Hi! I am looking into playing D&D online! I'm relatively new to D&D (been reading source books and watching streams for about a year) but have no idea what I need to play online. I assume decent headphones with mic, and I have a dice bag that could be classified as a weapon. But I'm not sure about websites or applications, etc. Could you please leave suggestions of stuff that would be helpful for me to begin looking into online D&D?
I would recommend to start easy and not go overboard with technical solutions. You can always add complexity later.
Start with a simple video group call app like Zoom, Skype, or Discord. All you really need is to hear your group, but video is highly recommended, as it adds a personal touch.
Theatre of the mind works very well that way (meaning you use words to paint the scene and imagination to bring it to life).
As this forum is on DnDbeyond, use the website to create characters and add them to a campaign. You can either use the dice roller here, or roll actual dice and trust your players.
Once you feel you have a handle on the basics, add a virtual tabletop (VTT) if you like, there are several good options out there, which you can also integrate with DnDbeyond via for example the Beyond20 browser extension.
If you are a player, a mic/headset and camera is all you need, the DM will provide everything else.
Hopping on to a Zoom or Discord session to play a live game is a great option, but also "play by post" can be a fun way to play D&D that encourages a different sort of play. There are forums here on dndbeyond where people do play by post, but I've always preferred more specialized forums like Myth-Weavers for that, which allow a DM to create a dedicated sub-forum with multiple threads, advanced dice tools, etc.
If you do end up playing on Discord, your DM should help you and your group enable the Avrae bot to port info from dndbeyond character sheets and reference materials in with some very simple (but not always intuitive) chat commands. Avrae is great, letting you do stuff like pull up an ability from your character sheet for everyone to read at once with a quick command, rather than reading it out loud or everyone googling seperately to find it. Discord may have dice rolling functions without Avrae, I'm not sure, but being able to roll and have the dice pull your modifiers directly from your dndbeyond character sheet is great.
A lot of the virtual tabletop stuff, like Roll20, is stuff that your DM needs to worry about, not you as a player. It can add a lot to the tactical side of combat... but it can also be a big source of delay and immersion breaking, as the DM fumbles around with layers and light sources and tokens rather than just focusing on describing the action. I would say that as much as 5E as a rule system really benefits from having a battle map, I don't think VTT's are really intuitive/polished enough yet that using them should be considered "essential" to online play... the "Beyond20" browser extension does make Roll20 feel smoother though, by again pulling dndbeyond character sheets and reference info directly into Roll20, much like how Avrae pulls them into Discord. Technical stuff.
If you do end up playing with Roll20 or another VTT, pages like Token Stamp can help you and your DM make custom tokens easily.
You probably know about Hero Forge, but if not, great place to design custom miniatures... or even just create character portraits or token images using its newish screenshot tool. That, or just troll Pinterest for character concepts :)
No matter whether you're playing in person at a friend's house, with pick-up groups at a local game store, over a video app, or by play by post... ultimately D&D comes down to finding a community and a group that you "click" with. I'd encourage you to try a couple different formats, because D&D feels very different to me and scratches very different itches when I play in person, on a forum, or over Discord.
For DMing you're gonna need some basic resources such as the Dungeon Master's Guide & Player handbook which you can find online or buy. Options to play online include but are not limited to, Discord, Zoom, Teamspeak, etc. There are also programs/platforms where you can make mini battle sites/"battlefields" or adventure maps such as Roll20, Tabletop Simulator, etc. It really depends on what type of campaign you're trying to run and what your players own.
Secondly, here's some sites/programs you can use to make your campaign interesting.
When using sites/programs like Roll20 I highly suggest using Tokenstamp. Other useful Sites include Kassoon for battle maps/city locations, Azgaar's Map Generator for world maps, and Watabou for city creation. If you want to create images/miniatures for your characters I'd suggest just browsing the internet until you find something you'd like that would fit your character's persona.
For playing as a player it's easy actually just download a character sheet from DND Beyond or other sites and use a microphone. If you are playing with Cameras, use your webcam as well. D&D is an amazing game that you can use to explore your character and find new friends. I love it personally and playing online is definitely a way how to find new people you can befriend in the future! I hope this post helps you out!
