This is more for Wizards of the Coast than Curse but with the release of this toolset if you purchase a D&D book it should come with a code for adding that content to their D&D Beyond subscription. Wish there was a way to make that happen for all the books I currently own.
My friends and I moved over to 5e in the last two months and I really want to buy the books, but I am waiting because I am hoping so badly that this is exactly the case.
I am down to pay a small monthly sub to support the site development, and I am down with the fact that non-SRD content won't be available for everyone. But if we drop 40 bucks on a book, I want to be able to see that content and purchase reflected here. My biggest worry is that WOTC doesn't really have a way to prove the purchase of everyone that has already gotten the official books...hence why I am waiting to buy it.
This needs to happen. Still amazes me that this wasn't implemented from the start of production of the 5e books. They had to know electronic content would come eventually. Only seems fair that if you buy the book, then digital content for that book should be available to you as part of your purchase.. It's the 21st century.
Probably won't happen but they'll be missing out on people using and/or endorsing DnD Beyond. And they'll miss on people buying into D&D. It just feels greedy to charge for the same content twice. It's just a bad customer experience.
You'd have to ship books with some kind of scratch-off serial number, have the books shrink-wrapped, and then curate a database of serial numbers that any 3rd party platform would then have to implement for registration.
It's not impossible, but since WotC doesn't seem interested in developing their own digital tools (which is fine), the idea of providing support for a serial number for future products and services seems incomprehensibly difficult for the D&D team.
I wish they had done it for 5e. It would have been ideal. But even if they implemented it now, I absolutely promise you there will still be those who complain that they're being ripped off by being early adopters and not receiving special codes.
People need to stop thinking about services like DnD Beyond being some kind of mandatory module to play a tabletop rpg. It's a service that provides a method of accessing information and tools to use. Nothing stops you from making your own digital tool to use at a table, using the information from books you've purchased. Doing so would require expertise and time. Instead, you could pay someone else to use digital tools that they developed and licensed. You're not paying for the content twice unless you elect to.
So pretty new to all this but one of the reasons I have not got excited over RollD20 is that you have to buy all the hardback 5E books again(if you want them) on RollD20.. And they cost even more then the HB books.. What the heck....
Will there be some way we can show our receipts for the HB 5E books we have purchased and get them for a VERY discounted price on DnDBeyond?
It just feels greedy to charge for the same content twice.
It's not the "same content" though.
At least, my Monster Manual doesn't seem to have a button I can push that makes it so when I flip from page to page I see nothing but the creature types I want to see. Nor does it have a button that allows me to re-order the pages so that I can flip through monsters in ascending order of CR rather than alphabetically. Same for other books and the content from them being in a much more useful (searchable, sortable, filterable) state.
And that's just the current contents being different - the service, when at its complete launch state, is supposed to include a lot more stuff that the books just plain don't do (all those things which will be in phases 2 and 3 or this beta test).
Saying that this digital service is the "same content" so you shouldn't have to pay for it if you already bought the book is like saying that paying for your ticket at the cinema should entitle you to the film's DVD release.
It is easy to get frustrated over when one views it as purchasing the same content twice. Perhaps a better perspective is that D&D Beyond is only offering a subscription service for the convenience of utilizing the intellectual property digitally on mobile devices? It is fantastic that so many have bought the physical copies of these books, but what about all the time, money, and energy that has gone into providing this ongoing venture?
I think they should leave it up to the members, maybe leave the bulk of the book as a certain tier membership only. For example if I don't own a copy of player handbook I can pay a membership plus fee to receive a virtual copy otherwise a traditional membership will only include the basics needed to play.
Why not just allow people to purchase hard copies through the dndbeyond website. mild collaborative effort required but perhaps the easiest solution. purchase the hard copy and have it shipped and get the digital content as well. Then offer a second digital only option for those who do not want the hard copy.
Why not just allow people to purchase hard copies through the dndbeyond website. mild collaborative effort required but perhaps the easiest solution. purchase the hard copy and have it shipped and get the digital content as well. Then offer a second digital only option for those who do not want the hard copy.
