Hello all!

At the local D&D club I DM at, we host oneshots on Tuesdays. In my last game, 2 of the 5 players were using digital character sheets on their phones, and the rest were using paper sheets.

I immediately noticed a distinct difference in the speed at which the paper players could get information (saving throws, spell slots, etc.) compared to the digital players. Quite a lot of time was spent with the digital players scrolling up & down to try and find something, whilst the paper players were very quick. There were also a few mistakes from the digital players, which was likely nothing to do with being digital.

So, when playing in-person, at a real table, do you prefer digital or paper character sheets? 

We use Digital. 

but i have to say, i and my SO use tablets, while two other players use phones. There is a stark difference there. Phones are just to small. Tablets are fine.

And i think this is the same issue in your D&D club. phones have just so much space to work with, and D&D has a lot of information. Sure, the paper players are quicker, but if the phones would be replaced by tablets, i don't think there would be any difference. 

Also, if you get to spells, digital will in the long run win out on paper, as it is not feasible to have all spells on your paper sheets

Paper. Some I know prefer digital. Unfortunately that seems to lead to screen time diversions unrelated to the game at the table. One player even has the habit of switching to online computer gaming between his turns, leading to multiple play delays per game: "So fill me in. . . Where are we at? What did you guys just do? . . .

I no longer play with that group.

I prefer paper (guess I'm old school), but using DDB for reading rules, tracking HP, updating expended spell slots, or marking if you have Inspiration isn't bad either.

IMO, paper works great as the "hard copy", while digital content helps players with things that change more often.

All but one player in our extended group has gone to using digital character sheets, and we use a mix of digital and real dice. None of us use our phones (the mobile app requires too much time pecking thru menus, and the smaller screens make finding info quickly - not quick). We all use either tablets or laptops, and access the content thru browsers not the mobile app.

We use mostly digital.

What I tend to find is that simple information is much quicker on paper. It's there at a glance and you tend to know pretty much exactly where it is on the page. Things like Saving Throws, Skill Bonuses and the like are right there in front of you. In digital, even if you're familiar with where it is, you still need to scroll and swipe to get to it, and there's usually some kind of disorientation when the pages switch, so it takes substantially longer.

Where DDB excels is the complex stuff. If you're looking up the details of a spell...it's much quicker and easier than on paper. Paper means you either have to have short summaries written out that you have to look through...or you refer to the source which has headaches of its own and takes quite a long time - especially if looking up multiple spells from different sources. DDB really cuts that down by having the links there right in front of you.

Ideally martials would be on paper since they're most interested in the bonuses, while casters use DDB.

Quote from HarmAssassin >>

All but one player in our extended group has gone to using digital character sheets, and we use a mix of digital and real dice. None of us use our phones (the mobile app requires too much time pecking thru menus, and the smaller screens make finding info quickly - not quick). We all use either tablets or laptops, and access the content thru browsers not the mobile app.

Agree with this. The mobile app just isn't a very good UI, but viewing the character sheet on the browser on a larger screen is very quick and intuitive. Given that the site tracks things like HP, spell slots etc for you, it's actually quicker than a paper sheet

We use digital for all the groups I play in and run. As others have said it can be much better for things like spells if you don’t have a photographic memory for how they work and can take a lot of the heavy lifting out of things like working out skill and stat bonuses especially for newer players. There’s also the fact that as a DM I can easily keep an eye on player’s HP during combat if they’re all updating their digital sheets 

I personally use both. I'm playing a ranger, which I do on paper. But playing my wizard digitally is sooo nice. Keeping track of spell slots, and being able to look up spells easily with a click is wonderful. As is tracking how many slots I've used from one session to the next. I still prefer paper, but for full casters, not having to have every possible spell's effects memorized is going to make digital my go-to for those classes.

No "either/or" option?

We have a mix, and sometimes it just depends on whether someone printed out their updated character sheet that week or not.

Whether one works better or the other often depends on the player, and possibly the environment.

Bit of both.  

I'm old school ...or mid anyway, and so prefer paper, but there's no denying the benefit to pacing of rolling digital dice on large pool effects like meteor swarm etc.

varies from game to game, player to player. I personally use a lot of dead trees, altered bamboo, and assorted stuff, but I also do my virtual games entirely on tablets (not phones).

Some folks prefer paper, some tablets -- the big key is that we track everything, so none of the olie character stuff here will work, and because we are heavily homebrewed, our sheets are all entirely custom since no one but us makes a sheet for our characters.

So, our tablets have a lot of adobe on them and it is set up to allow them to change stuff on the fly.

Perhaps one day someone will make a VTT worth a flying damn, because no one has so far, and even DDB itself doesn't track things or allow you to even use optional rules on the character sheet. So, until they do, we use paper and easily changeable PDF sheets that are not linked to any system, because there's absolutely no system out there that we can/will use.

