Quote from Mordiceius >>

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So what about a group people who are new to the hobby, don't have any of the books, and can't afford shelling out a bunch of money for books up front? Your solution is "Welp, guess you don't get to play Dungeons and Dragons, come back when you have saved up for a few months." That's a really bad way to grow the hobby and actively hostile towards some players..

 

Offline access via phone app is nice and all, but I really wish buying the digital books would just give access to a PDF (in addition to the existing integration on the DDB site). Make it watermarked or something as a form of DRM if you need to, but relying on a tiny phone screen when doing things offline isn't really great. Where I game in-person, I don't always have internet access so I can't make complete use of the DDB search tools (need to tether to my phone, and that drains through battery really quickly). I can save snippets of things that I know I'll need, but when I need to look something up that I didn't anticipate ahead of time it'd be nicer to do it on a larger screen than my phone. A PDF suits that purpose well, as it gives access to the entire content in one place, and I can search it for what I need.

Quote from Mordiceius >>

Quote from AaronOfBarbaria >>

Quote from Mordiceius >>

What about the DM's that can't afford a bunch of books? That's why there needs to be a $10 or $15 subscription that just gives you access to everything.

 Nah, it's not up to Curse to help those of us (myself, as an example) that don't have a lot of budget available for gaming materials to figure out how we can get around to having the things we want to have.

If a person can afford $10 or $15 a month, then that person can save that money each month and make purchases when they have saved up enough to get something - and thanks to the pricing going on with D&D Beyond, eventually they'll be able to have everything and it won't be taken away should they want to spend their $10 or $15 a month on something else.

And in the long term, the current pricing actually saves a person money compared to continuing a $10 or $15 monthly payment.

Really, this option you present as "more affordable" isn't - unless of course a person were somehow to cheat the system and get long-term access without actually paying for it.

"It's not a company's job to cater to me, the customer" is a bad way to think. It doesn't matter whether it is "more affordable in the long term" or not. It's a matter of giving options to customers.

So what about a group people who are new to the hobby, don't have any of the books, and can't afford shelling out a bunch of money for books up front? Your solution is "Welp, guess you don't get to play Dungeons and Dragons, come back when you have saved up for a few months." That's a really bad way to grow the hobby and actively hostile towards some players..

 

1. SRD, Basic Rules, and EE for free. 
2. Private homebrew section for adding whatever content you want (including from sourcebooks you may already have)
3. 2 subscription tiers that impact what content you have access to (published homebrew), sharing content (master tier), and unlock unlimited characters
4. Sourcebook content at ~60% of MSRP (with the core books at 40% of MSRP for the first week after launch)
5. Portions of sourcebook content (items, classes, backgrounds, monsters, spells, etc., etc.) either individually or in bundles

Are there more options they could potentially add? Sure, but Curse is already offering more options than you had from just WotC.

As to your second point about a new group coming to the hobby, before DDB came along, they would have had to purchase the books up front anyway (either from one of the VTTs or in actual book form), so this isn't really a good argument, especially since DDB allows new players to purchase smaller chunks of only what they "need," thus eliminating the high entry level cost you seem to be worried about. AaronofBarbaria's solution seems much less the antagonistic approach you seem to want to see, and much more of a, "Hey, sorry you can't afford everything right now. If you're willing to wait a bit, though, I have an idea that will save you some money while still getting you everything on DDB. You in?"

For people that are looking at the offline functionality on something besides a phone - you can get an Android emulator for just about any operating system and run the app on your laptop or whatever.

So even if Curse doesn't make the web-native version of the tools work offline, there is a fix.

Quote from AaronOfBarbaria >>

For people that are looking at the offline functionality on something besides a phone - you can get an Android emulator for just about any operating system and run the app on your laptop or whatever.

So even if Curse doesn't make the web-native version of the tools work offline, there is a fix.

Quote from Khellion >>

Quote from AaronOfBarbaria >>

For people that are looking at the offline functionality on something besides a phone - you can get an Android emulator for just about any operating system and run the app on your laptop or whatever.

So even if Curse doesn't make the web-native version of the tools work offline, there is a fix.

I wouldn't call that a fix, but more a potential "work around". And while this does provide a possible option to the situation, there still needs to be a windows app just like the android and apple app being created, IMHO.

