Dungeons & Dragons has been around for several years, and the RPG has evolved quite a bit over time. Despite the ways the game itself and the supporting material have changed, it is still played largely with pen and paper. It’s not unusual for players to head into a D&D game night with binders full of papers, books, and other physical game pieces. While there are some of us who love that about the game, I’m sure we’ve all thought at least once that it would be so much easier if even a fraction of your D&D toolkit could be digitized.
Finally, our D&D prayers have been answered. Wizards of the Coast has partnered with Curse Entertainment, a Twitch-owned media company, to create a digital toolkit for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. They’re calling it D&D Beyond. As Forbes reports, some of the tools you can expect to see digitized are character sheets, a rules compendium, and even access to a digital character builder. I don’t know about you, but just having access to a digital character sheet and character builder alone makes me a bit teary-eyed.So what’s the reason for the digital change? Essentially, D&D wants to evolve and make the game not only a bit easier to play, but a bit more accessible to new players. There is a lot of stuff to know and remember in-game, and Wizards is hoping that this digital toolkit will help new and old players feel empowered as they play. Plus, it will also make traveling to game night a bit less cumbersome while also nullifying the dreaded “lost character sheet” issue.
Wizards is promising the tool will be an asset to both players and dungeon masters, and will be evolving as gamers interact with it and offer feedback. With so many resources being published to this new digital format, it looks like there will be something in D&D Beyond that everyone at your gaming table will find useful. So if you want to take part in this new era of Dungeons & Dragons, you can sign up for the beta at D&D Beyond to be a part of the digitized fun that rolls out this summer!
Featured Image: Curse Entertainment
