asks, in Chinese, if I'd be interested in an english/french translation - even on a subject I'm passionate about :).
I am from Germany, i do understand English, but i prefer the German Books. I have the feeling that i sometimes dont get important details in English, thats why i use the German Books, so i would apriciate, if DnD Beyond would translate the content too.
And on a Second note, it is sometimes confusing, because of course we are playing in german, and having to translate on the fly, results in strange situations from time to time.
And at least for the German Versions, you dont need to translate everything yourself, Ullises Spiele is translating for Galeforce9 the printproducts. But on the other Hand, some of the translations are realy bad..
Having a French translation on D&D beyond would be great, and as long as there is no French, I will probably not become a paying customer here.
On a psychological side-note, I own the core books in English, and some extensions translated in French. As well as being a paid customer of a localised DD5 adaptation (Dragon from Agate studio). I would better pay again for same content but in French (or even better in English giving access freely to French) than the "just" same content as I already have.
If I would be allowed to make decisions on a bigger scale, on the business model on it's own, for me, it's the subscription fees on a monthly or yearly basis that should cover the service given by an online tool as DnD Beyond. And not the purchase of the material I already have. Sadly, you don't have a mean to verify what I do legally own or not, making all this very complicated. Nevertheless, money is money, and most of us can't just throw it through the Windows !
Been playing D&D since I was a kid, first with the basic boxed (1984) set in Spanish and afterwards in English (AD&D). I have no problem at all reading and using English manuals, but some of my players don't speak/read in English so it's a problem for them understanding the rules and keep asking me for the correct use of spells and skills. It would help a lot to have D&D Beyond translated to Spanish.
German (swiss) DM here. We also play in German. I and some player own plenty of books in german, but for quick referencing, preping a game or making new characters I'd love DnDbeyond to be in German. Especially the character sheet that calculates all the things and has easy tooltips for explenation would be a boon for our table!
I know everyone's first question will be, when is [insert my language] coming. We don't have timelines for other languages at this point. We hope to see how the Italian Player's Handbook (Compendium Only) does and we'll start to make decisions about what's next after that. There are many things we can do. Making the right choice will be important and this experiment with the Italian Player's Handbook will help use learn a lot.
Thanks for everyone's feedback so far. Please don't stop. Continue to use the survey and this forum to help us learn more.
First, I am very glad that the translation topic is moving forward.
To understand what I can expect for future Releases (hopfully german soon) I have some Questions.
As I understand the Players Handbook Page, the purchase of the "Players Handbook" for 29.99 will unlock all contents on that page except the italian compendium. If thats true, the description in the Top Box is not crystal clear about that. It says "..unlocks the entire contents of the book version.." but it doesn't state that its only the english version. If I am wrong and the 29.99 purchase will unlock the englisch AND italien compendium I would be excited.
If I am right and the 29.99 purchase only unlocks the english content and compendium, and the italien compendium doesn't get a discount if I already purchased the 29.99 purchase there is at least one Missing Option: Buying the whole Players Handbook with italien compendium instead of the engish for 29.99. Otherwise the Players Handbook content with the italian version would cost 49.98 which would really be a heavy price.
Don't get me wrong, I am really glad that a german version of dndbeyond is on the horizon, but I am afraid that the current conditions will not lead to many purchases for the italian version, because it is likely, that the content one italian gamer can buy currently, is the least helpful of the possible contents.
If the current experiment were german I would not buy it, because I already own the physical books and a digital version is nice, but not essential for me. If, on the other hand, e.g. the spells for the toolset would be available I would consider to buy them even if I already bought the whole Players Handbook in english, because my Players would have an immediate benefit on that.
One additional question: If I buy the Sourcebook Bundle or Legendary Bundle right now would the Italian Compendium be included?
As a native Italian speaker I was very glad about the announcement for the Italian PHB and bought it yesterday. I'm fairly fluent in English, but not all of my players are (this seems to be a recurring theme in this thread....). I'm especially glad for one of my long time players that, due to a health condition, has a very hard time reading foreign languages.
I hope that in the future the available content will expand to include other books and also to other parts like the rules DB and especially the character builder. In that regard, I hope that once someone has content purchased in more than one language, it will be possible to easily switch from one language to another, so that one could, for example, build a character in English, look up a spell in French and then build another character in Italian...
