Thanks, good info. I have messed around with integrating Roll20 with DnD Beyond via Beyond20 and I couldn't get it to work. I also tried using DnD Beyond with AboveVTT and it also didn't work. It should be as easy as purchasing a campaign, loading it into DnD Beyond, and off you go. Apparently not so much!
I am new to DnD Beyond (played pen & paper years ago) and I am (unpleasantly) surprised that there isn't an easy to use all in one program to play D&D with friends & family remotely. I know DnD Beyond is working on a VTT but in the interim there doesn't seem to be any good choices. I bought Foundry VTT which seems to have a lot of bells & whistles, but there also seems to be a fairly steep learning curve (which the other potential players responded with a hard no to that).
I then discovered AboveVTT and thought I could just use that, along with DnD Beyond and a purchased adventure, as a "premade campaign". Nope, unless I am missing something that isn't an option. I have also looked at integrating DnD Beyond with Roll20 via Beyond20, and again was very disappointed. I like the idea of using adventures that can be purchased here on DnD Beyond, so given that what would be the best solution? Would it just be using Zoom or something like that to share content, or is there a better way? /rant
I am new to DnD Beyond (played pen & paper years ago) and I am (unpleasantly) surprised that there isn't an easy to use all in one program to play D&D with friends & family remotely. I know DnD Beyond is working on a VTT but in the interim there doesn't seem to be any good choices. I bought Foundry VTT which seems to have a lot of bells & whistles, but there also seems to be a fairly steep learning curve (which the other potential players responded with a hard no to that).
I then discovered AboveVTT and thought I could just use that, along with DnD Beyond and a purchased adventure, as a "premade campaign". Nope, unless I am missing something that isn't an option. I have also looked at integrating DnD Beyond with Roll20 via Beyond20, and again was very disappointed. I like the idea of using adventures that can be purchased here on DnD Beyond, so given that what would be the best solution? Would it just be using Zoom or something like that to share content, or is there a better way? /rant
A bit of history that may be helpful: DDB started as a digital tool for people who were gathered around a physical table to play. The initial vision was about offering character sheets, rules references, etc. that were automated and quicker to access than paper and pencil and juggling multiple books. They didn't have in mind VTTs or playing over the internet. Pretty quickly people started clamoring for those things and they began considering pivoting. Then COVID happened, and how people played/the % that played in person vs. online changed heavily in online's favor, and they began trying to pivot while also trying to work on the roadmap they had already laid out that before they realized how important online play was/would become. And, in the middle of that, their parent company merged with/was acquired by Fandom, and then later by WOTC. Development has never been speedy here, and particularly the WOTC acquisition really slowed things down. (The previous merger/acquisition by Fandom resulted in a much better mobile app, and website progress was happening, albeit slowly).
I am rather frustrated by the "premade campaign" language WOTC has recently adopted to describe the three free adventures here. It gives the impression that the encounters have been built and that the maps have been loaded in to something, etc. Instead, it really just means it sets up the campaign page for you with a pretty picture and some initial text. That and makes it easy to create pre-generated characters.
In terms of your final question, at this point in order to play online, one generally needs the following:
-a way to communicate by voice or video in real time. ZOOM would work; I've also used Discord and FaceTime. Others use Google Hangouts or the like. In your case, I'd go with whatever service most of your players are familiar with. If you and your players use Discord, the free Avrae bot can post rolls and other info into a Discord chat during play.
-a way to track and maintain character sheets; DDB is excellent for this, and if the DM creates a campaign here, it is fairly easy to see everyone's sheets. (and the DM can edit a character sheet as well as the player who owns it). Player names, HP, initiative roll and some other data is also visible in the encounters tool.
-a way to see maps and potentially move pawns on the map, unless one is doing all theater of the mind. I use owlbear rodeo for that; Foundry, Roll 20, Fantasy Grounds and Above VTT are other options. I've heard people sing the praises of Above VTT, but I didn't want to ask my players to all install the extension, and i wasn't even sure that they were all using a compatible browser for the extension. So I opted for owlbear as the simplest VTT with the shallowest learning curse. Maps that are part of the adventures here can be downloaded and then uploaded/added to any of those VTT services.
Can you share more about what you want DDB/a digital online play experience to do for you? There are a variety of different approaches/needs/desires in that department, and I'm unclear about precisely what you are looking for.
I'm sorry I can't say more about AboveVTT or how it works: I've never tried it.
ArwensDaughter, Thank you so much for your quick & informational reply! I guess what I am looking for is what a lot of people are looking for (more or less), which is to leverage current technology to approximate the pen & paper experience. My friends & family that I played with years ago are now spread across the country (literally every one of us lives in a different state now). I have tried actual video games like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Solasta, etc. and although each was/is really good in its own way none of them came close to the pen & paper experience.
