I apologize if I missed a more appropriate location to raise this issue. Moderators, please move it as appropriate.
Here are a few items that I went looking for, and didn’t find, that I suggest would be good to be a FAQ or otherwise Pinned in a Threat.
1) What exactly is D&D Beyond? - In a few places it is called “a web based digital toolset”, but what exactly does CURSE/the D&D Beyond staff means by that? It is not necessarily clear, and it would be nice to be stated clearly in a placed somewhere prominent, along with what it is not, based on common misconceptions the staff has been correcting in forum posts.
2) What exactly is the Purchasable Content? - What exactly is being purchased, and with what limitations/rights/warranties? I think I saw buried in some post that it is “web drive database access to official information & rules”, but is that correct/incomplete/over selling it? It may be on a long legal disclaimer page some where when you actually put down cash, but what are the purchaser’s rights/warranties to the content/database? If CURSE were to go out of business, WOTC were to not renew the license with CURSE, or some other apocalyptic scenario; what would a purchaser of a legendary bundle have to show for the money they put down? What about if they had only purchased a simple $1.99 Background content?
3) What exactly is the Subscription? I think I gathered that it is ongoing expanded access to the character builder storage and, depending on tier subscription, access to extra user developed content. Is this a correct summary? If I get the subscription for a few months or a year, build lots of characters and content, but then accidently let my subscription lapse for a few months, what happens to the characters and user developed content?
Something to give us fences sitters confidence, would be a report of “X legendary bundles sold to date” and “Y active subscriptions in December (last month with data available)” or “the peak month in 2017 had Z active subscriptions”.
Have you seen the Pricing and Purchase FAQ? That provides answers to your questions about subscriptions and some of your questions in #2.
I can speak to the subscriptions issue, in case the FAQ isn't sufficiently clear:
-A free/no subscription account limits you to 6 characters. You can create all the private homebrew you want, and you can view the public homebrew.
-The Hero tier subscription allows you to have more than 6 characters, removes ads, and allows you to add public homebrew to your collection.
-The Master tier includes all the elements of the hero tier, plus it allows you to share content with up to 3 campaigns, with up to 12 people in each campaign.
If your subscription lapses, you will be given the chance to choose which 6 characters remain active. The remaining characters will be locked until you are again a subscriber. (They will not be deleted) Your personal homebrew is not affected if your subscription lapses. I'm not sure what happens to public homebrew you have added to your collection.
A bit of an answer to #1, if you are interested in the perspective of a user:
1) DDB is a character builder and electronic character sheet, simplifying and automating the process of creating a character and managing the character sheet, including tracking usage of spell slots, rest-based abilities, etc. (Player options not found in the Basic Rules, SRD, or EE Players Companion must be purchased or homebrewed)
2) DDB provides access to digital forms of all the 5e books published by WOTC. (Only material from the Basic Rules, SRD, and EE Players Companion is free; other "books" must be purchased. These "books" are called Compendiums (Compendia?). They are extensively hyperlinked Every mention of orcs, magic missile, prone is hyperlinked and tooltipped.
3) DDB provides sortable, filterable lists of Spells and Monsters. (Want to know all the Druid Spells level 3 or lower that deal cold damage? Easy to do. Want to see all the CR 3-7 Undead monsters? Easy to do.)
4) DDB provides tools for homebrewing most types of player options (homebrew subclasses are not yet available but coming; homebrew classes are not planned), spells, monsters, and magic items. You can make the homebrew public (assuming doing so does not violate copyright) or keep it private.
5) DDB provides a way for groups to share these digital tools with everyone in their campaign, through the content sharing ability of the Master Tier. Only one person in the campaign needs to have the Master Tier; when content sharing is turned on, any resource "owned" by any player in the campaign is shared. Granular control over what is shared (so, for example, players can't see the adventure itself) is planned but not implemented yet.
6) DDB provides very basic campaign management: DMs can see and edit players character sheets; someone can create a character for another player to use; there is space for "public notes" and private DM notes (helpful for prep.) This aspect of DDB is very barebones at the moment. It exists primarily to allow for content sharing. DDB staff have plans for an extensive expansion of this feature, but it is a ways off, as other features have higher priority at the moment.
Thank you for your reply. I had seen the FAQs, and our interpretations of the answers to #15-#20 seem to match.
