If there isn't a way to do this already, I would like the ability to lock the character sheets within a certain campaign so that they cannot be edited until the campaign is unlocked. This will prevent players from editing their sheets between sessions. As much as I'd like to say I always trust my players, there are some questionable times.
If this is already a feature, can someone point me in the direction on how to use it?
The answer to players you can't trust is to get different players, not to try and force trustworthiness upon them while simultaneously sending them the loud and clear message that you do not trust them, which is a thing that a not insignificant number of folks respond to with reasoning along the lines of "Well, he already doesn't trust me even though I haven't cheated, so now there is no reason to not cheat."
There isn't a feature to lock character sheets that belong to other players and I am fairly certain that there never will be, as those characters belong to those players and their accounts.
There has been discussion and requests about notifications and audit trails however which I believe would resolve your issue.
There isn't a feature to lock character sheets that belong to other players and I am fairly certain that there never will be, as those characters belong to those players and their accounts.
There has been discussion and requests about notifications and audit trails however which I believe would resolve your issue.
That would be even better! I would love that feature even more than locking the sheets
I don't think I'd want this. I can see why people want this, or the audit trails/notifications - but it seems a bit much. Character sheets are meant to be edited. It's literally their purpose. And some of those edits might be out of campaign. For example the session ends as we go to sleep and we'll begin next session on a new day having completed our long rest. Great, so between sessions as a spellcaster like a druid or wizard I may want to change my prepared spells - a time-consuming process that is often best done between sessions than during, especially at higher levels when you have a LOT of spells to go through. Or perhaps we just got a bunch of loot or did shopping. I may have very quickly added things and it's between sessions when I have more time to re-organise my inventory, change what I am attuned to, change equipment etc. We might have levelled up, so we might take time between sessions to level up as it can involve choices - especially if its an ASI stage. There's game logs and Discord and VTTs where we might make any health rolls and have it show to DM, after all.
There's a lot of legitimate edits you might make between sessions. Also noting that "Downtime Activities" is literally meant to be stuff between sessions as well, if the DM has said there'll be downtime and not immediate start next in-game day.
As a DM I wouldn't want to get spammed every time a player does one of these basic edits or have to scroll through a huge list of "audit trails". Especially since there's no practical or easy way for these notifications or audits to be tracked "only outside of sessions".
Then there's the consideration of system resources. If not very carefully implemented you might end up with a lot of extra, useless data being stored and notifications sent, etc. Bear in mind that there are many thousands of people actively editing their sheets at any given moment. It's a HUGE amount of extra data your system now has to deal with which is useful to only a tiny amount of people. Then you have to consider all the changes needed to put this in place - it's a a great amount of extra work to dump on an already busy and limited dev team. And, of course, extra money to pay for it.
It just seems like it's not worth it, given that all this becomes unnecessary if you just either check the sheets every now and again or, I dunno, trust your players. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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I think your point makes sense for a conventional campaign, but for those of us running a west marches campaign and playing with upwards to 20-40 people, trust is always assumed but to keep the game fair it's better to have a lock feature in place for the DMs.
This of course would be an OPT-IN mechanics where you can flag your sheet for enabled locking. As it stands there is no-way a DM can check if a player changes anything between sessions. Having an audit trail or lock solves this immediately. DMs already do enough of the heavy lifting, don't add more work.
From a system spec perspective, they don't need to store anything for those that don't want the feature. At the end of the day this is why we're paying for this service. Hoping that Dndbeynod have capable engineers.
Its a simple implementation, no excuses not to have it
Is it simple? Just on a conceptual level:
There's lots about the character that must be changeable. How do you differentiate? Can you make the control granular enough that people can level up without GM intervention?
How do you deal with removing the character from the campaign? If it unlocks it, then people can just leave, change, return. If you don't, then the DM now has a permanent control on somebody else's character, even if they completely flake.
Don't forget that it needs to be implemented on the website and in both apps.
And now you're getting customer service requests from people who've forgotten that the DM locked their characters, and who don't notice (or don't understand) whatever indicator you used.
Without even getting into the technical aspects, it's a lot more work than you think for a feature that almost everyone doesn't want. Even if it's actually simple, it still needs developer, designer, and tester time, and those are pretty much always in short supply.
DDB is a technology company, I guess it has enough ppl to do it or to get some vendor to do somewhat. Im a software architect and i do say: its a simple implementation, no excuses not to have it. DDB looks "lazy" not implementing locks for 'keeping trust' high in a table even more playing with online new ppl met on forums, etc
It's not a matter of how easy locking characters sheets would be to add to the site. It's that the idea goes against the concept of DDB. The primary focus of DDB is the character sheet and making it easy for players to use. DM tools are secondary. Just look at the lack of priority given to the encounter system that is still in beta. Anything that restricts the player from editing their character will not be implemented.
Get new players. The other option is have each player export or print to a pdf a copy of their character and email it to you. Check it before each session against what you see on the screen. Redo this when there are in session changes to the character. Since it is a game and for enjoyment seem disappointing you need to do this. Wizards is never going to go with a lock down option. Too many legal and liability issues.
