Quick Links
D&D Beyond is one of the most widely-used online resources forDungeons & Dragonsfans, both new and veteran. They provide access to a myriad of official resources and sourcebooks while also supplying the ability to integrate homebrew materials into a campaign, with pages upon pages of fellow players' creations available at the click of a button.
Some Dungeon Masters have completely stopped purchasing hardcover copies from stores, preferring instead to buy all the content directly from D&D Beyond to build their characters or furnish their campaigns. As D&D Beyond has grown in popularity, more features have been added, making switching to running your campaign on the website more economical than before.
Getting Your Campaign Started
D&D Beyond is, luckily, easy to navigate, even for a beginner on the site. Upon opening up and logging in to D&D Beyond, you’ll face the homepage.
There is a mobile app available, as well as a website.
There should be a dark gray header running across the screen. The word"Collections"will be on thetop left.Hover your mouse over it and a drop-down will pop up. you’re able to use this to navigate your digital dice, homebrew, and characters, but in the middle,there should be a “My Campaigns” section. Once you’ve clicked on it, you’ll jump to the creation page.
In theupper right, there will be two blue buttons:“Create A Campaign,“and"Create From Premade Campaigns.”
“Create A Campaign” will let you work from scratch.Once you click it, you’ll be brought to a page asking for the name of your campaign, as well as a brief description. Fill these out, save, and you’ll return to the main page where you canaccess your campaign at any point.
If you click on the campaign again,you’ll be provided with a link in the top right corner, just under the “Game Log” and “Maps.“This link is very important, as you’ll copy andsend it to your players to get them loaded onto the page as well.
Clicking on “Premade Campaigns"will allow you to pull from existing materials andwill walk you through the campaign creation processusing premade campaigns such as Dragons of Stormwreck Isle. They can serve as a template or help you set up said campaign.
Tools To Use
When using D&D Beyond to configure your campaign,you’ll see some options on the creation page.If you’re running your campaign on the site, these will be of paramount importance to your experience.
Create Encounters
On theupper right, there’s a button called"Create Encounters.“Click it, and you’ll be brought to D&D Beyond’s encounter builder.
This feature lets yousearch through the monsters you have access to, as well as the ones you may have homebrewed. You cansearch numerically by Challenge Rating and size.There are alsofilterson the left that will let you search byEnvironment, Source, Alignment, and through the homebrew you’ve created and saved.
You can track initiative and XP using this tool, and a space is provided toname the encounter.You can save multiple encounters, potentially allowing you to reuse and reconfigure them.
The builder canremember your filtersfor future use, which is especially useful if you’re using the Enounter Builder during a session.
Notes
There is a section at the bottom that allows you to writeDM Notes, both forpublic and private use.Each space is labeled accordingly, so you canbroadcast lore, announcements, or information to your playersvia D&D Beyond.
A variety of customization is at your fingertips, such as fonts, images, links, and colors, letting this area serve as a proper organizational tool.
Game Log
The Game Logallows you to see your player’s rolls.D&D Beyond has a digital rolling tool, which you’re able to access by going onto a character’s sheet and clicking the dice icon in the bottom left.
You can access any of the dice at any point, but clicking on specific skills or stats will add the modifiers to them automatically.
All of these rolls go straight to the Game Log, where you’ll have access to the date they were rolled, as well as the modifiers added.
Character Sheets
The character sheetsare available as soon as theplayers load their characters onto the campaign.They can be viewed in their entirety by the Dungeon Master, but other players won’t have access to their backstory tabs.
Once your players are loaded into the campaign,you can check their character sheets at any time.Information such as their backstory, stats, skills, and inventory will be available to you at any time, which can help you figure out plot points or more mechanical features.
