While I believe this site would be useful to my campaign, it's much more of a luxury item than a necessity. I would happily pay the monthly subscription fee for the service, but I can't justify spending over $100 just to get digital copies of information I already have.  And since I can't unlock the full functionality of the site without making that re-investment, it looks like Beyond is not for me.

Yes. I did in fact read that. I still don't feel like my question is answered. I don't understand the product I'm potentially buying, or why it has value.

So all that my subscription gets me is the ability to create characters and share a digital version of content I already own in a different form?

Quote from Madclergy >>

I just wanted to also ask, because have been talking about the purchase of books, the character builder, all that. Will the Campaign Tracking, the Virtual Tabletop, and any other Builders/Randomizers be included in the pricing shown here, or will there be additional add on prices for those services?

Thanks,

Quote from Mehetmet >>

Checking out as thread is becoming toxic, and i feel i had a hand in it so sorry about that.

final remarks on it, i like the pricing model, and personally can't wait!  I hope it develops more and things become clearer for all, and have the confidence it will.

 

Quote from alficles >>

Quote from LatnerG >>

Quote from Janet_Van_Dyne >>

How does Unearthed Arcana fit into this? Is that considered official or more like homebrew level

 Reddit UA?

 UA can't be used as homebrew for copyright reasons. So if they don't publish it officially, you probably can't use it at all. 

Quote from Stormknight >>

Quote from alficles >>

Quote from LatnerG >>

Quote from Janet_Van_Dyne >>

How does Unearthed Arcana fit into this? Is that considered official or more like homebrew level

 Reddit UA?

 UA can't be used as homebrew for copyright reasons. So if they don't publish it officially, you probably can't use it at all. 

Staff have confirmed that there will be a way to officially access Unearthed Arcana playtest rules on D&D Beyond.

 I'm down for 5.99 a month.

Quote from Estoy_Awesome >>

Quote from Mehetmet >>

Checking out as thread is becoming toxic, and i feel i had a hand in it so sorry about that.

final remarks on it, i like the pricing model, and personally can't wait!  I hope it develops more and things become clearer for all, and have the confidence it will.

 

 It's not your fault it's just how things are  online you have one group that asks a question and is fine with the answer,  then you have the other that asks a question gets an answer doesn't like the answer and will throw a fit over it.

Your pricing Model is  . . . well I want to be polite here . . . ridiculous.

What does D&D beyond offer here that Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 do not? I already have digital copies of the books through Fantasy grounds, where I even have offline access to my books, I only need to be connected when I actually want to play a game. I sincerely hope you will be working with the folks at Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 to offer access to people that have already made digital purchases, otherwise this whole thing is pretty much pointless. 

Subscription, I can understand. Bandwith costs, money, sites need to be maintained. but subscription plus having to buy the books again?

As it stands I will be pointing everyone I play with to either fantasygrounds.com or Roll20.net where there is much better value for the digital purchases. 

Quote from Sedge >>

Quote from Madclergy >>

I just wanted to also ask, because have been talking about the purchase of books, the character builder, all that. Will the Campaign Tracking, the Virtual Tabletop, and any other Builders/Randomizers be included in the pricing shown here, or will there be additional add on prices for those services?

Thanks,

 No additional site "features" are set to come at an additional cost.  Licensed content only.

As a Canadian, the full price for content in Beyond is more expensive than the physical books on Amazon.ca

I understand they want to make money and not undercut brick and mortar but I can't recommend this to anyone outside the US at those prices... I do however love the cost point for the two Tiers. I think you guys hit the right spot with those.

All that said, as a DM it shouldn't be too hard to convince your group to pitch in for the content you need plus the $9 (CDN) a month or so. For DM's and groups I think this is pretty okay, not great but okay.

Quote from gksmithlcw >>

 Is there going to be a virtual tabletop? I missed this....

Quote from Karhu >>

Your pricing Model is  . . . well I want to be polite here . . . ridiculous.

What does D&D beyond offer here that Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 do not? I already have digital copies of the books through Fantasy grounds, where I even have offline access to my books, I only need to be connected when I actually want to play a game. I sincerely hope you will be working with the folks at Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 to offer access to people that have already made digital purchases, otherwise this whole thing is pretty much pointless. 

Subscription, I can understand. Bandwith costs, money, sites need to be maintained. but subscription plus having to buy the books again?

As it stands I will be pointing everyone I play with to either fantasygrounds.com or Roll20.net where there is much better value for the digital purchases. 

• content for FG is expensive and has high computer system requirements, and
• content for Roll20 is expensive, and its character sheets are uglier than homemade sin.

Quote from Aramalian >>

• content for Roll20 is expensive, and its character sheets are uglier than homemade sin.

I have to say that the pricing is ..... interesting...

I don't mind paying the subscription, and those are honestly cheaper than I thought they would be.  I'll be purchasing the Master Tier as I'm the DM of my group.  They can choose to get their hero tier or not, but with being able to share my content with them, they won't need to, they could just run free accounts and rock and roll.

As for the price per book, I choose to look at it like this --   I am not paying for the content of that book.  I am paying Curse to put that book into the DDB format.  So I ask myself, would I pay a friend $30 ($20 with first week offer) to take my PHB and put it all into a super cool digital format?  You bet your ass I would.  Especially since if I let my subscription lapse, I still have access to that content.

Would it suck if I had just paid another friend (Roll20, Fantasy Grounds) to put it into a digital format that doesn't quite do what I need or want?  Yup, sucks for sure, but I can't expect my DDB buddy to do his work for free, so I either pony it up, or stick with what I've already purchased.

