You're making a lot of sweeping statements that do seem aimed at devaluing those that play online using VTTs, saying things "VTT is only truly necessary for those who are visual mostly and can't seem to work right without a visual cue of anykind" or "VTT people say its easier because they mostly plays adventures that are literally already having everything done for you". Do you not see how dismissive (and inaccurate) that is? Also, I'd love to see the data on this statement; "but if you are like half the community, and i mean half the community.... designing your own world and or designing your own adventures". I feel like if that was true, then adventure module sales wouldn't be so profitable for WotC.
Your point about VTTs slowing down gameplay isn't true; one of the advantages of VTT over IRL play is you can prep everything you need, all your maps and tokens, beforehand and switch to them very quickly. You talk about the maps needing to be made and that takes time; that's technically true, but it's not necessarily the time of the DM. There are amazing content creators out there like Neutral Party and 1 Minute Dungeon who make maps that people can use in their VTTs, or print them out. The setting books like Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica and Eberron: Rising from the Last War include generic maps that are great for a multitude of uses. And then there are great tools like Wonderdraft and Watabou's one page dungeon generator that make creating maps nowhere near as difficult as you make out.
You also say "most of the gaming are either theater of the minds. which requires no maps whatsoever. or with visual cues that takes a lot of time to design and literally stops the gameplay" That's a false dichotomy; there are visual cues that don't take a lot of time to set up, for example the preconfigured maps, or dry erase boards and tokens.
And then you say things like "the face VTT shows most of the time, is that of a board game instead of a TTRPG. moving tokens on screen, playing mostly dungeon crawls" You do know that D&D started out as dungeon crawls and tokens on a map, right? This attempt (again) at disparaging a certain type of play is decidedly uncool; so what if people want to dungeon crawl? And then with this "if you look at pretty much all online streaming gaming sessions... what you see is not boardgames, they do not even use VTT", what does online streamed games have to do with how people play at home?
You also don't seem to acknowledge that a lot of people use VTTs for IRL play, with TV screens on their table. It's a very popular and convenient setup, to the point that several software solutions only for that setup are emerging.
So yeah, tl;dr, I doubt your insight into how people play is as accurate as you make out, and maybe don't infer that there's a right or wrong way to play D&D?
but the reality being... VTT is only truly necessary for those who are visual mostly and can't seem to work right without a visual cue of anykind. after all there are as much audio people then there is visual people.
I'm not sure how long you've been in the hobby, but this is a pretty stunning statement to me. D&D (and pen and paper RPGs all 'round) have evolved in their own way, but they're born out of war games. That you think VTT's are only necessary for visual aids is pretty absurd. I've played D&D 25 years along with plenty of other RPGs. Using grids and maps has nothing to do with visual aids and everything to do with wargaming. D&D used to be a wargame. 5e is very much designed with that in mind. Spells and powers have precise measurements and characters have precise distances they can move. There's a huge playerbase that loves to play Rules As Written, and find grids necessary (and fun) to achieve that. The fact is, that Wizards of the Coast's big fat campaign modules all include a dozen precise, grid-based maps. Maps to be used either as purely reference for the DM, a handout to display what the area looks like, or, yes, as a grid to place your miniatures on (like a VTT).
I advocate both theater of the mind and grids as the situation calls. When I want immersion, I don't display a map. When we're in a battle that has more than a couple moving pieces, the maps help tremendously and make my job as a DM much easier. Further, maybe this is an angle you haven't considered: if I were to get started in a real life game, I would use a computer and VTTs as an aid to my game these days. VTT's roll too many key tools into one.
You're accusing people of gatekeeping, but I see you implying that the only real way to play the game is in person, and that playing online with a VTT isn't the right way to play.
I would like to see a DDB VTT. In my group, I run my campaigns in Roll20, as does another DM. We have one person who prefers Fantasy Grounds. We use whatever works for us. I've prefer DDB for reading, researching, plotting and planning. In order to save myself time I do end up buying content in multiple platforms. I don't "have to", but I weigh the time and effort for me to create, or the ease of reading on one platform the another, and I make the choice. I add a lot to the campaigns that I run. Currently I've added 40 maps (some big, some small) to the purchased campaign I've been running for 30 weeks. We're about 1/3 of the way through what I have planned, and that likely means about 25% of what I'll actually run.
