Like roll20? Grids, etc?

Would love to replace Roll20 with DnDBeyond!

Eventually. the VTT game space is still a long term project.

Ohh man I would throw so much money at that whenever they finished their VTT.

I am wondering if they might purchase one of the existing, smaller operating VTTs to gain momentum on that. Like they did with the Avrae Bot for Discord. 

Hopefully they will never do a VTT.

If they do, they will probably disallow expansions like Beyond 20. And I really like having a VTT like Roll20 that supports all RPG systems instead of just one D&D VTT.

If Dndbeyond becomes a single system VTT I will probably have to cancel my subscription and look for an alternative.

Quote from Naresea >>

Hopefully they will never do a VTT.

If they do, they will probably disallow expansions like Beyond 20. And I really like having a VTT like Roll20 that supports all RPG systems instead of just one D&D VTT.

If Dndbeyond becomes a single system VTT I will probably have to cancel my subscription and look for an alternative.

 You'll cancel your subscription if it becomes too convenient?

Quote from Naresea >>

Hopefully they will never do a VTT.

If they do, they will probably disallow expansions like Beyond 20. And I really like having a VTT like Roll20 that supports all RPG systems instead of just one D&D VTT.

If Dndbeyond becomes a single system VTT I will probably have to cancel my subscription and look for an alternative.

 I don't see that has something they would probably do.   Unless we see a near 180 degree flip in the direction of management.  

First, DNDBeyond is VERY generous with their usage license (see campaign sharing and all the limited time freebies during quarantine) and already have a bot for Discord that anyone can use for SRD content. 

Second, that would be a bad business move to try and force an existing and well performing customer base into your model.  Most of those Extensions are simply fetching data that someone has paid for (I could be wrong on that), so DND Beyond still got paid for that information.  That is what their main focus will be, the content.  A VTT will simply be another avenue to attract new customers to their content. 

Quote from Keeroth >>

Quote from Naresea >>

Hopefully they will never do a VTT.

If they do, they will probably disallow expansions like Beyond 20. And I really like having a VTT like Roll20 that supports all RPG systems instead of just one D&D VTT.

If Dndbeyond becomes a single system VTT I will probably have to cancel my subscription and look for an alternative.

 You'll cancel your subscription if it becomes too convenient?

 I'll cancel it when I have to pay double the money for half the service. I am currently running 4 different campaigns in 4 different systems. Roll20 allows me to do that with one subscription and Beyond20 allows my players (in one campaign!) to use Dndbeyond for their characters.

If dndbeyond becomes a "dnd only" VTT they will almost certainly disable browser extensions to other VTTs. 

Which means I'd have no way to connect dndbeyond to Roll20 which would essentially render dndbeyond worthless for me, because I'd have to manually transfer everything to the tool we use during play.

Not necessarily. They bought Avrae and it still fully supports Gsheets and DiceCloud. However it's getting better and better integration with DDB, to the point where you can use all your DDB content on Avrae now. I imagine the VTT would be the same. You can still  use all the same stuff as today but there will be a more convenient, first party solution from DDB.

I would love a joint venture with Foundry VTT which is by far the best I have ever worked with as a DM. I have tried Roll20, FG and Astral. The best thing is that it is open source and a one time purchase of just 50 bucks. 

If dndbeyond becomes a "dnd only" VTT they will almost certainly disable browser extensions to other VTTs. 

Eh, I think that's a lot less likely than you do. They are already directly competing with roll20 as a content platform, and flexibility gets them more business.

Regardless, it's not something we should expect any time soon. As a dev myself, we routinely look at our long-term goals and just have to laugh because there are 100 more pressing issues to deal with at all times.

Plus let's not forget that their parent company is doing Cortex as well. I'd imagine they want to be as general and friendly as possible.

Quote from Pelimar >>

Quote from Naresea >>

 

First, DNDBeyond is VERY generous with their usage license (see campaign sharing and all the limited time freebies during quarantine) and already have a bot for Discord that anyone can use for SRD content. 

Second, that would be a bad business move to try and force an existing and well performing customer base into your model.  Most of those Extensions are simply fetching data that someone has paid for (I could be wrong on that), so DND Beyond still got paid for that information.  That is what their main focus will be, the content.  A VTT will simply be another avenue to attract new customers to their content. 

Bunch of guesswork on something DDB doesn't even know what their strategy is. 

moderators seem to indicate that Beyond20 extension is against the terms of use and so you can lose your account if you use it.

Quote from MellieDM >>

as you had mentioned scraping in your post I just wanted to ensure you were aware of the terms of service that we have each agreed to in using D&D Beyond's services. :D

Quote from Keeroth >>

Ohh man I would throw so much money at that whenever they finished their VTT.