I'm lucky in that I can afford this these days.  There was a time, not so far in the past where I wouldn't have been able to come up with the up front cost on this, and I understand that.  But, if it was THAT important to me, I'd find a way to save up a few dollars a month until I could get the content here.

Quote from gksmithlcw >>

Quote from Sedge >>

Quote from Madclergy >>

I just wanted to also ask, because have been talking about the purchase of books, the character builder, all that. Will the Campaign Tracking, the Virtual Tabletop, and any other Builders/Randomizers be included in the pricing shown here, or will there be additional add on prices for those services?

Thanks,

 No additional site "features" are set to come at an additional cost.  Licensed content only.

 Is there going to be a virtual tabletop? I missed this....

Bradford: We have no current plans to create a virtual tabletop. Our intention is to work alongside the VTT partners Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 to integrate to add value for players. If you create a character on D&D Beyond, you will eventually be able to export that character to use while playing virtually through Fantasy Grounds or Roll20, and other integrations that make sense in the future.

Quote from Karhu >>

Your pricing Model is  . . . well I want to be polite here . . . ridiculous.

What does D&D beyond offer here that Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 do not? I already have digital copies of the books through Fantasy grounds, where I even have offline access to my books, I only need to be connected when I actually want to play a game. I sincerely hope you will be working with the folks at Fantasy Grounds and Roll20 to offer access to people that have already made digital purchases, otherwise this whole thing is pretty much pointless. 

Subscription, I can understand. Bandwith costs, money, sites need to be maintained. but subscription plus having to buy the books again?

As it stands I will be pointing everyone I play with to either fantasygrounds.com or Roll20.net where there is much better value for the digital purchases. 

Quote from Smeesher >>

I have to say that the pricing is ..... interesting...

I don't mind paying the subscription, and those are honestly cheaper than I thought they would be.  I'll be purchasing the Master Tier as I'm the DM of my group.  They can choose to get their hero tier or not, but with being able to share my content with them, they won't need to, they could just run free accounts and rock and roll.

As for the price per book, I choose to look at it like this --   I am not paying for the content of that book.  I am paying Curse to put that book into the DDB format.  So I ask myself, would I pay a friend $30 ($20 with first week offer) to take my PHB and put it all into a super cool digital format?  You bet your ass I would.  Especially since if I let my subscription lapse, I still have access to that content.

Would it suck if I had just paid another friend (Roll20, Fantasy Grounds) to put it into a digital format that doesn't quite do what I need or want?  Yup, sucks for sure, but I can't expect my DDB buddy to do his work for free, so I either pony it up, or stick with what I've already purchased.

I'm lucky in that I can afford this these days.  There was a time, not so far in the past where I wouldn't have been able to come up with the up front cost on this, and I understand that.  But, if it was THAT important to me, I'd find a way to save up a few dollars a month until I could get the content here.

 

Having read all the posts I'd like to add my two cents.

First and foremost let me say that we all come at this from different financial backgrounds and capabilities. I personally, am about to enter my second year of college, have a very limited budget with only vague plans of even how I will make money tomorrow, not to mention 4 years from now. That being said, come launch I will be shelling out the $90 for PhB, MM, DMG, and VgtM. Luckily, I homebrew my campaigns so I don't need the extra $25 for a campaign. I will also sign up for the Master Tier subscription. Even on my college budget I can handle that. I also will not be asking my party to help me cover these costs. I don't know how long we will be together and I don't know how readily they want to use this service so I'm doing it solo. I find that while on the high end for entertainment prices, I can easily justify a one time cost for that content. As well as I expect to pick up Xanthar's Guide to Everything when it launches for $30 as well. That's me personally.

I am a little disappointed that I don't have the "$15 a month for everything while I'm a subscriber" because that is honestly how I would prefer to use it for the first 2 months while I test it out before making long-term purchases. As well as a college student with my future VERY uncertain, this gives me the most flexibility. 

A suggestion. Something Syrinscape (a subscription based tabletop music service) does is offer its service as a subscription for access to the full sound library or flat purchase for each individual track. If you are a subscriber and you stop being one, you keep any new tracks that were released while you were a subscriber. I don't think that is feasible in the same way for DnDBeyond, but perhaps a "After 12 months of support, you receive half off of a book purchase". That would certainly incentivise me to subscribe and keep my subscription.

Quote from Smeesher >>

I have to say that the pricing is ..... interesting...

I don't mind paying the subscription, and those are honestly cheaper than I thought they would be.  I'll be purchasing the Master Tier as I'm the DM of my group.  They can choose to get their hero tier or not, but with being able to share my content with them, they won't need to, they could just run free accounts and rock and roll.

As for the price per book, I choose to look at it like this --   I am not paying for the content of that book.  I am paying Curse to put that book into the DDB format.  So I ask myself, would I pay a friend $30 ($20 with first week offer) to take my PHB and put it all into a super cool digital format?  You bet your ass I would.  Especially since if I let my subscription lapse, I still have access to that content.

Would it suck if I had just paid another friend (Roll20, Fantasy Grounds) to put it into a digital format that doesn't quite do what I need or want?  Yup, sucks for sure, but I can't expect my DDB buddy to do his work for free, so I either pony it up, or stick with what I've already purchased.

I'm lucky in that I can afford this these days.  There was a time, not so far in the past where I wouldn't have been able to come up with the up front cost on this, and I understand that.  But, if it was THAT important to me, I'd find a way to save up a few dollars a month until I could get the content here.