Besides the Official Content that is already published by Wizards on Beyond, the other tools are frankly already available for free. Sure it may be more convenient for it to be all in one place, but unless Wizards plans to release new official content regularly, there's no sense in a monthly subscription.
Like I said, the other features and the convenience of having them all in one place definitely adds value to Beyond and I would be willing to pay for Beyond at a one-time rate (like I would with the core rule books) but there's nothing about Beyond that strikes me as warranting a monthly subscription.
Agreed. But I'm concerned how this is going to go. We already have some evidence of how WotC wants to handle electronic assets through Fantasy Grounds and Roll20. The last thing I want to do is have to pay full price (plus a subscription) here, full price on Roll20, and full price for the physical media. I don't mind paying *something* but I feel like this would be what makes me decide not to use the software, if it came to that.
To me the feature that will set this apart from everything else is the campaign management tool. If it's robust enough for me to completely forgo cutting and pasting (sometimes literally) creatures, traps, encounters, flavor text etc and allow me to easily manage a campaign or adventure from a tablet or laptop, it's an instant buy.
I'd happily pay 10$/mo, or buy a year for a discounted price, like the DDI subscription of old. As long as it has Unearthed Arcana content as soon after an article coming out as possible, or even before, full access to all features and content, etc.
I'd also be happy to buy content on the service a la carte, as long as it's a one time and you own it forever thing, and the price is reasonable.
I am in the camp that likes "One Price upfront". However, I cannot see this becoming a reality, due to books being constantly released. Having said that, I am not a fan of a subscription based model either.
What I think would work well is to have D&D Beyond be free to use with having access to the SRD and everything in the free basic PDFs from the WotC website. Then charge a one time fee per book that you want to add.
The only issue I see here is that I personally like having the physical books, but access to a nice digital tool could prove to be useful as well. Then you run into the issue of having to pay twice for the content you want. That, my friends, is a bit of a bummer, but there may be a workaround developed for that as well. What that workaround may be, I don't know. Perhaps if you can find a way to prove that you purchased the physical book, then you could add that content at a greatly reduced price, or for free.
Some users have mentioned the idea of inserting codes into the books. While I initially thought that may work, it left me with three glaring holes in the thought process
Hole number one is what if someone goes into a store and copies down the code to use at home?
Hole number two is what if you buy the books used, such as off of an auction site or forum?I mean, you have legally purchased the physical books, and therefore (if there was a reduction in price for those users) you should be eligible to take advantage of the (theoretical) discount.
Hole number three is, of course, those books that were printed and purchased before any codes were inserted?
As you can see, while the idea is nice, there are several difficulties to try to deal with when using a coded book system.
Sigh...I will rack my brain to try to come up with some other ideas.
I would rather pay a reasonable, pay plan subscription for all the content I could need/want than shell out $49.95 AGAIN to use the material in a book I already paid. I'd suppose homebrew stuff could be pay-per-item, if it makes things easier, and Unearthed Arcana might have it's own content plan, but I wouldn't use more than the basic SRD stuff if using Volo's Guide, or accessing Curse of Strahd stat blocks is going to cost me the same as the book itself! please bear that in mind!
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I'm not - nor was I ever - your "obstacle" until you've deemed me as such, nor am I your wallet, my hard earnt money is not yours by deault.
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Honestly I really want this to work, If they are able to keep a single edition around for a while and keep money flowing (by providing a service with value) then they don't have to make DND [6E] so make money again.
WIth 3.5 and 4th they just kept releasing books till the rule base was so broken that they finally had to start over. (IMHO)
This pretty much happened with 2nd ed. as well. A lot of the end of the 2nd ed. stuff is where the 3rd ed. stuff came from.
I like a pay by month feature. I may go hard on great D&D for a while and then go into a new game of a different kind... I'd rather spend for a more or less active account, given that this is only one of many games rather than have it force me to think "well, I'm already vested in D&D, do I want to change games" because that might not win out.
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Some users have mentioned the idea of inserting codes into the books. While I initially thought that may work, it left me with three glaring holes in the thought process
Hole number one is what if someone goes into a store and copies down the code to use at home?
