Hey guys! I'm very sorry, as i am certainly not the first to ask, but i couldnt find a thread...
i recently started as a DM and i am all hyped by this concept! They just released german version of the 5E Books and i ordered the german essentials kit right away. I dont have any problem with english, but some of our Players struggle to understand a single word, so it might be easier for us to just collect the german versions.
If i understood that right, you get access to the Entries on D&D Beyond if you buy the reallife content. but unfortunately there is no code in the german version. is there any way to unlock the online access, maybe via the support?
It would help me a lot to prepare, as the mass of data in here is huge and i want to learn as much as i can :D
Unfortunately, looking through the site, DDB currently has no German content. Looking through the only non-English content is an Italian translation of the players handbook. That'll be why the German version of the essentials kit doesn't contain the code. It's also worth knowing, that the English version of the essentials is the only place which provides a DDB code, normal books do not.
You didn't understand right, there are no codes in the real life books, DDB content has to be purchased independently from real life books. It isn't an issue with german versions.
No, he's right. When you buy the Essentials Kit, you get a code that gives you the digital version of the Icespire Peak, as well as three follow on adventures, plus 50% off the PHB. In the English versions, at least.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Also unfortunately, I think it is very unlikely that DDB will add German (or any non-English) content any time soon. The DDB version of the Italian PHB that Calexus mentions was an experiment; it did not sell well enough for them to justify continuing to work on translated version, at least not in the near future. This according to Adam Bradford (the former head of DDB). At that time, Adam did say that they had some handles on what didn't go well for them/why it didn't sell, and that they might try again sometime down the road. That said, I would warn you not to get your hopes up, as my personal guess such a project is years away if it happens at all.
Why they tried it in Italian I have no idea. I love the language, but it would have made more sense to try Spanish first. German is in the same boat - not many monolingual speakers.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
It would find a huge marked if they add german content in here. At least I have 12 friends who don't use dnd beyond, cuz they don't wanna buy stuff in english for this game.
German language speakers are germans, austrians, lots belgian, some netherlands, about the half of lux and ofc many many swiss.^^
Let's hope the best.. If they wanna make money, they must sell german content here soon. Otherwise an other platform will rise up. DnD 5e is a huge thing in germany till corona starts and sells really really well.
The reality is it's not clear, at least to me, whether the license D&D Beyond receives from WotC (the company that publishes D&D) to produce the D&D Beyond toolset extends to D&D in other languages. Prior to just recently like last fall, D&D was published in translation by other entities besides WotC and consequently it was likely D&D Beyond didn't have the right to adapt those translations to D&D Beyond. Now with D&D in all available languages being more directly managed by WotC, it's not clear whether WotC is interested in expanding D&D Beyond license to produce or reproduce the tools in another language.
Porting D&D Beyond into other languages, professionally, isn't as simple as cutting English text and pasting German text. It opens up a customer service/support obligation and it's unclear to me whether Fandom (D&D Beyond's current parent company) has a linguistic resource bench, or an interest in developing a linguistic resource bench beyond English and possibly Spanish.
As far as I remember D&D Beyond has been quiet about the prospects of translation. They tend to be quiet about the terms of their license and rarely explicitly state they can or can't do something (for instance putting the materials of the Wilderness Exploration D&D Screen or the WotC officially produced but DMsGuild published Domains of Delight and Minsc and Boots book into the marketplace). My guess is because those, like translation, may be a grey area unclear in the license or something they'd like they're license to expand into, but aren't publicizing the desire outside of business negotiations with WotC (who has much more leverage since its ultimately their property, what D&D Beyond does for its livelhood is literally "granted" by WotC) because that's their way of doing business (as opposed to trying to crowdsource leverage from the community).
If the German D&D playing community wants a digital toolset, the best way to see that happen is for them to push WotC for one or find a German language developer to pitch a plan to them (which might put a fire under D&D Beyond to move into the market).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
It wouldn't likely be a massive market. The number of Italian speakers isn't that much lower than German and the rate of those having English as a second language is substantially lower - there are fewer Germans that don't speak English than Italians that don't. The Italian translation still seemed to be less than enthusiastic in its sales, apparently.
There are around 5x as many Spanish speakers as there are Germans, and my experience is that Spanish speakers tend to have less interest in speaking English. We'll see Spanish as an option long before we see German, I'm afraid.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
It wouldn't likely be a massive market. The number of Italian speakers isn't that much lower than German and the rate of those having English as a second language is substantially lower - there are fewer Germans that don't speak English than Italians that don't. The Italian translation still seemed to be less than enthusiastic in its sales, apparently.
There are around 5x as many Spanish speakers as there are Germans, and my experience is that Spanish speakers tend to have less interest in speaking English. We'll see Spanish as an option long before we see German, I'm afraid.
But German language internet is a thing, despite it being smaller market, with a media ecology as varied as the English language work, just smaller in consumer size. And if a German digital publisher approached WotC, D&D Beyond might have first right of refusal to start working on translating its preexisting toolset.