Hi, I'm an Italian DM. I'm very happy that the first PHB translation is in my native language.
So far I have no problems using the english version to prepare my sessions, but some of my players have, and transaltions on the fly sometimes just don't match.
Now the "not very happy" part. I already bought the Legendary Bundle 1 year ago, and after that I unlocked all the new contents when available (even pre-orders), and don't get me wrong, but I'm a little disappointed that I have to buy the PHB twice if I want to use the localized version.
I already own the 3 core books in Italian (made by Asmodee), and so my players, and I don't think I'll buy the localized digital content, even with the Legendary Boundle discount. I mean, pay 3 times for the same content it's not like I want to spend my money.
It would be nice to unlock the localized versions, if the english one , the only one available at the time of the purchase for many people here, is already unlocked. I think it might help to increase the number of Master Tier subsciptions too for non-english native speakers.
I don't think I'll buy the localized digital content, even with the Legendary Boundle discount.
Actually, the Legendary Bundle discount doesn't apply to the Italian version of the PHB. I guess that the majority of users (who are English speaking) wouldn't be too thrilled about having to purchase an Italian book as part of the bundle. Still, it is somewhat annoying not to get a discount after having bought everything in English...
It's awesome that translations are being provided! But I don't think it's practical for them to all appear in the sources list for every user, which is currently the case with the English and Italian versions of the PHB. It's redundant and will quickly become make the source list more and more unwieldy as you support additional languages and translate more products. Please consider only showing those products that are appropriate to each user based on a language selection field.
I know everyone's first question will be, when is [insert my language] coming. We don't have timelines for other languages at this point. We hope to see how the Italian Player's Handbook (Compendium Only) does and we'll start to make decisions about what's next after that. There are many things we can do. Making the right choice will be important and this experiment with the Italian Player's Handbook will help use learn a lot.
Thanks for everyone's feedback so far. Please don't stop. Continue to use the survey and this forum to help us learn more.
Ammja
What did the data look like that made you guys choose Italian first?
French and English are both my first languages (it's complicated) so I don't struggle to play D&D in English at all.
What I would be most interested in is a translation of the Basic Rules/SRD and names of spells and such, and the option to have the interface and character sheet (at least partially, all the class features and such aren't strictly necessary) display in another language, rather than a full translation of the rulebooks (although I think that's a brilliant thing to have, especially for those who aren't as comfortable in English!). I have occasionally played in French and it's a little jarring role-playing and everything in French, but then having to refer to rules and mechanics and character sheets in English. It would be nice to have a quick reference for how to say all those D&D specific things like hit points, armor class, prestidigitation, ancient red dragon, etc. in French, and especially if it means not having to buy a new book.
I am a DM for a group of friends in Spain. The level of English in our group ranges wildly, with me and my best friend being practically native speakers (C2, baby) and some barely understanding anything. Thus, we play in Spanish. There is an edition of the PHB in Spanish, and I use that one, but the DMG and MM I use in English. The main problem arises when using player oriented races or subclasses not found in the PHB. For example, one of my players plays a Tabaxi Rogue, and I had to translate all of its abilities. Additionally, I find it hard to run pre-written adventures, because I have to translate the read-aloud text, and there are words in English that do not translate well to Spanish. For example, there is no Spanish word for "eldritch". Which is why "Eldritch Blast" translates to "Arcane Explosion".
+1 Brazilian here (we speak Portuguese, it's good to mention it just in case).
I endorse all my fellow Brazilians have said above, specially the metric system conversion (with the approximations used in the paper translations, of course: "30ft = 9m").
And the automatic translation of existing character sheets would be amazing. Of course custom text inputs won't be "officially" translated, but there could be an integration with deepl.com, or other service as good as, prompting users to evaluate the automatic translation and fix/adjust eventual mistranslations.
I'm from Croatia, so I guess I will never see D&D in croatian. But imperial system is really annoying. Like, I say to my players: "The enemy is 30 meters away from you" and the first thing I hear is "Does my spell have range long enough to reach him?" (because spell range is in imperial system). And I I say: "The enemy is 30 feets away, they ask how far away is that?" (because they cannot imagine how big distance is it).
