One last bit of information worth chewing on: D&D Beyond is developing an all-new mobile app version of its online toolkit.
One of the other announcements from D&D’s big spate of Gen Con news was that D&D Beyond is rolling out a whole new mobile app, designed from the ground up to be used as a supplement to “in-person” play. Complete with a number of quality-of-life upgrades that might make your life a little easier.
D&D Beyond Mobile App
It’s so interesting to me, the switch from WotC’s plan of “play on our bespoke VTT” to “actually we’ll help you play in person.” I have to imagine that a big part of that comes from the general weariness we’re all feeling with the internet in general. Especially as AI slop and live service enshittification make it an absolute slog to be on one of the three websites where you see all the stuff hosted on the other websites so that they can serve you ads and collect your data, people are wanting more offline experiences.
I know because my phone’s AI assistant helpfully told me that “offline groups” are becoming more of a thing when I asked it what time it was so that I could find my phone. And D&D is absolutely perfect for playing offline.
Though it does put D&D Beyond’s mobile ambitions into an interesting light. Because if people want to support in-person play, it has to be more convenient than writing stuff down on paper. And anyone who has ever tried to do anything on D&D Beyond knows that if you want a homebrewed anything, or even just something a little bit different from the normal way you’d do something, it’s tricky.
We’ve seen time and again that people don’t want video games but with extra steps. That said, it does seem cool to be able to slide a potion from one character’s inventory to another. But even then, I think one of the big features on display is the digital dice – and, unless things are radically different, one of the biggest sources of fun when you play in person is that you get to roll all the dice.
Math rocks go click clack, after all. And I think most people would trust regular dice more than digital dice. But there is another game that has seemingly successfully navigated the blend of app and in-person play: Lancer. Lancer’s COMP // CON handles a lot of the bookkeeping for you, and I think that’s where a D&D Beyond mobile app might come in handy.
So there’s definitely room for hybrid play. Here’s hoping that it hits the mark!
What would you want to see in a good D&D Beyond mobile app?
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Source: Bell of Lost Souls
