Since moving to D&D Beyond, I have noticed that at our table, we have some phones, some tablets, some laptops and one hold-out still using paper. Everyone still uses dice (although I am thinking of switching to digital there too). We don’t have any TV screens or other screens in use most games. How much digital do you allow, and why or why not?
In my case, we're 100% digital, mostly out of convenience, partly out of need. A couple of our group's members live elsewhere, so we literally can't get physically together to play (except maybe once a year, if they all come visit at the same time), so we use DDB and Roll20. Every once in a while, the ones that live here will get together, we'll videoconference with the ones that live abroad, and we'll roll physical dice here (the ones abroad will roll using Roll20), but that's a rare occurrence. We've entirely abandoned paper character sheets, though, even when playing physically, because we feel DDB's character sheets are that much better, not only for player access, but for DM access.
Rolling digital dice has nowhere near the nostalgic feel, nor is it anywhere close to the primal sensory experience of rolling physical dice... but we've found that the convenience of having the rolls logged (in Roll20) for future reference is very useful.
As DM all but my dice & DM screen are digital. The players' dice and character sheets are on the table in front of them, but I wouldn't mind them going digital.
And my goal for maps & minis is to go hybrid; digital maps with physical minis on top of the screen which makes up the center of the table. Right now we use physical maps & minis, and in a few years we're likely going to be limited in space because of moving house so we'll be going to full-digital maps & tokens until more space opens up if that's the case.
I have been digital since before DND beyond, I used to use a small laptop and excel, then in the age of tablets I got one of the third party apps (which I always felt guilty about, but to be fair I did purchase all the books so nothing I had on the 3rd party app was anything I didn't already own from physical books, so I didn't feel too bad) and I gladly switched to DNDBeyond when that released.
Of my party, 3 others used digital, one on a tablet and 2 on their cell phones. Sadly I haven't been able to convince either of them to use D&D Beyond, even when I offered to get the Master Sub so I could share my content. (I'll try again when I DM to make that offer). The final 2 people still use paper, which I have nothing against of course.
I still roll real dice though, and being an avid collector of dice I will never go digital on the dice rolling. It's not D&D for me without my bag of dice and my character journal (I get a new little leather travel journal for each new character to keep as a diary and sketch scenes in and stuff).
Ideally I have dreams of having a gaming table with a projector putting the map on the table's surface or a screen in the table like I've seen and like the poster above me mentions. But until then I do my maps on large 1"x1" grid easel pads.
As a DM and player I am digital except for dice and in-session note taking. As a DM I like to write out my campaign plans in Google Drive, generate encounter ideas from Kobold Fight Club, use DDB to see different options and prepare items/monsters/etc., and at the table I've got my Chromebook front and centre, my dice tray to the left, and a notebook to the right. As a player I've got my tablet, dice tray, and a little notebook.
I don't think I could ever move away from real dice. There's something about rolling something that just... Doesn't exist with digital rollers.
Fully digital. When I first started D&D there were no local groups or anything about it and the only people I knew who played it were in America (i'm in Britain). We played over skype and used a chat which had a dice roller. After a long break I came back to D&D which now had 5th Edition with a lot more systems and websites for online play. I found a group to play with on Roll20.net and we play every Friday and Saturday. I have learned my town actually has a game club now who do board games including D&D but it is not suitable because it's on Fridays and I prefer to stick with my current group, only once a month and that is a slow play I get too frustrated with, and they don't finish until very late where there are no taxi services: I do not live near the other players and cannot drive so I would struggle to get home.
While I would like to play an offline game I do love online play. I can do text in a chatroom rather than speaking which is better for me for multiple reasons.
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About half of my crew uses paper character sheets, and the other half uses DnDBeyond or PDFs. (I'm going to try using DnDBeyond's character sheet for the first time in the next game I'm playing.) While we have several hard copies of books, when I'm DMing I use DnDBeyond pretty extensively because it's faster to look up a spell or monster that way instead of flipping through a book. I also use my computer (hooked up to my TV) to play background music during battles and to display images I want to share with a group, such as the actor that is "playing" a significant NPC. However, I enforce an all-physical-dice rule at my table, and I use a wet-erase battle mat. One of the other DMs in my crew also hooks up his computer to the TV, and he will use Photoshop layers to reveal segments of a dungeon map as we explore.
Love digital for books, character generation and planning games. But I prefer gaming in person, printed character sheets and notes, and definitely prefer physical dice at the table. Hate when someone uses a laptop at the table and even although character sheets on a phone or iPad is convenient, someone always ends up using the device for social media or something else (non game related). I prefer phones to be put away during the session unless it is being used to look up something game related.
Ideal world for me is using a ipad or some other tablet to do the character sheet and update it and track things, perhaps pen/paper for tracking notes/misc items/characters, and actual dice for rolling. Still prefer actual books for rule lookup, but can sometimes be more quickly done using ctrl-f on a PDF.
Mostly digital here, at least for character sheets/notes. I have a friend who's new to the game, and I've found it valuable to have both of our character sheets readily available to help her out.
I play over Discord, but I roll my own physical dice. I also have a PDF of my character file for the DM and other players, but i like to have my actual paper copy in front of me when playing. I used to have a multiple monitor setup where I would be able to just bring up the sheet on a separate monitor, but tabbing back and forth is just too much if a nuisance for me. Were I to DM, I think I'd prefer books and paper notes as well.
