D&D 4E Pen and Paper 4e

[Tequila Sunrise]

Put me down as another "Digital prep, P&P at the table." Some of my players use the CB, but I almost consider it a badge of honor that I don't have DDI myself. Everything I do is printed from my own word docs or written out by hand; and that includes my PCs, NPCs and monsters.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

I'm in the sorry position of being across the country from 4/5 of my players. As a result we all use our computers and other digital tools heavily (Maptool being the primary crutch). There are advantages to them, no question, and I find myself on the constant look out for new toys and gadgets, but (and this is a big but) I miss books. I miss pens and paper. I miss character sheets that had, well, character.

I always feel much more inspired and creative after leafing through a physical copy of a Monster Manual, and my characters always have more interesting and vivid images in my head when I've flipped through the pages of a PH. If I could, I would gladly go back to what the common consensus seems to be here; digital prep, paper at the table.

 

[The Human Target]

My group uses no electronics at the table, but the players use character builder and I as the DM use any electronic tools I can get my hands on for prep.

Is it necessary? No.

But it sure helps, and I wouldn't want to not use them.

We keep one PHB on the table for the rare instance of having to look up a rule, but thats it for the players side of things and I love it. Frees the gaming area, highly reduces the game lag of having to flip pages and constantly reference things, and allows us to concentrate on the game itself and having fun instead of doing work.

Its not a 4e thing for me either- I'd use electronics tools for every P&P game if I had em.

 

[Dragonblade]

I will use the DDI builder for one shots, but any PC I plan on using long term I always craft by hand using pencil and paper and the books laid out in front of me. Works just fine.

When I played 4e last, only one DM ever used electronic tools. He used an encounter and initiative tracker program.

When I DM 4e, I don't use any electronic tools at all. I track player and monster initiatives and conditions all with pencil and scratch paper. Often times I will ask one of the players to handle initiative for me, but I will still manage monster conditions myself.

About the only thing I will use the computer for in my prep is to print out some of the monsters in advance so I don't have to bookmark different pages from different books.

 

[Siberys]

I don't use them at all. I run Linux on my home computers, so no silverlight. I also like to houserule and/or use homebrew or 3pp material.

Making a character without the tools is really easy. I can fit a whole character on half a page, and the longest things are choosing a feat and purchasing equipment. Everything else is done in 10 minutes. I do use the compendium a lot for this, but that's just an expedient for finding every official option fast, instead of flipping through all of my books.

Since I'm so much more familiar with the rules than my players, we usually create characters together, them telling me what they want, and me finding and suggesting options for them. Afterwards I type up the character in a monster-like stat block, though we could just run with the half sheet and reference the books if we really wanted to play right now. It works really well.

I do use computers during play (a combat tracker, and the compendium), but those are luxuries I could live without, if needed.

The game is perfectly able to be run straight out of the books, if that's what you want to do. If you do, I do suggest limiting options, though - Essentials only, or Player's Handbooks and associated power books, or something like that. That'd make it easier to find things quickly.

 

[TheDave81]

Well I took my sister's character, a copy of the PHB (and Feywild book as she's a Hamadryad Witch), a printout of the blank character sheet, and re-created and leveled her character once using just a pencil and the books. Other than forgetting to add a proficiency +2 to her basic melee attack, it really wasn't a problem. Also, I doubt my players understand why their attacks and skills went up by one at level (1/2 level modifier) - are they expecting it to go up every level?

By creating the character without the builder, I actually had to understand the rules for gaining levels which I think is generally a good thing. The only problem was when it came to listing the various race and class features, feats, powers, and magical items. The character sheet provided by WOTC has places to list the names of these, but not what they actually do. Writing all of that information down is going to be a pain, so I think some digital intervention is required - either a power card creator or even excel. My friend had a program that prints out power cards with a space to erase and change attack and damage blocks (for when they change at new levels), so maybe I'll look into that.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I am not a fan of using many tools for D&D.

Yes, it is easy to forget things with 4E, but still, I try not to use computers at the table much, if at all. Our group finds it slows things down, but I know that is just my group, not all groups.

I have heard a lot about the DDI tools, but will not purchase them.

 

[S'mon]

I don't have any electronic devices at the table. I sometimes use the old offline monster builder, and the offline charbuilder for PCs.