I wouldn't. 

Unless they completely overhaul their website and fundamentally change their design philosophy, I can't imagine that a VTT running the way DDB currently runs, especially for monsters, would be remotely worth my time to invest in. Foundry does nearly everything so much better and more easily than DDB does. The interface is smoother, much easier to use, IMO. I'd rather pay Foundry more to obtain official materials in Foundry (yes, that I already bought in DDB... I'd do it in a heartbeat), than pay DDB to use a VTT that is designed like the mess that the rest of this site is designed to be like.

Quote from GregCa >>

Quote from Pelimar >>

Quote from Naresea >>

 

First, DNDBeyond is VERY generous with their usage license (see campaign sharing and all the limited time freebies during quarantine) and already have a bot for Discord that anyone can use for SRD content. 

Second, that would be a bad business move to try and force an existing and well performing customer base into your model.  Most of those Extensions are simply fetching data that someone has paid for (I could be wrong on that), so DND Beyond still got paid for that information.  That is what their main focus will be, the content.  A VTT will simply be another avenue to attract new customers to their content. 

 

Bunch of guesswork on something DDB doesn't even know what their strategy is. 

moderators seem to indicate that Beyond20 extension is against the terms of use and so you can lose your account if you use it.

Quote from MellieDM >>

as you had mentioned scraping in your post I just wanted to ensure you were aware of the terms of service that we have each agreed to in using D&D Beyond's services. :D

 

 uhhh... almost all of the moderators recommend using Beyond20, and will (rightly) direct people to talk to the Beyond20 devs if there is an issue with Beyond20 that people think is an issue with Beyond. Where are you getting this "against the terms of service" bullshit?

it would be awesome if they did, would make PbP so much easier

I think a lot of people on this thread is jumping on conclusions while we don't know anything. Regarding Beyond20, there is thread on this forum and if it will be against the terms of use, it'd be closed as they wouldn't want to promote it on their official forums.

I also don't think this will be the "dnd only VTT" as the main owners of the brand should be interested on their products being sold on other platforms too. 

With all that said, I'll be so much in if dnd beyond would have their own VTT, I'd like to have everything on the same place and I also like how the design their tools to be accessible. I somehow imagine a really easy and intuitive VTT but with less functionalities than the current VTTs out there.

While I do not mind them working on a VTT, I prefer it if Beyond focus their efforts on their character sheets and database first. While their characters sheets and database are already pretty good, I think there is still a lot improvements that can be made and bugs to stamp out to make the experience better. I think Beyond should focus on their core strengths that sets them apart rather than trying to do everything at once.

After character sheets and database, improving homebrew is something I think that needs to be worked on next. I am not too sold on the encounter builder and initiative tracker at first, but I think I would probably use them more as it improves further, so I think they should be given almost the same weight as homebrew.

After all that, I think that is when Beyond can think about working on a VTT. Basically, I want Beyond to focus on perfecting the real-life table-top face-to-face experience as much as possible before they move on to improving online play. If they can spare the resources and manpower to work on a VTT now though, then I think it is fine for them to start thinking about a VTT, but if they have to prioritize between getting a VTT and improving character sheets though, then they should prioritize character sheets.

The issue with a DDB VTT is that there are already seven hundred thousand options our there for a VTT.  Most of them are hellaciously expensive and exceedingly difficult to use, which means that anyone who has sunk the significant time and resource investment required to make them even remotely functional is not going to switch.  You won't get people flocking to your theoretical DDB VTT in any significant numbers.

DDB was originally built to do exactly what they do for Critical Role - store rules and character information in a way easily accessible to players around an actual table, playing the game in real life.  They are currently the only company making any real effort whatsoever to do this; other offerings do the absolute bare minimum required to allow your characters to work in their VTT system.  Even if you only play online, this is super annoying and generally requires someone to invest in third-party tools to store character information despite the fact that the VTT is charging you hundreds of dollars for the Official Materials and saying "you can do eeeevrtything in our software!"

I would vastly rather DDB focus on making their character tools work.  I can hack the rest if I have to, but a solid, reliable character sheet is the foundation of a good game.  If your players have no idea what they have available or can do, your game breaks down.  Getting the sheet tools working is a priority.  Keeping the reference database and lookup systems intact is a close second.  VTT can come in way later.

D&D Beyond will not disable or prevent extensions if they do make a VTT. On the contrary, they are planning on releasing a public API so people can incorporate the character sheet into other applications more easily. It's on their longterm roadmap.