My group has only been using VTT's for about 2 years. I became very proficient in PnP playing through years of play. I've noticed over the last year or so I'm getting much more proficient in Roll20. I can crank out content fast enough to keep up with out weekly game pace. The biggest benefit I see for a DDB VTT is the need to only purchase content once, or lack of need to manually create it. I don't see myself using DDB less, just the opposite. So a VTT, that is on par with the others I've used, would be welcome.
I do have a question now though looking back. I took about 4 months away from D&D and dndbeyond, so I'm a little out of the loop.
I don't see homebrew classes on the board. I at least vaguely remember this being on the board at some point, but as far as I can tell I can't create a homebrew class, so has there been any new update on homebrew classes?
I do have a question now though looking back. I took about 4 months away from D&D and dndbeyond, so I'm a little out of the loop.
I don't see homebrew classes on the board. I at least vaguely remember this being on the board at some point, but as far as I can tell I can't create a homebrew class, so has there been any new update on homebrew classes?
I don't remember if homebrew classes were ever on the trello board or not. I do know that in the beginning, DDB staff said they had no plans to do homebrew classes. That eventually shifted to "we'll consider adding homebrew classes." I think it then shifted to "it's on the loooonterm roadmap" but I'm not certain about that. I do know that not everything on the in-house long term roadmap is on the public trello board.
I do have a question now though looking back. I took about 4 months away from D&D and dndbeyond, so I'm a little out of the loop.
I don't see homebrew classes on the board. I at least vaguely remember this being on the board at some point, but as far as I can tell I can't create a homebrew class, so has there been any new update on homebrew classes?
I don't remember if homebrew classes were ever on the trello board or not. I do know that in the beginning, DDB staff said they had no plans to do homebrew classes. That eventually shifted to "we'll consider adding homebrew classes." I think it then shifted to "it's on the loooonterm roadmap" but I'm not certain about that. I do know that not everything on the in-house long term roadmap is on the public trello board.
The reason the new Class Variant Features are taking so long is that they require something akin to homebrewing classes. So, they started working on it.
I do have a question now though looking back. I took about 4 months away from D&D and dndbeyond, so I'm a little out of the loop.
I don't see homebrew classes on the board. I at least vaguely remember this being on the board at some point, but as far as I can tell I can't create a homebrew class, so has there been any new update on homebrew classes?
I don't remember if homebrew classes were ever on the trello board or not. I do know that in the beginning, DDB staff said they had no plans to do homebrew classes. That eventually shifted to "we'll consider adding homebrew classes." I think it then shifted to "it's on the loooonterm roadmap" but I'm not certain about that. I do know that not everything on the in-house long term roadmap is on the public trello board.
The reason the new Class Variant Features are taking so long is that they require something akin to homebrewing classes. So, they started working on it.
Interesting. This is the first I've heard of Class Variant Features. Is there a page/article that explains what all the intended purposes are for Class Variant Features? Just so I can know what to expect?
I do have a question now though looking back. I took about 4 months away from D&D and dndbeyond, so I'm a little out of the loop.
I don't see homebrew classes on the board. I at least vaguely remember this being on the board at some point, but as far as I can tell I can't create a homebrew class, so has there been any new update on homebrew classes?
I don't remember if homebrew classes were ever on the trello board or not. I do know that in the beginning, DDB staff said they had no plans to do homebrew classes. That eventually shifted to "we'll consider adding homebrew classes." I think it then shifted to "it's on the loooonterm roadmap" but I'm not certain about that. I do know that not everything on the in-house long term roadmap is on the public trello board.
The reason the new Class Variant Features are taking so long is that they require something akin to homebrewing classes. So, they started working on it.
Interesting. This is the first I've heard of Class Variant Features. Is there a page/article that explains what all the intended purposes are for Class Variant Features? Just so I can know what to expect?
You can download the pdf of that unearthed arcana (playtest) release here.
I am not sure if this is the right place to ask but is there any ETA on when the content from the class revamp Unearthed Arcana that came out in November will be added to this site? I know it is a lot to add and more than just a new Subclass. I was just wondering since it has some really interesting stuff in it.
I am not sure if this is the right place to ask but is there any ETA on when the content from the class revamp Unearthed Arcana that came out in November will be added to this site? I know it is a lot to add and more than just a new Subclass. I was just wondering since it has some really interesting stuff in it.