Hole number two is what if you buy the books used, such as off of an auction site or forum?I mean, you have legally purchased the physical books, and therefore (if there was a reduction in price for those users) you should be eligible to take advantage of the (theoretical) discount.
Hole number three is, of course, those books that were printed and purchased before any codes were inserted?
Problem #1 can be solved by sealing the code, like in an envelope inside the front cover or something. It doesn't remove the possibility of it being stolen, but it means you can physically check if the code is still sealed before purchasing.
As for Problem #2, the previous owner might have sold their physical copy, but still retained their digital copy, which is where things get weird with digital content rights.
I am not sure what I would be paying for beyond the central portal for content to be delivered.
I already own [BOOK/MATERIAL]
While it doesn't apply to everyone, it's a common enough point out for people when it comes to paying for content.
Though currently, the site isn't offering information that isn't available on other sites, since the site isn't /offering/ the PHB or others, they are offering the content and info from the books, which so far as a DM a quick google and websites suchs as Orcpub, Donjan, 5eSRD etc, which are offering the information (Again, via extrat not actually as the PHB or other books directly)
Charachter Sheets
This for me is going to be a make or break, as again there are already lots of options when it comes to creating these, some sites offer partial dynamic sheets with when adding certain items they change your stats etc, but the majority take a one-way approach for every class, so extra details such as superiority die, bardic inspiration etc are side notes to be tracked. I have put togeather a Template google sheet that has every magic item/item/home brew/Class & UA classes, feats etc that works in a dynamic way, and there are others online (For free) so the payment part I see here is simply the storage of that data (which could either be handled via linking to a GDrive similar to "Beyond Tabletop" which offers homebrew content and sheet creation (though they charge a 1 time fee for full access)
Monthly Homebrew content
Art/Sound/.Stories etc I could see having value, the issue is in what format and ease of application. The most common online tool being Roll20 has terrible support for the implementation of external assets that you don't buy from their own website. So unless DnDBeyond is going to offer an on-site way of being able to use this content (Something like a basic map editor for creating content etc) than like other sites that offer material it's going to be a hard buy to justify.. (That and with the Homebrew option on the site, there is going to be tons of user-generated content too)
What I personally would justify purchasing and/or subscribing too.
I feel the goal of DNDBeyond is to act as a central place for DND related content, which is great, however, if the site went one step further and truly made common things, such as Character sheets, Map creation, Group finding, Text-based-campaigns and a portal for Homebrew-content to shine, then that's something worth sticking too.
My current concern is, the website (Though it's only Beta 1) will just be another way to look things up, homebrew will be managed the same way the current D&DWiki is (By that I mean, a mess) and it will have some tools like combat tracking on offer, but nothing actually new or enriching the DND Experience by adding more intuitive tools (Maps/Character creation/Encounter Building/Group finding etc) that don't already exist on other websites offered for free.
I don't want to pay for the content I already have. If this is kinda being modeled on the web stuff WotC did with 4E, I'm here for that, subscriptions gets you all the published content forever. I don't want to have to repurchase Volo's and SCAG and Curse of Strahd. I favor the one time fee personally, in that I want something I can trust to be around even if I drift from 5E for a little bit. I'm sure we all have game groups fall apart and want to play but can't for a few months. I wouldn't want to be paying to keep up my account in that way, even though a one time fee would be much more expensive than a monthly/yearly subscription.
This said, I am happy that there is a free model and an optional paid bit. D&D is a pricey game, as I've spent over 200 USD on books alone, not including minis and dice and DM gear. To have this would make the game more accessible, which is something we can all be excited about.
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I may not be as cool as I think I am, but I'm much cooler than you think I am.
Some users have mentioned the idea of inserting codes into the books. While I initially thought that may work, it left me with three glaring holes in the thought process
Hole number one is what if someone goes into a store and copies down the code to use at home?
Hole number two is what if you buy the books used, such as off of an auction site or forum?I mean, you have legally purchased the physical books, and therefore (if there was a reduction in price for those users) you should be eligible to take advantage of the (theoretical) discount.
Hole number three is, of course, those books that were printed and purchased before any codes were inserted?
