So, with the new Dice, does that roll get communicated to the DM some how? None of my players are subscribers, they're all using my shared content as the DM, so they don't have Dice enabled apparently, but if they did would their rolls be shown to me as the DM, or do they have to verbally relay their dice rolls? Unless the former is true, I can't see there being much use to this feature :(
It’s nice, and it’s a great start. It doesn’t do a lot of what I want yet either, but it works extremely well and they’ll keep adding features like rolling the HP dice for Sleep until it does everything that we want.
Rather pretty eye candy, but utterly non-functional for running a game.
I'd disagree; it generates dice results which is functionally useful for games.
You don't need to pass dice results completely transparently to the DM as a minimum functional requirement for dice, you could roll and tell your DM the result. This does require a level of trust in the player and respect for the DM/game, a level that I honestly thought was more common.
Rather pretty eye candy, but utterly non-functional for running a game.
I'd disagree; it generates dice results which is functionally useful for games.
You don't need to pass dice results completely transparently to the DM as a minimum functional requirement for dice, you could roll and tell your DM the result. This does require a level of trust in the player and respect for the DM/game, a level that I honestly thought was more common.
It's not about having or lacking trust. It speeds up the game for all relevant parties to simply have the result displayed. Requiring the player to then communicate the roll to the DM in an all digital service is wasted time that further creates an extra opening for disruption from the rest of the group (much like you can see at a table in person).
Harsh? I don't understand where your term 'utterly non-functional' is coming from. You press your characters relevant attack, dice are rolled, maths is done automatically, you tell the GM what you got, he tells you it hits or doesn't if it hits you press the damage roll, rinse and repeat.
Let's see what steps were missed here
I left my dice at home
where is my [insert die name]?
can I borrow your [insert dice name]?
the dice rolled onto the floor and everyone is trying to find it
the dice was rolled but landed against something (followed by is it, no it isn't, roll again, I don't want too...etc)
maths was done automatically (how great would this have been for 4th ed?) - so no delay
packing up at the end of the night "where is my [insert die name], who has my [insert die name], it's my dice, no it's my etc...
Pretty sure I've missed lots of things above, but a casual glance tells me WOW! Can't wait for the GM dice roller.
Am I missing something or is just an old school preference vs modern gaming?
You missed a lot. It does not calculate feats or special abilities. Can't do sharpshooter. Does not role correct number of dice although it should know your level. If I attack with a dagger and get sneak attack its easier to get a d4 and 2d6 and roll than figure out how to roll digital dice and count each separately. Not a fan yet let's see where it goes from here and how long it takes. Hopefully sooner that class feature variants
Harsh? I don't understand where your term 'utterly non-functional' is coming from. You press your characters relevant attack, dice are rolled, maths is done automatically, you tell the GM what you got, he tells you it hits or doesn't if it hits you press the damage roll, rinse and repeat.
Am I missing something or is just an old school preference vs modern gaming?
It's not an "old school preference." I use Astral. Astral rolls dice for you too. It doesn't do the pretty animations (though supposedly that is on the drawing board), but it provides the numbers. AND it shows them to everyone. There's no need to tab out of things.
There is no interconnection (right now) between the dice rolling feature, which only appears on character sheet forms, and the encounter builder. So now as a DM if I want to roll dice in DDB, I have to open up another window. And not only that, I have to log into a character, because that's the only place where the dice roller appears. As I said, when it comes to running a game, as a DM, this is non-functional. It'd be faster to roll actual dice on the table. And since I am the DM, and the DDB roller doesn't show anyone else the rolls anyway, there's no reason not to just roll physical dice.
Also, the dice function is not integrated into monster statblocks, so again, if I want to make a saving throw or a DEX roll for an Orc, I'd have to open another window, pull up a character sheet of mine or something, and then click the D20 roll, and manually add bonuses in my head, to get the total. How is that any more convenient than rolling dice? It's actually worse, because there are more steps to it than just rolling a physical die... or doing it one-click in Astral, which already integrates everything into one place (I can click on the monster's statblock stats in Astral and it'll make the die roll for me with appropriate bonuses, assuming I have entered them in before starting play).
So no, the maths are not "done automatically" for the DM, that's for sure. And as for losing dice, again, any number of online apps can replace physical dice at least as well as, and most of them better than, DDB does.
I stand by my statement. This is a pretty feature that has, at this time, no significant practical application. It may be as useful for players (but not DMs) as all the other options, but it's no more useful. Though it is, as I said, very pretty.