Hello! D&D Beyond does not offer ETAs for upcoming features. The best place to get the most recent news is on the weekly Dev Updates, which happen each Thursday at 9am PT on twitch.tv/dndbeyond.
fair enough. I just thought I would ask. All the other UA content got added within a week so I just thought it was strange. I will watch that so thanks for the information.
fair enough. I just thought I would ask. All the other UA content got added within a week so I just thought it was strange. I will watch that so thanks for the information.
You can also follow the unofficial summary document to see details saved in searchable text format.
If you do, you would see that Adam said the Class Variants are much more complicated than another subclass or spell and require more work on how classes function in the system.
I see a lot of interesting stuff on the roadmap though I am unsure exactly what some of it is. Right now I am wanting to buy in to DnDBeyond but unsure if I want the Legendary pack or just the Source book bundle. I already have all the physical books and I have digitized my adventures using Realmworks. What I really want to know is if DnDbeyond is planning to create a campaign management system that can replace what Realworks is doing for me. Its nice that ToA for instance would be available to me if I bought that adventure, but can I put in notes, make changes to encounters, and customize it more, adding homebrew, and DMsGuild content to it? If I don't buy ToA, are the ToA magic items not available for me to give to my players?
I see the encounter builder is in development. Will that allow me to create an encounter, and place it in a certain spot in my adventure and add that to the combat tracker once both features are ready?
I guess my big question is, is it going to be worth buying the adventures digitally if I already have them? What do I get out of buying them on DnDBeyond now and more importantly, in the future?
Sorry for all the questions, but when you are about to drop $600 you want to know this stuff.
I see a lot of interesting stuff on the roadmap though I am unsure exactly what some of it is. Right now I am wanting to buy in to DnDBeyond but unsure if I want the Legendary pack or just the Source book bundle. I already have all the physical books and I have digitized my adventures using Realmworks. What I really want to know is if DnDbeyond is planning to create a campaign management system that can replace what Realworks is doing for me. Its nice that ToA for instance would be available to me if I bought that adventure, but can I put in notes, make changes to encounters, and customize it more, adding homebrew, and DMsGuild content to it? If I don't buy ToA, are the ToA magic items not available for me to give to my players?
I see the encounter builder is in development. Will that allow me to create an encounter, and place it in a certain spot in my adventure and add that to the combat tracker once both features are ready?
I guess my big question is, is it going to be worth buying the adventures digitally if I already have them? What do I get out of buying them on DnDBeyond now and more importantly, in the future?
Sorry for all the questions, but when you are about to drop $600 you want to know this stuff.
So I'll only answer what I know. If you click on the individual books then you can buy partial items. In other words you could buy just the magic items for ToA for $X.99 instead of the entire book for $29.99. Though for the $29.99 gets you all the stuff you need for that book as well as the compendium, which is essentially an online viewer of the book, similar to a pdf. I'm not sure how editable it is, whether you can add notes or not, I don't actually use the compendium myself. If you just wanted the magic items, but didn't want to purchase them, you can actually homebrew the magic item yourself, though depending on the complexity of the item(s), it may take some troubleshooting to finalize. The encounter builder is in development and when it is needed, you can go to your encounters and click on it to have what you need. I am not familiar whatsoever with realworks, so I do not know how the dndbeyond encounter builder/compendiums fare in comparison. The legendary bundle gets you a discount equal to about $4.5 off of future sourcebooks, making them go from $29.99 to $25.49
I see a lot of interesting stuff on the roadmap though I am unsure exactly what some of it is. Right now I am wanting to buy in to DnDBeyond but unsure if I want the Legendary pack or just the Source book bundle. I already have all the physical books and I have digitized my adventures using Realmworks. What I really want to know is if DnDbeyond is planning to create a campaign management system that can replace what Realworks is doing for me. Its nice that ToA for instance would be available to me if I bought that adventure, but can I put in notes, make changes to encounters, and customize it more, adding homebrew, and DMsGuild content to it? If I don't buy ToA, are the ToA magic items not available for me to give to my players?
I see the encounter builder is in development. Will that allow me to create an encounter, and place it in a certain spot in my adventure and add that to the combat tracker once both features are ready?
I guess my big question is, is it going to be worth buying the adventures digitally if I already have them? What do I get out of buying them on DnDBeyond now and more importantly, in the future?