Since moving to D&D Beyond, I have noticed that at our table, we have some phones, some tablets, some laptops and one hold-out still using paper. Everyone still uses dice (although I am thinking of switching to digital there too). We don’t have any TV screens or other screens in use most games. How much digital do you allow, and why or why not?
I love digital for planning, but still prefer rolling actual dice around a table. :)
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In my case, we're 100% digital, mostly out of convenience, partly out of need. A couple of our group's members live elsewhere, so we literally can't get physically together to play (except maybe once a year, if they all come visit at the same time), so we use DDB and Roll20. Every once in a while, the ones that live here will get together, we'll videoconference with the ones that live abroad, and we'll roll physical dice here (the ones abroad will roll using Roll20), but that's a rare occurrence. We've entirely abandoned paper character sheets, though, even when playing physically, because we feel DDB's character sheets are that much better, not only for player access, but for DM access.
Rolling digital dice has nowhere near the nostalgic feel, nor is it anywhere close to the primal sensory experience of rolling physical dice... but we've found that the convenience of having the rolls logged (in Roll20) for future reference is very useful.
As DM all but my dice & DM screen are digital. The players' dice and character sheets are on the table in front of them, but I wouldn't mind them going digital.
And my goal for maps & minis is to go hybrid; digital maps with physical minis on top of the screen which makes up the center of the table. Right now we use physical maps & minis, and in a few years we're likely going to be limited in space because of moving house so we'll be going to full-digital maps & tokens until more space opens up if that's the case.
I have been digital since before DND beyond, I used to use a small laptop and excel, then in the age of tablets I got one of the third party apps (which I always felt guilty about, but to be fair I did purchase all the books so nothing I had on the 3rd party app was anything I didn't already own from physical books, so I didn't feel too bad) and I gladly switched to DNDBeyond when that released.
Of my party, 3 others used digital, one on a tablet and 2 on their cell phones. Sadly I haven't been able to convince either of them to use D&D Beyond, even when I offered to get the Master Sub so I could share my content. (I'll try again when I DM to make that offer). The final 2 people still use paper, which I have nothing against of course.
I still roll real dice though, and being an avid collector of dice I will never go digital on the dice rolling. It's not D&D for me without my bag of dice and my character journal (I get a new little leather travel journal for each new character to keep as a diary and sketch scenes in and stuff).
Ideally I have dreams of having a gaming table with a projector putting the map on the table's surface or a screen in the table like I've seen and like the poster above me mentions. But until then I do my maps on large 1"x1" grid easel pads.
As a DM and player I am digital except for dice and in-session note taking. As a DM I like to write out my campaign plans in Google Drive, generate encounter ideas from Kobold Fight Club, use DDB to see different options and prepare items/monsters/etc., and at the table I've got my Chromebook front and centre, my dice tray to the left, and a notebook to the right. As a player I've got my tablet, dice tray, and a little notebook.
I don't think I could ever move away from real dice. There's something about rolling something that just... Doesn't exist with digital rollers.
Fully digital. When I first started D&D there were no local groups or anything about it and the only people I knew who played it were in America (i'm in Britain). We played over skype and used a chat which had a dice roller. After a long break I came back to D&D which now had 5th Edition with a lot more systems and websites for online play. I found a group to play with on Roll20.net and we play every Friday and Saturday. I have learned my town actually has a game club now who do board games including D&D but it is not suitable because it's on Fridays and I prefer to stick with my current group, only once a month and that is a slow play I get too frustrated with, and they don't finish until very late where there are no taxi services: I do not live near the other players and cannot drive so I would struggle to get home.
While I would like to play an offline game I do love online play. I can do text in a chatroom rather than speaking which is better for me for multiple reasons.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
All in on digital But not the dice ;)
You ask: Are you dutch? i ask you to roll and you hit a natural 20 ;)
About half of my crew uses paper character sheets, and the other half uses DnDBeyond or PDFs. (I'm going to try using DnDBeyond's character sheet for the first time in the next game I'm playing.) While we have several hard copies of books, when I'm DMing I use DnDBeyond pretty extensively because it's faster to look up a spell or monster that way instead of flipping through a book. I also use my computer (hooked up to my TV) to play background music during battles and to display images I want to share with a group, such as the actor that is "playing" a significant NPC. However, I enforce an all-physical-dice rule at my table, and I use a wet-erase battle mat. One of the other DMs in my crew also hooks up his computer to the TV, and he will use Photoshop layers to reveal segments of a dungeon map as we explore.
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Love digital for books, character generation and planning games. But I prefer gaming in person, printed character sheets and notes, and definitely prefer physical dice at the table. Hate when someone uses a laptop at the table and even although character sheets on a phone or iPad is convenient, someone always ends up using the device for social media or something else (non game related). I prefer phones to be put away during the session unless it is being used to look up something game related.
Ideal world for me is using a ipad or some other tablet to do the character sheet and update it and track things, perhaps pen/paper for tracking notes/misc items/characters, and actual dice for rolling. Still prefer actual books for rule lookup, but can sometimes be more quickly done using ctrl-f on a PDF.
Mostly digital here, at least for character sheets/notes. I have a friend who's new to the game, and I've found it valuable to have both of our character sheets readily available to help her out.
I play over Discord, but I roll my own physical dice. I also have a PDF of my character file for the DM and other players, but i like to have my actual paper copy in front of me when playing. I used to have a multiple monitor setup where I would be able to just bring up the sheet on a separate monitor, but tabbing back and forth is just too much if a nuisance for me. Were I to DM, I think I'd prefer books and paper notes as well.