D&D: The Community of D&D Beyond
D&D Beyond is helping build a community for D&D, and soon we’ll see a D&D e-reader-esque app. Check it out!
D&D Beyond is an app that provides you access to D&D’s rules (for a fee) and is a repository for homebrewed content, as well as a campaign manager type app. Basically it’s a digital toolset that you can use at your preferred level of engagement to help make your game a little better. Some folks might complain about the pricing and/or subscriptions, but D&D Beyond is really hitting the ground running, doing their best to make it something of a community space as well.
In addition to their forums (which are going strong), they’ve also been releasing videos fairly regularly — working in conjunction with the folks from Dungeon Life to bring you videos that either delve into the history or story of a module, or take you behind the screen with the developers, or even provide tips from community mainstays like Matt Mercer or Satine Phoenix. They’re working to breathe a little more life into the shadows of this shared hobby we all play around in.
Here’s a collected few. First up we have one that gives an overview of the Evolution of Dungeons and Dragons.
Get a sense of the game’s connection to its past and how it might change in the future. Want something a little more like storytelling tips? Well how about exactly that from Ruty Rutenberg of Maze Arcana:
Or talk with Satine Phoenix about getting started with D&D.
There’s a wealth of good creation videos as well. Like this video about building a great dungeon.
D&D Beyond is, after all, a toolset for making your own dungeons and populating them with dragons. Or kobolds. Or dragon-worshipping kobolds and the dragon they worship. You’ve got options, is what I’m saying. At any rate, it’s nice to see that D&D Beyond is still delivering something up for folks who haven’t subscribed. Anyone can head over to D&D Beyond (or D&D Beyond’s Youtube page) and check out these videos.
This past week they’ve been launching one just about every day, so head on over and get to know the community a little more. Take your first step into a larger world.
Wizards seems to really be pushing the digital edge of things these days. According to a recent article on Polygon, they’ll soon be releasing yet another digital app–this one an e-reader that will allow folks to access the D&D Books that they’ll purchase in that particular format. It sounds like they’ll be going for about $30 for each book, or as with D&D Beyond, you’ll be able to purchase the modules you want separately at a lower cost. About $2.99 or so per ‘module’ for things like the Rogue or various races. Mixed in among that will be all the free content in the SRD, but that only gets you so far.
The future of digital D&D is an interesting one. Wizards has definitely backed away from the bloat that plagued 4th Edition–you basically needed the digital stuff to be able to play. And by and large this has benefitted brick and mortar FLGSes but, it’d still be nice to see a code for a .pdf come along with a purchase. Even at a discount it’d feel alright–as opposed to buying the CD and the MP3. But! You’ll be able to grab your D&D Books in your chosen format soon enough, and once that’s happened it’ll be easy for you to go with whatever you prefer.
I’m personally interested to see how well these various apps allow users to interact with each other whether online, on Twitch, or even at the same table. It’d be nice to be able to pull up another player’s info while sitting at the table with them. No more, “what’s your AC” or initiative mishaps… but we’ll just have to see how these all work out in the end.
And one day, if we dream it, perhaps we’ll get something as good as the best digital gaming aid known to humanity:
I mean, they did it all. Nine rulebooks, a dice roller, map maker, character editor–it had everything you could possibly want. Including a cheesy CGI intro that I will show at every chance I get.
Of course the best way to experience some kind of Digital Dungeons and Dragons is to use the Tron Laser. That’s what I do.
