Official e-tools and sort of PDFs for 5e

[goldomark]

License e-products from Fantasy Ground. Folks at WotC haven't made an official announcement yet.

Not sure what is in them, but they aren't cheap. Right now, Paizo PDFs look far more attractive. Cheaper, and if you buy the book on their store, you get the PDF for free. You do not need to pay the same amount for the books.

[Lorathorn]

Well, I believe clarification is in order. Pathfinder pdf's are indeed cheaper, but only subscriptions generally allow both a pdf and a print product bundled together; otherwise, you would purchase each one separately.

[bugleyman]

It seems WotC is still committed to proprietary applications over standard file formats.

Unfortunate, but wholly unsurprising at this point. In fact, I'd have been surprised if they'd have gotten it right.

[Lorathorn]

Upon closer inspection, these options seem surprisingly expensive. I don't know how successful they are likely to be, but my prediction is a "not very". I sincerely hope that this is not the only model for their digital distribution of 5th edition.

Even the Starter Set adventure being sold for $20 is poor planning. I'd much rather buy the physical product that comes with dice and a nice looking box than to get proprietary digital content for the same price. I am neither impressed nor amused.

[thejeff]

Is it at all clear what the product actually is? Some virtual table kind of thing, right? With D&D content.

Does it include a character generator?

Or am I misreading it and it's just a proprietary digital version of the books?

[Lorathorn]

I think there is a generator tucked in there somewhere. What I am unclear on is whether or not you have to also purchase a license to Fantasy Grounds to make use of it all. Whatever the case, it all seems ungainly, especially compared to the flat subscription rate of D&D Insider...

[bugleyman]

It is basically 5E content packaged for Fantasy Grounds, which is a VTT. My understanding is that there is character generation functionality, as well as in-play support, but it all runs in the context of the VTT.

While it should come in very handy for people running a 5E game in FG, it is neither a stand-alone character generator nor an e-book "solution" (sadly).

[goldomark]

Some clarification, this ain't e-tools like DDI (e.g. character builder). This is a Virutal Table Top.

[Dale McCoy Jr]

goldomark wrote:

Some clarification, this ain't e-tools like DDI (e.g. character builder). This is a Virutal Table Top.

Yea, this is the class abilities already programmed in, the monsters already programmed in, etc. This is the equivalent of hero lab data files + online gaming space.

[thejeff]

That does kind of explain the pricing then. It should be compared more with Herolab, though with even more features, than with just pdfs.

Of course, if what you want is pdfs, that doesn't really help.

[Adjule]

Yeah, what Mr McCoy up there said. This isn't any sort of pdf offering. This is data files for the Fantasy Grounds Virtual Table Top, which is why they are charging for the D&D Basic Rules, while you can get the pdf for free from Wizards of the Coast themselves.

So the title of this thread is rather misleading.

[Nylanfs]

This is not just the Basic Rules check this page for clarification

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/buyFG/DungeonsAndDragons.html

[goldomark]

Adjule wrote:

So the title of this thread is rather misleading.

Sorry about that, there was some confusion as to what FG offered.

[Blue_Drake]

bugleyman wrote:

While it should come in very handy for people running a 5E game in FG, it is neither a stand-alone character generator nor an e-book "solution" (sadly).

I absolutely 100% agree. I happen to be lucky because I use Fantasy Grounds already so this worked out very well for me, but I wouldn't be surprised if other VTTs and E-solutions are made available by WotC.

As far as the price point, yes it does seem expensive, but for the amount of time it will save you in prep and play it's well worth it.

Have patience, I wouldn't be surprised if Roll20 or Hero labs ends up with a license sooner or later. The deal with Fantasy Grounds says nothing about exclusivity.

PDFs I wouldn't hold my breath for. They may come some day but I wouldn't bet on soon.

[Lorathorn]

When they discover a means to render pdfs proprietary and subscription based, I suppose?