The Italian job was allegedly a fizzle, but I believe it wasn't just sales that were problematic on that front. But I don't believe we've ever, nor do I expect to see, a full post mortem on DDB's foray into Italian.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hey guys!
I'm very sorry, as i am certainly not the first to ask, but i couldnt find a thread...
i recently started as a DM and i am all hyped by this concept! They just released german version of the 5E Books and i ordered the german essentials kit right away. I dont have any problem with english, but some of our Players struggle to understand a single word, so it might be easier for us to just collect the german versions.
If i understood that right, you get access to the Entries on D&D Beyond if you buy the reallife content. but unfortunately there is no code in the german version. is there any way to unlock the online access, maybe via the support?
It would help me a lot to prepare, as the mass of data in here is huge and i want to learn as much as i can :D
Thank you in advance! Greetings from germany!
[redacted, because I was wrong]
Unfortunately, looking through the site, DDB currently has no German content. Looking through the only non-English content is an Italian translation of the players handbook. That'll be why the German version of the essentials kit doesn't contain the code. It's also worth knowing, that the English version of the essentials is the only place which provides a DDB code, normal books do not.
No, he's right. When you buy the Essentials Kit, you get a code that gives you the digital version of the Icespire Peak, as well as three follow on adventures, plus 50% off the PHB. In the English versions, at least.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Also unfortunately, I think it is very unlikely that DDB will add German (or any non-English) content any time soon. The DDB version of the Italian PHB that Calexus mentions was an experiment; it did not sell well enough for them to justify continuing to work on translated version, at least not in the near future. This according to Adam Bradford (the former head of DDB). At that time, Adam did say that they had some handles on what didn't go well for them/why it didn't sell, and that they might try again sometime down the road. That said, I would warn you not to get your hopes up, as my personal guess such a project is years away if it happens at all.
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
Why they tried it in Italian I have no idea. I love the language, but it would have made more sense to try Spanish first. German is in the same boat - not many monolingual speakers.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
It would find a huge marked if they add german content in here. At least I have 12 friends who don't use dnd beyond, cuz they don't wanna buy stuff in english for this game.
German language speakers are germans, austrians, lots belgian, some netherlands, about the half of lux and ofc many many swiss.^^
Let's hope the best.. If they wanna make money, they must sell german content here soon. Otherwise an other platform will rise up. DnD 5e is a huge thing in germany till corona starts and sells really really well.
The reality is it's not clear, at least to me, whether the license D&D Beyond receives from WotC (the company that publishes D&D) to produce the D&D Beyond toolset extends to D&D in other languages. Prior to just recently like last fall, D&D was published in translation by other entities besides WotC and consequently it was likely D&D Beyond didn't have the right to adapt those translations to D&D Beyond. Now with D&D in all available languages being more directly managed by WotC, it's not clear whether WotC is interested in expanding D&D Beyond license to produce or reproduce the tools in another language.
Porting D&D Beyond into other languages, professionally, isn't as simple as cutting English text and pasting German text. It opens up a customer service/support obligation and it's unclear to me whether Fandom (D&D Beyond's current parent company) has a linguistic resource bench, or an interest in developing a linguistic resource bench beyond English and possibly Spanish.
As far as I remember D&D Beyond has been quiet about the prospects of translation. They tend to be quiet about the terms of their license and rarely explicitly state they can or can't do something (for instance putting the materials of the Wilderness Exploration D&D Screen or the WotC officially produced but DMsGuild published Domains of Delight and Minsc and Boots book into the marketplace). My guess is because those, like translation, may be a grey area unclear in the license or something they'd like they're license to expand into, but aren't publicizing the desire outside of business negotiations with WotC (who has much more leverage since its ultimately their property, what D&D Beyond does for its livelhood is literally "granted" by WotC) because that's their way of doing business (as opposed to trying to crowdsource leverage from the community).
If the German D&D playing community wants a digital toolset, the best way to see that happen is for them to push WotC for one or find a German language developer to pitch a plan to them (which might put a fire under D&D Beyond to move into the market).
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
It wouldn't likely be a massive market. The number of Italian speakers isn't that much lower than German and the rate of those having English as a second language is substantially lower - there are fewer Germans that don't speak English than Italians that don't. The Italian translation still seemed to be less than enthusiastic in its sales, apparently.
There are around 5x as many Spanish speakers as there are Germans, and my experience is that Spanish speakers tend to have less interest in speaking English. We'll see Spanish as an option long before we see German, I'm afraid.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
But German language internet is a thing, despite it being smaller market, with a media ecology as varied as the English language work, just smaller in consumer size. And if a German digital publisher approached WotC, D&D Beyond might have first right of refusal to start working on translating its preexisting toolset.
The Italian job was allegedly a fizzle, but I believe it wasn't just sales that were problematic on that front. But I don't believe we've ever, nor do I expect to see, a full post mortem on DDB's foray into Italian.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.