It's not the difficulty of having D&D Beyond incorporate a web-store from which physical copies of D&D books can be purchased that prevents the selling of a physical book + digital content bundle; it's that there is more than just the one company needing to pay operating costs and employee wages. As a result of that either A) the price of the bundle would need to be higher than the current physical book price by enough to cover the additional company's cut so they can continue to operate, or B) one or both companies would have less ability to operate and pay wages which would likely mean their role in the arrangement would be unsustainable without severe decline in quality of product or service offered.
...and since it is plainly obvious that "it would cost the same to get both as it does now" is not a solution to the perceived problem of the pricing, and "I guess we'll just voluntarily have our business fail by choosing to sell everything at a loss" isn't a viable business strategy, those are not the things that WotC and/or Curse are going to do.
that came to mind but i was thinking more along the lines of a redirect to a site that already sells then having that interaction create some sort of proof of purchase.
The whole point is the price would still increase. DDB is a different PRODUCT than the hardcover books. The content may be similar, but the product is different. So if they were working with someone else to sell physical books, the price would probably end up being $60-75 for the physical book plus DDB key. Because DDB needs to cover their costs of operation and licensing, the other party needs to cover their costs of operation and purchasing the books for resale, and both companies need to make a profit, plus the integration of the two companies.
I bought 5 books for D&D5e about half a year ago ... last time I played D&D was 3e and in between I played The Dark Eye ... I didn't even realize DNDbeyond was a thing until I saw a youtube video about it ...
I would really like to use the service to its full extend, also because of law issues orcpub2 has to remove all the licensed content. Don't get me wrong: I don't have a problem with having to pay monthly because I play alot, but what I absolutely don't get is why I have to pay for the rules set twice, once printed (just because I like to have the books in general) and once digital. Doesn't make any sense ...
DnDBeyond has no control over what is in the physical books. Email Wizard's of the Coast and/or Hasbro with this suggestion.
I may be a simple-country chicken lawyer, but I say, I say I don't reckon WOTC will put forth operational change for the intent of bringing in less money.
DnDBeyond has no control over what is in the physical books. Email Wizard's of the Coast and/or Hasbro with this suggestion.
I may be a simple-country chicken lawyer, but I say, I say I don't reckon WOTC will put forth operational change for the intent of bringing in less money.
ba-GAWK!
Awk!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
For those saying it's not fair they don't get a discount for having bought a hard cover. You can if you want it, just buy the tool integration without the compendium as you clearly won't need the compendium. That knocks 25-50% off most of the books.
Or you can always enter the data by hand. They have even said that is OK to do.
This is more for Wizards of the Coast than Curse but with the release of this toolset if you purchase a D&D book it should come with a code for adding that content to their D&D Beyond subscription. Wish there was a way to make that happen for all the books I currently own.
My friends and I moved over to 5e in the last two months and I really want to buy the books, but I am waiting because I am hoping so badly that this is exactly the case.
I am down to pay a small monthly sub to support the site development, and I am down with the fact that non-SRD content won't be available for everyone. But if we drop 40 bucks on a book, I want to be able to see that content and purchase reflected here. My biggest worry is that WOTC doesn't really have a way to prove the purchase of everyone that has already gotten the official books...hence why I am waiting to buy it.
This needs to happen. Still amazes me that this wasn't implemented from the start of production of the 5e books. They had to know electronic content would come eventually. Only seems fair that if you buy the book, then digital content for that book should be available to you as part of your purchase.. It's the 21st century.
This is never going to happen so people should just stop asking for it. There will be no discount either for owning a hard copy first.
Probably won't happen but they'll be missing out on people using and/or endorsing DnD Beyond. And they'll miss on people buying into D&D. It just feels greedy to charge for the same content twice. It's just a bad customer experience.
You'd have to ship books with some kind of scratch-off serial number, have the books shrink-wrapped, and then curate a database of serial numbers that any 3rd party platform would then have to implement for registration.
It's not impossible, but since WotC doesn't seem interested in developing their own digital tools (which is fine), the idea of providing support for a serial number for future products and services seems incomprehensibly difficult for the D&D team.
