I've been wondering about how other Dungeon Masters, be it new or older, have set up their playground. Both for themselves and the players. Do you still stick to the old ways and sit in your basement with candles lit for the party, or do you have a gaming room made for when your mates come over? This doesn't just have to be for D&D.
I've been thinking about pooling in money for cheap-ish tablets I can get my hands on so if I get around to DM'ing, I can just pass them on to the players and allow them to login to their Beyond accounts. Saves up table space for the snacks, dice rolling and less general dicking around with trying to find out where you put that magic item note.
Has anyone tried this kind of approach and failed or did it turn out better than expected?
My experience so far with using my phone as the character sheet for the purposes of playing has been mixed. We used my ipad as the battlemap that my current DM hosts through Roll20, then I join as a player so we can all see what's going on. It's a bit on the small-side but it works.
My only issue has been battery life and the possibility that Beyond goes down for maintenance or an issue occurs and my sheet isn't able to be seen. Or maybe the internet just shuts off in the household and we're having to sacrifice pizza to the Wifi deities. When it does work it's just such a breath of fresh air because the table is clear in front of me to roll my dice and jot down notes with enough arm space to write.
I can personally say that I wasn't interested in DnD at all until the digital versions of character sheets came into being. It takes most of the tiresome recordkeeping issues out of the game, and even the segments of that it can't remove, it streamlines (like spell text in another tab). No coloring in and erasing Spell Slots or Sorcery Points. No endlessly rewriting hitpoints. The ability to reset all of these things with the click of a Long Rest button.
That said, however, I don't have a tablet, so I have to use my laptop to do it. Mine is a 17"er, so it takes up a bit of room. But some people will have 15.6" or 14", maybe even the occasional 13". And using a computer can be an issue to reach the map, whether it be digital built into the table, or drawn on a dry-erase combat board, or finely handcrafted terrain with intricately painted miniatures. I usually have to fold the screen down almost closed to perform and observe any movement on the combat map. And while this is not a problem for me, internet access and a personal screen could be too tempting for some individuals who might pull up the stats from the Monster Manual. It's a risk that exists inherently in the thing, but I'd think that is generally a small risk. The bright side of using a laptop, instead of a tablet, is that you probably don't have to worry about battery life. Most laptops nowadays have a cord reach of 7+ feet, and a power outlet is rarely that far away in more recently constructed homes. Worst case scenario you use an extension cord power strip, and park it discreetly beneath the table for all to access.
I use wet-erase battle maps - when we get somewhere the PCs need to see the landscape or if combat erupts, I sketch out the area. We use real dice.
Otherwise? I DM from a browser window with tabs open for campaign notes hotlinked to monster stats on this site, random generators, lore wikis if I need it, etc.
I use wet-erase battle maps - when we get somewhere the PCs need to see the landscape or if combat erupts, I sketch out the area. We use real dice.
Otherwise? I DM from a browser window with tabs open for campaign notes hotlinked to monster stats on this site, random generators, lore wikis if I need it, etc.
I'm 100% paper and using wet-erase battle map as well, but have been exploring going digital, just trying to decide on what tool is right for me. Dabbling with Fantasy Grounds, D&D Beyond, World Anvil and Chronica so far. They all of course solve different problems, so I find none of them 'just right'.
Fantasy Grounds - great cross linking and automation features. Great for homebrew. Horrible UI (yes, even the new Unity buidl), requires a laptop at the table.
D&D Beyond - great character sheets and published adventure linking. Almost negligible campaign management, and no ability to customize adventures.
World Anvil - still dipping my toe into this one. Seems great for campaign document management, but is it really better than using OneNote or Evernote?
Chronica - more 'running the game' focused than world anvil, but some choices don't really align to how I'd like to run my game. Online map with tile reveals? City domains?
Obsidian Portal - I used this for years for the campaign adventure log. World Anvil seems to have surplanted it.
Erasable mats, good DM screen, paper for characters, etc. That was when we were all geographically close. My current group is spread out across multiple states so we are online. Some of the players are even in the same houses, but still on different computers.
Personally, I leave it up to my players to decide what format their character sheet takes.
I keep a OneNote notebook that I update between games. It's organised by areas divided into subzones, so I can just go to the page for the location they are in, which has everything of note about that area, and any updates from previous times the players visited, as well as the stat-blocks for any creatures in that zone copied and pasted. DnD Beyond is a great resource, but I find it too clumsy to use while DMing. OneNote and the hardcopy books is the way to go.
My battle map is a 3x4 foot piece of blank canvas that I drew a 1-inch grid on (160x240 feet with 5-foot squares). I put a clear sheet of hard plastic I got from a cheap plastic poster frame on top that I can draw on.
I use easy-wash crayons to draw out a dungeon between sessions, or I can fit a bunch of smaller encounters if I don't have a dungeon planned. Rinses off with water.
Eventually I'd like to get a wet-erase chessex mat, but they are pricey, and I have enough stuff to buy as a new DM already.