I have created a character in dndbeyond and I want to start it from lvl 3. Specifically, it is a paladin and it is not under a campaign. I want to use dndbeyond to keep my character sheet for live sessions, not virtual gaming. keeping track of spellslots, hitpoints, etc is easy this way and want to avoid the write and erase on paper like we used to do.
However, when I go to choose an oath it has only 2 options and not all the options from the player's handbook. Do I need to purchase the phb in dndbeyond to "unlock" all the things that are in it for my character? do i need to subscribe as a player in the platform in order to do it? I am now using a free account.
I have created a character in dndbeyond and I want to start it from lvl 3. Specifically, it is a paladin and it is not under a campaign. I want to use dndbeyond to keep my character sheet for live sessions, not virtual gaming. keeping track of spellslots, hitpoints, etc is easy this way and want to avoid the write and erase on paper like we used to do.
However, when I go to choose an oath it has only 2 options and not all the options from the player's handbook. Do I need to purchase the phb in dndbeyond to "unlock" all the things that are in it for my character? do i need to subscribe as a player in the platform in order to do it? I am now using a free account.
Thanks
Nick_airman
First, I'd suggest making your own thread instead of bumping an old unrelated one. Second, yes, you do need to purchase the content you want to use on DnDBeyond. You can however only pick and choose what you want instead of purchasing the whole book if needed but the PHB is a must. Any purchases you make to specific book content will be credited to the full price of the book if you do decide to purchase it later on, so you're never penalized for not buying a whole book in one go.
I have created a character in dndbeyond and I want to start it from lvl 3. Specifically, it is a paladin and it is not under a campaign. I want to use dndbeyond to keep my character sheet for live sessions, not virtual gaming. keeping track of spellslots, hitpoints, etc is easy this way and want to avoid the write and erase on paper like we used to do.
However, when I go to choose an oath it has only 2 options and not all the options from the player's handbook. Do I need to purchase the phb in dndbeyond to "unlock" all the things that are in it for my character? do i need to subscribe as a player in the platform in order to do it? I am now using a free account.
Thanks
Nick_airman
First, I'd suggest making your own thread instead of bumping an old unrelated one. Second, yes, you do need to purchase the content you want to use on DnDBeyond. You can however only pick and choose what you want instead of purchasing the whole book if needed but the PHB is a must. Any purchases you make to specific book content will be credited to the full price of the book if you do decide to purchase it later on, so you're never penalized for not buying a whole book in one go.
Thank you for the reply and I apologize for the wrong thread. I am not sure how I can pick specific content without getting the full PHB. I will continue to go through the site and try to find this.
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Hi! I am looking into playing D&D online! I'm relatively new to D&D (been reading source books and watching streams for about a year) but have no idea what I need to play online. I assume decent headphones with mic, and I have a dice bag that could be classified as a weapon. But I'm not sure about websites or applications, etc. Could you please leave suggestions of stuff that would be helpful for me to begin looking into online D&D?
Thanks so much!
I assume you are DM'ing?
I would recommend to start easy and not go overboard with technical solutions. You can always add complexity later.
Start with a simple video group call app like Zoom, Skype, or Discord. All you really need is to hear your group, but video is highly recommended, as it adds a personal touch.
Theatre of the mind works very well that way (meaning you use words to paint the scene and imagination to bring it to life).
As this forum is on DnDbeyond, use the website to create characters and add them to a campaign. You can either use the dice roller here, or roll actual dice and trust your players.
Once you feel you have a handle on the basics, add a virtual tabletop (VTT) if you like, there are several good options out there, which you can also integrate with DnDbeyond via for example the Beyond20 browser extension.
If you are a player, a mic/headset and camera is all you need, the DM will provide everything else.
More Interesting Lock Picking Rules
Hopping on to a Zoom or Discord session to play a live game is a great option, but also "play by post" can be a fun way to play D&D that encourages a different sort of play. There are forums here on dndbeyond where people do play by post, but I've always preferred more specialized forums like Myth-Weavers for that, which allow a DM to create a dedicated sub-forum with multiple threads, advanced dice tools, etc.