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WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Considering DDB is not a VTT yet they do work and speed up game play in the case of feats like sharpshooter if someone cannot adjust attack roll for that -5 for +10 damage they need to work on math skills.
I do have to say, that despite its genuine flaws, I must give it credit where credit is due. That darn thing did surprisingly come in handy the other night when we Skyped for our last session this past week. Of course, that is only because of another issue with DDB. The frikin’ character sheet always refreshes, resetting to the “Abilities, Skills, Senses” section every gorram time one switches apps on iOS.
Two weeks ago during our previous session, whenever I used the dice app I have, when I switched back to Safari I had to wait for a page refresh and then have to switch back to the section I actually needed everyblastedtime. Pre-Covid, I would run the roller app on my phone if I needed it. But I was using that for Skype because I don’t actually need a big giant display of the two of them sitting on their sofa, but DDB is just plain better on the larger display. So this past week it was actually more convenient to use the one on the sheet whenever possible just to avoid all the redundant loading and refreshing and such ad infinitum.
Now, it is true that it only rolls so much and some of it not well, but it’s functional limitations (Dis/Advantage, etc.) only actually came up a few times. Granted, if we had actually accomplished more that session, it would have been pronounced. And I’d also like to point out that the only reason it was viable at all is because after fifteen years the three of us are totally okay with the honor system.
In addition, I did find it necessary to hit “clear all” every time I used the roller for a couple reasons. The first being that was the only way to dismiss all the unnecessary extra floating crap that would otherwise cover a significant portion of the character sheet and still actually use the dice roller. The other being that it was the only way to ensure hat the unnecessary animated die could not land where the floaty crap could obscure it. The reason the floaty crap turned out to be unnecessary is once I could always see the facing on the simulated die, since the results are so slow I always had the total figured out for myself and was ready to hit “clear all” again before the floating crap had even popped up to give me the answer.
So in conclusion, as much as I dislike the completely superfluous animation, and how slow the actual results are to calculate, and all the extra floaty crap the blots out a great big chunk of the character sheet more effectively than Persian arrows did the sun that time, it isn’t as unusable as it seemed at first. Just so long as you dismiss it every time it’s used, and everyone ether really trusts each other’s honesty, or are physically in the same room with each other.
love this thread. Well, all I can say is that I'm running a game with my 9yo relative and his buddy and their report of dice rolls are ... ... dicey. There's a part of me that would like to be able to see their die rolls live, and then there's the part of me that ... ... just understands.
I know this is not a suggestions thread, but I think it would be nice for a campaign toggle to allow the DM to see players' rolls. I also think it would be nice for players to have their own toggle to share their rolls with the party and, if not already set in the campaign, the DM, too - possibly something easy to switch on/off for players. That toggle could also be used by the DM to "roll in the open" for sharing with the players.
There are many things on the roadmap. I think sharing rolls is on there, but I'm not sure. So, I'm just throwing this here rather than putting more stuff on the suggestions pile.
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Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider. My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong. I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲 “It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
I'd love it if while running an Encounter I could see my players' dice results. As it is now I have them roll on another app, so we can all see their rolls like at a table in person, and I deduct hp from monsters or manually set up their initiate. Without that functionality the digital dice I just fun for them to play with outside of a session. Mind you everything is online now, none of our sessions are in person anymore.
I think, as others have pointed out, DDB is not (yet) a VTT. The digital dice are just that, digital versions of the dice you have on your table, but with the benefit of automatically rolling the right number of the right dice and adding the right modifiers (for "standard" rolls, anyway).
I can see it being much more useful for in-person games than online ones, right now. Most VTTs etc offer better options for online games. That said, using the DDB digital dice is still normally going to be much quicker than a player rolling a handful of dice, adding them up, figuring out the modifier, forgetting what the dice total was, asking if anyone remembered the total, being told nobody did, adding them all up again, adding the modifier, and telling the DM the result.
That said, using the DDB digital dice is still normally going to be much quicker than a player rolling a handful of dice, adding them up, figuring out the modifier, forgetting what the dice total was, asking if anyone remembered the total, being told nobody did, adding them all up again, adding the modifier, and telling the DM the result.
With all due respect, this is starting to sound like one of those infomercials that tries to sell products developed for people with a disability to the general public. :p
That said, depending on which platform you are using you can connect your charsheet to your virtual tabletop via a browser extension and have it display your rolls for everyone to see. It's somewhat limited, don't get me wrong, but that seems to be what most people want from it.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
this is starting to sound like one of those infomercials
It was supposed to be a very tongue-in-cheek comment on certain situations, like when your Paladin or Rogue who "doesn't do Maths" gets a critical hit. I'm not being serious, I find it to all be part of the fun. However, using the digital dice is likely to speed things up in this case.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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Heya!