Hi, I'm an Italian DM. I'm very happy that the first PHB translation is in my native language.
So far I have no problems using the english version to prepare my sessions, but some of my players have, and transaltions on the fly sometimes just don't match.
Now the "not very happy" part. I already bought the Legendary Bundle 1 year ago, and after that I unlocked all the new contents when available (even pre-orders), and don't get me wrong, but I'm a little disappointed that I have to buy the PHB twice if I want to use the localized version.
I already own the 3 core books in Italian (made by Asmodee), and so my players, and I don't think I'll buy the localized digital content, even with the Legendary Boundle discount. I mean, pay 3 times for the same content it's not like I want to spend my money.
It would be nice to unlock the localized versions, if the english one , the only one available at the time of the purchase for many people here, is already unlocked. I think it might help to increase the number of Master Tier subsciptions too for non-english native speakers.
Yep, this also bothered me. I bought the original English physical books, then bought them all on D&D Beyond with the Legendary bundle (because having them digitally is a blessing), now that there's an official Portuguese translation I bought the physical PHB in my native language, and I really don't look forward to buy the book in Portuguese in DDB.
I understand DDB is experimenting with it (in time for Lucca's event), and I hope they do offer at the very least an option to a one-time conversion of my books from English to Portuguese (when they do become available). I still think that we should be able to easily switch languages (everyone that commented in the thread is at least bilingual), but at least offering a one time conversion would be better than nothing.
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Hi ! I'm a french DM. As many others here, I don't have too much of a problem reading english but I'd rather have access to the rules in french. First because, as long as DDB in only english, I can't recommend it to my players who are not as fluent as I am. Second because of course we play with the french rule books, so it can be pretty cumbursome when looking for a spell or effect or abilty in DDB then you have go through the french rule book to find how the name is officially translated (as some times the translations are not specially straightforward) then give the explanation to the players. And finally and most important, it breaks the immersion going from one language to another.
Spanish speaker from Chile here. Translating on the fly for other players is far from seamless, as other users have said. To put in simple terms, once you are fluent in another language, reading, listening and understanding it is a chore, but translating it to another language is an art (CR 31 if on the fly).
It would also be great to have content in Latin American Spanish, since Peninsular Spanish (the official translation currently available in physical books) is awkward for us Latin Americans to read aloud. Reading an understanding it is automatic, but reading it aloud to other players feels weird because of the regional differences in verb conjugations, vocabulary and grammar.
I am The Dungeon Hamster. Roll for initiative if you want to live.
https://www.instagram.com/dungeon.hamster
French DM here. I have no trouble understanding english ; but that's not the case of all the players around my table (~6 to 9 people).
I'm a tech-savvy ; as a DM, I'm using a laptop in game to track initiative & HP, and a TV to display battlemaps. I'd rather buy digital content than actual books... but never did because of lack of translation.
On personal priorities :
On pricing :
You might consider selling language packs, or even separate copies for each language. I suggest you don't :
There is some kind of escalation of commitment here ; should French translation have been available (or announced as included) from the start, I'd have directly purchased digital content on D&D Beyond. I purchased hardcover french books instead, and now I'm reluctant on "paying twice" for the same content, especially as I'll also need some kind of subscription for my use. Once translation is officialy announced, I'll probably wait for some black friday deal to purchase it.
On the survey :
Language name translations seem odd ; I suggest you use "French (Français)" and "German (Deutsch)".
Moreover, I fear there is a huge bias in your survey : people that are not familiar with english will never find it. Mandarin Chinese is the language the most spoken in the world - yet I wouldn't be able to find and answer a survey that asks, in Chinese, if I'd be interested in an english/french translation - even on a subject I'm passionate about :).
I am from Germany, i do understand English, but i prefer the German Books. I have the feeling that i sometimes dont get important details in English, thats why i use the German Books, so i would apriciate, if DnD Beyond would translate the content too.
And on a Second note, it is sometimes confusing, because of course we are playing in german, and having to translate on the fly, results in strange situations from time to time.
And at least for the German Versions, you dont need to translate everything yourself, Ullises Spiele is translating for Galeforce9 the printproducts. But on the other Hand, some of the translations are realy bad..
