The only two things that a Master Tier subscription do is:
You have infinite character slots
You can share everything you have bought in the marketplace in the campaigns you are in
Other than the above, you do not get any functional change, meaning that everything else you see and can do without a subscription will remain the same. Now, the Master tier subscription is extremely interesting for the sharing function, especially for stable groups, but in general it is a nice thing to have. With it, you can share every bit of content you have unlocked via purchase in the marketplace with anyone that is in up to 3 campaign you are part of, either created by you or that you join as player.
Hope this helps in any way.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
My players love that I can grant them access to content I've purchased. Obviously they don't pay anything, but I have had several players buy stuff for me (miniatures, food, etc.) to pay me back.
I went for the Master Tier & Legendary Bundle when I decided to make the jump to 5e ( so I'm not duplicating purchases - I know many people are ), so my players are pretty happy about having access to all the WotC books. It's a benefit to me having my players all keep the "official" version of their character sheets on DnD Beyond, as I have full access to their current state, all the time - so I use the content access as the lure ;)
We're probably moving to just using the phone/tablet/app access to DnD beyond instead of printed character sheets, and the Compendium instead of the hardbacks.
That said, I think the toolset is in its infancy right now, and will be expanding - especially when they release the Web API.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I have some suggestions regarding DM tools and Character sheet PDFs.
Please post to let us know - the developer team really do pay attention to feedback and it helps form their decisions for the direction of the product.
With regards the character sheet & export to PDF, I'd hold off on giving feedback on that until the massive revamp is complete - there will be a brand new character sheet soon!
For me it has been ok and I do love the platform....
But it really does lack in campaign management and tools for the dungeon master. I really don't use my infinite character limit, it's nice but... I just keep deleting them since the UI gets to cluttered with +20 characters. There has been tons of improvements suggested in the Campaign Management thread.
My players love it and thanks to it I have a very easy way to introduce new people to D&D. The character creator really helps both new and experienced players.
What I like:
Having a compendium of all the adventures, monsters and quick reference saves some time.
Have high resolution versions of all the dungeon maps and player versions. Both can be downloaded and printed/projected to what ever battle-mat solution you have.
The character creator is good for current players and the help text really helps totally new players.
Great video content and article content on the site
I feel my players gets what they want out of the platform, easy character management and spell/feats/class ability lookup and thus removes a ton of work on their part.
The DM side only get the quick lookup of stuff but there is nothing really that removes some of the hassles of being a DM.
There is no rolling mechanic for generation something of various tables. Look at the ToA campaign and the traveling there is, it would be great with just a button that generates encounter+weather for that day with the right information, a pin where the players are on the map and what day it is. Each campaign should have a DM tool section that makes running that adventure more easy.
There is no compendium of tables or maps, I really want separate compendium pages of all the maps and tables I have bought from all sources.
There is no quick NPC generation for disposables
There is no combat tracker and management. Add conditions, damage and everything to the players and tracks initiative.
There is no adventure logbook except three very basic text windows.
Is it worth it? For us as a group - Yes
For me who pays for everything? - Yes and No But I believe in the Curse team and after the Character Sheet is done, let's get started on the advanced DM stuff!
Lazorne: Some good points and suggestions there. I agree that a) The DM tools are lacking on several points you've mentioned, and b) I too also hope/believe that the team is working on much of that.
As for NPCs - I find creating major NPCs is really a lot faster, as I just quickly whip up a PC character ( perhaps a few levels to one side of the party depending on what they're for ) quickly with the generator.
As for disposable NPCs - I use RPG Tinkerer. It helps that my "DM Screen" is a laptop, though.
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I will say that there was at least ONE feature I was surprised was missing: I have a campaign setting, but I can't pull up a campaign screen and see some relevant information about my party, like hit points and passive perception checks. This seems REALLY basic, and honestly I find the campaign section to be mostly useless at this point.
Other things I'd love to see: Encounter builder (another low hanging fruit) Initiative tracker
Ideally, I'd just like them to roll their own gaming environment, but I realize they have mostly partnered with third parties. I just don't relish buying access to materials a THIRD time, so having a D&D Beyond that provided me with the battle mapping, chat, and control features I need would be a better option, but that's likely never going to happen.