So, with the new Dice, does that roll get communicated to the DM some how? None of my players are subscribers, they're all using my shared content as the DM, so they don't have Dice enabled apparently, but if they did would their rolls be shown to me as the DM, or do they have to verbally relay their dice rolls? Unless the former is true, I can't see there being much use to this feature :(
It’s nice, and it’s a great start. It doesn’t do a lot of what I want yet either, but it works extremely well and they’ll keep adding features like rolling the HP dice for Sleep until it does everything that we want.
Professional computer geek
The Alpha does not share the dice rolls in way right now. Here's the feedback thread. It also tells you some of whats planned.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/d-d-beyond-feedback/digital-dice-feedback/62838-digital-dice-alpha-now-available-to-subscribers
That's what happens when you wear a helmet your whole life!
My house rules
It's just eye candy right now.
Rather pretty eye candy, but utterly non-functional for running a game.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I'd disagree; it generates dice results which is functionally useful for games.
You don't need to pass dice results completely transparently to the DM as a minimum functional requirement for dice, you could roll and tell your DM the result. This does require a level of trust in the player and respect for the DM/game, a level that I honestly thought was more common.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
It's not about having or lacking trust. It speeds up the game for all relevant parties to simply have the result displayed. Requiring the player to then communicate the roll to the DM in an all digital service is wasted time that further creates an extra opening for disruption from the rest of the group (much like you can see at a table in person).
Harsh? I don't understand where your term 'utterly non-functional' is coming from. You press your characters relevant attack, dice are rolled, maths is done automatically, you tell the GM what you got, he tells you it hits or doesn't if it hits you press the damage roll, rinse and repeat.
Let's see what steps were missed here
Pretty sure I've missed lots of things above, but a casual glance tells me WOW! Can't wait for the GM dice roller.
Am I missing something or is just an old school preference vs modern gaming?
You missed a lot. It does not calculate feats or special abilities. Can't do sharpshooter. Does not role correct number of dice although it should know your level. If I attack with a dagger and get sneak attack its easier to get a d4 and 2d6 and roll than figure out how to roll digital dice and count each separately. Not a fan yet let's see where it goes from here and how long it takes. Hopefully sooner that class feature variants
It's not an "old school preference." I use Astral. Astral rolls dice for you too. It doesn't do the pretty animations (though supposedly that is on the drawing board), but it provides the numbers. AND it shows them to everyone. There's no need to tab out of things.
There is no interconnection (right now) between the dice rolling feature, which only appears on character sheet forms, and the encounter builder. So now as a DM if I want to roll dice in DDB, I have to open up another window. And not only that, I have to log into a character, because that's the only place where the dice roller appears. As I said, when it comes to running a game, as a DM, this is non-functional. It'd be faster to roll actual dice on the table. And since I am the DM, and the DDB roller doesn't show anyone else the rolls anyway, there's no reason not to just roll physical dice.
Also, the dice function is not integrated into monster statblocks, so again, if I want to make a saving throw or a DEX roll for an Orc, I'd have to open another window, pull up a character sheet of mine or something, and then click the D20 roll, and manually add bonuses in my head, to get the total. How is that any more convenient than rolling dice? It's actually worse, because there are more steps to it than just rolling a physical die... or doing it one-click in Astral, which already integrates everything into one place (I can click on the monster's statblock stats in Astral and it'll make the die roll for me with appropriate bonuses, assuming I have entered them in before starting play).
So no, the maths are not "done automatically" for the DM, that's for sure. And as for losing dice, again, any number of online apps can replace physical dice at least as well as, and most of them better than, DDB does.
I stand by my statement. This is a pretty feature that has, at this time, no significant practical application. It may be as useful for players (but not DMs) as all the other options, but it's no more useful. Though it is, as I said, very pretty.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I agree these digital dice are not effective yet.
How do I disable the dice? I think it's messing up beyond 20.
Tap the down arrow next to the character’s name on the sheet. All the way at the bottom of the dropdown there’s a giant blue switch.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Considering DDB is not a VTT yet they do work and speed up game play in the case of feats like sharpshooter if someone cannot adjust attack roll for that -5 for +10 damage they need to work on math skills.
