Why did you kill orc pub and then force me to use this unfinished product instead?
Hi McKnighty,
Just to also add to what mjsoctober said, yes D&DB didn't have anything to do with what happened with Orcpub. It looks like what happened was OrcPub had added content from Wizards illegally and so (rightfully so) they ordered a Cease and Desist from the owner in order for Orcpub to take it down. Orcpub is now trying to go through normal legal channels in order to legally license the content from Wizards (like D&DB does) and has quite a large backing from those in the community to also see that happen. It may or may not happen, I personally hope it does, as I think competition is good, but it's up to Wizards to decide who they license their content to. It is their content after all, so fair is fair.
If there is anyone "at fault" here it is not Wizards nor is it D&DB. But now that Orcpub has respected the wishes of Wizards and taken down the illegal content, and is now following the correct way of doing business, I hope that it can be water under the bridge and some good things can come of it for all of us. We'll see.
But, D&DB has some great stuff on here, and again, have no fault at all in what took place. What took place had to take place... there was really no other outcome.
Actually, Mr. Ryansan, I've noticed that, if you are willing to put in some work, it's much cheaper to buy the adventures on DDB and use them with Roll20. You still get all the adventure text, which you can copy and paste, and you can download all the maps at resolution that can be used on Roll20. The only difference is that you don't get the pre-made monster tokens/sheets, or the Dynamic Lightning. But as long as you don't need Dynamic Lighting, and are willing to add your own monsters as they come up, you can save a lot of money.
For example Tomb of Annihilation on DDB is $24.99, or $49.95 on Roll20. So, you're basically paying $25 for the monster tokens/sheets.
I've been DMing Lost Mine of Phandelver and Curse of Strahd on Roll20 for the last year, and as I go I've been adding monsters to my Roll20 account. Since I can export them to my "vault" and then import into other campaigns, I have been over time building up my own Monster Manual on Roll20 that i can use in every adventure I run.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
Actually, Mr. Ryansan, I've noticed that, if you are willing to put in some work, it's much cheaper to buy the adventures on DDB and use them with Roll20. You still get all the adventure text, which you can copy and paste, and you can download all the maps at resolution that can be used on Roll20. The only difference is that you don't get the pre-made monster tokens/sheets, or the Dynamic Lightning. But as long as you don't need Dynamic Lighting, and are willing to add your own monsters as they come up, you can save a lot of money.
For example Tomb of Annihilation on DDB is $24.99, or $49.95 on Roll20. So, you're basically paying $25 for the monster tokens/sheets.
I've been DMing Lost Mine of Phandelver and Curse of Strahd on Roll20 for the last year, and as I go I've been adding monsters to my Roll20 account. Since I can export them to my "vault" and then import into other campaigns, I have been over time building up my own Monster Manual on Roll20 that i can use in every adventure I run.
Hmmm...that actually doesn't sound too bad actually. I didn't realize the pricing was so drastically different! I would probably enjoy crafting the adventures manually. I've been looking at token creation tutorials, so that could be fun too. I like the flat rounded tokens with the picture in the middle. Do you create your own like that?
@MrRyansan - Yes, I use TokenTool (see link below). It's really easy to use. Drag an image from file explorer or web browser into the TokenTool application. Choose your token tool frame, resize as you like, etc. I have purchased the MM here on DDB, so I use the images from there.
@MrRyansan - Yes, I use TokenTool (see link below). It's really easy to use. Drag an image from file explorer or web browser into the TokenTool application. Choose your token tool frame, resize as you like, etc. I have purchased the MM here on DDB, so I use the images from there.
Actually, Mr. Ryansan, I've noticed that, if you are willing to put in some work, it's much cheaper to buy the adventures on DDB and use them with Roll20. You still get all the adventure text, which you can copy and paste, and you can download all the maps at resolution that can be used on Roll20. The only difference is that you don't get the pre-made monster tokens/sheets, or the Dynamic Lightning. But as long as you don't need Dynamic Lighting, and are willing to add your own monsters as they come up, you can save a lot of money.
For example Tomb of Annihilation on DDB is $24.99, or $49.95 on Roll20. So, you're basically paying $25 for the monster tokens/sheets.
I've been DMing Lost Mine of Phandelver and Curse of Strahd on Roll20 for the last year, and as I go I've been adding monsters to my Roll20 account. Since I can export them to my "vault" and then import into other campaigns, I have been over time building up my own Monster Manual on Roll20 that i can use in every adventure I run.
Something to keep in mind for Curse of Strahd specifically: the roll20 team put in a lot of extra work to create useable square maps out of the isometric maps of Castle Ravenloft.
To add my 2 cents: Dynamic Lighting has been a very popular feature at my table, and it takes me 30-60 minutes to prepare each map for lighting alone. That's before taking into account the time to add the monster tokens and stat blocks. If CoS had been available on roll20 from the beginning, it would've saved me dozens of hours by now. That's worth the $25 difference to me, especially since we've gotten over a year of playing out of that one campaign.