When it came out, I got the sub for 6 months to try things out. When my sub came up for renewal, I resubbed. Even with about half my players from two campaigns using it, the compendium sharing is, I think, worth it. It'd take 10 years of subbing to add up to the cost to buy a copy of PHB and Xanathar's for everyone at my table.
Sharing aside, I really do love how much being able to look things up in one location has streamlined my DM bag. I still keep the physical PHB around because not all my players game with a laptop or phone at the table, but other than that, I have so much more room for minis, dungeon tiles, maps, and so on
I will say that there was at least ONE feature I was surprised was missing: I have a campaign setting, but I can't pull up a campaign screen and see some relevant information about my party, like hit points and passive perception checks. This seems REALLY basic, and honestly I find the campaign section to be mostly useless at this point.
Other things I'd love to see: Encounter builder (another low hanging fruit) Initiative tracker
Ideally, I'd just like them to roll their own gaming environment, but I realize they have mostly partnered with third parties. I just don't relish buying access to materials a THIRD time, so having a D&D Beyond that provided me with the battle mapping, chat, and control features I need would be a better option, but that's likely never going to happen.
This has all been requested multiple time elsewhere so you're not alone. My understanding is encounter building and campaign mapping is on the long term roadmap, but don't expect it this year. Personally I find it great if you're running a WOTC published campaign, but not much good for homebrew campaign management (still useful for homebrew items, etc.) I believe they have no plans to create a VTT. AFAIK, DDB was never envisaged as that.
I'm on the fence to purchase. I run a single, homebrew campaign, I play in two others, and having a spot to create/host my content outside of Google Docs is what I'm waiting for. As a writer, I love Final Draft for that work away from the gaming table.. If Beyond had a similar tool to map story possibilities and line up NPC characters or organize by plot point/area.. THAT WOULD BE LEGIT. Gimme some tools beyond the forum board interface.
Everyone in my group has the books we need. No one is scared of paper & pen, so we march on.. offline.
Without doubt D&D beyond has made life as a DM so much easier. You can have everything you need at your finger tips. I run almost everything from a single device. I have access to my background music, notes, PC character sheets, etc with a simple swipe. The discount and the exclusive character sheet customs are a great bonus too.
I will say that I'm already finding the "can only share content with 3 campaigns" a little limiting. I DM'd a campaign, was part of another one, had a one-shot that was going to be a continuing story, and started DMing for a new group. I had to pull my sharing from one group to support another. That causes issues as the character sheets in that campaign lost their shared content and thus their character choices. You can of course export your character sheet before the content is pulled, but it doesn't help with continuing to play later.
If you have the Master Tier subscription and are in a DnDBeyond campaign with them with content sharing turned on, yes.
It's been extremely useful at my table- instead of waiting for players to wait between game sessions to access a physical copy of the books I've purchased to level up or look up ideas, they can do all this between sessions. Saves a lot of time when my RL game has only 3 hours to meet up, socialize, and play for the evening.
New character sheet? I love this one. I use it exclusively for the characters I run in two different campaigns, and I use it exclusively for all the characters in my campaign. I find it really speeds things up, makes it easy to look things up, and the click-ons and click-throughs are fantastic.
Not worth it in my opinion although $54 isn’t much for a year. Content sharing means they can see adventures you’ve purchased as well unless I’ve overlooked how to only share character options.
i subscribed on an impulse buy thinking all these issues were resolved, they aren’t and I’m regretting my master tier yearly purchase right now.
-The free version is nice to streamline character sheets, but if your players don't really understand the rules (which is totally understandable, especially for new players, considering how many rules there are) they might become so reliant on the digital sheet and dice rollers that they have no idea how the rules for their character actually work.
-Not only do you have to re-buy the books you may have already purchased [REDACTED], but if you do re-buy the non-physical, non-printable, weirdly-formatted, basically otherwise unusable versions of the books for [edit: the Amazon price] as the physical books, you can't make those options available to the rest of your group unless you shell out for the Master Tier. This means each PC has to buy whatever books (or stand-alone options) they need for their character, or one member has to be on Master Tier. If you have a stable group (especially one that is willing to help spread out costs), this could work fine, but if the group makeup changes it could be a huge pain, resulting in lots of repeat buying of imaginary digital books.
-Interface isn't great, and big chunks of the site are still in freaking beta, but you still pay for them.