Problem #1 can be solved by sealing the code, like in an envelope inside the front cover or something. It doesn't remove the possibility of it being stolen, but it means you can physically check if the code is still sealed before purchasing.
As for Problem #2, the previous owner might have sold their physical copy, but still retained their digital copy, which is where things get weird with digital content rights.
Good points.
I actually see this sort of thing among blu-ray collectors. People will buy the physical products, and then sell the codes for the digital copies online. I imagine the same thing will happen with D&D books, if coded books do eventually become a thing.
What would you pay for a lifetime PHB, MM, or DMG? As in... if WotC published 6e, 7e,...10e you always get the content. I think I'd pay as much as $100 per book.
As for the add-on books, I would maybe try to apply some kind of point system. Instead of buying books per say, you are buying access points. Those access points stay with you for life. If a new edition, or even just a new bit of new content in the current edition, comes out, you take the points out of one book's content and put them into a new one.
What is the location thing on your profile and how do I get it?
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My name, is Balthazaar Cage! Savior of Ravenscrest, defender of the light, reincarnated chosen one of the gods, rightful ruler of all that can be seen and half of that which is unseen. If that's to long you may simply refer to me as "Sorcerer Supreme."
What would you pay for a lifetime PHB, MM, or DMG? As in... if WotC published 6e, 7e,...10e you always get the content. I think I'd pay as much as $100 per book.
As for the add-on books, I would maybe try to apply some kind of point system. Instead of buying books per say, you are buying access points. Those access points stay with you for life. If a new edition, or even just a new bit of new content in the current edition, comes out, you take the points out of one book's content and put them into a new one.
I think would pay a premium for this I think.
I think they should separate editions. If I don't like 6E, I don't want my subscription to be higher because I'm getting access to things I don't like.
As I mentioned before, WotC has already done this with 4E, and if that is how they do this, I'll be happy. Have all the stat things in the paid mode, and campaign books be something else, and if you want a book on your shelf feel free to do that too.
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I may not be as cool as I think I am, but I'm much cooler than you think I am.
I myself would like to be able to access just the content I need. I have played exclusively casters and I'll probably stay that way. So I don't really need access to the other class content.
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My name, is Balthazaar Cage! Savior of Ravenscrest, defender of the light, reincarnated chosen one of the gods, rightful ruler of all that can be seen and half of that which is unseen. If that's to long you may simply refer to me as "Sorcerer Supreme."
I myself would like to be able to access just the content I need. I have played exclusively casters and I'll probably stay that way. So I don't really need access to the other class content.
I don't think I want to have this be that piecemeal, where you buy parts of information. That's too close to buying things I've already bought and that puts a bad taste in my mouth.
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I may not be as cool as I think I am, but I'm much cooler than you think I am.
I think they should separate editions. If I don't like 6E, I don't want my subscription to be higher because I'm getting access to things I don't like.
As I mentioned before, WotC has already done this with 4E, and if that is how they do this, I'll be happy. Have all the stat things in the paid mode, and campaign books be something else, and if you want a book on your shelf feel free to do that too.
That's cool, with the access point idea, you could just stay in the 4e book content... or even downgrade to 3.5 content if you wish.
We don’t have exact pricing nailed-down, but you will be able to buy official digital D&D content for all fifth edition products with flexible purchase options. You can pay only for the D&D content you need. If you only play fighters, for example, you’ll be able to just pick up the stuff you need to track swinging that two-handed sword.
I myself would like to be able to access just the content I need. I have played exclusively casters and I'll probably stay that way. So I don't really need access to the other class content.
I don't think I want to have this be that piecemeal, where you buy parts of information. That's too close to buying things I've already bought and that puts a bad taste in my mouth.
Besides the Official Content that is already published by Wizards on Beyond, the other tools are frankly already available for free. Sure it may be more convenient for it to be all in one place, but unless Wizards plans to release new official content regularly, there's no sense in a monthly subscription.
Like I said, the other features and the convenience of having them all in one place definitely adds value to Beyond and I would be willing to pay for Beyond at a one-time rate (like I would with the core rule books) but there's nothing about Beyond that strikes me as warranting a monthly subscription.
