Silly question here. I'm beginning the process of learning how to DM for my first campaign coming up, and I'm more of a computer guy while all my players are more tactile. Is it possible to run my campaign using D&D beyond (with all the awesome access to quick searches, cheat sheets online, maps, and [to me] faster and easier ways to track combat and stats -- while still letting my players use their "old school" sheets and books?
In other words, do I have to basically input their tactile info into my digital campaign to keep track? If so, how do you deal with discrepancies/etc? Or can I run the full campaign without player info on my computer end and just trust that they're keeping track of theirs?
Again, sorry if this has been covered, I couldn't find it -- and sorry for the basic question. Thank you all!
Player information is a version of what happened but not the version.
As the DM, you can go fully digital and keep great notes, etc., for your convenience and sanity. Any time a player's notes conflict with yours, you can stop, process the information, and decide which is best for the moment.
As far as player info goes, I review character sheets about once per year and trust my players to know their characters better than me. I also have them makee the characters on this site to keep that easy.
I say trust them. If you were running all paper, you'd have to do that.
If you're using the encounter builder, you want to make some dummy versions of their characters to make it easier to track stuff, but you don't need the details, just HP, AC, maybe a few other things. You may want to copy more stuff over so you can refer to the sheets, but the more you're copying, the more annoying it is to keep in sync.
Hi all!
Silly question here. I'm beginning the process of learning how to DM for my first campaign coming up, and I'm more of a computer guy while all my players are more tactile. Is it possible to run my campaign using D&D beyond (with all the awesome access to quick searches, cheat sheets online, maps, and [to me] faster and easier ways to track combat and stats -- while still letting my players use their "old school" sheets and books?
In other words, do I have to basically input their tactile info into my digital campaign to keep track? If so, how do you deal with discrepancies/etc? Or can I run the full campaign without player info on my computer end and just trust that they're keeping track of theirs?
Again, sorry if this has been covered, I couldn't find it -- and sorry for the basic question. Thank you all!
Player information is a version of what happened but not the version.
As the DM, you can go fully digital and keep great notes, etc., for your convenience and sanity. Any time a player's notes conflict with yours, you can stop, process the information, and decide which is best for the moment.
As far as player info goes, I review character sheets about once per year and trust my players to know their characters better than me. I also have them makee the characters on this site to keep that easy.
I say trust them. If you were running all paper, you'd have to do that.
If you're using the encounter builder, you want to make some dummy versions of their characters to make it easier to track stuff, but you don't need the details, just HP, AC, maybe a few other things. You may want to copy more stuff over so you can refer to the sheets, but the more you're copying, the more annoying it is to keep in sync.
You could also periodically just take a screenshot of their character sheets.
Thank you ALL! This is so helpful!