D&D Beyond

[Danimal66]

I didn't see another topic. I'm kind of curious what D&D Beyond means for the future of Fantasy Grounds. While it doesn't have anywhere near the functionality of FG, I can't help but think they are going to try and make it a VTT at some point. I've only glanced at it and played with the easy to use character editor but I see all the books for sale and a campaign button. I'm not entirely sure how you would play the game using Beyond at this point and it seems the books are tied to the account and not a downloadable PDF file.

Just curious what peoples thoughts are on this, if this is not an appropriate conversation for these forums then please remove.

[ddavison]

We don't mind the discussion here. I've spoken with the people at D&D Beyond and they've always been friendly with us. We have some overlap in what we offer but we also have some opportunity to work together as well. We've discussed plans to do character file exchanges between our systems already.

In general, we are okay with discussion of other companies in the digital space - even if they are direct competitors. We might be able to learn from things that they are doing well and improve our offering as a result.

[Danimal66]

Good to know.

One of the things I'm jealous of for the Pathfinder crowd is anything they buy for FG they get a pdf also, unless I've been misinformed. Beyond sells all the books but I believe they are just accessible online not downloadable pdf files. I've already paid for the books in print and on FG so the though of paying a 3rd time is not something I will do. but boy would I love a more user friendly online book to be able to quickly search for things.

[ddavison]

I'm not sure how the expanded D&D reference manuals in FG work compared to the D&D Beyond versions, but you do get the full contents of the books in a format much like a PDF, but with some basic search capabilities within FG. Some users may not realize that you can also pop out a page and share it or drag it to the hotkey bar as a bookmark. It's also easy to mix third-party 5E content with official stuff within FG. Tome of Beasts is a clear example where you have a fantastic resource and you can build encounters that use monsters from there right alongside your MM and Volo's Guide monsters.

[tiawaz]

As i see it it is intended to be more of a digital toolset than a VTT Type Product.

If i understand their intent correctly the current offering with the digital books, some character building and the ability to build and share user generated content is the foundaiton on which the intend to build their tools.

Personally im hoping for a combat tracker on my tablet i can use for in person games, being able to import my players characters and monsters/encounters from my content, und using the combat tracker entries as quick reference to ability/spell details quickly at the game table.
That alone would probably be worth it for me to buy all the content a 2nd/3rd time.

Crowd source some cross referencing, build in sage advice lookup and add some context aware search maybe.

Im hoping for Stream integration, allowing you to build little huds for your overlay so you can display player hp/stats and other stuff.

Or having your stream bot being able to put stuff on the combat tracker.
Automatic Alerts popping up Rule citations when chat goes bonkers because 'someone is doing something wrong' (sounds dangerous, but rules lawyers streaming for other rules lawyers might work)

And ideally some gerat features i dont even know i want (like the pronunciation guide).