If there isn't a way to do this already, I would like the ability to lock the character sheets within a certain campaign so that they cannot be edited until the campaign is unlocked. This will prevent players from editing their sheets between sessions. As much as I'd like to say I always trust my players, there are some questionable times.
If this is already a feature, can someone point me in the direction on how to use it?
The answer to players you can't trust is to get different players, not to try and force trustworthiness upon them while simultaneously sending them the loud and clear message that you do not trust them, which is a thing that a not insignificant number of folks respond to with reasoning along the lines of "Well, he already doesn't trust me even though I haven't cheated, so now there is no reason to not cheat."
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D&D Beyond FoundersThere isn't a feature to lock character sheets that belong to other players and I am fairly certain that there never will be, as those characters belong to those players and their accounts.
There has been discussion and requests about notifications and audit trails however which I believe would resolve your issue.
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Do we have any news about it?
Can we get an answer for this?
I don't think I'd want this. I can see why people want this, or the audit trails/notifications - but it seems a bit much. Character sheets are meant to be edited. It's literally their purpose. And some of those edits might be out of campaign. For example the session ends as we go to sleep and we'll begin next session on a new day having completed our long rest. Great, so between sessions as a spellcaster like a druid or wizard I may want to change my prepared spells - a time-consuming process that is often best done between sessions than during, especially at higher levels when you have a LOT of spells to go through. Or perhaps we just got a bunch of loot or did shopping. I may have very quickly added things and it's between sessions when I have more time to re-organise my inventory, change what I am attuned to, change equipment etc. We might have levelled up, so we might take time between sessions to level up as it can involve choices - especially if its an ASI stage. There's game logs and Discord and VTTs where we might make any health rolls and have it show to DM, after all.
There's a lot of legitimate edits you might make between sessions. Also noting that "Downtime Activities" is literally meant to be stuff between sessions as well, if the DM has said there'll be downtime and not immediate start next in-game day.
As a DM I wouldn't want to get spammed every time a player does one of these basic edits or have to scroll through a huge list of "audit trails". Especially since there's no practical or easy way for these notifications or audits to be tracked "only outside of sessions".
Then there's the consideration of system resources. If not very carefully implemented you might end up with a lot of extra, useless data being stored and notifications sent, etc. Bear in mind that there are many thousands of people actively editing their sheets at any given moment. It's a HUGE amount of extra data your system now has to deal with which is useful to only a tiny amount of people. Then you have to consider all the changes needed to put this in place - it's a a great amount of extra work to dump on an already busy and limited dev team. And, of course, extra money to pay for it.
It just seems like it's not worth it, given that all this becomes unnecessary if you just either check the sheets every now and again or, I dunno, trust your players. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
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I Think they make a great point.
I think your point makes sense for a conventional campaign, but for those of us running a west marches campaign and playing with upwards to 20-40 people, trust is always assumed but to keep the game fair it's better to have a lock feature in place for the DMs.
This of course would be an OPT-IN mechanics where you can flag your sheet for enabled locking. As it stands there is no-way a DM can check if a player changes anything between sessions. Having an audit trail or lock solves this immediately. DMs already do enough of the heavy lifting, don't add more work.
From a system spec perspective, they don't need to store anything for those that don't want the feature. At the end of the day this is why we're paying for this service. Hoping that Dndbeynod have capable engineers.
Its a simple implementation, no excuses not to have it
Is it simple? Just on a conceptual level:
There's lots about the character that must be changeable. How do you differentiate? Can you make the control granular enough that people can level up without GM intervention?
How do you deal with removing the character from the campaign? If it unlocks it, then people can just leave, change, return. If you don't, then the DM now has a permanent control on somebody else's character, even if they completely flake.
Don't forget that it needs to be implemented on the website and in both apps.
And now you're getting customer service requests from people who've forgotten that the DM locked their characters, and who don't notice (or don't understand) whatever indicator you used.
Without even getting into the technical aspects, it's a lot more work than you think for a feature that almost everyone doesn't want. Even if it's actually simple, it still needs developer, designer, and tester time, and those are pretty much always in short supply.
DDB is a technology company, I guess it has enough ppl to do it or to get some vendor to do somewhat. Im a software architect and i do say: its a simple implementation, no excuses not to have it. DDB looks "lazy" not implementing locks for 'keeping trust' high in a table even more playing with online new ppl met on forums, etc
No more to say.
It's not a matter of how easy locking characters sheets would be to add to the site. It's that the idea goes against the concept of DDB. The primary focus of DDB is the character sheet and making it easy for players to use. DM tools are secondary. Just look at the lack of priority given to the encounter system that is still in beta. Anything that restricts the player from editing their character will not be implemented.
Get new players. The other option is have each player export or print to a pdf a copy of their character and email it to you. Check it before each session against what you see on the screen. Redo this when there are in session changes to the character. Since it is a game and for enjoyment seem disappointing you need to do this. Wizards is never going to go with a lock down option. Too many legal and liability issues.