Sell me on D&D Beyond

[MNblockhead]

Not a fan of the "sell me on" posts. Not my job to sell you on it, I don't get a commission. But that's just me being my normal pedantic twit of a self. To answer in the spirit in which you asked I would sum up my experiences with D&D Beyond with "I'm glad I went with D&D beyond, but Roll20 may be a better option if you'll also want a VTT."

When I decided to subscribe to D&D Beyond I was looking for a convenient digital character sheet and an e-reader where the rules were searchable and cross-linked but also pleasant to read on a mobile device. Fantasy Ground and other VTTs at the time didn't offer a good interface for engaging with the rules other than in a mechanical fashion and just were not a good option for players and not good for reading a browsing material outside of games.

Over time DDB is only getting better. Development is backed by a well-established company and the development teams engagement with the community is an example for other software developers to emulate. Here are what I like about DDB as it stands now:

1. It excels as an e-reader, especially on iOS. Unlike PDFs, I find reading D&D on the mobile app to be pleasant. With some of the newer books, like Mordenkainens, I read most of the book on my phone, even though I have the physical book. For my aging eyes, it is actually easier to read using the app than the printed book. The Web version is also well designed and properly formats itself appropriately for various screen sizes.

2. I like the cross-referencing of terms in both the website and app and especially like the pop-up text in the Web version. I still come across some things that I wish were cross-referenced but they are the exceptions that prove how convenient the existing links are.

3. Recorded pronunciation examples for monsters are nice.

4. The recently revamped digital character sheet is great! I didn't use the character sheet initially because I found it cumbersome in play but they really listened to the community and the new version is a huge improvement and is the first digital character sheet I've come to prefer over paper versions. The PDF export is okay, but I still prefer Herolab's printed character sheets. But I only print as a convenient way to let DMs at AL events look over my character and as a backup.

I don't really use it for running adventures. I did buy Curse of Strahd, but I find that I really don't use it. I use the physical book when running the game. I do use the DDB version in game prep because of the search functionality.

DOWNSIDES

First, Roll20 has come out with web versions of the books as well. These are similar, reader-friendly online versions of the book. But you can get these are part of VTT. If you want a VTT, I don't know why you would go with DDB when you can get the material from Roll20 along with the VTT capabilities.

Global Search Lacks Filtering: the Global Search is TOO Global. The inability to search ONLY WITHIN, say, the Curse of Strahd book really decreases the utility of the DDB version of the APs during play. Even looking up a rule can be annoying. If I look up, say falling, it will pull up every instance of the word "falling" appearing in any book AND ALSO in the DDB FORUMS. Usually, I want to limit my rule search to the PHP and DMG. DDB really needs the ability to limit a search to a specific book. And I really hate having forum hits cluttering my search results.

No offline app version of the Character Sheet. You still need to have an internet connection or print out a paper back up to access your character sheets.

Terrible Adventurer's League support. They held off on developing AL support until the new rules were released. I understand that. I really hope this means they'll soon support proper XP, treasure point, and other AL logging in the character sheet. Currently, I use a separate Web site for this, which is annoying.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

 

[Dausuul]

But do they let you tweak the core rules with edits? For example, could I simply add a feature to the Athlete feat, or would I need to make a new feat under a different name (via clone or otherwise)?

No, you can't edit the core rules. You would need to clone the Athlete feat, rename it, and modify.

 

[MNblockhead]

While there are various pros and cons, options to weigh, YMMV, etc., the decision to purchase content on D&D Beyond basically boils down to:

• Buy it because you would feel guilty about torrenting a PDF of the core rule books.
• OR, don't buy it because you don't feel guilty about torrenting a PDF of the core rule books.

In these debates, I often feel like I'm the only one who doesn't like PDFs.

While I wouldn't break the law just to get a free copy of a game book, mainly I just don't care much for PDFs.

PDFs are good for archival purposes and I do have a whole lot of PDFs from Kickstarters, etc. saved and organized in Evernote, but I rarely use them. I hate reading PDF on my laptop and they are even more annoying on my iPhone X. For some, I can use send-to-kindle on my laptop to get them converted to a more mobile-friendly format in the Kindle iOS app, but even that is nowhere near as nice as having the material properly reformatted for reading on mobile devices.

 

[Umbran]

I think whether it is a good investment depends on your intended use.

I recently joined a game at work. I turned to D&D Beyond to see if I might like to use it for character management.

It is a PHB-only game. I have a hill dwarf cleric, War domain. Simple stuff, really. And I find... I have to pay $30 bucks for the PHB content when all I really need is the War domain? No, thanks. Not worth it. I have working pencils and a PHB.

