Tablets and Roll20

I'm thinking about getting myself a Tablet, and I figured I ask people here for their experience with it. I decided to do that here and not on a general forum for Tablets, since one of the main reasons I want to get it is so that I can work on my Campaign here on Roll20 or read PDFs (rulebooks, etc) while on the train to work. So here's a question or two: 1) Is Roll20 easily useable with a tablet, as a GM to build and manage a campaign (not to run it, just prepare stuff) 2) I'd think a 10 inch display is at least needed for this, or is a 7/8 inch good too? 3) Are PDFs like the Pathfinder Rulebooks/Adventure Paths etc. easily readable on tablets? 4) On a general forum I read that a tablet should have at least Full HD resolution, if not more, even if it's just an 8 or 10 inch one. Can someone confirm that for Roll20 or PDF reading? Thanks :)

I have a Samsung tab2 7 inch display. 1: it is not bad if you are not using graphics (maps and minis), I don't know of the various problem areas have been worked on in the last year since I was a subscriber. There was problems with the zooming with touch (finger slide aspect), selecting tokens and moving them, and some other stuff that dealt with the pop menus. 2: the larger the display the easier it will be for you to use. I feel the 7/8 inch display is the smallest even think of trying to use on roll20 to prep. if you are playing text games then a 7 inch is ok. 3: I've been reading pdfs for years on my tablet with ease. I have about 10 gigs worth of books on it at this time. 4: Not sure about the HD part but the better the resolution, the easier it is to read. Another thing, some of the features did not work for me back then either. Tokbox was the primary one. Google hangouts is still wonky and I have yet to get it to work for me. I have android 4.2 on my tablet.

I have tried it, and I do not feel tablets are sufficient for use as a GM. A large enough tablet can be usable as a player, though. I have a 10.5" tablet, and I personally feel that it's close to the lower limit of what I could stand. Most e-books (PDF or other) should be easy to read on any tablet on the market, no problem. Image-heavy books might cause trouble for certain devices (older Kindles, for example), but tablets shouldn't have issue. My tablet has an HD screen, but I haven't tried doing anything with a low-resolution screen, so I can't comment on the difference.

To point 1) It's not that I want to RUN my game from the tablet. I'll be using my PC for that. I'll even do most of the prepwork on the PC I bet. But often enough I get in the situation where i'm doing everything last-minute, and if I could do stuff while on the train or something, that would give me additional time, even if it's not perfect and optimal. 2) I only really looked at them for a short time in a store and the 7/8 inch ones felt like slightly oversized smartphones to me, so my instinct tells me 10" at least, but I read enough tests now saying that 10 inch can get heavy and uncomfortably after a while, so I'm not sure. I guess I'll hit the store again and see if they let me try out a few of them, maybe let me log onto Roll20 or so to see how it feels, or let me read a PDF or watch a movie.

The case I bought for my tablet has a built-in bluetooth keyboard, so if need be I can treat it as a miniature laptop. (Since my actual laptop has broken down, that's what I do when I'm on vacation.) It's certainly easier to type into chat that way! I occasionally read novels on my tablet, and I don't find it any more uncomfortable than any other reading device (Kindle, dead tree, smoke signal etc.); I shift positions every so often when I become uncomfortable, but I do that with about the same frequency regardless of the device I'm using.

I know my tablet, Nexus 7 runs Roll20 flawlessly, but it has no control/alt buttons so copy/paste and minute movement aren't possible for me. PDFs are kind of small, but readable and you can enlarge the font/view as you read it. Not sure about your mini-keyboard, but if I had one and it had ctrl/alt I would be using it :)

Chris, there are some very inexpensive bluetooth keyboards out there, I don't really like tablets, but find they are much better with a keyboard.

I use a Samsung Galaxy Note 10" tablet, the kind designed for its own custom Wacom "S Pen", not the newest one that was just released, but the last generation model. I put together my own artwork in a drawing program and then upload it to my library using the browser, and I absolutely LOVE that I can do this. I've tried further campaign building on the tablet, but now I do all the rest on my PC. Importing library images onto a map using the tablet is sometimes glitchy, requiring I close and reopen the tab. Trying to select text boxes in an attempt to input stats is finicky - they're very small. Getting tokens to understand that you want to select them, and not edit their sizes, causes me to grind my teeth. To attempt this without a precision stylus... I'd throw things. Nothing is *broken*, and if you've got the time to spend being patient with it, it's not really a big deal. Myself, I don't have the time (or patience) :) Mind you, this is an older model tablet and I haven't tested out other browsers, so my issues could be my own software and hardware. I think tablet support is Beta and either way, I trust they'll get it working more smoothly. But, for now, I do my campaign building on the PC.

you should also keep in mind that you won't get any jukebox audio on your tablet. our group has several tablets joined in the game and it's actually handy that none of them get the music.