Sorry for all the questions, but when you are about to drop $600 you want to know this stuff.
I don't know what Realmworks does but they are currently working on improvements to how games are managed and run.
Everything you buy on DNDBeyond provides a discount equal to the amount spent for anything that contains it. So, you can start with the Sources and then upgrade to the Legendary later. But if you already have the adventures, don't buy them unless you have money to spare.
My thoughts, I invested in DNDBeyond because, in my mind, it's *THE* tool for the game and it will only improve.
Realmworks is a wikia type website that allows you to add notes and the likes to your realm. basically its a wikia of your world and campaign. Obsidian Portal does the same thing, as well as InfinitasDM which is a lot easier to use then those two.
in the end, i think those who want campaign management like obsidian or realm, actually only wants a true website for their world. its not to say they are bad or anything, they are great though they have limited capabilities in many aspects. but i think DDB cannot start incorporating websites for each individuals. i mean, those sites are for writters, not for campaign management. they dont have initiative trcking, they dont have encounter builders, nor do they have monster building abilities. they are only websites to which you write stuff. i can do that in Notepad++ which allows for tabs and all. i can even do that on google docs which allows me for much more then all of those websites combined.
thats where people have a problem with the words "Campaign Management". because people gives the terms numerous defiinitions. one of them being "use obsidian portal like stuff, so i can just write my world down and let my writting skills be shown." to me thats world building, not campaign managements. In the end as i tryed realmworks and obsidian and like 3 other sites, they awere all the same thing... write down stuff like cities, write down descriptions. put some images in to complement stuff... the impression i had was that i was making a website out of my world. while that has its uses, thats not campaign management. nothing i wrote down there, helped me actually run a campaign. everything i needed was already written down on RTF files and i already had several maps on my hard drive, which i use with my tablet for gaming. so why would i ever need to write everything down onto obsidian and the likes ? i don't need a website for my world, except when someone wants to learn about my world. at that point, i felt like i was more of a writter for a novel, then a d&d DM.
nope, i think the campaign management we have now, only really needs two improvements. the rest are already incoming as it is... for me campaign managements is the following stuff... - Monster Builder, like creating monsters but the ability to add calsses to them on the fly. you know level up monsters much like we do with characters. - Initiative tracker, already incoming. but it needs to be intuitive and thought for tablets without keyboard. like the ability to adjust hit points with sliders, i like that a lot. - Encounter Builder, already incoming and great at it. - Ability to put notes and keep those notes in ! - Ability to create adventure like table of content, but ability to add notes directly onto the map (picture). like add a pin, if clicked upon it shows the note. - sound board for ambience in various d&d sessions. things like... mysterious, creepy or festive. nothing too strict, keep them general to a mood.
to me that would be awesome. to me thats campaign management, as it allows me to create a timeline with notes, and it allows me to remember what hapenned in the campaign. as well as plan out up front whats arriving soon. but campaign management doesn't stop at writing stuff up... campaign management includes the usual per session stuff. the stuff like inititives and the likes. thus why its added.
i feel like when they started, we had only 3 text boxes, like regular textboxes, no formatting of any kinds. nothing ! we fixed that by simply asking for formatting of text. and they got us there in a matter of days. now we got 3 rich text boxes which allows for text formatting and the likes. if writting novels is all you want, then you don't need more then those ! i mean, creating a timeline is easy with all 3 of those boxes.
so a simple solution that can be done easily for them, would be these solutions... 1) add the ability to create subfolders for those 3 richboxes. the ability to create folder like notes would make this a much more viable campaign diary ! which is what they truly are. 2) the ability to see images in the text itself. i believe its already there considering we can link an image from other sites, but it would be great to be able to place where we want to in the text. not just following the text. 3) most important... the abilitty to have them at full scale, not just as 3 tiny boxes. i want them full on word website. taking the full width and height of my screen. right now they are way too ******* tiny ! heck making them open another window is quite easy by todays standard. so i don't understand why they are so tiny.
aside from those, i think their campaign management scheme are on point.