My biggest issue on the subscriptions was the question of lapsing. You have a great answer, I just didn't see it anywhere in the FAQs.
If I'm the only one who didn't see it, then my bad with missing it. If I'm not the only one, then this is hopefully a usefully indicator for the development team that the FAQs could use a little upgrade for clarification.
The perspective of other users isn't bad, but a clear official statement or position is the key. Thousands of users might interpret things one way, but if the developer sees it a different way, the developer position "wins". Even a "Yes, they have it correct" in a thread from the development team is helpful. But my hopefully helpful constructive criticism is to suggest the answer be put is an upfront prominent place, and not scattered in the depths of several threads and discussions.
Your points come across as a very nice summary, which I hope lines up with the developers' positions. I think one of the nice things you included in your points #2 and #3 is examples. I think that including more extensive examples is another hopefully constructive criticism for the development team's FAQ manager/tracker.
But once again, maybe this is just me not seeing the "obvious", and everyone already has a clear view.
Thank you for your reply. I had seen the FAQs, and our interpretations of the answers to #15-#20 seem to match.
My biggest issue on the subscriptions was the question of lapsing. You have a great answer, I just didn't see it anywhere in the FAQs.
If I'm the only one who didn't see it, then my bad with missing it. If I'm not the only one, then this is hopefully a usefully indicator for the development team that the FAQs could use a little upgrade for clarification.
You're welcome. The subscription lapsing question has been answered by moderators and/or staff on the forums several times, but you are right that it is not mentioned in the FAQs. This should definitely be added to the FAQs.
Your points come across as a very nice summary, which I hope lines up with the developers' positions. I think one of the nice things you included in your points #2 and #3 is examples. I think that including more extensive examples is another hopefully constructive criticism for the development team's FAQ manager/tracker.
Thanks. I agree that a clearer "official" description of DDB would be helpful. One of the things I've realized lately is that some of the disappointment with DDB and with its pricing model is related to not understand what kinds of things DDB is intended to do. I think a clearer statement about that would help some with that. (human nature being what it is--especially on the internet--means some of those misunderstandings/mismatched expectations will continue to happen no matter how clear DDB is about its purpose).
As a tangent off the examples, I've also begun to think that it would be helpful to have a "buyers guide to DDB" that would identify different use cases and provide examples of what one might choose to purchase for that use case. [Note to mods/staff: I'd be willing to write a draft of what I have in mind, that could then be edited/adapted by official folks, if that's of interest]
.... [Note to mods/staff: I'd be willing to write a draft of what I have in mind, that could then be edited/adapted by official folks, if that's of interest]
Per Stormkinight's reply, I think you have the go ahead.
.... [Note to mods/staff: I'd be willing to write a draft of what I have in mind, that could then be edited/adapted by official folks, if that's of interest]
Per Stormkinight's reply, I think you have the go ahead.
I apologize if I missed a more appropriate location to raise this issue. Moderators, please move it as appropriate.
Here are a few items that I went looking for, and didn’t find, that I suggest would be good to be a FAQ or otherwise Pinned in a Threat.
1) What exactly is D&D Beyond? - In a few places it is called “a web based digital toolset”, but what exactly does CURSE/the D&D Beyond staff means by that? It is not necessarily clear, and it would be nice to be stated clearly in a placed somewhere prominent, along with what it is not, based on common misconceptions the staff has been correcting in forum posts.
2) What exactly is the Purchasable Content? - What exactly is being purchased, and with what limitations/rights/warranties? I think I saw buried in some post that it is “web drive database access to official information & rules”, but is that correct/incomplete/over selling it? It may be on a long legal disclaimer page some where when you actually put down cash, but what are the purchaser’s rights/warranties to the content/database? If CURSE were to go out of business, WOTC were to not renew the license with CURSE, or some other apocalyptic scenario; what would a purchaser of a legendary bundle have to show for the money they put down? What about if they had only purchased a simple $1.99 Background content?
3) What exactly is the Subscription? I think I gathered that it is ongoing expanded access to the character builder storage and, depending on tier subscription, access to extra user developed content. Is this a correct summary? If I get the subscription for a few months or a year, build lots of characters and content, but then accidently let my subscription lapse for a few months, what happens to the characters and user developed content?