My games are old-school bone dumb. Casters can look up spells on phones before their turn. The rest is pencil/paper and notebook. We have minis, but only to represent who is in melee, who is near/close/far... but I don't do the chess-board combat. Well, that's not entirely true. Occasionally I'll draw out a battle map but that's for a major encounter that requires combat, and not very many of those as I just create a situation and let them decide how it unravels.
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...cryptographic randomness!
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I've been wondering about how other Dungeon Masters, be it new or older, have set up their playground. Both for themselves and the players. Do you still stick to the old ways and sit in your basement with candles lit for the party, or do you have a gaming room made for when your mates come over? This doesn't just have to be for D&D.
I've been thinking about pooling in money for cheap-ish tablets I can get my hands on so if I get around to DM'ing, I can just pass them on to the players and allow them to login to their Beyond accounts. Saves up table space for the snacks, dice rolling and less general dicking around with trying to find out where you put that magic item note.
Has anyone tried this kind of approach and failed or did it turn out better than expected?
My experience so far with using my phone as the character sheet for the purposes of playing has been mixed. We used my ipad as the battlemap that my current DM hosts through Roll20, then I join as a player so we can all see what's going on. It's a bit on the small-side but it works.
My only issue has been battery life and the possibility that Beyond goes down for maintenance or an issue occurs and my sheet isn't able to be seen. Or maybe the internet just shuts off in the household and we're having to sacrifice pizza to the Wifi deities. When it does work it's just such a breath of fresh air because the table is clear in front of me to roll my dice and jot down notes with enough arm space to write.
I can personally say that I wasn't interested in DnD at all until the digital versions of character sheets came into being. It takes most of the tiresome recordkeeping issues out of the game, and even the segments of that it can't remove, it streamlines (like spell text in another tab). No coloring in and erasing Spell Slots or Sorcery Points. No endlessly rewriting hitpoints. The ability to reset all of these things with the click of a Long Rest button.
That said, however, I don't have a tablet, so I have to use my laptop to do it. Mine is a 17"er, so it takes up a bit of room. But some people will have 15.6" or 14", maybe even the occasional 13". And using a computer can be an issue to reach the map, whether it be digital built into the table, or drawn on a dry-erase combat board, or finely handcrafted terrain with intricately painted miniatures. I usually have to fold the screen down almost closed to perform and observe any movement on the combat map. And while this is not a problem for me, internet access and a personal screen could be too tempting for some individuals who might pull up the stats from the Monster Manual. It's a risk that exists inherently in the thing, but I'd think that is generally a small risk. The bright side of using a laptop, instead of a tablet, is that you probably don't have to worry about battery life. Most laptops nowadays have a cord reach of 7+ feet, and a power outlet is rarely that far away in more recently constructed homes. Worst case scenario you use an extension cord power strip, and park it discreetly beneath the table for all to access.
We use a lot of tech at our table, but we all roll dice. To me, that is an indispensable part of the game.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
I use wet-erase battle maps - when we get somewhere the PCs need to see the landscape or if combat erupts, I sketch out the area. We use real dice.
Otherwise? I DM from a browser window with tabs open for campaign notes hotlinked to monster stats on this site, random generators, lore wikis if I need it, etc.
I'm 100% paper and using wet-erase battle map as well, but have been exploring going digital, just trying to decide on what tool is right for me. Dabbling with Fantasy Grounds, D&D Beyond, World Anvil and Chronica so far. They all of course solve different problems, so I find none of them 'just right'.
Erasable mats, good DM screen, paper for characters, etc. That was when we were all geographically close. My current group is spread out across multiple states so we are online. Some of the players are even in the same houses, but still on different computers.
Everyone is the main character of their story
My game is an online game, so that kind of necessitates one answer over the others, haha.
Personally, I leave it up to my players to decide what format their character sheet takes.
I keep a OneNote notebook that I update between games. It's organised by areas divided into subzones, so I can just go to the page for the location they are in, which has everything of note about that area, and any updates from previous times the players visited, as well as the stat-blocks for any creatures in that zone copied and pasted. DnD Beyond is a great resource, but I find it too clumsy to use while DMing. OneNote and the hardcopy books is the way to go.
My battle map is a 3x4 foot piece of blank canvas that I drew a 1-inch grid on (160x240 feet with 5-foot squares). I put a clear sheet of hard plastic I got from a cheap plastic poster frame on top that I can draw on.
I use easy-wash crayons to draw out a dungeon between sessions, or I can fit a bunch of smaller encounters if I don't have a dungeon planned. Rinses off with water.
Eventually I'd like to get a wet-erase chessex mat, but they are pricey, and I have enough stuff to buy as a new DM already.
My games are old-school bone dumb. Casters can look up spells on phones before their turn. The rest is pencil/paper and notebook.
We have minis, but only to represent who is in melee, who is near/close/far... but I don't do the chess-board combat. Well, that's not entirely true. Occasionally I'll draw out a battle map but that's for a major encounter that requires combat, and not very many of those as I just create a situation and let them decide how it unravels.
...cryptographic randomness!