I was quite skeptical and resistant. I'm now totally converted and an enthusiastic fan. Please note that I'm speaking mostly as a DM here.
It's very cost-effective, circumstantially, if you go all-in. I have the high-end subscription, which has content sharing. I DM for three groups. Most of my players do not own the books (some are students and really can't afford them). With content sharing turned on for all three campaigns, 16 people have legal, complete, free access to literally every 5E book.
I also have the "total package" for content (or whatever it's called) which not only gives you a huge discount when you initially purchase it, but also a 15% discount on all future products as they become available - a discount which stacks with other codes (such as the ones announced on Critical Role). As a result, I basically got 4 or 5 of the books completely free.
Yes, I bought digital copies of some books which I already owned in hardcover. Just as I don't expect to be issued a copy of Star Wars in every possible medium simply because I bought in on VHS in the early 90s, I also don't expect to be given a free digital copy in 2018 of the Player's Handbook I bought in hardcopy three years before this platform existed. But I own MKT and WDH only on DNDBeyond and will likely never buy them in hardcopy (same with Ravnica and UoMM). DNDBeyond is the cheapest way to legally buy the content, and you get access to it on launch day (same day as FLGS).
Ease-of-use. I DM three campaigns and play in a fourth. None are at my apartment. i now no longer have to haul half a dozen hardcover books to all of these games; just my laptop. Also, cross-referencing rules and stats is just a matter of mousing over a hotlink instead of flipping through multiple sections of multiple books. In a complicated adventure this is a huge benefit as a DM. Also, I live in an apartment in NY and it's just generally space-saving not to have to have all the books.
The character sheet. DNDBeyond's exportable printable PDF character sheet was terrible initially, but it's now much improved. It STILL doesn't have some of the virtues of the 3rd party free products it DMCA'd (MPMB's spell sheet is still much better than the DNDBeyond version, for example) but they're getting there and I find the current version quite usable at the table.
What they should do:
- Keep improving the character sheet.
- Partner with DMsGuild to sell DMsGuild adventures & other content formatted for DND Beyond
- Add a sub-based VTT component (currently, if you run games on VTT, there is really no reason to go with DNDBeyond. Just use Roll20)
- Offline support for character sheets
- Much, much better mobile app is needed
It's very cost-effective, circumstantially, if you go all-in. I have the high-end subscription, which has content sharing. I DM for three groups. Most of my players do not own the books (some are students and really can't afford them). With content sharing turned on for all three campaigns, 16 people have legal, complete, free access to literally every 5E book.
I also have the "total package" for content (or whatever it's called) which not only gives you a huge discount when you initially purchase it, but also a 15% discount on all future products as they become available - a discount which stacks with other codes (such as the ones announced on Critical Role). As a result, I basically got 4 or 5 of the books completely free.
Yes, I bought digital copies of some books which I already owned in hardcover. Just as I don't expect to be issued a copy of Star Wars in every possible medium simply because I bought in on VHS in the early 90s, I also don't expect to be given a free digital copy in 2018 of the Player's Handbook I bought in hardcopy three years before this platform existed. But I own MKT and WDH only on DNDBeyond and will likely never buy them in hardcopy (same with Ravnica and UoMM). DNDBeyond is the cheapest way to legally buy the content, and you get access to it on launch day (same day as FLGS).
Ease-of-use. I DM three campaigns and play in a fourth. None are at my apartment. i now no longer have to haul half a dozen hardcover books to all of these games; just my laptop. Also, cross-referencing rules and stats is just a matter of mousing over a hotlink instead of flipping through multiple sections of multiple books. In a complicated adventure this is a huge benefit as a DM. Also, I live in an apartment in NY and it's just generally space-saving not to have to have all the books.
The character sheet. DNDBeyond's exportable printable PDF character sheet was terrible initially, but it's now much improved. It STILL doesn't have some of the virtues of the 3rd party free products it DMCA'd (MPMB's spell sheet is still much better than the DNDBeyond version, for example) but they're getting there and I find the current version quite usable at the table.
What they should do:
- Keep improving the character sheet.
- Partner with DMsGuild to sell DMsGuild adventures & other content formatted for DND Beyond
- Add a sub-based VTT component (currently, if you run games on VTT, there is really no reason to go with DNDBeyond. Just use Roll20)
- Offline support for character sheets
- Much, much better mobile app is needed