There are a lot of great uses for DnD Beyond for both players and DMs, but I wonder how you other DMs plan on deal with (or have already dealt with) spoilers.
For example, I'd love my group's wizard to be able to quickly look up the effects of burning hands, or the druid to see if he can transform into a brown bear at level 2. However, my worry is when it comes to monsters. I know my group, and they'll jump at the chance to look up the stat block for a monster they're facing. That makes it harder for me to make adjustments to difficulty to better match the current circumstances. Like, if I want to give a goblin a little goose to the HP to make a moment more interesting, or if I want to nerf a werewolf to make an encounter more competitive.
Do I just embrace this as DDB being much more good than bad, or is there another solution? I'm sure this will be made more clear once it launches officially this summer, but I'm about to start a campaign this week and I think they'd really love the efficiency of DDB.
I share some of your concerns, @Nayt88. As far as I know none of my players have joined DDB; but I'm encouraging them to do so. It's a handy resource. Remember, IIRC, only the SRD content is going to be free. There's a good chance you'll have monsters, or other items, not readily available.
As for monsters, I would advise: consult the DMG regarding adjusting a monster's CR. I don't remember the page(s) off-hand, but it might help you tweak your goblin enough to add a twist to the encounter. Even if you're not using CRs to help shape your encounters, I feel there's some information to help you gauge if the tweaks go too far, or not far enough.
Again just because it is written does not make it so...if they get a surprise encounter which does not go well because the goblin is different - tough on them for trying to game the system.
Before your next session just lay out what you consider to be approved uses of the site and then ask them to honor not using it for anything else. Make it clear that looking up a monster's stats here is akin to telling a lie about a dice roll. It steals the fun from everyone.
Follow that by saying that you take the liberty to change monster stats as needed to keep things interesting and looking at DDB may not be all that informative anyway.
I share some of your concerns, @Nayt88. As far as I know none of my players have joined DDB; but I'm encouraging them to do so. It's a handy resource. Remember, IIRC, only the SRD content is going to be free. There's a good chance you'll have monsters, or other items, not readily available.
As for monsters, I would advise: consult the DMG regarding adjusting a monster's CR. I don't remember the page(s) off-hand, but it might help you tweak your goblin enough to add a twist to the encounter. Even if you're not using CRs to help shape your encounters, I feel there's some information to help you gauge if the tweaks go too far, or not far enough.
HTH.
However, if they are linked to a DM account, they will have access to anything the DM account has access to.
With that being said, I would suggest only allowing access to electronic devices during specific times. Laying out some ground rules regarding the use of DDB during actual gameplay could go a long way.
Probably your player will know life and death of the most common monsters. But that's all right. For not-so-common monster, try to give only a vague description at the beginning of the encounter, without saying what the monster is actually.
I share some of your concerns, @Nayt88. As far as I know none of my players have joined DDB; but I'm encouraging them to do so. It's a handy resource. Remember, IIRC, only the SRD content is going to be free. There's a good chance you'll have monsters, or other items, not readily available.
As for monsters, I would advise: consult the DMG regarding adjusting a monster's CR. I don't remember the page(s) off-hand, but it might help you tweak your goblin enough to add a twist to the encounter. Even if you're not using CRs to help shape your encounters, I feel there's some information to help you gauge if the tweaks go too far, or not far enough.
HTH.
However, if they are linked to a DM account, they will have access to anything the DM account has access to.
With that being said, I would suggest only allowing access to electronic devices during specific times. Laying out some ground rules regarding the use of DDB during actual gameplay could go a long way.
Thanks everyone. Session Zero is tomorrow night, and these are all good, common sense suggestions. I definitely think the benefits of DDB - even in Beta phase 1 - outweigh concerns like this. I think they will appreciate easy access to info, but I will definitely be setting expectations about the possibility of inaccurate monster stats as a result of our group's specific circumstances.
I'll be advising them to join, and to keep their digital thumb on their class section, the combat section, and the spell section (for the magic-users). I think it should go far in helping them quickly have access to what they need to do and when, and also to help them remember some of the class-specific benefits they get, like cunning action and arcane recovery.
