POLL QUESTION: Should DDB offer more variety in their sourcebook bundle options in the Marketplace?
I haven't played D&D in many years, not since AD&D 2e when I was in high school. I've recently become interested in playing again, and discovered DDB (oh how I wish this was a thing back in the day!) I really love the concept of DDB, especially the character creator and the integration with sourcebooks. I went to look at buying the sourcebooks so I could properly play around with the character creator beyond the very base rules, plus I wanted to look at the current DMG and MM to see how much I remembered from my HS days and what had changed. I saw that there are bundles offered for the sourcebooks, but nothing in any combination I was really interested in spending money on beyond the Player bundle. Why isn't there a Core Rulebook bundle (PHB, DMG, MM) like what you can buy physically? Which got me thinking...which then led me to make this post...
Currently there are only 4 bundle options for sourcebooks in the Marketplace (not including Essentials) - Player, Sourcebook, Adventure, and Legendary. If I had to guess, I'd wager that the vast majority of people who purchase sourcebook bundles on DDB purchase the Player bundle. It's a great set of books for a good value; you get the PHB, plus what I would consider to be the "big three" supplemental player-focused guides - Swordcoast, Xanathar's, and Tasha's. You get a discount on each book for essentially "buying in bulk" - $100 for the bundle, vs. $120 total for buying them individually. I really like this deal and think it's fairly priced taking $5 off each book for the bundle.
But then you have the Sourcebook and Adventure bundles, where each bundle is well over $400. I haven't bothered to calculate what you might save per book with that deal, but that's a HUGE jump in bundle pricing, and mostly includes books I'm not interested in. Then there's another huge jump to over $800 for the Legendary bundle. I can't imagine that the $400/800 bundles make up a significant portion of sourcebook sales for DDB, I think it's more likely the majority of sales are some combination of the Player bundle and/or individual sourcebooks. I do realize that when you buy sourcebooks individually that they count towards the eventual purchase of a larger bundle, but from what I can tell just browsing the Marketplace, you don't get any sort of bulk pricing on those individual books until you eventually buy the full bundle. You're paying full price for each individual book - the discount only comes when you "complete the set" as it were. Please correct me if I'm missing something here.
Now that I'm thinking about it, what happens if you purchase individual books in one of these bundles, one by one, until the money you've spent on individual books exceeds the purchase price of that bundle, even though you haven't purchased every book in the bundle - you've spent the money equivalent to the purchase price of that bundle; do you automatically just get the whole bundle at some point? Is there some kind of notification? Is there action required on the customer's part? So many questions...
Going back to my question regarding the lack of a Core Rulebook bundle - following the "buy in bulk" model, for three books you could offer a bundle for around $80-85 compared to individual sourcebook pricing in the Marketplace. You could then do the same with a Swordcoast/Xanathar's/Tasha's "add-on" bundle for the same price, since those are priced at $30 each like the core books. Or - take it a step further, and offer a single bundle with all 6 books at a further slight discount for like $150 - as opposed to the current $160 it would cost for the Player bundle + DMG/MM priced individually. I would happily pay $150 for those 6 books as a single bundle. OK, sure, I'm arguing over $10, but my point is: why aren't there more granular bundles at more middling price points?
You could offer a "Monster" bundle that includes all the monster-focused sourcebooks, or a "Places" bundle that includes the sourcebooks that focus on different locales, either of which could sell for between $200-300. Why not offer bundles of 2-4 books similar to the current Player bundle, or even a "mid-range" option of 6-8 books, rather than just the current 4/18/25/43 books offerings? I think that gap between 4 books and 18 books is BEGGING to be filled, and I think people would spend a lot of money in that gap.
There's a ton of room to set up different bundles at more appealing price points than the current "just buy everything" options that are there now. Hell, you could even do an a la carte bundle option - buyers can add whichever individual sourcebooks they want to a customized bundle and get a small discount per book - the discount % increasing with each book added to the bundle - "bulk pricing" like with the current offerings. There's a lot of room to improve the bundles offered in the store; I think more variety in offerings at more varied price points would not only offer the customer more value, but would probably also mean increased revenue for DDB through more frequent sales of the more "mid-range" bundles. Personally, I think the 6 book bundle I mentioned (PHB/DMG/MM/Swordcoast/Xanathar's/Tasha's) would sell like hotcakes.
What do you think? Should there be more variety in sourcebook bundle offerings in the DDB Marketplace (please respond to the poll)? If there were more options, would you be inclined to spend a little more to get a little more, vs. the current bundle offerings? Sound off in the replies!