I am a DM from Belgium, French speaking part.
Having a French translation on D&D beyond would be great, and as long as there is no French, I will probably not become a paying customer here.
On a psychological side-note, I own the core books in English, and some extensions translated in French. As well as being a paid customer of a localised DD5 adaptation (Dragon from Agate studio). I would better pay again for same content but in French (or even better in English giving access freely to French) than the "just" same content as I already have.
If I would be allowed to make decisions on a bigger scale, on the business model on it's own, for me, it's the subscription fees on a monthly or yearly basis that should cover the service given by an online tool as DnD Beyond. And not the purchase of the material I already have. Sadly, you don't have a mean to verify what I do legally own or not, making all this very complicated. Nevertheless, money is money, and most of us can't just throw it through the Windows !
Spanish DM here.
Been playing D&D since I was a kid, first with the basic boxed (1984) set in Spanish and afterwards in English (AD&D). I have no problem at all reading and using English manuals, but some of my players don't speak/read in English so it's a problem for them understanding the rules and keep asking me for the correct use of spells and skills. It would help a lot to have D&D Beyond translated to Spanish.
German (swiss) DM here. We also play in German. I and some player own plenty of books in german, but for quick referencing, preping a game or making new characters I'd love DnDbeyond to be in German. Especially the character sheet that calculates all the things and has easy tooltips for explenation would be a boon for our table!
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AlumniI'm super excited to say that we have the first translation up and ready to purchase on our store.
The Italian Player's Handbook (Compendium Only) can be added to your cart.
You can also learn more about what this means from D&D Beyond on our Italian Player's Handbook Landing page.
I know everyone's first question will be, when is [insert my language] coming. We don't have timelines for other languages at this point. We hope to see how the Italian Player's Handbook (Compendium Only) does and we'll start to make decisions about what's next after that. There are many things we can do. Making the right choice will be important and this experiment with the Italian Player's Handbook will help use learn a lot.
Thanks for everyone's feedback so far. Please don't stop. Continue to use the survey and this forum to help us learn more.
Ammja
Not an Italien, but German here.
First, I am very glad that the translation topic is moving forward.
To understand what I can expect for future Releases (hopfully german soon) I have some Questions.
As I understand the Players Handbook Page, the purchase of the "Players Handbook" for 29.99 will unlock all contents on that page except the italian compendium.
If thats true, the description in the Top Box is not crystal clear about that. It says "..unlocks the entire contents of the book version.." but it doesn't state that its only the english version. If I am wrong and the 29.99 purchase will unlock the englisch AND italien compendium I would be excited.
If I am right and the 29.99 purchase only unlocks the english content and compendium, and the italien compendium doesn't get a discount if I already purchased the 29.99 purchase there is at least one Missing Option: Buying the whole Players Handbook with italien compendium instead of the engish for 29.99. Otherwise the Players Handbook content with the italian version would cost 49.98 which would really be a heavy price.
Don't get me wrong, I am really glad that a german version of dndbeyond is on the horizon, but I am afraid that the current conditions will not lead to many purchases for the italian version, because it is likely, that the content one italian gamer can buy currently, is the least helpful of the possible contents.
If the current experiment were german I would not buy it, because I already own the physical books and a digital version is nice, but not essential for me. If, on the other hand, e.g. the spells for the toolset would be available I would consider to buy them even if I already bought the whole Players Handbook in english, because my Players would have an immediate benefit on that.
One additional question: If I buy the Sourcebook Bundle or Legendary Bundle right now would the Italian Compendium be included?
Greets,
Thala
As a native Italian speaker I was very glad about the announcement for the Italian PHB and bought it yesterday. I'm fairly fluent in English, but not all of my players are (this seems to be a recurring theme in this thread....). I'm especially glad for one of my long time players that, due to a health condition, has a very hard time reading foreign languages.
I hope that in the future the available content will expand to include other books and also to other parts like the rules DB and especially the character builder. In that regard, I hope that once someone has content purchased in more than one language, it will be possible to easily switch from one language to another, so that one could, for example, build a character in English, look up a spell in French and then build another character in Italian...
Fatti non foste a viver come bruti ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza
Hi, I'm an Italian DM. I'm very happy that the first PHB translation is in my native language.