One of my friends has started playing D&D again via DnD Beyond and Zoom. They manually roll dice and use the Zoom whiteboard for maps. It's a technique, although I suspect not the most efficient and effective way to play D&D. I was thinking more along the lines of using DnD Beyond + a VTT of some sort to run a campaign, but that particular group doesn't want to use anything with any sort of learning curve. They just want to hop on Zoom & start playing. If I start playing with them I will push the idea of using maps (not just hand drawn maps on a whiteboard, which is what they do). Not sure if this answers your questions at all or just further muddies the waters.
Decubellis, Your answer does help. If you join this group as a player, you could definitely use DDB for your character sheet, even if none of the rest of the group uses DDB. Depending on what you play, you would probably need to purchase some items here to do so, but the nice thing is that you can purchase things a la carte, you don't have to purchase entire books to get the elements you need. (One exception is the optional class rules in Tasha's: for those you do have to purchase the entire book here)
In terms of maps, if that group were open to a VTT, Owlbear sounds like the best bet. Not much of a learning curve, especially not for the players. No app to download, not even a browser extension. It comes with some basic tokens that players can use, or folks can create their own and have the DM import them. There is a diceroller, which I've not used. My players do a mix of rolling with real dice and rolling on DDB. I typically roll on DDB, but occasionally use real dice (to check for random encounters, for example)
across all 3; Beyond for Character sheets, rules, items, spells, etc. (which are sort of the larger rules bucket)
campaign 1 (player), above vtt for maps, then moved to another software that escapes me for battle maps and encounters.
campaign 2 (player), we were using roll20, then moved to shard for almost everything, i keep beyond open on another pc for character reference and rules/sources quick lookup, but not needed, this is really a non Beyond game, I am just leaning on it for myself
campaign 3 (dm), Beyond for adventures,beyond for encounters, using very crude battle mats or not using them, so a total beyond game. could use above vtt if desired by group.
I am new to DnD Beyond (played pen & paper years ago) and I am (unpleasantly) surprised that there isn't an easy to use all in one program to play D&D with friends & family remotely. I know DnD Beyond is working on a VTT but in the interim there doesn't seem to be any good choices. I bought Foundry VTT which seems to have a lot of bells & whistles, but there also seems to be a fairly steep learning curve (which the other potential players responded with a hard no to that).
I then discovered AboveVTT and thought I could just use that, along with DnD Beyond and a purchased adventure, as a "premade campaign". Nope, unless I am missing something that isn't an option. I have also looked at integrating DnD Beyond with Roll20 via Beyond20, and again was very disappointed. I like the idea of using adventures that can be purchased here on DnD Beyond, so given that what would be the best solution? Would it just be using Zoom or something like that to share content, or is there a better way? /rant
Above VTT is exactly what you are looking for, I'm not sure what your expectations are though, but with ABOVE you can import maps etc directly from DnDBeyond. I'd recommend joining their Discord if you can't work it out, they have some very straight forward instructions on there
Imalius, Thanks I am starting to figure out how to import content from campaigns purchased on DnD Beyond. The YouTube videos that I found were generally unhelpful, as they were based on an older version of AboveVTT & they skipped some pretty important steps. It's still quite a bit more work than it should be to import content, but I can make it do what I need it to.
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Thanks, good info. I have messed around with integrating Roll20 with DnD Beyond via Beyond20 and I couldn't get it to work. I also tried using DnD Beyond with AboveVTT and it also didn't work. It should be as easy as purchasing a campaign, loading it into DnD Beyond, and off you go. Apparently not so much!
I am new to DnD Beyond (played pen & paper years ago) and I am (unpleasantly) surprised that there isn't an easy to use all in one program to play D&D with friends & family remotely. I know DnD Beyond is working on a VTT but in the interim there doesn't seem to be any good choices. I bought Foundry VTT which seems to have a lot of bells & whistles, but there also seems to be a fairly steep learning curve (which the other potential players responded with a hard no to that).
I then discovered AboveVTT and thought I could just use that, along with DnD Beyond and a purchased adventure, as a "premade campaign". Nope, unless I am missing something that isn't an option. I have also looked at integrating DnD Beyond with Roll20 via Beyond20, and again was very disappointed. I like the idea of using adventures that can be purchased here on DnD Beyond, so given that what would be the best solution? Would it just be using Zoom or something like that to share content, or is there a better way? /rant
A bit of history that may be helpful: DDB started as a digital tool for people who were gathered around a physical table to play. The initial vision was about offering character sheets, rules references, etc. that were automated and quicker to access than paper and pencil and juggling multiple books. They didn't have in mind VTTs or playing over the internet. Pretty quickly people started clamoring for those things and they began considering pivoting. Then COVID happened, and how people played/the % that played in person vs. online changed heavily in online's favor, and they began trying to pivot while also trying to work on the roadmap they had already laid out that before they realized how important online play was/would become. And, in the middle of that, their parent company merged with/was acquired by Fandom, and then later by WOTC. Development has never been speedy here, and particularly the WOTC acquisition really slowed things down. (The previous merger/acquisition by Fandom resulted in a much better mobile app, and website progress was happening, albeit slowly).