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POLL QUESTION: Should DDB offer more variety in their sourcebook bundle options in the Marketplace?
I haven't played D&D in many years, not since AD&D 2e when I was in high school. I've recently become interested in playing again, and discovered DDB (oh how I wish this was a thing back in the day!) I really love the concept of DDB, especially the character creator and the integration with sourcebooks. I went to look at buying the sourcebooks so I could properly play around with the character creator beyond the very base rules, plus I wanted to look at the current DMG and MM to see how much I remembered from my HS days and what had changed. I saw that there are bundles offered for the sourcebooks, but nothing in any combination I was really interested in spending money on beyond the Player bundle. Why isn't there a Core Rulebook bundle (PHB, DMG, MM) like what you can buy physically? Which got me thinking...which then led me to make this post...
Currently there are only 4 bundle options for sourcebooks in the Marketplace (not including Essentials) - Player, Sourcebook, Adventure, and Legendary. If I had to guess, I'd wager that the vast majority of people who purchase sourcebook bundles on DDB purchase the Player bundle. It's a great set of books for a good value; you get the PHB, plus what I would consider to be the "big three" supplemental player-focused guides - Swordcoast, Xanathar's, and Tasha's. You get a discount on each book for essentially "buying in bulk" - $100 for the bundle, vs. $120 total for buying them individually. I really like this deal and think it's fairly priced taking $5 off each book for the bundle.
But then you have the Sourcebook and Adventure bundles, where each bundle is well over $400. I haven't bothered to calculate what you might save per book with that deal, but that's a HUGE jump in bundle pricing, and mostly includes books I'm not interested in. Then there's another huge jump to over $800 for the Legendary bundle. I can't imagine that the $400/800 bundles make up a significant portion of sourcebook sales for DDB, I think it's more likely the majority of sales are some combination of the Player bundle and/or individual sourcebooks. I do realize that when you buy sourcebooks individually that they count towards the eventual purchase of a larger bundle, but from what I can tell just browsing the Marketplace, you don't get any sort of bulk pricing on those individual books until you eventually buy the full bundle. You're paying full price for each individual book - the discount only comes when you "complete the set" as it were. Please correct me if I'm missing something here.
Now that I'm thinking about it, what happens if you purchase individual books in one of these bundles, one by one, until the money you've spent on individual books exceeds the purchase price of that bundle, even though you haven't purchased every book in the bundle - you've spent the money equivalent to the purchase price of that bundle; do you automatically just get the whole bundle at some point? Is there some kind of notification? Is there action required on the customer's part? So many questions...
Going back to my question regarding the lack of a Core Rulebook bundle - following the "buy in bulk" model, for three books you could offer a bundle for around $80-85 compared to individual sourcebook pricing in the Marketplace. You could then do the same with a Swordcoast/Xanathar's/Tasha's "add-on" bundle for the same price, since those are priced at $30 each like the core books. Or - take it a step further, and offer a single bundle with all 6 books at a further slight discount for like $150 - as opposed to the current $160 it would cost for the Player bundle + DMG/MM priced individually. I would happily pay $150 for those 6 books as a single bundle. OK, sure, I'm arguing over $10, but my point is: why aren't there more granular bundles at more middling price points?
You could offer a "Monster" bundle that includes all the monster-focused sourcebooks, or a "Places" bundle that includes the sourcebooks that focus on different locales, either of which could sell for between $200-300. Why not offer bundles of 2-4 books similar to the current Player bundle, or even a "mid-range" option of 6-8 books, rather than just the current 4/18/25/43 books offerings? I think that gap between 4 books and 18 books is BEGGING to be filled, and I think people would spend a lot of money in that gap.
There's a ton of room to set up different bundles at more appealing price points than the current "just buy everything" options that are there now. Hell, you could even do an a la carte bundle option - buyers can add whichever individual sourcebooks they want to a customized bundle and get a small discount per book - the discount % increasing with each book added to the bundle - "bulk pricing" like with the current offerings. There's a lot of room to improve the bundles offered in the store; I think more variety in offerings at more varied price points would not only offer the customer more value, but would probably also mean increased revenue for DDB through more frequent sales of the more "mid-range" bundles. Personally, I think the 6 book bundle I mentioned (PHB/DMG/MM/Swordcoast/Xanathar's/Tasha's) would sell like hotcakes.
What do you think? Should there be more variety in sourcebook bundle offerings in the DDB Marketplace (please respond to the poll)? If there were more options, would you be inclined to spend a little more to get a little more, vs. the current bundle offerings? Sound off in the replies!