-They haven't even integrated all of the tools, rules and mechanics players need yet, but we're supposed to hope they're coming at some point (ex. Sidekick rules, single-view party tracker, campaign planning tools).
My party uses it, and most of the PCs love it (largely for the search bar), and that's swell. A couple members have paid for Master Tier, so we can share the different books that several of us have purchased, but as soon as someone leaves, it'll be all messed up. I'm fine with paying for standalone content, I'm fine with paying for subscriptions to databases, and I'm fine with paying for ease and utility: It's just annoying how DnDB stacks all of these to nickel-and-dime you and maximize the liklihood of reduntant purchases. All in all, I think it could be designed, priced, and organized much better than it is, but at this point it's all we got.
Considering getting a subscription (Master Level) for a new game.
Asking the DMs, is it worth it?
Is it customizable?
Does it help in having character stats at a glance? Monsters? Plot hooks? Maps and Adventures?
Pros?
Cons?
Any info is helpful, thanks.
Also, if this is available in another thread, please point me there!
Thanks
Playing/DMing since the early 80s
Hi tweber2323! o/ welcome to the forums
The only two things that a Master Tier subscription do is:
Other than the above, you do not get any functional change, meaning that everything else you see and can do without a subscription will remain the same.
Now, the Master tier subscription is extremely interesting for the sharing function, especially for stable groups, but in general it is a nice thing to have. With it, you can share every bit of content you have unlocked via purchase in the marketplace with anyone that is in up to 3 campaign you are part of, either created by you or that you join as player.
Hope this helps in any way.
Born in Italy, moved a bunch, living in Spain, my heart always belonged to Roleplaying Games
My players love that I can grant them access to content I've purchased. Obviously they don't pay anything, but I have had several players buy stuff for me (miniatures, food, etc.) to pay me back.
Same here.
I went for the Master Tier & Legendary Bundle when I decided to make the jump to 5e ( so I'm not duplicating purchases - I know many people are ), so my players are pretty happy about having access to all the WotC books. It's a benefit to me having my players all keep the "official" version of their character sheets on DnD Beyond, as I have full access to their current state, all the time - so I use the content access as the lure ;)
We're probably moving to just using the phone/tablet/app access to DnD beyond instead of printed character sheets, and the Compendium instead of the hardbacks.
That said, I think the toolset is in its infancy right now, and will be expanding - especially when they release the Web API.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
Thanks to all who replied. I think I will subscribe and get the rulebooks to share. I am sure my players will help with the $$.
I hope they do expand. I have some suggestions regarding DM tools and Character sheet PDFs.
Playing/DMing since the early 80s
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For me it has been ok and I do love the platform....
But it really does lack in campaign management and tools for the dungeon master. I really don't use my infinite character limit, it's nice but... I just keep deleting them since the UI gets to cluttered with +20 characters. There has been tons of improvements suggested in the Campaign Management thread.
My players love it and thanks to it I have a very easy way to introduce new people to D&D. The character creator really helps both new and experienced players.
What I like:
I feel my players gets what they want out of the platform, easy character management and spell/feats/class ability lookup and thus removes a ton of work on their part.
The DM side only get the quick lookup of stuff but there is nothing really that removes some of the hassles of being a DM.
Is it worth it? For us as a group - Yes
For me who pays for everything? - Yes and No
But I believe in the Curse team and after the Character Sheet is done, let's get started on the advanced DM stuff!
Lazorne: Some good points and suggestions there. I agree that a) The DM tools are lacking on several points you've mentioned, and b) I too also hope/believe that the team is working on much of that.
As for NPCs - I find creating major NPCs is really a lot faster, as I just quickly whip up a PC character ( perhaps a few levels to one side of the party depending on what they're for ) quickly with the generator.
As for disposable NPCs - I use RPG Tinkerer. It helps that my "DM Screen" is a laptop, though.
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
I will say that there was at least ONE feature I was surprised was missing: I have a campaign setting, but I can't pull up a campaign screen and see some relevant information about my party, like hit points and passive perception checks. This seems REALLY basic, and honestly I find the campaign section to be mostly useless at this point.
Other things I'd love to see:
Encounter builder (another low hanging fruit)
Initiative tracker
Ideally, I'd just like them to roll their own gaming environment, but I realize they have mostly partnered with third parties. I just don't relish buying access to materials a THIRD time, so having a D&D Beyond that provided me with the battle mapping, chat, and control features I need would be a better option, but that's likely never going to happen.