 

Quote from TheGoodKingAzalin >>

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One question I do have about Master Tier and being able to share the content with my players: I am the DM of my group. It's my lot in life and I have accepted that I might not ever actually play again lol. However, say one of my players wants to run a one off adventure. Would there be a way for them to access some of the resources I have at my disposal to DM said one off? If so, that would be absolutely amazing! If not, I would like to submit the idea for consideration. Otherwise, I do own the core books and nothing is stopping me from letting them borrow my books... other than my extremely over protective nature of books...

...

Quote from TomWB >>

Quote from TheGoodKingAzalin >>

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One question I do have about Master Tier and being able to share the content with my players: I am the DM of my group. It's my lot in life and I have accepted that I might not ever actually play again lol. However, say one of my players wants to run a one off adventure. Would there be a way for them to access some of the resources I have at my disposal to DM said one off? If so, that would be absolutely amazing! If not, I would like to submit the idea for consideration. Otherwise, I do own the core books and nothing is stopping me from letting them borrow my books... other than my extremely over protective nature of books...

...

 

I too would like to know if this will be possible.

Quote from Mordiceius >>

Quote from AaronOfBarbaria >>

Quote from Mordiceius >>

What about the DM's that can't afford a bunch of books? That's why there needs to be a $10 or $15 subscription that just gives you access to everything.

 Nah, it's not up to Curse to help those of us (myself, as an example) that don't have a lot of budget available for gaming materials to figure out how we can get around to having the things we want to have.

If a person can afford $10 or $15 a month, then that person can save that money each month and make purchases when they have saved up enough to get something - and thanks to the pricing going on with D&D Beyond, eventually they'll be able to have everything and it won't be taken away should they want to spend their $10 or $15 a month on something else.

And in the long term, the current pricing actually saves a person money compared to continuing a $10 or $15 monthly payment.

Really, this option you present as "more affordable" isn't - unless of course a person were somehow to cheat the system and get long-term access without actually paying for it.

"It's not a company's job to cater to me, the customer" is a bad way to think. It doesn't matter whether it is "more affordable in the long term" or not. It's a matter of giving options to customers.

So what about a group people who are new to the hobby, don't have any of the books, and can't afford shelling out a bunch of money for books up front? Your solution is "Welp, guess you don't get to play Dungeons and Dragons, come back when you have saved up for a few months." That's a really bad way to grow the hobby and actively hostile towards some players..

 

As the DM rather than a player I think the added screen-space afforded with a laptop will be invaluable when using DDB to help run a game at the table. 

I neither have nor intend to purchase any iOs or Android devices, but use my Surface extensively at the table (presently running games with  Fantasy Grounds for maps and combat tracking, and Syrinscape for audio effects). I had hope to supplement these tools with DDB, but without Windows offline capability I feel I may need to give DDB a pass, which would be a shame as I really like what I've seen so far.

So that's my vote for full Windows off-line functionality!

One question :)

If you have a Master subscription, will the players you share content with have access to your DnDB information if you are offline? 

Quote from Ludd_g >>

As the DM rather than a player I think the added screen-space afforded with a laptop will be invaluable when using DDB to help run a game at the table. 

I neither have nor intend to purchase any iOs or Android devices, but use my Surface extensively at the table (presently running games with  Fantasy Grounds for maps and combat tracking, and Syrinscape for audio effects). I had hope to supplement these tools with DDB, but without Windows offline capability I feel I may need to give DDB a pass, which would be a shame as I really like what I've seen so far.

So that's my vote for full Windows off-line functionality!

Quote from TomWB >>

Quote from TheGoodKingAzalin >>

...

One question I do have about Master Tier and being able to share the content with my players: I am the DM of my group. It's my lot in life and I have accepted that I might not ever actually play again lol. However, say one of my players wants to run a one off adventure. Would there be a way for them to access some of the resources I have at my disposal to DM said one off? If so, that would be absolutely amazing! If not, I would like to submit the idea for consideration. Otherwise, I do own the core books and nothing is stopping me from letting them borrow my books... other than my extremely over protective nature of books...

...

 

I too would like to know if this will be possible.