I wish they had done it for 5e. It would have been ideal. But even if they implemented it now, I absolutely promise you there will still be those who complain that they're being ripped off by being early adopters and not receiving special codes.
People need to stop thinking about services like DnD Beyond being some kind of mandatory module to play a tabletop rpg. It's a service that provides a method of accessing information and tools to use. Nothing stops you from making your own digital tool to use at a table, using the information from books you've purchased. Doing so would require expertise and time. Instead, you could pay someone else to use digital tools that they developed and licensed. You're not paying for the content twice unless you elect to.
I hate forum signatures.
So pretty new to all this but one of the reasons I have not got excited over RollD20 is that you have to buy all the hardback 5E books again(if you want them) on RollD20.. And they cost even more then the HB books.. What the heck....
Will there be some way we can show our receipts for the HB 5E books we have purchased and get them for a VERY discounted price on DnDBeyond?
It's not the "same content" though.
At least, my Monster Manual doesn't seem to have a button I can push that makes it so when I flip from page to page I see nothing but the creature types I want to see. Nor does it have a button that allows me to re-order the pages so that I can flip through monsters in ascending order of CR rather than alphabetically. Same for other books and the content from them being in a much more useful (searchable, sortable, filterable) state.
And that's just the current contents being different - the service, when at its complete launch state, is supposed to include a lot more stuff that the books just plain don't do (all those things which will be in phases 2 and 3 or this beta test).
Saying that this digital service is the "same content" so you shouldn't have to pay for it if you already bought the book is like saying that paying for your ticket at the cinema should entitle you to the film's DVD release.
It is easy to get frustrated over when one views it as purchasing the same content twice. Perhaps a better perspective is that D&D Beyond is only offering a subscription service for the convenience of utilizing the intellectual property digitally on mobile devices? It is fantastic that so many have bought the physical copies of these books, but what about all the time, money, and energy that has gone into providing this ongoing venture?
I think they should leave it up to the members, maybe leave the bulk of the book as a certain tier membership only. For example if I don't own a copy of player handbook I can pay a membership plus fee to receive a virtual copy otherwise a traditional membership will only include the basics needed to play.
Why not just allow people to purchase hard copies through the dndbeyond website. mild collaborative effort required but perhaps the easiest solution. purchase the hard copy and have it shipped and get the digital content as well. Then offer a second digital only option for those who do not want the hard copy.
that came to mind but i was thinking more along the lines of a redirect to a site that already sells then having that interaction create some sort of proof of purchase.
The whole point is the price would still increase. DDB is a different PRODUCT than the hardcover books. The content may be similar, but the product is different. So if they were working with someone else to sell physical books, the price would probably end up being $60-75 for the physical book plus DDB key. Because DDB needs to cover their costs of operation and licensing, the other party needs to cover their costs of operation and purchasing the books for resale, and both companies need to make a profit, plus the integration of the two companies.
DM for the Adventures in Erylia Podcast
Where five friends sit around the table and record themselves playing Dungeons and Dragons
DnDBeyond has no control over what is in the physical books. Email Wizard's of the Coast and/or Hasbro with this suggestion.
I'm 100% with you.
I bought 5 books for D&D5e about half a year ago ... last time I played D&D was 3e and in between I played The Dark Eye ... I didn't even realize DNDbeyond was a thing until I saw a youtube video about it ...
I would really like to use the service to its full extend, also because of law issues orcpub2 has to remove all the licensed content. Don't get me wrong: I don't have a problem with having to pay monthly because I play alot, but what I absolutely don't get is why I have to pay for the rules set twice, once printed (just because I like to have the books in general) and once digital. Doesn't make any sense ...
Because just like FG and Roll20, DDB is a third party resource that has to cover their own costs and make a profit.
DM for the Adventures in Erylia Podcast
Where five friends sit around the table and record themselves playing Dungeons and Dragons
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
Tooltips (Help/aid)
For those saying it's not fair they don't get a discount for having bought a hard cover. You can if you want it, just buy the tool integration without the compendium as you clearly won't need the compendium. That knocks 25-50% off most of the books.
Or you can always enter the data by hand. They have even said that is OK to do.