I recently started with dungeons and dragons and am running a game digitally on roll20. I currently am importing my materials from DND beyond because I got access to the digital content when I purchased the essentials kit from Amazon. I like the layout and formatting DND beyond does with the story. Is it worth it to buy the adventures on roll20 to save time with game setup? Is the story information layed out in an easy to follow manner like DND beyond? Do the other books come with the digital access that the essentials kit does? I'm just looking for advice and maybe some of your best practices. I plan on playing primarily online. Are there other sites outside of roll20 that are better? I know it's a lot of questions and thank you in advance for any suggestions and advice.
One of the things I l0voe about adventures I bought on DnDBeyond is that I can open dufferent sections in different tabs. Not somethign you can do with a pdf or a actual, physical book. It has made my life so much easier and less frustrating. If you have run an actual hardcover module from WotC, you know that you have to have the module bookmarked six way to Sunday and usually have a similar issue with the monster manual.
At least with a pdf you can print out and/or extract sections of it to make access to the various parts less frustrating. Compared to modules of old, the new modules are the least well designed, and most frustrating things it has ever been my misfortune to use.
Since discovering DnDBeyond, I have stopped buying the hard-covered books. I bought Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus here and a buddy gave me a hard cover version. Except for a few glanced at it when I didn't have my tablet handy, I've never opened the book.
My only wish is that DnDBeyond included page number that matched the hard covered versions to make referenced for my players who use hard cover PHB and DMG's easier for them to reference.
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Watch your back, conserve your ammo, and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
Not a fan of digital content myself. I personally prefer to have the actual books. Yeah it is faster to look up stuff with the digital version but if you bookmark and make plenty of notes looking stuff up with the hardcovers is not to bad. My issue with the digital books is that, well... What if your internet drops during a game or while you are working on prep. Also you are bound to that terms of service when using the digital content. Really you are purchasing the rights to use the book. That is much different then actually having the book. Now digital content is very much more convenient. Hell you dont need to lug around a bunch of books if you travel to your game sessions. I just dont like having my nads put in a terms of service agreement. Another thing to consider is what happens when a new edition comes out? All that content you purchased digitally will most likely be removed in favor of the new system. So, what happens if you and your group dont want to move to another system? You will have no choice but to without actual books. Well unless you just happen to torrent some PDFs which is illegal. With a new system you will need to purchase the content all over again but the difference is that you will still have the old content with the actual books. Where when it comes to digital content as a service you purchased you will be starting all over and have none of the previous edition to go back to or even reference if you want.
Honestly, if for some reason we knew the content here would be going away, all you have to do is go through the sourcebooks and hit "print to pdf" for each chapter. Is that a pain? Sure. Would it work to preserve the content if 5e goes away? Yup.
Also, I'm not sure how DDB's terms of service agreement is much different - functionally speaking - than copyright laws already covering all the printed material.
I'm a fairly new DM, but running the adventure digitally where you can just pop open a tab for each monster statblock you need, quick lookup any spells/rules you need to reference, etc... It's way more efficient for running a session.
As far as "what if your internet drops?" I store my notes in Google drive. I can get to everything even on my phone if I want, without wifi. If things are bad enough that even cellular data goes out, it probably warrants stopping the session to find out what's going on. :)
I guess im still old school (running games since the 80s) with how I like to play. To be fair though back when I was playing 4e and had online access to the material along with having the actual books, the difference between how efficient digital content was very minor. You just need to take your notes. To each there own I guess. Personally I prefer to handle a book. Sadly there will be a time when the content will only be offered in digital format. I would like to think that it will not be anytime soon, but I have no doubt it will happen. One thing I do not like about D&D beyond for example is the lack of other published content. Some of it is offered in digital format through a different website and some is not. Again this is just me, but I would not like to have the core rules digitally and then have a bunch of different published books not offered in digital format. It just feels incomplete. In the end I still see to many issues with digital convenience. Its still rights vs. ownership. They can cancel your account for whatever reason they want if they deem the reason is just. Sure, its unlikely but it happens. They cannot however come to your house and take the books from you. Its just not going to happen. In the end I feel like im just throwing my money away when I purchase books in a digital format.
