D&D General What are your D&D gaming practices?

[Stormonu]

By this poll, over half the respondents play mainly at the table and thus would have considerably less, if any, need for DDB or other online platforms.

I play at a table and use DDB as my character sheet (on my iPad). I can imagine others using their phone or a tablet in a similar fashion.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

NGL, it's a little funny that the "Please check this box to count total votes" has fewer votes than "I hang out on ENWorld", but even that doesn't have 100%. Only 91.9% (as of this post).

Kinda hard to select some answers, but I did what I could to cover the nuances.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

i didn't include level up or pathfinder info in my answers since this is a dnd 5e question, or at least one answer would have been different. as for youtubers i watch, i keep up with xptolevel3, and i don't so much watch pointyhat as much as i raid his video descriptions for interesting dnd concepts (death march is cool as hell). zachthebold is my favourite tho. good skits, good energy

 

[Clint_L]

Only source i'we found on internet is that DDB has 20 million users in total, including active, inactive and alternate accounts. Compared to global D&D player base, that's drop in the ocean.

So first off, Chris Cocks just stated that most D&D players use DDB. Also, Hasbro has reported that DDB now accounts for most of their D&D sales. So those two facts reinforce each other.

Secondly, 20 million active users is highly unlikely, given that the last number we saw for D&D's entire player base was 50 million people over the entire existence of D&D***, which was misquoted by one source as being 50 million current players and then the misquote was widely cited all over the internet. Your drop in the ocean comment is confusing...if you think 20 million players would be a drop in the ocean of the D&D player base, just how big do you think that player base is, and what is your source?

I would be surprised if the current entire player base is 20 million, let alone those using DDB. There might be 20 million accounts on it, though I would like to see a source on that, but even if so, 20 million accounts is a lot different than 20 million active players. For example, just looking at my D&D club, of the hundreds of students who have made accounts, probably only around a quarter are still active. Quite a few try it and then quit.

***Also, if you look at how that original number was framed by Hasbro, they didn't even use the word "played," instead describing it as 50 million people having "interacted" with D&D over its life, which could mean almost anything. Keeping in mind that the vast majority of the D&D player base is in Canada, the US, and (to a lesser degree) Britain does anyone think that 50 million+ people are currently actively playing D&D? That seems HIGHLY unlikely, and the game would be WAY more profitable if it were true.

 

[Clint_L]

Can you unpack what you mean by this last sentence, please? (I don't use DDB.)

I mean that there's a lot of negativity towards using online tools generally and DDB specifically on this forum. Which is not surprising because this forum skews way older than the D&D player base.

 

[Clint_L]

By this poll, over half the respondents play mainly at the table and thus would have considerably less, if any, need for DDB or other online platforms.

I don't understand why you don't think DDB is just as useful in live play. In fact, even if I didn't use DDB for games at all, it would be more than worth its subscription cost just for the hours I save in prep. But I play most of my games live, and DDB is indispensable for me.

 

[Echohawk]

There might be 20 million accounts on it, though I would like to see a source on that, but even if so, 20 million accounts is a lot different than 20 million active players.

From Thanking Our Community for a Great 2024 (Dec 20, 2024):

 

[GrimCo]

So first off, Chris Cocks just stated that most D&D players use DDB. Also, Hasbro has reported that DDB now accounts for most of their D&D sales. So those two facts reinforce each other.

Secondly, 20 million active users is highly unlikely, given that the last number we saw for D&D's entire player base was 50 million people over the entire existence of D&D***, which was misquoted by one source as being 50 million current players and then the misquote was widely cited all over the internet. Your drop in the ocean comment is confusing...if you think 20 million players would be a drop in the ocean of the D&D player base, just how big do you think that player base is, and what is your source?

I would be surprised if the current entire player base is 20 million, let alone those using DDB. There might be 20 million accounts on it, though I would like to see a source on that, but even if so, 20 million accounts is a lot different than 20 million active players. For example, just looking at my D&D club, of the hundreds of students who have made accounts, probably only around a quarter are still active. Quite a few try it and then quit.

***Also, if you look at how that original number was framed by Hasbro, they didn't even use the word "played," instead describing it as 50 million people having "interacted" with D&D over its life, which could mean almost anything. Keeping in mind that the vast majority of the D&D player base is in Canada, the US, and (to a lesser degree) Britain does anyone think that 50 million+ people are currently actively playing D&D? That seems HIGHLY unlikely, and the game would be WAY more profitable if it were true.

Their metric for player base is sales numbers. Which is probably best they can do. And they focus on 5ed. There are groups out there that still play TSR editions and 3.x/PF1 is still very popular game. Not to mention, with things like pfsrd and archives of nethys, which are online for well over a decade, and provide free rules, there are bunch of people who are players but not customers. And let's not forget, even before that, there were torrent and warez sites with pirated books, primarily hosted in good old eastern europe, with downloads mainly from eastern europe, south america and south east asia.

So in a way, yes. UK/USA/Canada are primary markets, if you look at customer base, not player base. Those two are overlapping but aren't same.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

NGL, it's a little funny that the "Please check this box to count total votes" has fewer votes than "I hang out on ENWorld", but even that doesn't have 100%. Only 91.9% (as of this post).

People choosing option A as "show me the results" whilst choosing not to participate in the survey.

 

[SkidAce]

I mean that there's a lot of negativity towards using online tools generally and DDB specifically on this forum. Which is not surprising because this forum skews way older than the D&D player base.

Which perplexes me...did we lose our edgy experimental fringe edgeness that we had when we played Redbox or AD&D back in the day? We were so innovative...I typed blank character sheets into an electronic typewriter and saved it to memory* to print out as needed.

I am one of the elders around here, and use Beyond copiously. (granted I may show my era by the fact that I get a physical book for every book I get on Beyond)


*apparantly I didnt know the difference between volatile and stored memory, but I found out aftet it got unplugged.




.