The price of streaming vs out right owning

[Umbran]

I can see that, though I'm the exact opposite. I like (a) Being able to excise what I want to have it when I need it and (b) to be able to easily index and search for references electronically.

I personally still find looking things up in a physical book less disruptive to my engagement with players than turning to a computer to do the same thing.

 

[chuckdee]

I guess it really depends on your workflow when GMing. My tablet is basically my screen and where I keep notes rather than having a GM screen or any other references, so it works well for me. But if you're not already using it, I can see that.

 

[payn]

I guess it really depends on your workflow when GMing. My tablet is basically my screen and where I keep notes rather than having a GM screen or any other references, so it works well for me. But if you're not already using it, I can see that.

Im the same. I ditched my GM screen for a laptop. I was also able to ditch a pile of books and other unnecessary clutter to make running easier.

Though, ive met a few "lookin in books is faster" folks. They gave up after the tenth time of taking about 5X longer than me to just do a digital search.

 

[Umbran]

Though, ive met a few "lookin in books is faster" folks. They gave up after the tenth time of taking about 5X longer than me to just do a digital search.

So, with respect, the condescension here is really annoying. Speed-of-lookup alone is not the relevant metric, which Is why I spoke in terms of engagement with players, which is the real job of the GM.

My most recent campaign was D&D 5e - The Wild beyond the Witchlight. I had the Beadle and Grimm's Silver Edition as a physical copy, and D&D Beyond with an electronic copy, and all the PC characters and game rules in D&D Beyond. Plus, I was working with Syrinscape to run soundtrack - so the laptop was going to be there regardless. It was a prime moment for me to move to all-digital reference, but... it just didn't work that way.

For example, every time I needed to work map-and-key, the physical copy was superior - because I could have the map(s) on the back of my screen, and the key and room descriptions laid out in front of me - an effective real-estate several times what my 17" laptop could produce. When I tried, any gains I may have made from the supposedly faster electronic lookup were lost in flipping among windows and tabs trying to correlate different elements in realtime. Map in one tab, monster stat block in another, room description in a third, spell effect lookup in a fourth...

It got old, really fast.

 

[chuckdee]

Which is the reason I intentionally said it depends on your workflow, so I hope you know I wasn't on that boat of your way is worse. Do whatever works better for you in all things is something that I try to live by in order to be accepting and open to different ways of doing things, that might actually turn out to be better once you're open to it.

 

[payn]

Which is the reason I intentionally said it depends on your workflow, so I hope you know I wasn't on that boat of your way is worse. Do whatever works better for you in all things is something that I try to live by in order to be accepting and open to different ways of doing things, that might actually turn out to be better once you're open to it.

Yeap, I feel the same.

I owe an apology to @Umbran, I didn’t mean every person who uses physical books is doing it wrong. I’ve had a number of players at my personal table that I was referring to, and not meaning a general statement about physical book users. So, I apologize for that.