I am rather frustrated by the "premade campaign" language WOTC has recently adopted to describe the three free adventures here. It gives the impression that the encounters have been built and that the maps have been loaded in to something, etc. Instead, it really just means it sets up the campaign page for you with a pretty picture and some initial text. That and makes it easy to create pre-generated characters.
In terms of your final question, at this point in order to play online, one generally needs the following:
-a way to communicate by voice or video in real time. ZOOM would work; I've also used Discord and FaceTime. Others use Google Hangouts or the like. In your case, I'd go with whatever service most of your players are familiar with. If you and your players use Discord, the free Avrae bot can post rolls and other info into a Discord chat during play.
-a way to track and maintain character sheets; DDB is excellent for this, and if the DM creates a campaign here, it is fairly easy to see everyone's sheets. (and the DM can edit a character sheet as well as the player who owns it). Player names, HP, initiative roll and some other data is also visible in the encounters tool.
-a way to see maps and potentially move pawns on the map, unless one is doing all theater of the mind. I use owlbear rodeo for that; Foundry, Roll 20, Fantasy Grounds and Above VTT are other options. I've heard people sing the praises of Above VTT, but I didn't want to ask my players to all install the extension, and i wasn't even sure that they were all using a compatible browser for the extension. So I opted for owlbear as the simplest VTT with the shallowest learning curse. Maps that are part of the adventures here can be downloaded and then uploaded/added to any of those VTT services.
Can you share more about what you want DDB/a digital online play experience to do for you? There are a variety of different approaches/needs/desires in that department, and I'm unclear about precisely what you are looking for.
I'm sorry I can't say more about AboveVTT or how it works: I've never tried it.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
Check your entitlements here. | Support Ticket LInk
ArwensDaughter, Thank you so much for your quick & informational reply! I guess what I am looking for is what a lot of people are looking for (more or less), which is to leverage current technology to approximate the pen & paper experience. My friends & family that I played with years ago are now spread across the country (literally every one of us lives in a different state now). I have tried actual video games like Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Solasta, etc. and although each was/is really good in its own way none of them came close to the pen & paper experience.
One of my friends has started playing D&D again via DnD Beyond and Zoom. They manually roll dice and use the Zoom whiteboard for maps. It's a technique, although I suspect not the most efficient and effective way to play D&D. I was thinking more along the lines of using DnD Beyond + a VTT of some sort to run a campaign, but that particular group doesn't want to use anything with any sort of learning curve. They just want to hop on Zoom & start playing. If I start playing with them I will push the idea of using maps (not just hand drawn maps on a whiteboard, which is what they do). Not sure if this answers your questions at all or just further muddies the waters.
Decubellis, Your answer does help. If you join this group as a player, you could definitely use DDB for your character sheet, even if none of the rest of the group uses DDB. Depending on what you play, you would probably need to purchase some items here to do so, but the nice thing is that you can purchase things a la carte, you don't have to purchase entire books to get the elements you need. (One exception is the optional class rules in Tasha's: for those you do have to purchase the entire book here)
In terms of maps, if that group were open to a VTT, Owlbear sounds like the best bet. Not much of a learning curve, especially not for the players. No app to download, not even a browser extension. It comes with some basic tokens that players can use, or folks can create their own and have the DM import them. There is a diceroller, which I've not used. My players do a mix of rolling with real dice and rolling on DDB. I typically roll on DDB, but occasionally use real dice (to check for random encounters, for example)
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
Check your entitlements here. | Support Ticket LInk
ddb for the characters and sometimes the encounters tool. the rest is on paper and playmats
i mean.... not like you can use it for anything else. it lacks proper features :p
Playing in 3 campaigns;
across all 3; Beyond for Character sheets, rules, items, spells, etc. (which are sort of the larger rules bucket)
campaign 1 (player), above vtt for maps, then moved to another software that escapes me for battle maps and encounters.
campaign 2 (player), we were using roll20, then moved to shard for almost everything, i keep beyond open on another pc for character reference and rules/sources quick lookup, but not needed, this is really a non Beyond game, I am just leaning on it for myself
campaign 3 (dm), Beyond for adventures, beyond for encounters, using very crude battle mats or not using them, so a total beyond game. could use above vtt if desired by group.
Game over man... Game over! -- Pvt. Hudson
Above VTT is exactly what you are looking for, I'm not sure what your expectations are though, but with ABOVE you can import maps etc directly from DnDBeyond. I'd recommend joining their Discord if you can't work it out, they have some very straight forward instructions on there
Imalius, Thanks I am starting to figure out how to import content from campaigns purchased on DnD Beyond. The YouTube videos that I found were generally unhelpful, as they were based on an older version of AboveVTT & they skipped some pretty important steps. It's still quite a bit more work than it should be to import content, but I can make it do what I need it to.