D&D 5E Are You Planning on Subscribing to D&D Beyond

[doctorbadwolf]

No, I already have purchased digital versions of the books (FG) so I don't see that Beyond gives me enough new capabilities to justify it.

A couple of things I don't like about it;
- subscription
- online

My group doesn't meet often enough at the moment to make any extra expenditure on my part worth it at the moment.

Now, I recently made a Roll20 account in an effort to see if meeting via a VTT will help us get around the scheduling issues. If we start meeting regularly online, If Roll20 handles the way we need it to and if DDB ends up with any kind of integration with Roll20 and it works... then I might consider it. But that's a lot of "ifs".

So we'll see.

IME, it's easier to run a game via video chat and DDB, than via VTT.

 

[Dausuul]

Maybe. The beta had a lot of issues. I'll take a look at it when they go live, and see how much has been fixed.

If I like what I see, I will probably pay for it, including the PHB. If it's still in basically the same state as the beta, I'll pass. Some of the problems I encountered were simple bugs, but others were more serious design flaws; they need to take care of those before I'm willing to buy.

 

[Al2O3]

I'll try to remember to fill in the poll tomorrow (on my phone now), but I'll still comment now.

I most likely won't get the DDB subscription or but anything there. The reason: so far the only thing it does better than Roll20 or flipping through the books is the compendium for magic items.

I really liked DDI for 4e and would've considered continuing paying for it for the old magazines and looting it for ideas. In a similar manner, I would've considered subscribing to DDB of it included all content the same way DDI did. But right now it would be more valuable for me to buy the PHB etc on Roll20 instead if I want it digital.

Maybe the charbuilder would be worth it if I primarily played offline, but with the form fillable PDF I'm not sure. The main issue for me with the builder is that it differs too much from how I make characters.

All those issues aside there is one thing that could've been a deal maker for me: autocomplete in the charbuilder for features that don't require any choice.

Sent from my Huawei P10 plus

 

[Inchoroi]

Nah. I don't see a need for it, and I refuse to buy the books a second time. I've bought every book for 5e, save for Hoard and Rise of Tiamat (because they're ); not buying them again, even at half or less the normal price.

 

[Ath'kethin]

I'm in the no-need-for-it-and-don't-want-to-pay-again-for-stuff-I-own bucket on this one.

 

[JeffB]

I really liked DDI for 4e and would've considered continuing paying for it for the old magazines and looting it for ideas. In a similar manner, I would've considered subscribing to DDB of it included all content the same way DDI did

If DDB offered the same toolset from the get-go as well as digital Dungeon and Dragon magazines like DDI did, I would have subscribed yesterday.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

The only thing I'd really like is a digital spellbook. The only positive of my PHB falling apart is I could separate out the spellbook portion for easy reference.

They have said that you can purchase "bundles of like content per source," so all the player races from the PHB, all the magic items from the DMG, etc. I don't know that a spell bundle has been specifically mentioned, although the purchase of individual spells has. I would presume a spell bundle will be one option. Still might might not be worth it for you, but it does look to be an option.

 

[LordEntrails]

Absolutely.

Just the ability to collect and distribute my homebrew content alone is worth the price of admission.

How does DDB compare to RealmWorks, Obsidian Portal etc in this regard? Anyone have a comparison?

IME, it's easier to run a game via video chat and DDB, than via VTT.

Hmm, What VTT's have you tried? That's not my experience with FG.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

How does DDB compare to RealmWorks, Obsidian Portal etc in this regard? Anyone have a comparison?

I've only used OP a bit, but what I'd say is that DDB is much more fully featured, and just easier, at least as a compendium. The indexing and filtering is absurdly useful, as is the fact I can hover over the name of a spell when reading an item or monster with that spell, and it pops up a description of the spell. And it's extremely easy to use both for finding things and for *creating homebrew*. Like, homebrewing has practically no learning curve. Within an hour of phase 2-3 posting, I had made a half dozen spells, more monsters, and a handful of items, all with full indexing metadata.

That metadata is what makes DDB, for me.

Hmm, What VTT's have you tried? That's not my experience with FG.

Roll20, FG, and the 4e vtt beta thing. The 4e vtt is the only one I found easy enough to learn to be remotely worthwhile.

Oh! And there is one I can't remember the name of that is like 2d isometric? I used that a bit, but by then I was instead using voice or video chat for online play. Heck, I had a group that used to play 4e via the party voice chat in Dungeons and Dragons Online. we would gather in a tavern in game and roll dice in the party chat window and everything else was by voice.
My preference has become to put a camera on the table, in something like google hangouts.

 

[Demetrios1453]

They have said that you can purchase "bundles of like content per source," so all the player races from the PHB, all the magic items from the DMG, etc. I don't know that a spell bundle has been specifically mentioned, although the purchase of individual spells has. I would presume a spell bundle will be one option. Still might might not be worth it for you, but it does look to be an option.

OK, good, you've just answered a question I had on the other DDB thread about bundled a la carte purchases. Will this be extended to the APs, if, say, I wanted to purchase all the monsters from Tales from the Yawning Portal? I assume so, but it would be nice to have it confirmed.