If you do end up playing on Discord, your DM should help you and your group enable the Avrae bot to port info from dndbeyond character sheets and reference materials in with some very simple (but not always intuitive) chat commands. Avrae is great, letting you do stuff like pull up an ability from your character sheet for everyone to read at once with a quick command, rather than reading it out loud or everyone googling seperately to find it. Discord may have dice rolling functions without Avrae, I'm not sure, but being able to roll and have the dice pull your modifiers directly from your dndbeyond character sheet is great.
A lot of the virtual tabletop stuff, like Roll20, is stuff that your DM needs to worry about, not you as a player. It can add a lot to the tactical side of combat... but it can also be a big source of delay and immersion breaking, as the DM fumbles around with layers and light sources and tokens rather than just focusing on describing the action. I would say that as much as 5E as a rule system really benefits from having a battle map, I don't think VTT's are really intuitive/polished enough yet that using them should be considered "essential" to online play... the "Beyond20" browser extension does make Roll20 feel smoother though, by again pulling dndbeyond character sheets and reference info directly into Roll20, much like how Avrae pulls them into Discord. Technical stuff.
If you do end up playing with Roll20 or another VTT, pages like Token Stamp can help you and your DM make custom tokens easily.
You probably know about Hero Forge, but if not, great place to design custom miniatures... or even just create character portraits or token images using its newish screenshot tool. That, or just troll Pinterest for character concepts :)
No matter whether you're playing in person at a friend's house, with pick-up groups at a local game store, over a video app, or by play by post... ultimately D&D comes down to finding a community and a group that you "click" with. I'd encourage you to try a couple different formats, because D&D feels very different to me and scratches very different itches when I play in person, on a forum, or over Discord.
dndbeyond.com forum tags
I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
First off are you dming or are you a player?
For DMing you're gonna need some basic resources such as the Dungeon Master's Guide & Player handbook which you can find online or buy. Options to play online include but are not limited to, Discord, Zoom, Teamspeak, etc. There are also programs/platforms where you can make mini battle sites/"battlefields" or adventure maps such as Roll20, Tabletop Simulator, etc. It really depends on what type of campaign you're trying to run and what your players own.
Secondly, here's some sites/programs you can use to make your campaign interesting.
When using sites/programs like Roll20 I highly suggest using Tokenstamp. Other useful Sites include Kassoon for battle maps/city locations, Azgaar's Map Generator for world maps, and Watabou for city creation. If you want to create images/miniatures for your characters I'd suggest just browsing the internet until you find something you'd like that would fit your character's persona.
For playing as a player it's easy actually just download a character sheet from DND Beyond or other sites and use a microphone. If you are playing with Cameras, use your webcam as well. D&D is an amazing game that you can use to explore your character and find new friends. I love it personally and playing online is definitely a way how to find new people you can befriend in the future! I hope this post helps you out!
You must gather your party before venturing forth!
Hi guys
Not sure if this the right thread.
I have created a character in dndbeyond and I want to start it from lvl 3. Specifically, it is a paladin and it is not under a campaign. I want to use dndbeyond to keep my character sheet for live sessions, not virtual gaming. keeping track of spellslots, hitpoints, etc is easy this way and want to avoid the write and erase on paper like we used to do.
However, when I go to choose an oath it has only 2 options and not all the options from the player's handbook. Do I need to purchase the phb in dndbeyond to "unlock" all the things that are in it for my character? do i need to subscribe as a player in the platform in order to do it? I am now using a free account.
Thanks
Nick_airman
First, I'd suggest making your own thread instead of bumping an old unrelated one. Second, yes, you do need to purchase the content you want to use on DnDBeyond. You can however only pick and choose what you want instead of purchasing the whole book if needed but the PHB is a must. Any purchases you make to specific book content will be credited to the full price of the book if you do decide to purchase it later on, so you're never penalized for not buying a whole book in one go.
Thank you for the reply and I apologize for the wrong thread. I am not sure how I can pick specific content without getting the full PHB. I will continue to go through the site and try to find this.