The reason I ask is because I originally purchased all the physical D&D books. Then I decided that carting around all those books was a pain, so I bought into D&D Beyond and rebought all those books and stopped buying the Physical books. Now, with all the self isolation my games are moving to Roll20 and maybe even Fantasy Grounds. None of the books I have already purchased are usable on those platforms. Yeesh, now I have to buy them all again?! That sucks.
I get it, all these platforms want to "get paid". It costs money to keep them up and running. I already have a Master subscription here on D&D Beyond. That subscription is likely going to not be renewed if my players are migrating to one of those other online platforms. Hence my question.'
I'd argue that D&D Beyond already supports online play; I play online in a few games and I use my books on D&D Beyond the same way I use my physical books at the table. I have DDB open in one tab and roll20 open in another and go from there.
I've not bought a single module or book on roll20 because I don't feel the need to. Sure, there's some added convenience in terms of pre-setup maps and tokens, but it's not required to be able to actually play.
D&D Beyond does have a virtual game table on the long term roadmap, but that's not a feature with any form of date.
I am using the D&D Beyond stuff - exactly like you are. But it sure slows play down on Roll20 to not be using their character sheets. The other players have to wait a lot for me to do stuff because their actions get automatically added to the Initiative Tracker. Their weapons and spells get automatically added to the chat window - mine don't. It does work, just inefficient.
Pathfinder apparently gives a discount for cross platform purchases of their products, it would be nice if Wizards did the same.
Thanks for the reply, I sure hope the massive influx of players to online play spurs D&D Beyond to uptick the virtual game table much higher on the priority list.
Pathfinder apparently gives a discount for cross platform purchases of their products, it would be nice if Wizards did the same.
Important note on this; this is because Paizo sells the books directly through their own store which means they can validate the purchase for PDF. D&D Beyond is a different company from Wizards of the Coast which causes two problems:
None of the money you paid for your physical book reaches D&D Beyond, money needed to run the site and develop the tools
There's no way to validate purchases between companies like this.
Will D&D Beyond ever support online play?
The reason I ask is because I originally purchased all the physical D&D books. Then I decided that carting around all those books was a pain, so I bought into D&D Beyond and rebought all those books and stopped buying the Physical books. Now, with all the self isolation my games are moving to Roll20 and maybe even Fantasy Grounds. None of the books I have already purchased are usable on those platforms. Yeesh, now I have to buy them all again?! That sucks.
I get it, all these platforms want to "get paid". It costs money to keep them up and running. I already have a Master subscription here on D&D Beyond. That subscription is likely going to not be renewed if my players are migrating to one of those other online platforms. Hence my question.'
Peace
I'd argue that D&D Beyond already supports online play; I play online in a few games and I use my books on D&D Beyond the same way I use my physical books at the table. I have DDB open in one tab and roll20 open in another and go from there.
I've not bought a single module or book on roll20 because I don't feel the need to. Sure, there's some added convenience in terms of pre-setup maps and tokens, but it's not required to be able to actually play.
D&D Beyond does have a virtual game table on the long term roadmap, but that's not a feature with any form of date.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I am using the D&D Beyond stuff - exactly like you are. But it sure slows play down on Roll20 to not be using their character sheets. The other players have to wait a lot for me to do stuff because their actions get automatically added to the Initiative Tracker. Their weapons and spells get automatically added to the chat window - mine don't. It does work, just inefficient.
Pathfinder apparently gives a discount for cross platform purchases of their products, it would be nice if Wizards did the same.
Thanks for the reply, I sure hope the massive influx of players to online play spurs D&D Beyond to uptick the virtual game table much higher on the priority list.
Peace
Important note on this; this is because Paizo sells the books directly through their own store which means they can validate the purchase for PDF. D&D Beyond is a different company from Wizards of the Coast which causes two problems:
Find my D&D Beyond articles here