I do have to say, that despite its genuine flaws, I must give it credit where credit is due. That darn thing did surprisingly come in handy the other night when we Skyped for our last session this past week. Of course, that is only because of another issue with DDB. The frikin’ character sheet always refreshes, resetting to the “Abilities, Skills, Senses” section every gorram time one switches apps on iOS.
Two weeks ago during our previous session, whenever I used the dice app I have, when I switched back to Safari I had to wait for a page refresh and then have to switch back to the section I actually needed every blasted time. Pre-Covid, I would run the roller app on my phone if I needed it. But I was using that for Skype because I don’t actually need a big giant display of the two of them sitting on their sofa, but DDB is just plain better on the larger display. So this past week it was actually more convenient to use the one on the sheet whenever possible just to avoid all the redundant loading and refreshing and such ad infinitum.
Now, it is true that it only rolls so much and some of it not well, but it’s functional limitations (Dis/Advantage, etc.) only actually came up a few times. Granted, if we had actually accomplished more that session, it would have been pronounced. And I’d also like to point out that the only reason it was viable at all is because after fifteen years the three of us are totally okay with the honor system.
In addition, I did find it necessary to hit “clear all” every time I used the roller for a couple reasons. The first being that was the only way to dismiss all the unnecessary extra floating crap that would otherwise cover a significant portion of the character sheet and still actually use the dice roller. The other being that it was the only way to ensure hat the unnecessary animated die could not land where the floaty crap could obscure it. The reason the floaty crap turned out to be unnecessary is once I could always see the facing on the simulated die, since the results are so slow I always had the total figured out for myself and was ready to hit “clear all” again before the floating crap had even popped up to give me the answer.
So in conclusion, as much as I dislike the completely superfluous animation, and how slow the actual results are to calculate, and all the extra floaty crap the blots out a great big chunk of the character sheet more effectively than Persian arrows did the sun that time, it isn’t as unusable as it seemed at first. Just so long as you dismiss it every time it’s used, and everyone ether really trusts each other’s honesty, or are physically in the same room with each other.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
love this thread. Well, all I can say is that I'm running a game with my 9yo relative and his buddy and their report of dice rolls are ... ... dicey. There's a part of me that would like to be able to see their die rolls live, and then there's the part of me that ... ... just understands.
I'm all about options.
I know this is not a suggestions thread, but I think it would be nice for a campaign toggle to allow the DM to see players' rolls. I also think it would be nice for players to have their own toggle to share their rolls with the party and, if not already set in the campaign, the DM, too - possibly something easy to switch on/off for players. That toggle could also be used by the DM to "roll in the open" for sharing with the players.
There are many things on the roadmap. I think sharing rolls is on there, but I'm not sure. So, I'm just throwing this here rather than putting more stuff on the suggestions pile.
Human. Male. Possibly. Don't be a divider.
My characters' backgrounds are written like instruction manuals rather than stories. My opinion and preferences don't mean you're wrong.
I am 99.7603% convinced that the digital dice are messing with me. I roll high when nobody's looking and low when anyone else can see.🎲
“It's a bit early to be thinking about an epitaph. No?” will be my epitaph.
I'd love it if while running an Encounter I could see my players' dice results. As it is now I have them roll on another app, so we can all see their rolls like at a table in person, and I deduct hp from monsters or manually set up their initiate. Without that functionality the digital dice I just fun for them to play with outside of a session. Mind you everything is online now, none of our sessions are in person anymore.
I think, as others have pointed out, DDB is not (yet) a VTT. The digital dice are just that, digital versions of the dice you have on your table, but with the benefit of automatically rolling the right number of the right dice and adding the right modifiers (for "standard" rolls, anyway).
I can see it being much more useful for in-person games than online ones, right now. Most VTTs etc offer better options for online games. That said, using the DDB digital dice is still normally going to be much quicker than a player rolling a handful of dice, adding them up, figuring out the modifier, forgetting what the dice total was, asking if anyone remembered the total, being told nobody did, adding them all up again, adding the modifier, and telling the DM the result.
With all due respect, this is starting to sound like one of those infomercials that tries to sell products developed for people with a disability to the general public. :p
That said, depending on which platform you are using you can connect your charsheet to your virtual tabletop via a browser extension and have it display your rolls for everyone to see. It's somewhat limited, don't get me wrong, but that seems to be what most people want from it.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
It was supposed to be a very tongue-in-cheek comment on certain situations, like when your Paladin or Rogue who "doesn't do Maths" gets a critical hit. I'm not being serious, I find it to all be part of the fun. However, using the digital dice is likely to speed things up in this case.