Agreed. But I'm concerned how this is going to go. We already have some evidence of how WotC wants to handle electronic assets through Fantasy Grounds and Roll20. The last thing I want to do is have to pay full price (plus a subscription) here, full price on Roll20, and full price for the physical media. I don't mind paying *something* but I feel like this would be what makes me decide not to use the software, if it came to that.
To me the feature that will set this apart from everything else is the campaign management tool. If it's robust enough for me to completely forgo cutting and pasting (sometimes literally) creatures, traps, encounters, flavor text etc and allow me to easily manage a campaign or adventure from a tablet or laptop, it's an instant buy.
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I'd happily pay 10$/mo, or buy a year for a discounted price, like the DDI subscription of old. As long as it has Unearthed Arcana content as soon after an article coming out as possible, or even before, full access to all features and content, etc.
I'd also be happy to buy content on the service a la carte, as long as it's a one time and you own it forever thing, and the price is reasonable.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
I am in the camp that likes "One Price upfront". However, I cannot see this becoming a reality, due to books being constantly released. Having said that, I am not a fan of a subscription based model either.
What I think would work well is to have D&D Beyond be free to use with having access to the SRD and everything in the free basic PDFs from the WotC website. Then charge a one time fee per book that you want to add.
The only issue I see here is that I personally like having the physical books, but access to a nice digital tool could prove to be useful as well. Then you run into the issue of having to pay twice for the content you want. That, my friends, is a bit of a bummer, but there may be a workaround developed for that as well. What that workaround may be, I don't know. Perhaps if you can find a way to prove that you purchased the physical book, then you could add that content at a greatly reduced price, or for free.
Some users have mentioned the idea of inserting codes into the books. While I initially thought that may work, it left me with three glaring holes in the thought process
Hole number one is what if someone goes into a store and copies down the code to use at home?
Hole number two is what if you buy the books used, such as off of an auction site or forum?I mean, you have legally purchased the physical books, and therefore (if there was a reduction in price for those users) you should be eligible to take advantage of the (theoretical) discount.
Hole number three is, of course, those books that were printed and purchased before any codes were inserted?
As you can see, while the idea is nice, there are several difficulties to try to deal with when using a coded book system.
Sigh...I will rack my brain to try to come up with some other ideas.
I would rather pay a reasonable, pay plan subscription for all the content I could need/want than shell out $49.95 AGAIN to use the material in a book I already paid. I'd suppose homebrew stuff could be pay-per-item, if it makes things easier, and Unearthed Arcana might have it's own content plan, but I wouldn't use more than the basic SRD stuff if using Volo's Guide, or accessing Curse of Strahd stat blocks is going to cost me the same as the book itself! please bear that in mind!
I'm not - nor was I ever - your "obstacle" until you've deemed me as such, nor am I your wallet, my hard earnt money is not yours by deault.
Je suis Consumer - We are the foundation, the floor beneath your rug. our support is the fate of every retail product, business, and franchise. for success you need support.
I will always miss what you were, but I will never miss what you've become.
#OpenDnD #CanceltheSub #DnDBegone.#NeverForgive #NeverForget
DM and player
I like a pay by month feature. I may go hard on great D&D for a while and then go into a new game of a different kind... I'd rather spend for a more or less active account, given that this is only one of many games rather than have it force me to think "well, I'm already vested in D&D, do I want to change games" because that might not win out.
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I am not sure what I would be paying for beyond the central portal for content to be delivered.
While it doesn't apply to everyone, it's a common enough point out for people when it comes to paying for content.