heres what i use for now... - my own developped D&D Tools. - Initiative tracking, flick of a finger and i get inititives numbers going up or down. push of a finger, adding an initiative card with Init, Hp, Monster Name. the only thig that requires a keyboard is monster name. which by default my monsters are numbered like this "Monster #1", "Monster #2" and i could simply tell my players, tell me which number you hit. so not even a need for keyboard if i need to be fast. - Sound board, musics chosen from mat mercer playlists, added a few key sound effects which can be played as the music goes. can repeat songs and all, much more versatile then windows media player and less intensive like the battle boards or sirenscape things. - a small Dm Screen, just a small notepad like thing with stuff tables i need to remember, like tracking people, NPC answers, Potions. the likes of those. - Generators of some kind, names for many races. Wheater generators, treasures generators. the likes of those... - Screen Viewer, used to craft stuff and the likes in 3D. now i just bring my flat 17 inches monitor and plug it in as a second screen for my tablet. s if i wanna show a picture to my players, i can easily do that and if i need to bring a combat screen on the fly, i can do it too. add tokens or just use true figurines on the monitor directly. - Facebook - adding photos to albums, maps they have seen, places and NPC they have seen. - using photoshop i designed neet images with the correct info on NPC and all, so if they need to remember an NPC, or i do... just need to go on facebook for the campaign. - Adding RTF or Doc style document for rules and new objects and the likes. so again if they need to remember things, its there.
that's really all i ever need ! those are Campaign management to me ! and yes, i have my own facebook page which i keep private for myself. have to remember to upload stuff there though, as everything is on my tablet hard drive. clouds are great in case of emergency. but thats what campaign management is for me. DDB as been a great aid, as in i can just create monsters with true stats blcks and all. thats great. same with races and objects. i like it a lot. but i'd like them to complement that with monsters that can be leveled up like the characters does. you know picka monster and add more hit dice, which in term can add more abilities from classes. just a box that literally ask you what kind of abilities you want to add as you add more hit dice. i was in the making of that toool when i saw DDB do it with homebrew and now i just use DDB. but i feel like i should resume the work, i think thats gonna be faster then waiting on beyond.
but thats another story... you get the drift... i think campaign management isn't just the ability to write your world down... and obsidian and realmworks aren't campaign management tools, they are more inline with world building. and world building is not campaign management to me.
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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
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@DnDPaladin
You're making a lot of sweeping statements that do seem aimed at devaluing those that play online using VTTs, saying things "VTT is only truly necessary for those who are visual mostly and can't seem to work right without a visual cue of anykind" or "VTT people say its easier because they mostly plays adventures that are literally already having everything done for you". Do you not see how dismissive (and inaccurate) that is? Also, I'd love to see the data on this statement; "but if you are like half the community, and i mean half the community.... designing your own world and or designing your own adventures". I feel like if that was true, then adventure module sales wouldn't be so profitable for WotC.
Your point about VTTs slowing down gameplay isn't true; one of the advantages of VTT over IRL play is you can prep everything you need, all your maps and tokens, beforehand and switch to them very quickly. You talk about the maps needing to be made and that takes time; that's technically true, but it's not necessarily the time of the DM. There are amazing content creators out there like Neutral Party and 1 Minute Dungeon who make maps that people can use in their VTTs, or print them out. The setting books like Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica and Eberron: Rising from the Last War include generic maps that are great for a multitude of uses. And then there are great tools like Wonderdraft and Watabou's one page dungeon generator that make creating maps nowhere near as difficult as you make out.
You also say "most of the gaming are either theater of the minds. which requires no maps whatsoever. or with visual cues that takes a lot of time to design and literally stops the gameplay" That's a false dichotomy; there are visual cues that don't take a lot of time to set up, for example the preconfigured maps, or dry erase boards and tokens.
And then you say things like "the face VTT shows most of the time, is that of a board game instead of a TTRPG. moving tokens on screen, playing mostly dungeon crawls" You do know that D&D started out as dungeon crawls and tokens on a map, right? This attempt (again) at disparaging a certain type of play is decidedly uncool; so what if people want to dungeon crawl? And then with this "if you look at pretty much all online streaming gaming sessions... what you see is not boardgames, they do not even use VTT", what does online streamed games have to do with how people play at home?
You also don't seem to acknowledge that a lot of people use VTTs for IRL play, with TV screens on their table. It's a very popular and convenient setup, to the point that several software solutions only for that setup are emerging.
So yeah, tl;dr, I doubt your insight into how people play is as accurate as you make out, and maybe don't infer that there's a right or wrong way to play D&D?