Something to give us fences sitters confidence, would be a report of “X legendary bundles sold to date” and “Y active subscriptions in December (last month with data available)” or “the peak month in 2017 had Z active subscriptions”.
Have you seen the Pricing and Purchase FAQ? That provides answers to your questions about subscriptions and some of your questions in #2.
I can speak to the subscriptions issue, in case the FAQ isn't sufficiently clear:
-A free/no subscription account limits you to 6 characters. You can create all the private homebrew you want, and you can view the public homebrew.
-The Hero tier subscription allows you to have more than 6 characters, removes ads, and allows you to add public homebrew to your collection.
-The Master tier includes all the elements of the hero tier, plus it allows you to share content with up to 3 campaigns, with up to 12 people in each campaign.
If your subscription lapses, you will be given the chance to choose which 6 characters remain active. The remaining characters will be locked until you are again a subscriber. (They will not be deleted) Your personal homebrew is not affected if your subscription lapses. I'm not sure what happens to public homebrew you have added to your collection.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
Check your entitlements here. | Support Ticket LInk
A bit of an answer to #1, if you are interested in the perspective of a user:
1) DDB is a character builder and electronic character sheet, simplifying and automating the process of creating a character and managing the character sheet, including tracking usage of spell slots, rest-based abilities, etc. (Player options not found in the Basic Rules, SRD, or EE Players Companion must be purchased or homebrewed)
2) DDB provides access to digital forms of all the 5e books published by WOTC. (Only material from the Basic Rules, SRD, and EE Players Companion is free; other "books" must be purchased. These "books" are called Compendiums (Compendia?). They are extensively hyperlinked Every mention of orcs, magic missile, prone is hyperlinked and tooltipped.
3) DDB provides sortable, filterable lists of Spells and Monsters. (Want to know all the Druid Spells level 3 or lower that deal cold damage? Easy to do. Want to see all the CR 3-7 Undead monsters? Easy to do.)
4) DDB provides tools for homebrewing most types of player options (homebrew subclasses are not yet available but coming; homebrew classes are not planned), spells, monsters, and magic items. You can make the homebrew public (assuming doing so does not violate copyright) or keep it private.
5) DDB provides a way for groups to share these digital tools with everyone in their campaign, through the content sharing ability of the Master Tier. Only one person in the campaign needs to have the Master Tier; when content sharing is turned on, any resource "owned" by any player in the campaign is shared. Granular control over what is shared (so, for example, players can't see the adventure itself) is planned but not implemented yet.
6) DDB provides very basic campaign management: DMs can see and edit players character sheets; someone can create a character for another player to use; there is space for "public notes" and private DM notes (helpful for prep.) This aspect of DDB is very barebones at the moment. It exists primarily to allow for content sharing. DDB staff have plans for an extensive expansion of this feature, but it is a ways off, as other features have higher priority at the moment.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
Check your entitlements here. | Support Ticket LInk
Thank you for your reply. I had seen the FAQs, and our interpretations of the answers to #15-#20 seem to match.
My biggest issue on the subscriptions was the question of lapsing. You have a great answer, I just didn't see it anywhere in the FAQs.
If I'm the only one who didn't see it, then my bad with missing it. If I'm not the only one, then this is hopefully a usefully indicator for the development team that the FAQs could use a little upgrade for clarification.
The perspective of other users isn't bad, but a clear official statement or position is the key. Thousands of users might interpret things one way, but if the developer sees it a different way, the developer position "wins". Even a "Yes, they have it correct" in a thread from the development team is helpful. But my hopefully helpful constructive criticism is to suggest the answer be put is an upfront prominent place, and not scattered in the depths of several threads and discussions.
Your points come across as a very nice summary, which I hope lines up with the developers' positions. I think one of the nice things you included in your points #2 and #3 is examples. I think that including more extensive examples is another hopefully constructive criticism for the development team's FAQ manager/tracker.
But once again, maybe this is just me not seeing the "obvious", and everyone already has a clear view.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
Check your entitlements here. | Support Ticket LInk
We're more than happy to add extra information to the FAQ or update any of the answers if you have any specific suggestions!
Pun-loving nerd | Faith Elisabeth Lilley | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
Check your entitlements here. | Support Ticket LInk