Hi,

Full disclosure, I have never run a published Hardcover of any kind, and I’m looking for the easiest way to do so

For the experiences HC DMs out there, do you find DnD beyond easier than physical books?

im really torn, as I have the majority of the resources books on dnd beyond, and think it works a charm for character management, and the compendium is incredible

However, does this translate well to adventures? I understand that due to the various rules, there’s limited screen caps available of the adventures. If you are reading it, I’m guessing inkeeping with the rest of the site, if there’s a spell/monster referenced, you can click it to read more about them, but is this also available for the NPC’s within the books? Or if you’re in a dungeon and a door leads to a library, can you click on the library to take you to the entry for the library?

With the paper books, I know I can dog ear pages, or I can put little post it’s on the page, to tell me where to find something, or to see notes I may have. Is there any notes function in the adventures?

Based on the currency rate, the digital copy will be about half the cost, but if it’s particularly difficult to work with, I’m happy to pay for the paper, especially given that I’ll be reading this for hours on end for upwards of 6 months

Can anyone help to shed some light on your insights into Paper vs Digital for adventures?

Thanks!

I have never used the adventures because I do not DM and so this post of mine probably won't be helpful. I do imagine a lot of links are available and but I do not know about NPCs. I do know, however, there's a Chrome extension that improves the functionality of the D&D Beyond in some area like adventures and should have "click area of map to go there" stuff. This is only from snippets I've heard (read) from others and not something I have experienced myself. Still, may be worth looking into?

Dunno if this was helpful at all but worth a shot.

I have found it much easier to DM with D&D Beyond. You will have like 6 tabs open, one for monsters, one for searching one for rules, etc. But you can see the character sheets, find things MUCH faster, and it was so easier to schlep my laptop to a game than my box full of books.

I read the modules using the app on my iPad. it looks more like a book and I can be relaxed on my couch reading. But the laptop was the easiest to use during the game.

The other fun thing is because everyone at my table has their tablet/mobile phone/laptop, you can send maps and things through Discord and they can all see them.

The thing that surprised me the most was that we had very few times that people were busy on their device instead of paying attention to the game.

I mostly use the mobile capabilities, web and compendium app. The adventures are super easy to navigate. It's just a matter of scrolling, and most of the chapters or sections of an adventure are given their own link, (no spoilers) so you don't have to wade through the entire book just to see what's in that one cave from the place. You can just click the sub header and bam, you're there.

Hope this helps. Cannot recommend this enough.

I DM with DDB exclusively now because of several reasons, not the least of which is that referencing a dozen books at the table, sometimes simultaneously, is a pain. That's not to say that DM'ing with DDB doesn't have its own challenges –the site is not very well set up for DM'ing– but it's most definitely a lot easier than having the physical books. A few things that I have found help quite a lot are the Beyond Help and the Image Autosizer Chrome extensions, and running the game using a Macbook Pro due to the functionality of the Mission Control feature.

With this setup I tend to have roughly twenty-odd tabs open across three separate Chrome windows, dividing each window into themed groupings of tabs. For instance, one window has the map of Chult open in a tab, another tab has the current map being explored (currently the City of Omu), and one with the Random Encounter table page of ToA and another with the adventure page of the particular area that they're travelling through at the time. That's my main window but in another, I have the Spells, Monsters, DMG, Xanathar's, and a few other tabs open for quick reference, and another I have the Campaign Page, all the PC's open.

Now I can easily go to Mission Control with a swipe on the touchpad and select from any of the open windows, or because I know the order of the windows, swipe left or right between them. It's still not perfect, but again, it's a step up from anything else I've used. It also allows me to cast to either one of two screens we have near the table so I can show maps or NPC's or monster pictures.