So far I have no problems using the english version to prepare my sessions, but some of my players have, and transaltions on the fly sometimes just don't match.
Now the "not very happy" part. I already bought the Legendary Bundle 1 year ago, and after that I unlocked all the new contents when available (even pre-orders), and don't get me wrong, but I'm a little disappointed that I have to buy the PHB twice if I want to use the localized version.
I already own the 3 core books in Italian (made by Asmodee), and so my players, and I don't think I'll buy the localized digital content, even with the Legendary Boundle discount. I mean, pay 3 times for the same content it's not like I want to spend my money.
It would be nice to unlock the localized versions, if the english one , the only one available at the time of the purchase for many people here, is already unlocked. I think it might help to increase the number of Master Tier subsciptions too for non-english native speakers.
Actually, the Legendary Bundle discount doesn't apply to the Italian version of the PHB. I guess that the majority of users (who are English speaking) wouldn't be too thrilled about having to purchase an Italian book as part of the bundle. Still, it is somewhat annoying not to get a discount after having bought everything in English...
Fatti non foste a viver come bruti ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza
It's awesome that translations are being provided! But I don't think it's practical for them to all appear in the sources list for every user, which is currently the case with the English and Italian versions of the PHB. It's redundant and will quickly become make the source list more and more unwieldy as you support additional languages and translate more products. Please consider only showing those products that are appropriate to each user based on a language selection field.
What did the data look like that made you guys choose Italian first?
French and English are both my first languages (it's complicated) so I don't struggle to play D&D in English at all.
What I would be most interested in is a translation of the Basic Rules/SRD and names of spells and such, and the option to have the interface and character sheet (at least partially, all the class features and such aren't strictly necessary) display in another language, rather than a full translation of the rulebooks (although I think that's a brilliant thing to have, especially for those who aren't as comfortable in English!). I have occasionally played in French and it's a little jarring role-playing and everything in French, but then having to refer to rules and mechanics and character sheets in English. It would be nice to have a quick reference for how to say all those D&D specific things like hit points, armor class, prestidigitation, ancient red dragon, etc. in French, and especially if it means not having to buy a new book.
I am a DM for a group of friends in Spain. The level of English in our group ranges wildly, with me and my best friend being practically native speakers (C2, baby) and some barely understanding anything. Thus, we play in Spanish. There is an edition of the PHB in Spanish, and I use that one, but the DMG and MM I use in English. The main problem arises when using player oriented races or subclasses not found in the PHB. For example, one of my players plays a Tabaxi Rogue, and I had to translate all of its abilities. Additionally, I find it hard to run pre-written adventures, because I have to translate the read-aloud text, and there are words in English that do not translate well to Spanish. For example, there is no Spanish word for "eldritch". Which is why "Eldritch Blast" translates to "Arcane Explosion".
+1 Brazilian here (we speak Portuguese, it's good to mention it just in case).
I endorse all my fellow Brazilians have said above, specially the metric system conversion (with the approximations used in the paper translations, of course: "30ft = 9m").
And the automatic translation of existing character sheets would be amazing. Of course custom text inputs won't be "officially" translated, but there could be an integration with deepl.com, or other service as good as, prompting users to evaluate the automatic translation and fix/adjust eventual mistranslations.
I'm from Croatia, so I guess I will never see D&D in croatian. But imperial system is really annoying. Like, I say to my players: "The enemy is 30 meters away from you" and the first thing I hear is "Does my spell have range long enough to reach him?" (because spell range is in imperial system). And I I say: "The enemy is 30 feets away, they ask how far away is that?" (because they cannot imagine how big distance is it).
Yep, this also bothered me. I bought the original English physical books, then bought them all on D&D Beyond with the Legendary bundle (because having them digitally is a blessing), now that there's an official Portuguese translation I bought the physical PHB in my native language, and I really don't look forward to buy the book in Portuguese in DDB.
I understand DDB is experimenting with it (in time for Lucca's event), and I hope they do offer at the very least an option to a one-time conversion of my books from English to Portuguese (when they do become available). I still think that we should be able to easily switch languages (everyone that commented in the thread is at least bilingual), but at least offering a one time conversion would be better than nothing.