Say what you will about microtransactions and price structures. (And believe me, there is A LOT to say.) For me, the bigger question is user experience. And when it comes to digital versus pen and paper character sheets, I find myself sympathizing with Cleric.
This one has come up for me in a recent Exalted 2e game. We’re using something called Lot-Casting Atemi for our digital character sheets, and I can see clear upsides. It gives our ST easy access to all of our character sheets, an initiative tracker, organizational tools for NPCs, and all manner of automated calculations. But from my side of the table, I am acutely aware of my own technological ineptitude.
When I was responsible for filling in my dots with a #2 pencil, it was on me to learn the system and calculate my own bonuses. Now I find that it’s easier to lean back let my character sheet learn the system for me. That means I often get lost within my powers and abilities, switching between tabs and misplacing my own stats. Compare that to the physical act of marking a page, and my information retention has plummeted! This has caused me no small amount of embarrassment.
“Roll to join battle!”
“Where’s that button again?”
“It’s in the combat tab.”
“Um… Where’s that button again?”
I never thought I’d see the day when I became the, “Let me just do that for you,” player at the table. But the refrain of, “Don’t worry. I just adjusted it for you,” has become hauntingly familiar.
Then there’s the usual patina of nostalgia. My eraser-marked laser printed heroes had character, gods dammit! You could see their battle wounds in smeared graphite and Cheetos stains. I may not miss struggling against my demon-processed PIXMA G3270 Wireless All-in-One Printer-Cappuccino Machine, but the resulting binders full of player handouts and hand-drawn portraits felt like mine.
What do the rest of you guys say? Which inconvenience are you more willing to overlook? The technological headache of the learning curve and rebuying your source books? Or the hassle of fighting the printer and doing your own calculations? Are you Team Digital or Team Analog? Let’s hear all about your favorite character sheets down in the comments!
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I am firmly on team “I prefer physical books, but will buy digital ones if the physical ones are out of print / wildly too expensive for my budget”.
No disrespect to Inventor, but I just find physical books easier to navigate and more pleasant to read. If print is a bit too fine, I have a marvelous magnifying glass with a built-in light now.
Still, if there’s some bit of gaming lore that just isn’t available (for whatever reason) in print, I will gratefully partake of digital media.
I gotta love the searchable nature of digital when it comes to rules. But when I’m trying to learn a system? No substitute for a hard copy.
Yo ho ho
That indeed seems to be the best of both worlds
Careful! Cavalier might be listening:
https://www.handbookofheroes.com/archives/comic/unconventional
I’m actually going backwards.
I practically stoped printing character sheets and started writing them in white paper with pen for the permanent parts and pencil for the variables.
Give me some more years and I will start using a sand pit, rocks and branches for battle maps.
…
Now that I write it, this could be cool actually…
I work mostly with paper sheets, I find it’s just much faster to do just about anything. Except applying buffs and other temporary changes. If you have a system that can apply these correctly, it’s a great boon.
This is useful for Pathfinder 1e and older D&D versions, but PF2e and DND5e have mostly done away with numerical buffs, so I don’t really see the point there. One of my new players was not only using dndbeyond’s character sheet, she was using it on a phone. Half a minute wait for every single roll she wanted to do. I printed it out for her.
I like digital character sheets (especially with built in dice rolling or calculations) because I’m not getting eraser marks making everything unreadable, but I *loathe* that D&D Beyond makes you re-buy all the books instead of just letting enter a number or something to prove you bought the physical copy. Between that and character mechanic customization (ie, skill training and/or feats basically every level), I’m starting to prefer playing Pathfinder 2e – the Pathbuilder website can be used completely free, and if you want something that’s behind the paid version (homebrew things or pets/familiars) it at least is fairly cheap and one-time.
What I do typically is use Pathbuilder to browse character options, then transcribe to a physical sheet so the important stuff is on 1-2 pages that are not battery powered.
I’m fine with digital — I’ve not bought print gaming books for many years, compared to many hundreds of games bought digitally. But I don’t like paying for digital material if it doesn’t involve access in perpetuity (e.g. a PDF). I have paid for _some_ material on D&DBeyond and Roll20 — because the associated tools are too useful to ignore — but I don’t like it.