And, until the day that we don't have to program something, don't have to compromise something we already do, and don't have to change how we play to meet the needs of a programmer who has not played with us, we will continue to use paper.

And tell the folks who make VTT's very impolitely to improve their ability to perform the task they have assigned themselves or stop trying to get us to spend money on them in any way, shape or form. SOGOTP.

Paper. For the same reason first_rolled_a_die_in_1976 provided. But also because I am a strictly analog gamer. All of my key hobbies are strictly analog. Physical books. Physical media. We already spend so much time in front of screens at work or just when we are online. For the groups I play with playing D&D is an oasis away from that. One DM with which I play will not allow digital or electronic devices at the table. I am not quite that strict. I will make exceptions. But only because one the players in a game I run lives remote.

I have seen the same thing, but we ONLY use digital... let me explain...

Our group are in multiple states (NJ, PA & FL) so we can't get together weekly for our sessions unless we use a VTT, and because we are playing via VTT, everyone has chosen to use D&D Beyond's Digital Character Screen.

We have two players that do not use a Laptop or a Computer for their character sheet, so they are using their Phones.
One is a player in our weekly session, and another is a player that pops in for One-Shots when we can't run the normal session.

I have seen on many occasions that trying to find information on the D&D Beyond Mobile App on a Phone is very time consuming, with lots of scrolling and searching.

For me, it doesn't matter if I am playing in-person or via a VTT, I will use D&D Beyond's Digital Character Sheet for ease of use over a paper sheet any day.
The ability to look up needed information, manage my inventory without having to erase and rewrite items, and see all of my abilities keeps me on the digital path.

Cheers!

Digital on a phone is a bad experience. Digital on a decent sized tablet or laptop is actually superior to even paper as you can pull up enhanced information pertaining to the rules while still seeing all of the character sheet. Do not consider that all digital assets are the same... size and functionality make a huge difference! Also, after having a stroke and losing a hand and a third of my vision... Digital is far more accessible as I also have ALL the sourcebooks at a touch with no additional fumbling through pages. A simple search on digital could save me hours sifting through paper copies. That was true while I still had two hands and better eyesight, but it is far more important these days!

I did a paper only game about half a year ago and it was agonizingly slow. Write things in, erase them, write new things in, erase them. The page starts to look haggard after just a few adjustments. Not for me. Digital only please, with exceptions for dice because they are fun, though if I am playing at someone else's home, I would rather just leave my physical dice at home.

Why not both? DM on digital and players with paper copies?

You know, one thing I've decided from reading all these posts.... it's probably time D&D moved away from the concept of a single paper character sheet design for all characters, to having different sheets per class, or at least different class types (martials, full spellcasters, half-casters, and martials w/ a little magic or some other edge. And maybe reserve the original design for multiclassers.)

For my group, the advantages of digital character sheets are mainly in simplifying (1) magic use, and (2) looking up secondary features. At least for martials, if just the basic stats and core features were always front-and-center, I'd probably find paper easier to use than digital (and I might have noticed that sooner if I ever played simple martial characters.)

Quote from FutureSightRunner >>

Paper has been around forever, and digital is nothing but a fad. 

Lol, while I can definitely understand your preference, I'm old enough to remember people boldly proclaiming that the internet would wind up being nothing but a fad....

Quote from FutureSightRunner >>

Quote from Erik_Soong >>

I did a paper only game about half a year ago and it was agonizingly slow. Write things in, erase them, write new things in, erase them. The page starts to look haggard after just a few adjustments. Not for me. Digital only please, with exceptions for dice because they are fun, though if I am playing at someone else's home, I would rather just leave my physical dice at home.

 
   Used to be able to laminate pages that were constantly written on, and with sharpie could easily reuse the same form as many times as needed.

    And it made it easy to copy over to more permanent from just by pressing the laminated pages onto the non laminated ones.

    Nowadays it’s easier to just use editing software to print a custom paper version of a sheet that is tailored to  the player than to have a single set of predefined pages.

    As long as all the important most often used elements are front and center, whether it’s paper or digital, sure theres good and bad, but digital relies on others while paper relies on self.

   The reason paper is far better is because it’s more permanent and personal. More effort goes into maintaining and refinement and that opens the floodgates of creativity.

    Digital is all copy and paste and no real creativity. How many characters do you see sitting on there devices actually doing something other than paying attention?

    Digital brain-rot has been around for a long time, what happens when there is not more digital? Or it’s down for an extremely long time? 
       Paper has been around forever, and digital is nothing but a fad. 

There are still plastic sheaths that paper copies can be slid into. 

Digital is definitely not 'all copy and paste' though. 

I keep a copy of my character sheets in my clipboard.  If I run out of juice on my tablet  i am still covered.  That being said  i took one look at the phone app as it my iphone is set to mirror my ipad and the phone version is useless. For books it is a hybrid i keep physical copies of all three core books digital for the rest.