Since the people I play with/have run games for have all pretty much played d&d for a long time, they generally know the monsters, plus many of the players already DM also, so they are familiar with monsters.
If it becomes a real issue, you can always ask your player why the do "x" action. But its hard to keep spoilers out of the PCs hands when they can buy a Monster Manual. Only difference is that you can tell they are looking up the monster in the monster manual...you can't really tell if its in their phone.
Looking up the stats for the monster you're fighting, while you're fighting it (or about to fight it), without your DM's consent, is called cheating. It's bad sportsmanship at the very least.
And if your players are going to argue with you about whether or not your monsters are canon... Ugh. Just don't. Find some cooler people to hang out with.
There are a lot of great uses for DnD Beyond for both players and DMs, but I wonder how you other DMs plan on deal with (or have already dealt with) spoilers.
For example, I'd love my group's wizard to be able to quickly look up the effects of burning hands, or the druid to see if he can transform into a brown bear at level 2. However, my worry is when it comes to monsters. I know my group, and they'll jump at the chance to look up the stat block for a monster they're facing. That makes it harder for me to make adjustments to difficulty to better match the current circumstances. Like, if I want to give a goblin a little goose to the HP to make a moment more interesting, or if I want to nerf a werewolf to make an encounter more competitive.
Do I just embrace this as DDB being much more good than bad, or is there another solution? I'm sure this will be made more clear once it launches officially this summer, but I'm about to start a campaign this week and I think they'd really love the efficiency of DDB.
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
I share some of your concerns, @Nayt88. As far as I know none of my players have joined DDB; but I'm encouraging them to do so. It's a handy resource. Remember, IIRC, only the SRD content is going to be free. There's a good chance you'll have monsters, or other items, not readily available.
As for monsters, I would advise: consult the DMG regarding adjusting a monster's CR. I don't remember the page(s) off-hand, but it might help you tweak your goblin enough to add a twist to the encounter. Even if you're not using CRs to help shape your encounters, I feel there's some information to help you gauge if the tweaks go too far, or not far enough.
HTH.
I wear pants, short pants.
I also ask a lot of questions; insatiably curious
Again just because it is written does not make it so...if they get a surprise encounter which does not go well because the goblin is different - tough on them for trying to game the system.
I've seen things you people wouldn't believe....
Before your next session just lay out what you consider to be approved uses of the site and then ask them to honor not using it for anything else. Make it clear that looking up a monster's stats here is akin to telling a lie about a dice roll. It steals the fun from everyone.
Follow that by saying that you take the liberty to change monster stats as needed to keep things interesting and looking at DDB may not be all that informative anyway.
After that just relax and don't stress too much.
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Probably your player will know life and death of the most common monsters. But that's all right. For not-so-common monster, try to give only a vague description at the beginning of the encounter, without saying what the monster is actually.
I wear pants, short pants.
I also ask a lot of questions; insatiably curious
Thanks everyone. Session Zero is tomorrow night, and these are all good, common sense suggestions. I definitely think the benefits of DDB - even in Beta phase 1 - outweigh concerns like this. I think they will appreciate easy access to info, but I will definitely be setting expectations about the possibility of inaccurate monster stats as a result of our group's specific circumstances.
I'll be advising them to join, and to keep their digital thumb on their class section, the combat section, and the spell section (for the magic-users). I think it should go far in helping them quickly have access to what they need to do and when, and also to help them remember some of the class-specific benefits they get, like cunning action and arcane recovery.
edit: removed bad tooltip tags
Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.
Since the people I play with/have run games for have all pretty much played d&d for a long time, they generally know the monsters, plus many of the players already DM also, so they are familiar with monsters.
If it becomes a real issue, you can always ask your player why the do "x" action. But its hard to keep spoilers out of the PCs hands when they can buy a Monster Manual. Only difference is that you can tell they are looking up the monster in the monster manual...you can't really tell if its in their phone.
Looking up the stats for the monster you're fighting, while you're fighting it (or about to fight it), without your DM's consent, is called cheating. It's bad sportsmanship at the very least.
And if your players are going to argue with you about whether or not your monsters are canon... Ugh. Just don't. Find some cooler people to hang out with.
https://dreadweasel.blogspot.com/