But I have a full time job and plenty of expendable income, so I can see how the cost/benefit ratio would be very different for someone with less cash and more time.
Out of curiosity, do you or your players use the character sheet functionality on this site when they actually play? Do they use pen/paper or do they use their tablets or a laptop? I was planning on going to my local comic store to play Adventurer's League and was thinking to just take my chromebook instead of a printed character sheet, but didn't know if that would be frowned upon or anything.
On my last session all my players used DDB character sheet from cellphones, but one that used a tablet. It went really well, better than I expected to say the truth.
I was considering buying the player's handbook here. How have you liked it? There isn't much of an example of how it would look, but I'm assuming it would be much like the 5e rules that are on here. I like how it was structured and grouped. Other than the benefits of it just being a digital version, are there other pluses you've noticed with having it? I'm on the fence between paper and digital and leaning more towards digital. I know D&DB will continue to improve so feel relatively secure in purchasing with them.
Not Matt, but I've got the PHB and some other content on here, and I like it a lot--having it searchable is amazing and often faster--I'll race my players doing lookups and usually win unless they've got a sticky note in the page already. I looks...a lot like the SRD rules, tbh. They're really quite good at the product being predictable like that. No weird surprises. Having the compendium content accessible both via the book and the character creator is a huge bonus, too--it's so organized and right there when I need it.
As a DM, though, probably my favorite feature is the master tier content sharing approach. I DM at my local comic shop, and we've got a group of teenagers who are just learning to play and refuse to buy the books with Christmas coming, which I don't entirely blame them for--money is tight at that age, and 30-50 bucks is a lot is mom and dad will just give it to you in couple months anyways. But watching 8 kids share one borrowed PHB gets...messy. The ability to use the content sharing to get them legal access for the next couple months is going to be a real blessing.
This is great actually, especially from the perspective of a DM, and I like the search capabilities you mentioned. I think I'm going to pull the trigger on it. Thanks!
Out of curiosity, do you or your players use the character sheet functionality on this site when they actually play? Do they use pen/paper or do they use their tablets or a laptop? I was planning on going to my local comic store to play Adventurer's League and was thinking to just take my chromebook instead of a printed character sheet, but didn't know if that would be frowned upon or anything.
I probably should just catch up and multiquote, but I'm terrible like that. I'm a player in a side game and I use the digital character sheet functionality from my phone. I love it. It's not the greatest, but I really like, especially in an infrequent side campaign like this, that things like limited abilities will stay tracked on there until I change it.
All this goodwill from D&D Beyond's launch is in the process of being for naught if the phone apps don't arrive soon. That's what all my players are craving - quick lookup tools for the books we legitimately bought here on D&D Beyond in the vein of the Pathfinder Masterwork Tools or the Android app.
Char sheet on the main website on a phone is all right, but far from optimal. All of that information needs to be offline-accessible and optimized for phones. Any beta-testers about to give us an update on the progress?
@MrRyansan - Yes, I use TokenTool (see link below). It's really easy to use. Drag an image from file explorer or web browser into the TokenTool application. Choose your token tool frame, resize as you like, etc. I have purchased the MM here on DDB, so I use the images from there.
@MrRyansan - Yes, I use TokenTool (see link below). It's really easy to use. Drag an image from file explorer or web browser into the TokenTool application. Choose your token tool frame, resize as you like, etc. I have purchased the MM here on DDB, so I use the images from there.
I use a chromebook a lot of the time, so this is actually useful. I just emailed the author to see if he's planning to allow us to use our own token rings when creating tokens. Thanks for the link!
@MrRyansan - Yes, I use TokenTool (see link below). It's really easy to use. Drag an image from file explorer or web browser into the TokenTool application. Choose your token tool frame, resize as you like, etc. I have purchased the MM here on DDB, so I use the images from there.
I don't want to jump on board the "this isn't as fast as I want it to be" train. I'm no programmer nor do I pretend to know the first thing about it. I'd say I have a general idea about it and that's it. I greatly appreciate what this site currently is. I use it every session I DM as a rules reference and as a way to quickly look up items, spells, and class and racial features. But while I enjoy the site as is, it is getting a little bit much to hear about the "pipeline" all the time. The character sheet in it's current form is bad. I know that Curse admits that it probably isn't the best setup and there are 157 pages of posts from people who have some advice on how to fix it or what else is needed. But hearing about the revamp that has been in the works for about a month now is just such a tease. I saw the preview of what it might look like and it does look like an improvement over the current setup. I'm assuming that the process of making a character will be simplified as well, but we'd probably hear that it's in the "revamp down the pipeline".