Print books do have their advantages, though. Useful as it is to be able to search the contents of a PDF, it’s very hard to beat a physical book when it comes to popping in a temporary bookmark, jumping to some more bookmarked sections, then going back to where I started. My old 3.5e DM guide is still filled with old bus tickets, even though it’s been many years since paper bus tickets went out of use.
(As a complete aside, quite a lot of my bookmarks are public-transit tokens from various cities around the world… mostly from Moscow and Singapore, both of which are thin but sturdy bits of cardboard similar to a business card (of which I also have a few) and very well suited as bookmarks.)
I prefer a simple digital character sheet; nothing with multiple tabs or auto-filling derived stats or any of that fancy stuff. In fact, I usually just write out my character sheets in Wordpad. It’s basically equivalent to an old school printed sheet, but much easier to revise.
As for rulebooks, I *strongly* prefer digital. Two words: search function. For games that’re still receiving errata, you can also usually update your digital rulebooks for free.
Despite keeping my books and characters in digital format, I despise virtual tabletops. TTRPGs are best played in-person with everyone seated around a parapheralia-laden table, and I will jump through hoops to make that happen rather than resort to the convenience of playing remotely over the internet.
I see digital RPG tools falling into a couple of different domains.
I have been using digital character sheets since 3e with PCGen. It made rules compliance simpler and allowed me to deploy setting-specific source books.
I also appreciate the various VTT tools for remote play, though I feel for in-person play they are actually worse than a battlemat, dry erase and some wire templates. I suppose it is a lower barrier to entry for new players but I feel it contributes to the “tier 4 play is impossible” meme as the VTT UI becomes more of a hindrance than a help.
I am accustomed to pdf game books but I refuse to rely on cloud-hosted data, like DDB. So offline-digital is good, online-only is bad. I can appreciate the convenience of a search tool (when it works) and links embedded in complex rules to cut down flipping, but I refuse to allow a publisher to make a game system I like vanish at their whim.
I use a mix.
For some campaigns I’ll go with a nice classic paper sheet, as well as paper notes and so on – not least for the joy of the physicality.
For others I’ll go digital, through there I have a strong preference for making my own excel sheets. Sure they are considerably less fancy than the ones I could find on the internet – but in exchange *I* understand them, and putting things there help me know where to find stuff much the same as a paper sheet.
The many cells of an excell sheet is also a decent approximation for the wonderful ability paper has to let you just quickly write something in a corner or something where you can see it if need be.
It’s a lot easier to remember small conditional bonuses when I can write that I get a reroll when I finargle wallaby’s next to my finargling skill or whatever
A custom made Excell char-sheet also has the advantage that it can grow more complex if needed as the game progresses, and that the complexity can cover just what a given character need.
My Shadowrun vampire adept, can have a spot for their powers/weaknesses (both vampire and adept) and gear in addition to the basic skills+abilities everyone got, without needing a section for entering the matrix, or spellcasting or the cyberarm they don’t have – but if I get any of those later I can just add it.
This is my groups modus operandi as well, although for us its that we don’t even all live in the same country and so a google calc sheet lets us actually look at eachothers’ characters
Creature of habit. I’ve spent decades honing my layout behind my DM screen. I know where everything is on the character sheets and NPC sheets. Takes me a couple seconds to get the info I need. Even if I’m online, I’m going to have a paper character sheet in front of me with all the pertinent information. Set up in a way that’s easy for ME to use. Same with dice. If the DM doesn’t require virtual dice rolls, I’m going to be rolling my dice on camera.
It’s not that I’m not willing to learn the systems, just after all these decades I know what works best for me.
If a digital character sheet requires me to repurchase sourcebooks, forget about it.
If it’s designed so that the program itself doesn’t need to know any details from the sourcebooks, or if it lets me somehow import stuff I’ve bought, or if it’s an unofficial fan program which lets me repirate the sourcebooks? It’s handy. I don’t have to worry about losing it or erasing and rewriting everything or accidentally throwing it into the campfire like my brother did with one of his character sheets…
While my college-age son and his friends use online resources for in-person and remote gaming, I’m a white-bearded, tabletop guy. Many of his friends now stop by periodically for old-school gaming. As a former tech writer, I’m confident I can create a better layout for a paper-and-pencil character sheet than anything we can buy or download, anyway.
