Dungeons & Dragons gets new 'Dungeonscape' digital toolset

 

The next edition of 'Dungeons & Dragons' is finally entering the release stage; the Player's Handbook begins arriving in shelves this Tuesday. It stands to reason that publisher Wizards of the Coast would like to ensure this latest of the edition beloved role-playing game gets maximum reach and leverage. 

 

'Dungeonscape' is a digital toolset that promises to make adventure management, party communications and character sheet maintenance less of a chore, as well as options for online or offline play.  According to role-playing game news site EN World, 'Dungeonscape' has been in development since 2013 by a developer named Trapdoor Technologies.  

A Colorado-based company, Trapdoor previously developed mobile apps for the e-book industry and also maintains its own publishing imprint, Trapdoor Books. Their LinkedIn profile lists 'The Story Machine™' as their flagship product, which is "a scalable, automated, cloud-based publishing engine offering integrated interactive features for digital books, documents, and periodicals." 

 

A more digitally empowered 'Dungeons & Dragons' experience has always been on the mind of the RPG community, and the promises of 'Dungeonscape' evoke an interest that dates all the way back to the previous 4th Edition, which launched in 2008 to promises of a similar set of tools. A character builder and monster builder was well supported throughout the lifespan of 4th edition. But ambitions for a virtual tabletop and campaign manager as part of a suite of adventure tools got quietly scrapped, to the frustration and disappointment of players. 

 

'Dungeonscape' was initially announced as 'Codename: Morningstar' last June. A limited playtest was held at the Ohio-based Origins Game Fair. EN World reported that 'Morningstar' could be used alongside a virtual game table such as Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds, but does not provide an integrated virtual table experience. Wizards of the Coast also revealed that all the latest 'Dungeons & Dragons' adventures and content will be available to download as they are released, simultaneously with the physical versions, furthering their desire to make good on the idea of a digitally enhanced D&D experience. Set to launch on iPad, Android and web browsers, 'Dungeonscape' will feature a character builder, virtual dice roller, campaign notebook and encounter manager.  

 

At this year's Gen Con, the tabletop gaming industry's largest convention, Wizards made the name 'Dungeonscape' official, with a hands-on presentation given to select members of the gaming press. Among those present were Scott Rehm, Ed Grabianowski, Jonathan Bolding and Kevin Smith. "It's an app," Rehm said. 

"It’ll have everything you expect.  [...]  You can touch all the little things and it is all cross referenced to the information in the rulebooks. You can roll dice in the app. DMs can track the party, keep their adventure notes and campaign notes, manage encounters, and so on." 

 

"After a few hours with the app, though, I was well pleased," writes Jonathan Bolding for The Escapist. "The basic functions like the character creation and character sheet are a blast to play with, and the automated functions at the heart of the app actually speed up, rather than roadblock, the experience at the table."

Bolding reported that the developers had to drop some features even after they had been implemented. "We would put something in and say, oh, I've just automated the fun out of this," said Trapdoor's managing director Chris Matney. The entire team had to be "constantly aware of when their electronic experience was taking away from what makes D&D fun." 

 

Much like the Dungeons & Dragons books themselves, 'Dungeonscape' will roll out in a three tiered release. A Player's Release will cover character creation and management, a DM's Release will provide the campaign and adventure management features as well as data sharing between players and DMs while the Creator's Release will provide all the rules and tools for customizing encounters, monsters, treasure in the form of 'The Forge.'

'Dungeonscape' will also operate on a cloud-based network, which means that regardless of what you use to access your data, it will work seamlessly with the rest of your group's devices regardless of what they are using to access their own data.

Other features include the ability to send secret messages to other players, purchase new adventure content via a Library tab and player Awards akin to achievements and player rewards sanctioned by Wizards at events like Gen Con.

 

For the team at Trapdoor, 'Dungeonscape' is a quick and compact reference aid that should help role-playing games be more like role-playing games and less like video games. So what goes into the toolset is ways to access data, share data and transform how it looks on your device. “Our rule of thumb,” said Matney. “is there is no limit to technology.” — TJD, GMA News