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I'm not sure how long you've been in the hobby, but this is a pretty stunning statement to me. D&D (and pen and paper RPGs all 'round) have evolved in their own way, but they're born out of war games. That you think VTT's are only necessary for visual aids is pretty absurd. I've played D&D 25 years along with plenty of other RPGs. Using grids and maps has nothing to do with visual aids and everything to do with wargaming. D&D used to be a wargame. 5e is very much designed with that in mind. Spells and powers have precise measurements and characters have precise distances they can move. There's a huge playerbase that loves to play Rules As Written, and find grids necessary (and fun) to achieve that. The fact is, that Wizards of the Coast's big fat campaign modules all include a dozen precise, grid-based maps. Maps to be used either as purely reference for the DM, a handout to display what the area looks like, or, yes, as a grid to place your miniatures on (like a VTT).
I advocate both theater of the mind and grids as the situation calls. When I want immersion, I don't display a map. When we're in a battle that has more than a couple moving pieces, the maps help tremendously and make my job as a DM much easier. Further, maybe this is an angle you haven't considered: if I were to get started in a real life game, I would use a computer and VTTs as an aid to my game these days. VTT's roll too many key tools into one.
You're accusing people of gatekeeping, but I see you implying that the only real way to play the game is in person, and that playing online with a VTT isn't the right way to play.
I would like to see a DDB VTT. In my group, I run my campaigns in Roll20, as does another DM. We have one person who prefers Fantasy Grounds. We use whatever works for us. I've prefer DDB for reading, researching, plotting and planning. In order to save myself time I do end up buying content in multiple platforms. I don't "have to", but I weigh the time and effort for me to create, or the ease of reading on one platform the another, and I make the choice. I add a lot to the campaigns that I run. Currently I've added 40 maps (some big, some small) to the purchased campaign I've been running for 30 weeks. We're about 1/3 of the way through what I have planned, and that likely means about 25% of what I'll actually run.
My group has only been using VTT's for about 2 years. I became very proficient in PnP playing through years of play. I've noticed over the last year or so I'm getting much more proficient in Roll20. I can crank out content fast enough to keep up with out weekly game pace. The biggest benefit I see for a DDB VTT is the need to only purchase content once, or lack of need to manually create it. I don't see myself using DDB less, just the opposite. So a VTT, that is on par with the others I've used, would be welcome.
My 2 cents,
Everyone is the main character of their story
I just want a Dark Mode theme. Give my eyes a rest Beyond. It would be wonderful.
I can't access the Trello board anymore. It's saying it might be private.
I still have access to the board. Here is a screenshot of it in case there was something you needed to see:
Published Subclasses
Cool. Thanks!
Edit: I can view the roadmap again.
I do have a question now though looking back. I took about 4 months away from D&D and dndbeyond, so I'm a little out of the loop.
I don't see homebrew classes on the board. I at least vaguely remember this being on the board at some point, but as far as I can tell I can't create a homebrew class, so has there been any new update on homebrew classes?
Published Subclasses
I don't remember if homebrew classes were ever on the trello board or not. I do know that in the beginning, DDB staff said they had no plans to do homebrew classes. That eventually shifted to "we'll consider adding homebrew classes." I think it then shifted to "it's on the loooonterm roadmap" but I'm not certain about that. I do know that not everything on the in-house long term roadmap is on the public trello board.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
Check your entitlements here. | Support Ticket LInk
The reason the new Class Variant Features are taking so long is that they require something akin to homebrewing classes. So, they started working on it.
Check out all my important links here.
May we live in Less Interesting Times
Interesting. This is the first I've heard of Class Variant Features. Is there a page/article that explains what all the intended purposes are for Class Variant Features? Just so I can know what to expect?
Published Subclasses
You can download the pdf of that unearthed arcana (playtest) release here.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
Check your entitlements here. | Support Ticket LInk
I am not sure if this is the right place to ask but is there any ETA on when the content from the class revamp Unearthed Arcana that came out in November will be added to this site? I know it is a lot to add and more than just a new Subclass. I was just wondering since it has some really interesting stuff in it.
Hello! D&D Beyond does not offer ETAs for upcoming features. The best place to get the most recent news is on the weekly Dev Updates, which happen each Thursday at 9am PT on twitch.tv/dndbeyond.
fair enough. I just thought I would ask. All the other UA content got added within a week so I just thought it was strange. I will watch that so thanks for the information.
