Techies! Using DND Beyond on Tablets? Thoughts?

[Doc_Klueless]

I recently purchased the Legendary whatchamacallit bundle on DnD Beyond because I have money and little willpower.

Anyone using this at the table on tablets? I've sideloaded it onto my Kindle Fire and like it, but... BUT. I've yet to use it for actual... uh... use. So I was wondering what others who have been using it at the table think of it.

Reason I was asking is that I was thinking of using the Kindle Fires (8 inch HD) that I won at a charity auction to load it on and give to each of my players once I start playing/running face to face again. But if it is more trouble than it's worth, I'll skip the work.

Thoughts? Experiences? Random jibberings?

(Yes, I asked this on another board. But the population of both are not necessarily the same and probably aren't except in a Venn Diagram sort of way.)

 

[cbwjm]

I've used it on my phone which has something like a 4 inch screen and it worked okay. It would likely be better on a screen twice the size since I had to flick through half a dozen pages to find the relevant section but the site is dynamic and will likely adjust to a better fit on the kindle fire.

After a while I did find myself wanting to use a paper sheet, this was more for ease of adding notes and found equipment more than anything else since if a found a scroll, I would have to either homebrew up the specific scroll or add a note in the equipment section.

All in all, I think it is worth using but you might find some people prefer pen and paper.

 

[Oofta]

I look up spells, monsters and miscellaneous rules all the time. It's a lot easier than flipping through books and I'm lazy.

I also use it to build my characters, but to be honest I transfer to a spreadsheet that I wrote a while back and print that out to actually play with. There are just too many gaps on what the built-in sheet gives you if you're playing anything more complex than a human fighter. Besides, I can't be bothered to follow links because lazy.

I use it when DMing sometimes, especially when I want to add that monster on the fly and tell my players I forgot to write it's stats down in my notes.

There are still some gaps (DM/encounter/campaign tools) and the character sheet like I said leaves something to be desired. So not perfect, but I use it extensively. I use it both on my laptop and my phone.

 

[Asgorath]

I bought the Legendary Bundle as soon as D&D Beyond was launched, and share all the content via the Master Tier subscription. Everyone at our table uses it, we have 3 people (including myself, our DM and one other player) on laptops and the other 2 use tablets (one iPad and one Samsung). I use a laptop because I take extensive notes in OneNote, and take care of looking up rules etc. All in all, I've been really happy with it, the ability to search through all the books is fantastic. The original version of the digital character sheet definition has some rough edges, but the revamped version looks great and I think it'll make things even better. You can see the progress of that in their monthly development updates on YouTube, the latest one is here:

https://youtu.be/_jrf3MWsxwo?t=26m39s

 

[MNblockhead]

I didn't buy the legendary bundle, but I have all the rulebooks, but the only AP I bought is Curse of Strahd.

As a DM I use it all the time to look up spells and monsters. Usually on a small laptop. But it is nice to have all the core rulebooks on my phone, whether online or offline. That is the main benefit of DnD Beyond for me.

As a player, I've used it to juggle multiple characters on an iPhone, but I find the online character sheet clunky to use at the table and am looking forward to the redesign. But D&D Beyond's printable character sheet is awful.

My older son, however, ONLY uses DnD Beyond for his character sheet and he also enjoys creating his own monsters and magic items. He uses an iPad.

I don't have a Kindle, but if it offers an HTML5 compliance browser than I think it will be just fine. The only thing you won't have is offline access--unless they released a Kindle app that I'm not aware of.

 

[ArwensDaughter]

I use it on my iPad, both as a DM and, occasionally as a player. At times it can be slow, but that may be more due to the age of my iPad and/or the wifi bandwidth where I play. Find it very handy.

If your players are tech averse, or slow to adapt to change, you might want to wait to have them use it until the character sheet revamp is released, as the character sheet will look VERY different when that happens. (From everything I've seen, it will be a huge improvement)

 

[Demetrios1453]

I recently purchased the Legendary whatchamacallit bundle on DnD Beyond because I have money and little willpower.

Anyone using this at the table on tablets? I've sideloaded it onto my Kindle Fire and like it, but... BUT. I've yet to use it for actual... uh... use. So I was wondering what others who have been using it at the table think of it.

Reason I was asking is that I was thinking of using the Kindle Fires (8 inch HD) that I won at a charity auction to load it on and give to each of my players once I start playing/running face to face again. But if it is more trouble than it's worth, I'll skip the work.

Thoughts? Experiences? Random jibberings?

(Yes, I asked this on another board. But the population of both are not necessarily the same and probably aren't except in a Venn Diagram sort of way.)

I use D&DB on my 8" Amazon Fire all the time. As long as you have a good wifi connection, it works great. When I DM, it's awesome to be able to pull up multiple monsters without having to page through the MM, or to look up a spell or magic item. But it really shines when I'm playing instead of DMing - I can organize and reference my spells; keep track of spells cast, item charges, the party's funds, and hit points lost and gained; immediately track changes after short and long rests; and leveling up is amazingly quick and efficient.