Now, I say all of this only because Larry is cranking out stuff in a matter of hours over at OrcPub. He had his site completely gutted recently and has still managed to develop a complete homebrew site that allows almost nearly the same features it used to, all within a few weeks. I don't know if Curse offered him a job or offered to buy his site, but someone needs to talk to that guy. As far as I know, OrcPub is not his full time job. That seems to be his hobby. Also, from what I can tell, he is not a team of developers. I have had my PCs lose their sheets and been able to crank out a new one in a matter of a minute or two using that site. I don't know if he is half human half robot or what, but he is the reason that people are so impatient with the pipeline and the revamp. If one man is able to what he has been doing on the side, why can't a team of full time developers working on this site be able to do it at least half as fast?
If one man has no issue with taking copyright content from WOTC, how can we be sure a man hasn't taken coding from other websites, skinned with a custom flavor?
I have no idea what he may or may not be doing with website development, but integrity would certainly be in question moving forward. Just my personal 2¢.
I'm no programmer nor do I pretend to know the first thing about it. I'd say I have a general idea about it and that's it.
Not sure what you do for a living, but if someone said that about your profession, and questioned why you hadn't done something as quickly as they felt you should have (despite their ignorance of how your profession works) what would you think of their statement?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
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Actually, Mr. Ryansan, I've noticed that, if you are willing to put in some work, it's much cheaper to buy the adventures on DDB and use them with Roll20. You still get all the adventure text, which you can copy and paste, and you can download all the maps at resolution that can be used on Roll20. The only difference is that you don't get the pre-made monster tokens/sheets, or the Dynamic Lightning. But as long as you don't need Dynamic Lighting, and are willing to add your own monsters as they come up, you can save a lot of money.
For example Tomb of Annihilation on DDB is $24.99, or $49.95 on Roll20. So, you're basically paying $25 for the monster tokens/sheets.
I've been DMing Lost Mine of Phandelver and Curse of Strahd on Roll20 for the last year, and as I go I've been adding monsters to my Roll20 account. Since I can export them to my "vault" and then import into other campaigns, I have been over time building up my own Monster Manual on Roll20 that i can use in every adventure I run.
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
@MrRyansan - Yes, I use TokenTool (see link below). It's really easy to use. Drag an image from file explorer or web browser into the TokenTool application. Choose your token tool frame, resize as you like, etc. I have purchased the MM here on DDB, so I use the images from there.
http://www.rptools.net/toolbox/token-tool/
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
And I cast Heroism on the community.
DM for the Adventures in Erylia Podcast
Where five friends sit around the table and record themselves playing Dungeons and Dragons
DM for the Adventures in Erylia Podcast
Where five friends sit around the table and record themselves playing Dungeons and Dragons
Huh... I just loaded up the character sheet on my phone like you described and it’s actually surprisingly functional and easy to use!
All this goodwill from D&D Beyond's launch is in the process of being for naught if the phone apps don't arrive soon. That's what all my players are craving - quick lookup tools for the books we legitimately bought here on D&D Beyond in the vein of the Pathfinder Masterwork Tools or the Android app.
Char sheet on the main website on a phone is all right, but far from optimal. All of that information needs to be offline-accessible and optimized for phones. Any beta-testers about to give us an update on the progress?
Badeye showed it off during his last developer update:
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Please feel free to message either Sorce or another moderator if you have any concerns.
Re: Video above. Start watching at 22:00 for the app.
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
Tremendous, thanks! :-) Strange that word about this and videos etc. aren't covered too well on EN World (my main RPG news stop).
I don't want to jump on board the "this isn't as fast as I want it to be" train. I'm no programmer nor do I pretend to know the first thing about it. I'd say I have a general idea about it and that's it. I greatly appreciate what this site currently is. I use it every session I DM as a rules reference and as a way to quickly look up items, spells, and class and racial features. But while I enjoy the site as is, it is getting a little bit much to hear about the "pipeline" all the time. The character sheet in it's current form is bad. I know that Curse admits that it probably isn't the best setup and there are 157 pages of posts from people who have some advice on how to fix it or what else is needed. But hearing about the revamp that has been in the works for about a month now is just such a tease. I saw the preview of what it might look like and it does look like an improvement over the current setup. I'm assuming that the process of making a character will be simplified as well, but we'd probably hear that it's in the "revamp down the pipeline".
Now, I say all of this only because Larry is cranking out stuff in a matter of hours over at OrcPub. He had his site completely gutted recently and has still managed to develop a complete homebrew site that allows almost nearly the same features it used to, all within a few weeks. I don't know if Curse offered him a job or offered to buy his site, but someone needs to talk to that guy. As far as I know, OrcPub is not his full time job. That seems to be his hobby. Also, from what I can tell, he is not a team of developers. I have had my PCs lose their sheets and been able to crank out a new one in a matter of a minute or two using that site. I don't know if he is half human half robot or what, but he is the reason that people are so impatient with the pipeline and the revamp. If one man is able to what he has been doing on the side, why can't a team of full time developers working on this site be able to do it at least half as fast?
If one man has no issue with taking copyright content from WOTC, how can we be sure a man hasn't taken coding from other websites, skinned with a custom flavor?
I have no idea what he may or may not be doing with website development, but integrity would certainly be in question moving forward. Just my personal 2¢.
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You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?