D&D Day is fast approaching, and along with the cool analog products we’re releasing for 4th Edition (game books, miniatures, dungeon tiles, novels, etc.) comes the initial rollout of Dungeons & Dragons Insider. We’ve been talking about this exciting suite of digital offerings since the announcement last August, and now the first stage of the project is about to kick into high gear.

It all starts with the switch from preview content and 3.5 content, to all-4th-Edition all-the-time in our online magazines, Dragon and Dungeon. New articles, features, and adventures will roll out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and then the entire month’s content will be collected into a full-sized digital magazine. Between the two online magazines, that’s the equivalent of an extra full-sized D&D game supplement every month—and that’s just for starters! D&D Insider will eventually also include an ever-expanding suite of player and DM tools, a game table, and other features that make it a compelling destination for all D&D fans.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Back to the initial rollout…

D&D Insider’s free beta period coincides with the launch of 4th Edition. You get to try out the first digital components without paying the subscription fees, and you can provide feedback to help us improve your experience. The initial rollout includes Dragon and Dungeon online magazines, and the D&D Rules Compendium. This powerful online resource for players and Dungeon Masters alike will be updated with each new D&D release (whether it’s an analog game product or a digital magazine), making it the place to go in order to find what you need, when you need it.

As other components become available, including client-based applications such as the D&D Character Builder and the D&D Game Table, they will be added to the mix. I’ll talk more about these digital offerings in my next column.

When the initial beta period comes to an end, subscription rates will go into effect. Initially, we’re going to roll out a special, limited-time introductory pricing offer. Those who get in on the ground floor will be able to take advantage of some great deals to gain access to D&D Insider and all its great features. After this introductory period, the regular subscription pricing that we’ve previously announced will go into effect: $14.95 per month, with discounts for longer subscription commitments.

So, get ready to sign up for your free D&D Insider beta account. Read the articles, use the material, experiment with the Rules Compendium—and provide us with the feedback we need to make these components even better.

Online Magazines

With the launch of D&D 4th Edition, the analog products and the digital offerings combine to make for a more intense and extensive D&D experience. This is initially most clearly seen in Dragon and Dungeon online magazines. If the analog book product is the first disc in the two-disc DVD that is D&D, then the online magazines are the bonus disc. The book (say, the Player’s Handbook) is the movie, the feature film. Dragon and Dungeon, then, are the extras—the deleted scenes, the documentaries, the alternate endings, the commentaries. Of course, this is just an analogy, the reality is even better.

Each online magazine includes material written by a combination of my in-house design and development staff, well-known freelancers, and talented newcomers from among the D&D fan base. That material is then subjected to the rigorous development process that all of our analog products go through, a process headed up by Mike Mearls and the D&D developers. When we reveal an article or an adventure, it stands side-by-side with our analog products as official, fully developed D&D canon.

Both magazines have been artistically redesigned to mirror the look of the 4E analog products while maintaining a magazine feel. In their new format, every article can be downloaded as a PDF or opened in a browser window for immediate viewing. Then, an issue’s worth of content is compiled into a collected PDF.

Dragon will be the place for players and DMs to find behind-the-scenes features, design and development secrets, product expansions and extras, and new rules mechanics. Dragon content also focuses on adding new elements and options to your game. We’re even going to use Dragon to show off new classes and races before they appear in a future Player’s Handbook, basically revealing them in playtest mode so that you can help us get them ready for wider distribution. That’s one of the perks of being a D&D Insider—you get to help shape the future development of the game.

Dungeon will be mostly the purview of Dungeon Masters, featuring side treks, adventure hooks, and full-length adventures to supplement our analog adventures and your own creativity. The goal of Dungeon is to make the DM’s life easier. I’ve seen some of the stuff that Chris Youngs has planned, and I can’t wait to try it out on my gaming group.

What you’ve seen since the announcement has been just the tip of the iceberg. The magazine content has been geared toward teasing and previewing the upcoming edition. When the new edition arrives, everything changes. The magazines take on all the depth and crunch we’ve been promising, and the cycle of D&D 4th Edition really kicks into high gear. It’s a cycle of analog products complemented by digital offerings that, in turn, influence organized play and are reflected in a vibrant community that provides feedback and suggestions—that leads to the next analog product, and the ongoing cycle of 4th Edition.

This is the vision I pitched three years ago. This is the vision that my team and the support teams throughout Wizards have been working to bring to fruition. This is the vision that’s about to become reality… at least, the first stage!

I can’t wait.

Keep playing!

--Bill Slavicsek