Introducing Our Tech Roadmap

When I was a kid I was picked on for being a nerd. Looking back, I’m not surprised. I used to carry around a backpack full of gaming supplies everywhere I went. The pack was stuffed with pens, dice, miniatures, maps, and about 20 pounds of books. I was an easy target. Now that I have a 7-year-old, I don’t want him to have that kind of experience.

As a technologist, I’m excited about what technology has to offer to make my life simpler as a player and a GM. I’m encouraged by the usefulness of tools like D&D Beyond and HeroLab, and I  envision a world where we offer similar tools to our players. Enter Sidekick.

Sidekick is a platform we’re developing to allow users to do three things: 1) access our System Reference Document (SRD), 2) create characters, and 3) access digital versions of our books. Let’s talk about these three in more detail.

System Reference Document: The SRD will give users the ability to look up rules on our website for free. I don’t know how many times I’ve thought about casting a complicated spell in Pathfinder, but dreaded having to flip through the manual to find the right page so I could understand its effects. Our platform offers a search tool that quickly gets you to the information you need. Here is a sneak peak.

Character Maker: Many of you have asked for a tool to make characters online. While we love our editable PDFs, there is nothing better than a helpful tool to help you make your characters and print them out in time for your gaming session.

Digital Library: For those of you who don’t love flipping through PDFs, but also don’t want to carry the physical books around with you, we will offer digital versions of the books. They will be easily searchable, easily navigable, and available for offline use. The goal is to provide a better reading experience than what a PDF can offer you.

The pricing for these services will be simple. The SRD will be free. We’ll charge somewhere between $2 and $5 per month to get access to the character maker and the core rulebooks in digital format. For the monthly fee, you’ll also get a bunch of cool freebies like: 1) discounts on all physical purchases, 2) free shipping, and 3) free adventures, maps, and supplements. All Cinematic Adventures will be available for a small price, similar to what we charge for a PDF. That’s it. No hidden fees. No nickel and diming. No microtransactions, no NFTs, no funny business.

And here is the most important part. You don’t need any of this technology to play the game. You can purchase our physical books at any local gaming store or directly from us. We’ll never charge you extra for playing the game with your friends around the dinner table or at your local store. Play the game however you want. Have fun and make great memories with your friends.