I recently started with dungeons and dragons and am running a game digitally on roll20. I currently am importing my materials from DND beyond because I got access to the digital content when I purchased the essentials kit from Amazon. I like the layout and formatting DND beyond does with the story. Is it worth it to buy the adventures on roll20 to save time with game setup? Is the story information layed out in an easy to follow manner like DND beyond? Do the other books come with the digital access that the essentials kit does? I'm just looking for advice and maybe some of your best practices. I plan on playing primarily online. Are there other sites outside of roll20 that are better? I know it's a lot of questions and thank you in advance for any suggestions and advice.
Is it worth it to buy them on Roll20 to save time? Possibly, if it a map heavy adventure and you are using dynamic lighting. When you buy them on Roll20, the dynamic lighting is already set up on the map, which can save time. How much time? Depends on how familiar you are with Roll20 and how many/how big the maps are.
Is the story layed out in an easy to follow manner on Roll20? In a word, no.
Are there codes in other books? For now, there are just codes in the starter set and essentials kit. Not sure if they are planning on adding them to books, but I personally am going to assume no. (There are a lot of other forums on this site that talk about it at length if you want to read all the guesswork about it.)
Other online sites? Yes, there are others. The main two are Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. You can find a lot of cost comparisons between those two, as well as recommendations and experiences. I only have experience using Roll20 and Maptool to host online games. I have two online games and a couple in-person ones. I also use both programs to show the maps and handouts digitally on a TV in the middle of the table.
What I do/have done: I have the legendary bundle, and have purchased all recent content digitally here on DnDBeyond. I mainly only played in person games, but over the past year started playing online. Since I already had the digital content here, I used the free Roll20 at first for one, and Maptool/Discord for the other. Recently decided to do Pro Roll20 bc I wanted dynamic lighting and other features. I bought one adventure on Roll20 just to see what it got me, was not impressed. Like I said, map setup is the only real benefit, and I've gotten to the point where I can fully setup a map in about 15-20 minutes, so not worth the extra cost for me.
Hello!
I recently started with dungeons and dragons and am running a game digitally on roll20. I currently am importing my materials from DND beyond because I got access to the digital content when I purchased the essentials kit from Amazon. I like the layout and formatting DND beyond does with the story. Is it worth it to buy the adventures on roll20 to save time with game setup? Is the story information layed out in an easy to follow manner like DND beyond? Do the other books come with the digital access that the essentials kit does? I'm just looking for advice and maybe some of your best practices. I plan on playing primarily online. Are there other sites outside of roll20 that are better? I know it's a lot of questions and thank you in advance for any suggestions and advice.
One of the things I l0voe about adventures I bought on DnDBeyond is that I can open dufferent sections in different tabs. Not somethign you can do with a pdf or a actual, physical book. It has made my life so much easier and less frustrating. If you have run an actual hardcover module from WotC, you know that you have to have the module bookmarked six way to Sunday and usually have a similar issue with the monster manual.
At least with a pdf you can print out and/or extract sections of it to make access to the various parts less frustrating. Compared to modules of old, the new modules are the least well designed, and most frustrating things it has ever been my misfortune to use.
Since discovering DnDBeyond, I have stopped buying the hard-covered books. I bought Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus here and a buddy gave me a hard cover version. Except for a few glanced at it when I didn't have my tablet handy, I've never opened the book.
My only wish is that DnDBeyond included page number that matched the hard covered versions to make referenced for my players who use hard cover PHB and DMG's easier for them to reference.