As for books, I love being able to go to my shelf and pull out a volume for a quick consultation or having a print copy for someone to consult at the table. That said, I have far more rule books in PDF format than I could ever afford if I had acquired them through more –conventional– methods.
I’m reminded of the Battle Network system I’m running. I once attempted to code up a few minor utilities for fun and quality of life. First step was trying to decipher the digital character sheet. That wound up getting scrapped simply because I was not willing to put up with deciphering Excel code. (My kingdom for a variable name!)
I have, in the years since DnDBeyond came out, become team digital for character sheets and books for two simple reasons:
– one: it is so much faster and easier to let the system do maths for you, and sometimes the maths are so complex (multiclassing) that you just don’t want to even consider how it all works and trust the machine
– two: for an altoholic like myself, having entire books worth of literal character sheets (and all their magic spells and gear, etc), versus just having them all organized (and at the click of a button reorganized in a different way and rereorganized in yet another way, etc!) is just too convenient to pass up. Not to mention having every single book available at your finger tips with a handy and easy to use search system (that actually works now days… the early days of that search engine were so bad it wouldn’t even get you the results from the core rulebooks first!) and not having to carry pounds of books in a bag straining under the weight…
the advantages so far out weigh the disadvantages that you get 3 dice to roll not just 2. You get a stupid math rock rule joke for free!
But speaking of math rocks, there is no substitute for rolling actual physical dice. Even when the numbers are easier, and you can “trust” the RNG system to deliver actual results that are properly random, the pure joy of picking up every dice necessary and rolling them in your prefered method onto the surface of your choice and feeling them in your hands before hearing them clatter down and come to a fixed point in space time (minus that one that always gets cocked… respect the cock) – there is no feeling that can simulate that experience and if I can, I will always choose physical dice over digital rolling.
I’ve only ever used digital, because a) I don’t own a printer and b) all my games are online.
Ah, yes… *purchase* my digital sourcebooks…
So, digital is a lot easier for making sure that everyone has access to the books. Just give them access to your Google Drive, and you’re off to the races. But for actually creating the characters, I have to say having an analogue book to pass around, flip through, and show precisely what you’re looking at and what’s around it… well, it just feels a lot better than having a dozen open tabs in your browser devoted to all the things you need to reference quickly.
Few things beat the feel of a book in dead tree format, but I am comfortable with dealing with the digital sphere. Lunch Tossing Academy can be a but of a struggle at time though.
I see your Lunch Tossing Academy and raise you a Clot Basting Ignominy.
I got an hybrid approach. While gaming i think physical stuff is much better. Taking a book and search for a section, filling paper sheet. While gaming. rest of the time, while studying a game, reading lore, brainstorming builds, shopping for spells or cyberware i prefer digital format. While playing having physical stuff is easier since it’s concrete tangible things. You know what book you are grabbing, you know more or less how much pages to skip to find what you are looking for. On my pc i got a hoard, the dragon kind, of RPG books, yet i prefer to only focus on a single thing at the time on the screen. So with physical books is much easier if i am checking and comparing two rulebooks and my sheet. That said i very much love physical books, digital ones are better for a dragon hoard, but the physical book is su much fun 😀
During character ideation, getting to quickly click through links is fantastic. At the table, enough things happen that go out of the rules, or need fiddling, that paper is my preferred. Plus, when you have a computer, something about the screen, it’s easy to get wrapped up in, even if you’re just pouring over tabs in your sheet. Paper sheets tend to be “boring” enough that players focus, and plus, if you do want to be enamored by your paper sheet, that’s when you sketch out a character portrait, and I love the little bits of art I’ve doodled over the years.
Call me “cross-classed” between Warforged and Cleric…
I prefer all digital books, I went digital for space and ease of moving twentyish years ago, but I vastly prefer physical character sheets and “doing the maths” myself. Not that I don’t trust machines (I make my character sheets in Open Office), but I prefer to make sure any errors on them are mine, and not some other idiot’s (the programmer who programmed the app).
I like both. It’s nice having the books so that you always have them. A book doesn’t disappear if a website goes under. But searching for things on a website is a lot easier.
My character sheets are all on Myth-Weavers, though I have printed out backups.
With the shenanigans going on right now, switching back to paper just to preserve your purchases if nothing else is becoming quite appealing.