Quote from Aramalian >>

Quote from Ludd_g >>

As the DM rather than a player I think the added screen-space afforded with a laptop will be invaluable when using DDB to help run a game at the table. 

I neither have nor intend to purchase any iOs or Android devices, but use my Surface extensively at the table (presently running games with  Fantasy Grounds for maps and combat tracking, and Syrinscape for audio effects). I had hope to supplement these tools with DDB, but without Windows offline capability I feel I may need to give DDB a pass, which would be a shame as I really like what I've seen so far.

So that's my vote for full Windows off-line functionality!

 According to what I can find online, Android holds over 60% of the mobile+tablet OS market, and iOS holds over 30%.

That's why you're not likely to see a native Windows app. I know the frustration, because I had a Lumia for a couple years. LOVED the phone, but came back to Android just because the Store was not growing.

Quote from Ludd_g >>

Quote from Aramalian >>

Quote from Ludd_g >>

As the DM rather than a player I think the added screen-space afforded with a laptop will be invaluable when using DDB to help run a game at the table. 

I neither have nor intend to purchase any iOs or Android devices, but use my Surface extensively at the table (presently running games with  Fantasy Grounds for maps and combat tracking, and Syrinscape for audio effects). I had hope to supplement these tools with DDB, but without Windows offline capability I feel I may need to give DDB a pass, which would be a shame as I really like what I've seen so far.

So that's my vote for full Windows off-line functionality!

 According to what I can find online, Android holds over 60% of the mobile+tablet OS market, and iOS holds over 30%.

That's why you're not likely to see a native Windows app. I know the frustration, because I had a Lumia for a couple years. LOVED the phone, but came back to Android just because the Store was not growing.

 I'd be hoping for a full-fat laptop experience, rather than a mobile one though, just off-line. I'm sure if you took a survey of what laptops/computers people use to DM with, either in game prep or actually at the table, Windows (and the full Mac OS) would likely beat all the mobile OS's for usage? I'd like to think that DDB isn't looking only at the mobile market? And that making the present Windows/Mac content available offline isn't beyond reason? 

Quote from Rubahak >>

Quote from Ludd_g >>

Quote from Aramalian >>

Quote from Ludd_g >>

As the DM rather than a player I think the added screen-space afforded with a laptop will be invaluable when using DDB to help run a game at the table. 

I neither have nor intend to purchase any iOs or Android devices, but use my Surface extensively at the table (presently running games with  Fantasy Grounds for maps and combat tracking, and Syrinscape for audio effects). I had hope to supplement these tools with DDB, but without Windows offline capability I feel I may need to give DDB a pass, which would be a shame as I really like what I've seen so far.

So that's my vote for full Windows off-line functionality!

 According to what I can find online, Android holds over 60% of the mobile+tablet OS market, and iOS holds over 30%.

That's why you're not likely to see a native Windows app. I know the frustration, because I had a Lumia for a couple years. LOVED the phone, but came back to Android just because the Store was not growing.

 I'd be hoping for a full-fat laptop experience, rather than a mobile one though, just off-line. I'm sure if you took a survey of what laptops/computers people use to DM with, either in game prep or actually at the table, Windows (and the full Mac OS) would likely beat all the mobile OS's for usage? I'd like to think that DDB isn't looking only at the mobile market? And that making the present Windows/Mac content available offline isn't beyond reason? 

 For me, I think a lot of it depends on what features make their way to an app.  Not all devices can do proper amounts of multitasking, or make good use of background functions.  If D&D Beyond were to include more features, such as a audio integration, effectively replacing Syrinscape, as an example, then I don't think a laptop app would be necessary.  I ran may last game with my laptop, which I wasn't a fan of, because the way that the space worked in my friend's apartment made the laptop unwieldy, and sometimes in the way.  If they were to cram everything into the app, then it would provide a lot of free space for me, because I could just have everything on my iPhone or iPad, and those are much easier to manage, especially if all the features are there for me to work on either, or both.  However, until that point, having a laptop app would be more worthwhile.

Say hello to my Microsoft Surface  :-)

(and this in no way takes away from people wanting to use DDB on a mobile device, I just hope there's also enough interest to maybe extend the options to include an off-line mode for those of us that would find it beneficial. More good options, more happy customers)