In general, that's my problem with it. I've got dead tree versions of the stuff I want. I am not on board with rebuying it in a different format unless I'm going to use the heck out of that format.

 

[77IM]

I have to pay $30 bucks for the PHB content when all I really need is the War domain? No, thanks. Not worth it.

Actually, I kid you not, you can pay them $1.99 to buy only the War domain, in case you'd rather be nickeled-and-dimed to death than just price-gouged.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

My core problem with D&D Beyond is that both the DM and players are online and browsing a website. It is distracting, and players (and the DM too) will browse and click and scroll all the time. And it's a pretty small step to open up a Facebook or Whatsapp, or quickly check the news. No matter how good the contents of D&D Beyond, it's on a screen, which draws attention. I prefer paper character sheets, and the printed books (which are beautiful, btw) when I am sitting around the table with my friends.

Playing an online game is entirely different, and I guess that D&D Beyond is great then, but I have only done that once.

 

[MNblockhead]

In general, that's my problem with it. I've got dead tree versions of the stuff I want. I am not on board with rebuying it in a different format unless I'm going to use the heck out of that format.

Yeah, but I can take my entire library with me when I travel and work on my campaign on a plane and I can join games in other cities. Even going to the FLGS, I don't particularly want to lug a bunch of books with me.

At the same time, even if I do buy the book on DDB, I'll still buy the physical copy. I enjoy paging through a physical book. Especially monster manuals. Scrolling through monsters on a screen just isn't as inspiring as flipping pages, but that may be my having grown up when most people didn't have computers.

Also, in the game I run from home, I still find it easier to flip to a specific page than navigate to or search for it on a phone/computer and I can hand my book around the table. I'm not really willing to hand my phone/computer around.

 

[Reynard]

See my opinion on this is diametrically opposed to your opinion on this. I have no problem with using FG as a reference, so I see no need for DDB and wouldn't bother investing in it.

I would take a second look at how to use FG as a reference. Sounds like you already own the material there, so might as well take a second look.

First thing would be for FG to have a mobile version so I could access my books away from my desktop. Next those books would have to be indexed and searchable in a way that actually returns the intended results. Finally, my entire library would have to be globally indexed and searchable.

I like FG as a VTT and for 5E I generally prefer it over Roll20, but a digital library and database it ain't.

 

[5ekyu]

Earlier today I was trying to answer a question for a player and I went to the 5E SRD and realized the answer wasn't there because the thing in question (a wizard school specialization) was not in the SRD. This galled me.

I really like having quick digital access to information, especially for games I run. And while I run at least half of my games on Fantasy grounds, the fact is the reference material on FG is abysmal. But, I am super tied of buying the same book multiple times (once in HC, once in FG and potentially another time in D&DB?).

So, tell me why D&D Beyond is a good investment, why I should subscribe and buy content to run games in meatspace and on a VTT. Or tell me why not to.

Thanks.

NO.

its free to try and do stuff with so - go try it and see if it helps or hurts your play specifics.

table to table are much different.

I got into DND Beyond because i cannot read the paper books anymore and so the online electronic versions was necessary for me to even have the material to read. Since then i explored it and have found it very useful in other ways. Are you significantly visually impaired and unable to read printed products? if not - doubt my results are worthwhile to you.

Its free to use. try it.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Earlier today I was trying to answer a question for a player and I went to the 5E SRD and realized the answer wasn't there because the thing in question (a wizard school specialization) was not in the SRD. This galled me.

I really like having quick digital access to information, especially for games I run. And while I run at least half of my games on Fantasy grounds, the fact is the reference material on FG is abysmal. But, I am super tied of buying the same book multiple times (once in HC, once in FG and potentially another time in D&DB?).

So, tell me why D&D Beyond is a good investment, why I should subscribe and buy content to run games in meatspace and on a VTT. Or tell me why not to.

Thanks.

How much are you willing to spend to not be annoyed?

It's as simple as that. If not having information accessible to you easily is annoying... then spend money to fix it.

How can you tell if it's worth spending the money to not be annoyed? Easy. Each time you are annoyed because you tried to find some D&D information and you didn't have the book/resource available to you-- pull a dollar out of your wallet and put it into your "D&D Beyond" jar. Once that jar reaches $30, you then know that you've gotten annoyed 30 times by not having the resources you need, and coincidentally enough you now have the money available to buy access to the Player's Handbook. This should now solve your problem going forward, and you can know your solution was worth it.