As someone who primarily plays 5e, the tools that are available for it online are impossible not to use.
To clarify though, I am NOT talking about DnDBeyond. How can I recommend a site that actively removes content from their digital formats and makes it impossible to access the original information? Heck, they didn’t even REPLACE the information, they just outright removed it, gave basically no option to access the old version, and even preventing the old version from being automatically updated against my will required that I back up the file directly, and make it read only so it couldn’t be edited.
I’m talking about a place that allows you to sort through every book available for 5e, both by searching AND filtering pretty much any combination of criteria. Want to figure out the best spells to take for your warlock dip that won’t overlap with your primary wizard levels? Just select Warlock spells, 1st level, and tell it to exclude wizard spells.
It’s even great for newbies, because they can skip the big huge book and parse their list down to JUST the current spell level they’re gaining, and specify that they’re looking for a non-concentration spell. Or when they’re picking a feat they can see JUST the ones that give a charisma bonus or something and not have to go wading through every single option.
I’d be more clear about what site I was talking about, but even mentioning this much got me kicked from the DnD subreddit. If the official options can’t get their crap together, then I’ll be making Johnny Depp jealous.
As someone who plays exclusively online since 2014, I do see the drawbacks of digital stuff, however I can also see the pros – being able to play with people from three different countries, for example. For me, the other option would be not playing at all, cause I wouldn’t find a group speaking a language I can comfortably use within 5-6 hours of drive. And while theoretically we could still use paper sheets (heck, we still usually use physical dice), we have new players, and it’s so much easier to go through the sheets or character creation/ leveling up when we can also see the same sheet at the same time… and there’s also the case of no more “shit, I left my sheet in my other bag…” nonsense.
So, if you still have the luxury of being able to play around a table in the same room, sure, printed sheets are awesome. But there are situations where they are actually the worse choice.
Unless it’s an online game, physical sheets only. MAYBE a digital copy for backup.
I’m in the process of making my own system specifically to run on roll20 with the support of macros, so I’m very much in the ‘digital tools are good’ camp, but I don’t believe they should be mandatory if they don’t need to be.
Also, having played a couple of PF2e games with my incredibly stupid and slow brain, my GM setting up my character sheet on Foundry is basically the only reason I was able to join her game, for which I am very grateful, so I guess I’m pretty pro-digital all around.
The way my game is designed to be run with roll20 is that its inspired by Pokemon, Digimon, and old JRPGs like Golden Sun, so the math can get a little… Complex
&{template:default} {{Ember Shot}} {{*A small and brief but intense blast of flames, characteristic of a juvenile dragon.*}} {{Range: 5 ft.}} {{[[1d100+@{selected|ATK}]] To Hit vs. [[20+@{target|token_id|DEF}]] Defense}} {{[[round((5+1d10)*(@{selected|ATK}/10))]] Physical Fire Damage}}
I wish I could find a conservation copy stand designed to work with a phone
I’m with Cleric. PDFs stink, hard copies are where it’s at.
The amount of times that I’ve lost completed character sheets to computer glitches is small, but not unnoticeable. The amount of times I’ve lost paper sheets is less than that, and recoverable. I stand against the mighty flow of digitalization, with crinkled paper as my shield and mechanical pencils my sword.
… I do use online sources for making characters, though. It’s nice to have the whole spell list and other resources compiled for my pleasure. But it’s only digital to paper, never in reverse.
I’ve always been technically inclined, so I’m pretty well adapted to the digital format of character sheets. Of course, this comes at the cost of my handwriting being absolutely terrible.
My compromise, primarily due to lack of printer, is to use a PDF character sheet. It exists digitally, with the convenience of access that entails, but dodges the need to actually pay for/work around a proper digitized version of a system, or the issue of having your character sheet build itself to the point where you’re not familiar with it. Some redundant filling in of text boxes required, but, well, no more than a paper sheet, I’d wager.
The greater issue is that, among my table of gamers using either that or an actual official digital sheet, simply having our laptops and tablets in front of us at all times is a boon (and a necessity when we’re using a digital battlemap) and a curse of easy distractability.
The distractability thing is so friggin’ true. My Dragon Age GM despairs at all the GIFs that show up in the #random-bullshit-and-memes channel when he’s dragon to dramatically monologue.