When it came out, I got the sub for 6 months to try things out. When my sub came up for renewal, I resubbed. Even with about half my players from two campaigns using it, the compendium sharing is, I think, worth it. It'd take 10 years of subbing to add up to the cost to buy a copy of PHB and Xanathar's for everyone at my table.
Sharing aside, I really do love how much being able to look things up in one location has streamlined my DM bag. I still keep the physical PHB around because not all my players game with a laptop or phone at the table, but other than that, I have so much more room for minis, dungeon tiles, maps, and so on
I'm on the fence to purchase. I run a single, homebrew campaign, I play in two others, and having a spot to create/host my content outside of Google Docs is what I'm waiting for. As a writer, I love Final Draft for that work away from the gaming table.. If Beyond had a similar tool to map story possibilities and line up NPC characters or organize by plot point/area.. THAT WOULD BE LEGIT. Gimme some tools beyond the forum board interface.
Everyone in my group has the books we need. No one is scared of paper & pen, so we march on.. offline.
Without doubt D&D beyond has made life as a DM so much easier. You can have everything you need at your finger tips. I run almost everything from a single device. I have access to my background music, notes, PC character sheets, etc with a simple swipe. The discount and the exclusive character sheet customs are a great bonus too.
I will say that I'm already finding the "can only share content with 3 campaigns" a little limiting. I DM'd a campaign, was part of another one, had a one-shot that was going to be a continuing story, and started DMing for a new group. I had to pull my sharing from one group to support another. That causes issues as the character sheets in that campaign lost their shared content and thus their character choices. You can of course export your character sheet before the content is pulled, but it doesn't help with continuing to play later.
Can players using the free account see content that you purchased?
If you have the Master Tier subscription and are in a DnDBeyond campaign with them with content sharing turned on, yes.
It's been extremely useful at my table- instead of waiting for players to wait between game sessions to access a physical copy of the books I've purchased to level up or look up ideas, they can do all this between sessions. Saves a lot of time when my RL game has only 3 hours to meet up, socialize, and play for the evening.
Thank you very much :)
New character sheet? I love this one. I use it exclusively for the characters I run in two different campaigns, and I use it exclusively for all the characters in my campaign. I find it really speeds things up, makes it easy to look things up, and the click-ons and click-throughs are fantastic.
Don't mess it up!
Gray Mouser
Not worth it in my opinion although $54 isn’t much for a year. Content sharing means they can see adventures you’ve purchased as well unless I’ve overlooked how to only share character options.
i subscribed on an impulse buy thinking all these issues were resolved, they aren’t and I’m regretting my master tier yearly purchase right now.
Is it worth it? Barely.
-The free version is nice to streamline character sheets, but if your players don't really understand the rules (which is totally understandable, especially for new players, considering how many rules there are) they might become so reliant on the digital sheet and dice rollers that they have no idea how the rules for their character actually work.
-Not only do you have to re-buy the books you may have already purchased [REDACTED], but if you do re-buy the non-physical, non-printable, weirdly-formatted, basically otherwise unusable versions of the books for [edit: the Amazon price] as the physical books, you can't make those options available to the rest of your group unless you shell out for the Master Tier. This means each PC has to buy whatever books (or stand-alone options) they need for their character, or one member has to be on Master Tier. If you have a stable group (especially one that is willing to help spread out costs), this could work fine, but if the group makeup changes it could be a huge pain, resulting in lots of repeat buying of imaginary digital books.
-Interface isn't great, and big chunks of the site are still in freaking beta, but you still pay for them.
-They haven't even integrated all of the tools, rules and mechanics players need yet, but we're supposed to hope they're coming at some point (ex. Sidekick rules, single-view party tracker, campaign planning tools).
My party uses it, and most of the PCs love it (largely for the search bar), and that's swell. A couple members have paid for Master Tier, so we can share the different books that several of us have purchased, but as soon as someone leaves, it'll be all messed up. I'm fine with paying for standalone content, I'm fine with paying for subscriptions to databases, and I'm fine with paying for ease and utility: It's just annoying how DnDB stacks all of these to nickel-and-dime you and maximize the liklihood of reduntant purchases. All in all, I think it could be designed, priced, and organized much better than it is, but at this point it's all we got.