You can also follow the unofficial summary document to see details saved in searchable text format.
If you do, you would see that Adam said the Class Variants are much more complicated than another subclass or spell and require more work on how classes function in the system.
Check out all my important links here.
May we live in Less Interesting Times
I see a lot of interesting stuff on the roadmap though I am unsure exactly what some of it is. Right now I am wanting to buy in to DnDBeyond but unsure if I want the Legendary pack or just the Source book bundle. I already have all the physical books and I have digitized my adventures using Realmworks. What I really want to know is if DnDbeyond is planning to create a campaign management system that can replace what Realworks is doing for me. Its nice that ToA for instance would be available to me if I bought that adventure, but can I put in notes, make changes to encounters, and customize it more, adding homebrew, and DMsGuild content to it? If I don't buy ToA, are the ToA magic items not available for me to give to my players?
I see the encounter builder is in development. Will that allow me to create an encounter, and place it in a certain spot in my adventure and add that to the combat tracker once both features are ready?
I guess my big question is, is it going to be worth buying the adventures digitally if I already have them? What do I get out of buying them on DnDBeyond now and more importantly, in the future?
Sorry for all the questions, but when you are about to drop $600 you want to know this stuff.
So I'll only answer what I know. If you click on the individual books then you can buy partial items. In other words you could buy just the magic items for ToA for $X.99 instead of the entire book for $29.99. Though for the $29.99 gets you all the stuff you need for that book as well as the compendium, which is essentially an online viewer of the book, similar to a pdf. I'm not sure how editable it is, whether you can add notes or not, I don't actually use the compendium myself. If you just wanted the magic items, but didn't want to purchase them, you can actually homebrew the magic item yourself, though depending on the complexity of the item(s), it may take some troubleshooting to finalize. The encounter builder is in development and when it is needed, you can go to your encounters and click on it to have what you need. I am not familiar whatsoever with realworks, so I do not know how the dndbeyond encounter builder/compendiums fare in comparison. The legendary bundle gets you a discount equal to about $4.5 off of future sourcebooks, making them go from $29.99 to $25.49
Published Subclasses
I don't know what Realmworks does but they are currently working on improvements to how games are managed and run.
Everything you buy on DNDBeyond provides a discount equal to the amount spent for anything that contains it. So, you can start with the Sources and then upgrade to the Legendary later. But if you already have the adventures, don't buy them unless you have money to spare.
My thoughts, I invested in DNDBeyond because, in my mind, it's *THE* tool for the game and it will only improve.
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May we live in Less Interesting Times
Realmworks is a wikia type website that allows you to add notes and the likes to your realm. basically its a wikia of your world and campaign.
Obsidian Portal does the same thing, as well as InfinitasDM which is a lot easier to use then those two.
in the end, i think those who want campaign management like obsidian or realm, actually only wants a true website for their world. its not to say they are bad or anything, they are great though they have limited capabilities in many aspects. but i think DDB cannot start incorporating websites for each individuals. i mean, those sites are for writters, not for campaign management. they dont have initiative trcking, they dont have encounter builders, nor do they have monster building abilities. they are only websites to which you write stuff. i can do that in Notepad++ which allows for tabs and all. i can even do that on google docs which allows me for much more then all of those websites combined.
thats where people have a problem with the words "Campaign Management". because people gives the terms numerous defiinitions. one of them being "use obsidian portal like stuff, so i can just write my world down and let my writting skills be shown." to me thats world building, not campaign managements. In the end as i tryed realmworks and obsidian and like 3 other sites, they awere all the same thing... write down stuff like cities, write down descriptions. put some images in to complement stuff... the impression i had was that i was making a website out of my world. while that has its uses, thats not campaign management. nothing i wrote down there, helped me actually run a campaign. everything i needed was already written down on RTF files and i already had several maps on my hard drive, which i use with my tablet for gaming. so why would i ever need to write everything down onto obsidian and the likes ? i don't need a website for my world, except when someone wants to learn about my world. at that point, i felt like i was more of a writter for a novel, then a d&d DM.
nope, i think the campaign management we have now, only really needs two improvements. the rest are already incoming as it is...
for me campaign managements is the following stuff...