Though currently, the site isn't offering information that isn't available on other sites, since the site isn't /offering/ the PHB or others, they are offering the content and info from the books, which so far as a DM a quick google and websites suchs as Orcpub, Donjan, 5eSRD etc, which are offering the information (Again, via extrat not actually as the PHB or other books directly)
This for me is going to be a make or break, as again there are already lots of options when it comes to creating these, some sites offer partial dynamic sheets with when adding certain items they change your stats etc, but the majority take a one-way approach for every class, so extra details such as superiority die, bardic inspiration etc are side notes to be tracked. I have put togeather a Template google sheet that has every magic item/item/home brew/Class & UA classes, feats etc that works in a dynamic way, and there are others online (For free) so the payment part I see here is simply the storage of that data (which could either be handled via linking to a GDrive similar to "Beyond Tabletop" which offers homebrew content and sheet creation (though they charge a 1 time fee for full access)
Art/Sound/.Stories etc I could see having value, the issue is in what format and ease of application. The most common online tool being Roll20 has terrible support for the implementation of external assets that you don't buy from their own website. So unless DnDBeyond is going to offer an on-site way of being able to use this content (Something like a basic map editor for creating content etc) than like other sites that offer material it's going to be a hard buy to justify.. (That and with the Homebrew option on the site, there is going to be tons of user-generated content too)
What I personally would justify purchasing and/or subscribing too.
I feel the goal of DNDBeyond is to act as a central place for DND related content, which is great, however, if the site went one step further and truly made common things, such as Character sheets, Map creation, Group finding, Text-based-campaigns and a portal for Homebrew-content to shine, then that's something worth sticking too.
My current concern is, the website (Though it's only Beta 1) will just be another way to look things up, homebrew will be managed the same way the current D&DWiki is (By that I mean, a mess) and it will have some tools like combat tracking on offer, but nothing actually new or enriching the DND Experience by adding more intuitive tools (Maps/Character creation/Encounter Building/Group finding etc) that don't already exist on other websites offered for free.
I don't want to pay for the content I already have. If this is kinda being modeled on the web stuff WotC did with 4E, I'm here for that, subscriptions gets you all the published content forever. I don't want to have to repurchase Volo's and SCAG and Curse of Strahd. I favor the one time fee personally, in that I want something I can trust to be around even if I drift from 5E for a little bit. I'm sure we all have game groups fall apart and want to play but can't for a few months. I wouldn't want to be paying to keep up my account in that way, even though a one time fee would be much more expensive than a monthly/yearly subscription.
This said, I am happy that there is a free model and an optional paid bit. D&D is a pricey game, as I've spent over 200 USD on books alone, not including minis and dice and DM gear. To have this would make the game more accessible, which is something we can all be excited about.
I may not be as cool as I think I am, but I'm much cooler than you think I am.
Check out my writing at davidrcastro.com
I'll buy the book because I want a book
I'll buy the Fantasy Grounds module because I need it
But how about a nice voucher online code to redeem content I already own - they managed it with Dvds and blue rays what about with a book.
Even the thought of a $5 a month sub quickly turns into $180 over three years for nothing really.
What would you pay for a lifetime PHB, MM, or DMG? As in... if WotC published 6e, 7e,...10e you always get the content. I think I'd pay as much as $100 per book.
As for the add-on books, I would maybe try to apply some kind of point system. Instead of buying books per say, you are buying access points. Those access points stay with you for life. If a new edition, or even just a new bit of new content in the current edition, comes out, you take the points out of one book's content and put them into a new one.
I think would pay a premium for this I think.
What is the location thing on your profile and how do I get it?
My name, is Balthazaar Cage! Savior of Ravenscrest, defender of the light, reincarnated chosen one of the gods, rightful ruler of all that can be seen and half of that which is unseen. If that's to long you may simply refer to me as "Sorcerer Supreme."
I may not be as cool as I think I am, but I'm much cooler than you think I am.
Check out my writing at davidrcastro.com
I myself would like to be able to access just the content I need. I have played exclusively casters and I'll probably stay that way. So I don't really need access to the other class content.
My name, is Balthazaar Cage! Savior of Ravenscrest, defender of the light, reincarnated chosen one of the gods, rightful ruler of all that can be seen and half of that which is unseen. If that's to long you may simply refer to me as "Sorcerer Supreme."
I don't think I want to have this be that piecemeal, where you buy parts of information. That's too close to buying things I've already bought and that puts a bad taste in my mouth.
I may not be as cool as I think I am, but I'm much cooler than you think I am.
Check out my writing at davidrcastro.com
That's cool, with the access point idea, you could just stay in the 4e book content... or even downgrade to 3.5 content if you wish.
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