Watch your back, conserve your ammo,
and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
Not a fan of digital content myself. I personally prefer to have the actual books. Yeah it is faster to look up stuff with the digital version but if you bookmark and make plenty of notes looking stuff up with the hardcovers is not to bad. My issue with the digital books is that, well... What if your internet drops during a game or while you are working on prep. Also you are bound to that terms of service when using the digital content. Really you are purchasing the rights to use the book. That is much different then actually having the book. Now digital content is very much more convenient. Hell you dont need to lug around a bunch of books if you travel to your game sessions. I just dont like having my nads put in a terms of service agreement. Another thing to consider is what happens when a new edition comes out? All that content you purchased digitally will most likely be removed in favor of the new system. So, what happens if you and your group dont want to move to another system? You will have no choice but to without actual books. Well unless you just happen to torrent some PDFs which is illegal. With a new system you will need to purchase the content all over again but the difference is that you will still have the old content with the actual books. Where when it comes to digital content as a service you purchased you will be starting all over and have none of the previous edition to go back to or even reference if you want.
Honestly, if for some reason we knew the content here would be going away, all you have to do is go through the sourcebooks and hit "print to pdf" for each chapter. Is that a pain? Sure. Would it work to preserve the content if 5e goes away? Yup.
Also, I'm not sure how DDB's terms of service agreement is much different - functionally speaking - than copyright laws already covering all the printed material.
I'm a fairly new DM, but running the adventure digitally where you can just pop open a tab for each monster statblock you need, quick lookup any spells/rules you need to reference, etc... It's way more efficient for running a session.
As far as "what if your internet drops?" I store my notes in Google drive. I can get to everything even on my phone if I want, without wifi. If things are bad enough that even cellular data goes out, it probably warrants stopping the session to find out what's going on. :)
Also, if you have a iPad or Android tablet, you can use the compendium app and access all your books offline.
Watch your back, conserve your ammo,
and NEVER cut a deal with a dragon!
I guess im still old school (running games since the 80s) with how I like to play. To be fair though back when I was playing 4e and had online access to the material along with having the actual books, the difference between how efficient digital content was very minor. You just need to take your notes. To each there own I guess. Personally I prefer to handle a book. Sadly there will be a time when the content will only be offered in digital format. I would like to think that it will not be anytime soon, but I have no doubt it will happen. One thing I do not like about D&D beyond for example is the lack of other published content. Some of it is offered in digital format through a different website and some is not. Again this is just me, but I would not like to have the core rules digitally and then have a bunch of different published books not offered in digital format. It just feels incomplete. In the end I still see to many issues with digital convenience. Its still rights vs. ownership. They can cancel your account for whatever reason they want if they deem the reason is just. Sure, its unlikely but it happens. They cannot however come to your house and take the books from you. Its just not going to happen. In the end I feel like im just throwing my money away when I purchase books in a digital format.
Is it worth it to buy them on Roll20 to save time? Possibly, if it a map heavy adventure and you are using dynamic lighting. When you buy them on Roll20, the dynamic lighting is already set up on the map, which can save time. How much time? Depends on how familiar you are with Roll20 and how many/how big the maps are.
Is the story layed out in an easy to follow manner on Roll20? In a word, no.
Are there codes in other books? For now, there are just codes in the starter set and essentials kit. Not sure if they are planning on adding them to books, but I personally am going to assume no. (There are a lot of other forums on this site that talk about it at length if you want to read all the guesswork about it.)
Other online sites? Yes, there are others. The main two are Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. You can find a lot of cost comparisons between those two, as well as recommendations and experiences. I only have experience using Roll20 and Maptool to host online games. I have two online games and a couple in-person ones. I also use both programs to show the maps and handouts digitally on a TV in the middle of the table.
What I do/have done: I have the legendary bundle, and have purchased all recent content digitally here on DnDBeyond. I mainly only played in person games, but over the past year started playing online. Since I already had the digital content here, I used the free Roll20 at first for one, and Maptool/Discord for the other. Recently decided to do Pro Roll20 bc I wanted dynamic lighting and other features. I bought one adventure on Roll20 just to see what it got me, was not impressed. Like I said, map setup is the only real benefit, and I've gotten to the point where I can fully setup a map in about 15-20 minutes, so not worth the extra cost for me.
Thank you!
Thank you!
Thank you!