- Monster Builder, like creating monsters but the ability to add calsses to them on the fly. you know level up monsters much like we do with characters.
- Initiative tracker, already incoming. but it needs to be intuitive and thought for tablets without keyboard. like the ability to adjust hit points with sliders, i like that a lot.
- Encounter Builder, already incoming and great at it.
- Ability to put notes and keep those notes in !
- Ability to create adventure like table of content, but ability to add notes directly onto the map (picture). like add a pin, if clicked upon it shows the note.
- sound board for ambience in various d&d sessions. things like... mysterious, creepy or festive. nothing too strict, keep them general to a mood.
to me that would be awesome. to me thats campaign management, as it allows me to create a timeline with notes, and it allows me to remember what hapenned in the campaign. as well as plan out up front whats arriving soon. but campaign management doesn't stop at writing stuff up... campaign management includes the usual per session stuff. the stuff like inititives and the likes. thus why its added.
i feel like when they started, we had only 3 text boxes, like regular textboxes, no formatting of any kinds. nothing !
we fixed that by simply asking for formatting of text. and they got us there in a matter of days. now we got 3 rich text boxes which allows for text formatting and the likes.
if writting novels is all you want, then you don't need more then those !
i mean, creating a timeline is easy with all 3 of those boxes.
so a simple solution that can be done easily for them, would be these solutions...
1) add the ability to create subfolders for those 3 richboxes. the ability to create folder like notes would make this a much more viable campaign diary ! which is what they truly are.
2) the ability to see images in the text itself. i believe its already there considering we can link an image from other sites, but it would be great to be able to place where we want to in the text. not just following the text.
3) most important... the abilitty to have them at full scale, not just as 3 tiny boxes. i want them full on word website. taking the full width and height of my screen. right now they are way too ******* tiny ! heck making them open another window is quite easy by todays standard. so i don't understand why they are so tiny.
aside from those, i think their campaign management scheme are on point.
heres what i use for now...
- my own developped D&D Tools.
- Initiative tracking, flick of a finger and i get inititives numbers going up or down. push of a finger, adding an initiative card with Init, Hp, Monster Name. the only thig that requires a keyboard is monster name. which by default my monsters are numbered like this "Monster #1", "Monster #2" and i could simply tell my players, tell me which number you hit. so not even a need for keyboard if i need to be fast.
- Sound board, musics chosen from mat mercer playlists, added a few key sound effects which can be played as the music goes. can repeat songs and all, much more versatile then windows media player and less intensive like the battle boards or sirenscape things.
- a small Dm Screen, just a small notepad like thing with stuff tables i need to remember, like tracking people, NPC answers, Potions. the likes of those.
- Generators of some kind, names for many races. Wheater generators, treasures generators. the likes of those...
- Screen Viewer, used to craft stuff and the likes in 3D. now i just bring my flat 17 inches monitor and plug it in as a second screen for my tablet. s if i wanna show a picture to my players, i can easily do that and if i need to bring a combat screen on the fly, i can do it too. add tokens or just use true figurines on the monitor directly.
- Facebook
- adding photos to albums, maps they have seen, places and NPC they have seen.
- using photoshop i designed neet images with the correct info on NPC and all, so if they need to remember an NPC, or i do... just need to go on facebook for the campaign.
- Adding RTF or Doc style document for rules and new objects and the likes. so again if they need to remember things, its there.
that's really all i ever need !
those are Campaign management to me !
and yes, i have my own facebook page which i keep private for myself.
have to remember to upload stuff there though, as everything is on my tablet hard drive.
clouds are great in case of emergency.
but thats what campaign management is for me.
DDB as been a great aid, as in i can just create monsters with true stats blcks and all. thats great. same with races and objects. i like it a lot.
but i'd like them to complement that with monsters that can be leveled up like the characters does. you know picka monster and add more hit dice, which in term can add more abilities from classes. just a box that literally ask you what kind of abilities you want to add as you add more hit dice. i was in the making of that toool when i saw DDB do it with homebrew and now i just use DDB. but i feel like i should resume the work, i think thats gonna be faster then waiting on beyond.
but thats another story... you get the drift...
i think campaign management isn't just the ability to write your world down... and obsidian and realmworks aren't campaign management tools, they are more inline with world building. and world building is not campaign management to me.
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