Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 MrCappadocia Sep 14, 2015 1:56:01	So a player introduced me to the single most awesome thing I've ever encountered in the universe of dungeons and dragons: A completely digital fifth edition character sheet, with a step by step and extremely editable character creator. Fastest purchase I have ever made when it came to buying something for my phone.. but wait, it gets better!   I realize that the utility of this thing isn't for me... it's best utilized for new players because it takes all the tedium and complexity and frustration out of character building and lets them jump immediately into the action with an easily readable and customizable format. To test this hypothesis of mine I invited my mom, my pushing sixty year old mom who had never played D&D in her life and didn't even know what the game entailed... and my other friend, Val, a twenty four year old girl who not only didn't know how the game was played but had the *completely wrong idea* as to what it was about. She actually scowled at me when I told her we were going to play D&D.   I get the app on their phones and within minutes rather than hours two new fighters had joined the fray and these two women who had neither played D&D in the past nor had any interest in doing so were demanding to play in our next play session. My horse owning, garden loving, "Why don't you go outside, it's a beautiful day?" mother asked me if they made any computer games for D&D. Yeah.   And the gateway had been the Fifth Edition Character Sheet app found on on the Play Store and Apple Store. Except... no... THEY TOOK IT OFF THE PLAY STORE. *RAGE* This tool which made the game UNIVERSALLY easier to introduce people to... was taken down from the google store and who knows how long it'll be on the apple store.   But that's not the purpose of this post. If Hasbro felt their intellectual property rights were being violated then they're well within their rights to do something about it. No argument there. However, this app, this piddily little app changed the complete landscape for me and mine concerning D&D.   SO, D&D guys... Why don't YOU make a 5th Edition Character Sheet App? Sell it. I bought mine and paid for theirs. Three bucks. It was just that useful. It made the game so much more enjoyable and its loss so painfully felt that I felt compelled to speak up about it.   Full Disclosure: I have *zero* connection with the guy that made the original app outside of him producing an awesome product and me and everyone else I know that plays D&D snapping it up.   Get on this, Wizards.
#2 pukunui Sep 14, 2015 2:43:25	That's awesome that you managed to get your mom and your friend into D&D. I too managed to get my wife to play, thanks to 5e's simple ruleset.   I hear you on how frustrating it is that there's no official digital character management tool. As a DM, I would also love an app (or other bit of software) to help me create and customize monsters, as that can get a bit fiddly too.   WotC has a pretty bad track record when it comes to digital offerings, though, and unfortunately it doesn't seem like that's going to change any time soon. Their initial attempt at offering digital tools for 5e via a third-party crashed and burned spectacularly, and in the end they opted to give a licence to Fantasy Grounds (though I understand it isn't an exclusive licence, so we could still see some other official digital offerings at some stage). That being said, due to the number of times things have fallen apart, WotC is hesitant to talk about their plans ... so it could be that they are working on just such a thing as a character sheet app. We just won't know about it until they're ready to announce it.
(Reply to #2) MrCappadocia	pukunui wrote:
(Reply to #3) AaronOfBarbaria	MrCappadocia wrote:
#5 pukunui Sep 14, 2015 3:45:34	MrCappadocia wrote:
(Reply to #4) MrCappadocia	AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
(Reply to #6) AaronOfBarbaria	MrCappadocia wrote:
#8 Uchawi Sep 14, 2015 4:16:46	I believe the game, versus anything else, will bring players in. Digital tools may help, but overall it is the experience. I introduced alot of new players when playing 4E, and those players heard of D&D, but always had some bias against playing it. But 4E was simple enough to pick up, get a brief introduction to the rules, and then focus on playing.
(Reply to #6) CCS	MrCappadocia wrote:
#10 Grazel Sep 14, 2015 18:37:17	The publisher of this app did two things wrong.   First he charged for the app which brings it to the attention of WotC/Hasbro legal due to copyright infrngement (a free app may have been let slide since no money was being made off of it).   Secondly, he failed to approach WotC to make his app a licensed app. That's what Fantasy Grounds did, they made their modules for 5e and went to WotC to get them licensed. After Dungeonscape I suspect that will be how WotC handles digital tools. They won't commission a company to do them, but will work with companies who can show them a functional tool that meets their standards and that approached them for licensing.   I'm still surprised Hero Labs hasn't done that considering there's been multiple talks of people in the community having made 5e Hero Labs modules already.
#11 Tempest_Stormwind Sep 14, 2015 19:26:17	Apart from being closer to the target audience than he is, Aaron speaks for me.   Note that free digital tools based on the Basic Rules and carrying appropriate legalese are perfectly legitimate. I know of several for laptops, as I often use laptops as my DM screen or play online using Roll20. I'm just not entirely sure about them for mobile devices, as if I'm at a table I generally don't need them and if I'm playing online a laptop is better. (Currently - it could change with a really good tablet app.)
#12 Granville7482 Sep 14, 2015 19:31:30	It would be really nice to have a character sheet right on the site. 4th edition had a really nice one that kept up with splatbooks and even really obscure additions to the edition, including magic  items.    5th edition would be much much easier to do. It could be as simple as getting one of these basement guys you are talking about and giving them a kickback. Instead it seems they gave one company a shot, who wanted too much money, too much braging rights and then tanked on the delivery. Then nothing came of it from that point.   And as for a digital table, I suppose the realistic potential of a money making item like this will be skipped over for this edition too. The closet thing we have is the very expencive fantasy grounds. A system that cost more than buying multiple triple A video games on release day, but at least the have it on steam with steamworks. It's a start.
#13 WorBlade Sep 14, 2015 19:56:21	i am pretty sure that the free version of Fantasy Grounds could be used to simply keep a digitial character. It is Hasbro liscneced and has a 5e rule set and you can buy individual class inserts rather than a whole PHB to have your specific spells and such tracked. Won't fit on a phone but could be run from a laptop easy enough. Only caviot I have is that it is not that user friendly, having a few odd things you need to know about where to click to let you input info in some of the fields.
#14 Mistwell Sep 14, 2015 22:05:00	Tempest_Stormwind wrote:
#15 Zardnaar Sep 14, 2015 23:07:34	Mistwell wrote:
#16 RCanine Sep 15, 2015 1:02:05	Mistwell wrote:
(Reply to #11) Azzy1974	Tempest_Stormwind wrote: