Instead of stripping out a la carte purchasing, why not just produce more content worth buying?
Seems simple, right?
Hey, if it’s that easy why not start up your own game, be the Next Big Thing for TTRPG?
You know, I do appreciate that it was flippant, so fair play there.
But I think it's a fair point. When Independant creators are able to churn out well balanced subclasses, Feats, magic items, and even adventures with a high degree of regularity, why can't WOTC, with their *significantly* higher degree of resources do the same? Yes there are only so many books you can release before you cause fatigue. But they could provide much better content within the ones they have.
See what, 3 spells and a feat in the book of many things...
And credit where it's due, I think allowing the 3rd party sellers onto Dndbeyond was an ace move to hopefully alleviate some of the "good content drought" we are seeing.
And for what it's worth, I fully confess to not being any good at writing adventures that others could digest and use - but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
It feels a bit preemptive to be phasing out older content for OneDnD when it feels like people are barely even considering it so far.
I've seen some mild interest and looking over of the playtests but little to no people excited to fully adopt it.
As far as I'm aware it's not even done testing.
Playtest is over. The PHB is in final print review, the next step is going to press. Honestly, while I think it might be a little premature, I can see the logic of removing 2014 piecemeal content being put under Legacy in preparation for 2024. Here's the discussion of the galley reading process a couple of weeks back:
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I've spent years dumping praise on DDB with my friends, and now I'm going to spend a lifetime telling everyone I know in the RPG world to avoid this site like the plague. Your decisions do not factor in your customers whatsoever, and are consistently based entirely around greed.
Prime example: Removing the discount from previously-purchased a la carte content. Yes, you can still get your discount by contacting customer service, but in reality, what you're banking on is that people won't remember that they've previously purchased content from a book, do not contact customer service, and instead you get to steal from them by overcharging.
I've purchased the last of any book content you will ever offer until and unless this decision is reversed, permanently. DDB is not the only tool by which 5e content can be found, and yet you act like you have a monopoly.
Congratulations: Instead of people like me buying the content we need or want here, we're instead going to get it elsewhere and give you absolutely nothing.
but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
Much appreciated, and thank you for the guidance!
But this is probably a digression, and we should keep on topic.
but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
Much appreciated, and thank you for the guidance!
But this is probably a digression, and we should keep on topic.
Don't get a DMs Guild account. Just sell on regular drivethrurpg marketplace. While you get access to all that nifty trade dress in the DMs Guild, you also open yourself up to Hasbro harvesting your product and taking it over without credit or proper payment for your hard word.
but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
Much appreciated, and thank you for the guidance!
But this is probably a digression, and we should keep on topic.
Don't get a DMs Guild account. Just sell on regular drivethrurpg marketplace. While you get access to all that nifty trade dress in the DMs Guild, you also open yourself up to Hasbro harvesting your product and taking it over without credit or proper payment for your hard word.
It's funny you think that WotC would waste time doing that for "DrivethruRPG, but with D&D set dressing" but not for regular DrivethruRPG. It's the same site. Just use the version that will get you to an audience.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
This has come up multiple times, so I'm going to explain one last time why piecemeal purchasing shouldn't be compared to microtransactions.
I think piecemeal purchases and microtransactions are equivalent. Every D&D book besides the core three are expansions no different from DLCs on the videogame side of things. À la carte purchases are basically microtransactions if you do not want to buy the whole DLC. The only difference I see is that microtransaction got a negative connotation to it, which I do not think it is a big deal because developers got bills to pay and mouths to feed, and if people do not like a particular sales model, they can simply choose to not buy the game.
They are usually part of a game and are a method of selling small parts of the product for a reduced price. One.of the key features though that distinguishes them from, say, selling a game in parts (for example, selling expansion packs) is that they tend to lock the game if you don't buy them - you can't play the game with paying for them, or you will be stopped from progressing by a timer - or otherwise pressure you to buy them.
Can you give an example of a game that actually does that? I have not encountered any game that really requires microtransactions to progress.
I used to play Fire Emblem Heroes, a gacha game, and while spending money does make PvP content easier, you do not need to spend money play competitively, and many people play semi-competitively where they coast at a certain competitive level where they can put the least amount of effort and still obtain good participation rewards. PvE content is so easy it is not worth spending money on. For collectors who want their favorite characters, if they do not mind waiting, the game provides enough resources for the casual collector; if a collector has a Gotta Catch 'Em All Pokémon mindset, then obviously they will need shell out some money. And for people who complain about the developers being too money hungry, those idiots can go start their own gaming studio and run their own business and see how they do, because they did not have to experience their favorite video game series getting completely axed. Growing up, I was more into Advance Wars than Fire Emblem, but Advance Wars got cancelled due to poor sales. Fire Emblem as a series has the gacha game to fall back if they accidentally **** up a main series game, so they are able to try new ideas and innovations in game play. Advance Wars got revived with a remake, and while it is nice, there is nothing new and nothing exciting past the nostalgia. Advance Wars is still crawling in a ditch while Fire Emblem is riding high and fine. As a fan who likes both sister series, seeing other fans being that entitled and ungrateful just rubs me the wrong way. This gacha game alone is practically bankrolling the entire series (the gacha game generates more revenue than the rest of the series combined), and that lets the developers go experiement and try new things with confidence and create more waifus and husbandos that the rest of the fandom can go crazy over. For the main line Fire Emblem games, it is like D&D. Every new game is a new edition, and you can buy season passes which are like D&D expansion books, and you can purchase piecemeal content if you do not want the whole season pass and just want a specific map or item or whatever.
Age of Empires III is my favorite and the most unique in the series. While the series as a whole does not have much microtransactions, it does have a few, and it is just cosmetic. A lot of the new DLCs do add new maps and new campaigns, but none of the DLCs in any of the games are required to be successful in PvP.
Ace Combat 7 is super fun, and while I used CFA-44 Nosferatu (one of the most broken and the most noob friendly DLC planes) to beat the game on very easy mode, I do not need to. They even put in very easy mode, so if skill is an issue, even that should not stop a person from completing the game and enjoying the story. While most DLC planes are very strong, the end game plane X-02S Strike Wyvern that you can get in the base game is on par with the average DLC plane, so if you are into PvP, that should not stop you either. And like in D&D, you can either purchase DLC planes à la carte, or get them in a bigger pack.
I used to play Runescape, and it got a lot of fun cosmetics, and a few you can purchase à la carte or as part of a pack . I did not like the FOMOness of some of the cosmetics, but if it is not a cosmetic I care about, then it does not really matter if I missed out. Even if I missed out, they will usually bring it back in one way or another eventually. You can pay your way to getting the best gear too by buying Bonds, but you do not need the best gear for PvM content; second and third best option is not only sufficient, but way more affordable too. PKing is not as popular as it used to be, but I cannot imagine people bringing expensive gear to PK.
They're "scummy" because they're designed to hide the true cost of the game in attempt to make you pay more for the product than you would if you saw the total amount in one go. To take a famous example, EA's Star Wars Battlefront charged you for the game, then locked the most desirable content,.and the main way to unlock it was to pay for loot boxes. You didn't see the game price as $100 (which you might not have paid for), but saw $60 then a bunch of $1ish loot boxes, and all of a sudden you've paid $100. There was that example of the guy who literally spent thousands on his FIFA game.
A more benign (or rather, less sinister) form is Fortnite, which is free and only charges for cosmetic stuff (last I checked, which admittedly has been a long while), but still leads into over paying for content because you see it as 50¢ for a shirt, rather than $90 for the game.
Microtransactions generally carve out parts of the product that you'd normally already consider purchased when you paid for the game itself, then tries to sell it to you. It encourages you to spend more for a product that you would with full knowledge of what you're getting.
Gacha and loot boxes are a subset of microtransactions. I get that purchases based on chance is a turn off for many, but people can also simply not play games that have them. Developers got to eat to too, and in Fire Emblem Heroes' case with all that extra revenue, it lets the developers do more interesting stuff with the main series. I much rather have microtransactions in the main game series with a gacha game on the side, than a game series that got none because it is dead or barely alive. Fire Emblem fans do not need to touch the gacha game at all if they do not want to, but they certainly benefit from all the players like me spent lots of money on the gacha game.
I have not played the new Star Wars Battlefronts, but from what I can tell, the loot boxes just speed up progression rather than locking things behind it? That is no different from Battlefield games that I used to play where you can pay to speed up progression. If players wants to pay for progression, that is fine by me. I am not fan of EA either, but in this case, the main issue is the lootbox system rather than microtransaction as a whole. Literally every major modern FPS game these days got cosmetics.
Cosmetics take time and money to develop too. Why should developers add cosmetics into the game for free when it is not necessary for the core game play? Charging for cosmetics keeps developers fed and helps keep the cost of the core game low.
The price of games has not gone up in literal years, and people who complain about modern vanilla games not being complete have an overly nostalgic view of vanilla games that are "complete" in the past. And if you are like me who buys stuff off platforms like Steam, if anything, the cost of gaming has gone down significantly, at least for PC anyways. For console gaming, consoles have matched inflation, but the base vanilla games have been literally stuck around the $30 to $60 dollar range since I was a kid, so adding extra cosmetics, campaigns, and whatnot as DLCs with microtransactions is fine by me if it means my favorite series stay alive. And vanilla games of today have far more content than vanilla games before, not to mention way more polished and pretty. Most modern Fire Emblem games got dating sim mechanics now, and there is also 3D graphics, beautiful cutscenes, voice acting every dialogue, and so much more features that are not present in the old games. Hell, even Call of Duty these days got vehicular combat, which used to a be thing Battlefield was known for. DLCs and microtransactions are fine if it means developers getting fed and we continue to get games.
Why shouldn't we compare piecemeal purchases to microtransactions?
Superficially, they're similar. You're paying a nominally smaller amount for a portion of the product. They're not the same thing though, not in the whole picture.
Piecemeal purchasing allowed you to buy products at your own pace, at no disadvantage to you. Outside of exceptional circumstances, you never paid more buying piecemeal than if you bought the product outright. This already means half the scumminess of microtransactions does not apply - it's not trying to hide the true cost and slide it past you.
Piecemeal purchasing did not encourage you to "rebuy" the product. You only ever paid for it once - if you wanted the Hexblade, you could buy the Hexblade piecemeal or as part of the book. You don't have to keep on buying it, nor did you buy Tasha's and then be told that you had to buy the Subclasses separately. You never paid more (with a few marginal exceptions) than if you just paid upfront. That's the other half of the scumminess of microtransactions.
Piecemeal purchases allowed you to buy what you needed and ignore a lot of what you didn't. Sure, the pricing was disproportional - you didn't get 10% of the book for 10% of the price - but that's fine and reasonable.
What's wrong with microtransactions in general doesn't apply to piecemeal purchases. It literally saved you money if it were a useful product, as opposed to microtransactions (which is essentially a euphemism for trying to trick you into overspending) which sought to make you overpay.
Please stop bringing up microtransactions as being comparable to piecemeal purchases. Piecemeal purchases were one of the strongest selling points of DDB over its competitors. You may not care about them, but complaining about them is like complaining about the shop selling individual chocolate bars when you only buy multi packs.
I do not agree with your semantics, but I do agree with your passion. Out of all the official digital tools, Beyond had the best and most flexible sales model. The closest thing to Beyond's à la carte option would be some of the bundles on Steam, where the stuff you buy gets deducted from the bundle's total, although that depends more on the developer/publisher than Steam to set that up properly. Roll20 does not have à la carte options, but the books that you buy do get discounted from any bundles they are part of, and I think Fantasy Grounds is similar too. Without à la carte options, there is not really any reason to go to Beyond when you can get more functionality out of other VTTs. Beyond is geared more towards in-person play, but I do not think the other VTTs are that far off in terms of their digital tools for in-person play either. They might not look as pretty as Beyond, but I think they are far more flexible and functional; I am pretty sure Roll20 has spell points and epic boons since ages ago, while Beyond still got nada on that front. For a casual player, Beyond is fine, but if you like to get deep into the details of the game mechanics or homebrew, Beyond is probably the worst platform out of the four in my opinion.
This has come up multiple times, so I'm going to explain one last time why piecemeal purchasing shouldn't be compared to microtransactions.
I think piecemeal purchases and microtransactions are equivalent. Every D&D book besides the core three are expansions no different from DLCs on the videogame side of things. À la carte purchases are basically microtransactions if you do not want to buy the whole DLC. The only difference I see is that microtransaction got a negative connotation to it, which I do not think it is a big deal because developers got bills to pay and mouths to feed, and if people do not like a particular sales model, they can simply choose to not buy the game.
I don't think microtransactions are really the same thing; D&D Beyond's "a la carte" purchases were just letting the customer buy the same content but in smaller, more affordable pieces.
Microtransactions have a bad reputation because they're something slightly different, and much more geared towards constant revenue. Think of things like "special" currencies in mobile games; many of these might let you earn them for free, but at a very slow pace, so you're still heavily incentivised to pay for convenience/speed, and they're usually something you'll need again, and again, so you're incentivised to keep paying.
"A la carte" was just an ordinary one-off purchase, but of only part of a product. You don't need to buy "a la carte" any more than you need to buy a book unless you must have access to that specific content, and once you've got it its unlocked for as long as your account/the service lasts.
But by doing away with "a la carte" they've made it much more expensive for many of us to unlock new content at all, because many of us didn't buy entire books. And I suspect many of us aren't going to going forward either, because when the affordable options are removed, the free ones reign supreme – legal or otherwise.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
It's a really terrible decision. It'll certainly stop me from buying anything in the future. I have purchased a fair amount of individual things, such as spells, classes, feats and races etc over the years. I have no interest whatsoever in purchasing a full digital book that I can only read on this website. I purchase the actual books and then (previously) bought character creation items on here for my players to use. It seems like a greedy and unnecessary decision removing this ability. Perhaps WotC had reasons, but it'd have been nice for them to have shared them.
DM subscriber since I joined this website. Ended my subscription June 2024 due to the removal of individual purchases. Was the only reason I ever bothered with this website. I use it for character building for my players and occasional referencing. I don't want digital books that can be removed whenever the company sees fit.
January 2025: seems it was a correct move. They're removing 2014 content that we paid for in lieu of their new version of the game. You only rent content on here, never own.
but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
Much appreciated, and thank you for the guidance!
But this is probably a digression, and we should keep on topic.
Don't get a DMs Guild account. Just sell on regular drivethrurpg marketplace. While you get access to all that nifty trade dress in the DMs Guild, you also open yourself up to Hasbro harvesting your product and taking it over without credit or proper payment for your hard word.
It's funny you think that WotC would waste time doing that for "DrivethruRPG, but with D&D set dressing" but not for regular DrivethruRPG. It's the same site. Just use the version that will get you to an audience.
It's run by the same company (Onebookshelf) but the rules for posting on both are completely different, like the other partner sub-sites. What you're saying is incorrect. DMSGuild gives you the ability to use all D&D IP and they can take your content if they wished. I'm not aware of them ever actually doing this without compensation. On DriveThru they cannot do this and you cannot use D&D IP. Also the percentage of money you earn is quite different and you make more money on DriveThru because DMSGuild takes a larger cut. But yes indeed, the audience for D&D is obviously larger on DMSGuild - which is the tradeoff you make for less money.
DM subscriber since I joined this website. Ended my subscription June 2024 due to the removal of individual purchases. Was the only reason I ever bothered with this website. I use it for character building for my players and occasional referencing. I don't want digital books that can be removed whenever the company sees fit.
January 2025: seems it was a correct move. They're removing 2014 content that we paid for in lieu of their new version of the game. You only rent content on here, never own.
Regardless of their reasons, I bought al la cart here instead of on roll20 because it was more convenient.
Now, I have already started switching fully over to roll20. I have beta tested for them and I know what's coming, and I believe it will be better. The Al la Cart kept me loyal through last year's debacle, but this? No way am I putting up with this.
Certainly not buying the new books except on roll20...where all of my adventures are as well. Not buying print books either.
If I only had a little to spend, I could buy just the things I needed now, and then later buy the whole book without having 'wasted' any money or having to pay twice. And when there is only a few dollars left to get the rest of it, then why not,
Now, I might not buy anything at all because I might not have the money up front for all of it, and that expendable income might go to something else instead now.
but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
Much appreciated, and thank you for the guidance!
But this is probably a digression, and we should keep on topic.
Don't get a DMs Guild account. Just sell on regular drivethrurpg marketplace. While you get access to all that nifty trade dress in the DMs Guild, you also open yourself up to Hasbro harvesting your product and taking it over without credit or proper payment for your hard word.
It's funny you think that WotC would waste time doing that for "DrivethruRPG, but with D&D set dressing" but not for regular DrivethruRPG. It's the same site. Just use the version that will get you to an audience.
It's run by the same company (Onebookshelf) but the rules for posting on both are completely different, like the other partner sub-sites. What you're saying is incorrect. DMSGuild gives you the ability to use all D&D IP and they can take your content if they wished. I'm not aware of them ever actually doing this without compensation. On DriveThru they cannot do this and you cannot use D&D IP. Also the percentage of money you earn is quite different and you make more money on DriveThru because DMSGuild takes a larger cut. But yes indeed, the audience for D&D is obviously larger on DMSGuild - which is the tradeoff you make for less money.
Not to sidetrack even further, but another important distinction between the two: on DMs Guild you can only post content that uses approved official D&D settings (currently: Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Eberron, Ravnica, Theros, Arcavios (Strixhaven), and Spelljammer) or setting agnostic content (no homebrewed cities, towns, worlds, etc.).
But I think it's a fair point. When Independant creators are able to churn out well balanced subclasses, Feats, magic items, and even adventures with a high degree of regularity, why can't WOTC, with their *significantly* higher degree of resources do the same? Yes there are only so many books you can release before you cause fatigue. But they could provide much better content within the ones they have.
Are they really better than Wizards' stuff though? What about them makes it better than Wizards' content? I do not see this perceived quality increase that third party content has over official content. Granted I do not care much for third party content in general so I have not seen much, but I have not seen anything that amazed me either out of the stuff that I do see. If anything, I find more interesting things and get more inspirations outside of the TTRPG space than in it. The only two things that third party can potentially do better than Wizards is on price of content, and the organization of the content.
Another thing to consider is convenience and quality of life experience. Wizards and Paizo can provide everything you need to run a game smoothly and easily. As a GM, one of my most important tools are monster cards and Beyond's monster database. Paizo got a database and cards too, but I am not aware of any other game that has their own database of monsters or sell their own monster cards. Additionally, looking up rules is way easier with Beyond, and while Beyond's search does suck, with how popular D&D is, you will have an easier time looking things up on Google compared to another game. And as horribly monolingual Beyond is, Wizards as a whole is not, and you can share the joys of D&D with people who speak a different language than you with the physical books in different languages. It is going to be extremely difficult to communicate, but you can do hack-and-slash and dungeon crawling games and rely on the boardgame aspect of D&D.
And most uniquely, I do not know of any other TTRPG that lets you purchase piecemeal content at Beyond's level of granularity and scale. D&D and Beyond no longer has it either, hence this sad PSA thread, but it did have it at one point!
It feels a bit preemptive to be phasing out older content for OneDnD when it feels like people are barely even considering it so far.
I've seen some mild interest and looking over of the playtests but little to no people excited to fully adopt it.
As far as I'm aware it's not even done testing.
Playtest is over. The PHB is in final print review, the next step is going to press. Honestly, while I think it might be a little premature, I can see the logic of removing 2014 piecemeal content being put under Legacy in preparation for 2024. Here's the discussion of the galley reading process a couple of weeks back:
Was the idea that OneDnD is Backwards Compatible with 5e scrapped?
If not, I don't see what the harm in the legacy piecemeal content still existing is.
(Honestly I didn't think they were in the right for making the Volo's versions of old races unbuyable either.)
I just wonder how much of a difference in the revision of the rules there is that the ability to construct the a-la-carte segments requires a complete shutdown this soon?
I could understand if a complete overhaul of the core database code, it’s reaching the 10yr milestone and probably looks like a hoarder storage shed, is required but this isn’t how to handle it.
This however, reeks of corporate stupidity, employees are only following orders frantically signing it’s bad while having to give their official response.
If some corporate a-hole doesn’t get their yearly $500,000 bonus because of stupid decisions of late, well then cry me a river and see if I give a $h!t.
( this is again, pointing out the elephant in the room, not meant to inflame. )
D&D is an RPG that works game wise more like Minecraft, than monopoly. A-la-carte was the mod packs of the D&D core, that could be added to the most basic rules to custom build not only players characters but the eventual expansion in a custom universe of ones own creation. Sure we can still do all those things, but now it’s 5 times harder, and expensive. Far too much of what this site offers can be discovered outside, but at least here most of it could be acquired for a reasonable price. But as being noted, that is no longer a service.
If corporate wants to complain about being under- monetized, this is sure as hell not the way to do it.
I could be utterly descriptive of what I think of the corporate leadership of WotC & Hasbro, but I will let you imagine the words and displeasure one feels when one has been blatantly bent over.
It feels a bit preemptive to be phasing out older content for OneDnD when it feels like people are barely even considering it so far.
I've seen some mild interest and looking over of the playtests but little to no people excited to fully adopt it.
As far as I'm aware it's not even done testing.
Playtest is over. The PHB is in final print review, the next step is going to press. Honestly, while I think it might be a little premature, I can see the logic of removing 2014 piecemeal content being put under Legacy in preparation for 2024. Here's the discussion of the galley reading process a couple of weeks back:
Was the idea that OneDnD is Backwards Compatible with 5e scrapped?
If not, I don't see what the harm in the legacy piecemeal content still existing is.
(Honestly I didn't think they were in the right for making the Volo's versions of old races unbuyable either.)
You're answering your own question there. The 2024 D&D will be compatible with 2014 content, but MMM superseding Volo's and Mord's and the content of those older books becoming available only through Legacy access is exactly how I expect 2024 to roll out (everyone forgets MMM was a peak at what the 2024 content was supposed to look like, that's why they bundled it with two books a lot of buyers already had for a year end sale spike). I would have figured there would have been some overlap like there was with MMM and Volos/Mord's but if the disappearance of piecemeal content is part of prepping the marketplace for the 2024 expression, maybe there won't be. You may not think the MMM from Volo/Mord's transition was right, but it's what they did. Moreover, I'd say it was better in that IIRC they did give the community some heads up. Had they announced they were pulling piecemeal content, that might have actually caused a boost in sales that my guess are flattening as potential new buyers are waiting for the 2024 books to drop. And given what happened, I think people are going to be gun-shy about buying _anything_ on DDB until the new books drop. The Marketplace has a shifting floor now.
I just wonder how much of a difference in the revision of the rules there is that the ability to construct the a-la-carte segments requires a complete shutdown this soon?
I don't think it's a technical matter so much as juking anticipated sales stats to give credit to the 2024 rules. Let's say piecemeal purchases return in the new books (big IF, but that's the only sane thing I see happening barring something else I float below in this response). Someone's been wanting to buy a Soul Knife, they can't now; but with the 2024 PHB dropping they can and the sale goes to 2024 stats making it sound more successful because they can slake all that hunger for piecemeal content with the new version. I think folks on this board forget how, at least it seems to me, the bulk of D&D players play and buy much more casually. Folks on this board are outraged, the larger player base is more than willing to buy the edition that will be supported on the horizon.
D&D is an RPG that works game wise more like Minecraft, than monopoly. A-la-carte was the mod packs of the D&D core, that could be added to the most basic rules to custom build not only players characters but the eventual expansion in a custom universe of ones own creation. Sure we can still do all those things, but now it’s 5 times harder, and expensive. Far too much of what this site offers can be discovered outside, but at least here most of it could be acquired for a reasonable price. But as being noted, that is no longer a service.
The other alternative for pulling piecemeal pieces is treating books after the core as the way many video games treat "season passes." There's new areas to play through and new player options, but you got to buy the whole package to use it, you can also play without it. It's no secret WotC has had a revolving door of video game industry people spin through its executive side, I could see this logic thinking it can "fix" the D&D monetization "problem". I think it's a mistake, and I think the roll out of the new marketplace demonstrates there's a management team over the marketplace that really didn't seem to understand what makes DDB successful and brings people to DDB instead of the major VTT competitors with currently superior VTTs, superior in that core features aren't still in Alpha or a teaser video with no progress publicly reported.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I just wonder how much of a difference in the revision of the rules there is that the ability to construct the a-la-carte segments requires a complete shutdown this soon?
I don't think it's a technical matter so much as juking anticipated sales stats to give credit to the 2024 rules. Let's say piecemeal purchases return in the new books (big IF, but that's the only sane thing I see happening barring something else I float below in this response). Someone's been wanting to buy a Soul Knife, they can't now; but with the 2024 PHB dropping they can and the sale goes to 2024 stats making it sound more successful because they can slake all that hunger for piecemeal content with the new version. I think folks on this board forget how, at least it seems to me, the bulk of D&D players play and buy much more casually. Folks on this board are outraged, the larger player base is more than willing to buy the edition that will be supported on the horizon.
D&D is an RPG that works game wise more like Minecraft, than monopoly. A-la-carte was the mod packs of the D&D core, that could be added to the most basic rules to custom build not only players characters but the eventual expansion in a custom universe of ones own creation. Sure we can still do all those things, but now it’s 5 times harder, and expensive. Far too much of what this site offers can be discovered outside, but at least here most of it could be acquired for a reasonable price. But as being noted, that is no longer a service.
The other alternative for pulling piecemeal pieces is treating books after the core as the way many video games treat "season passes." There's new areas to play through and new player options, but you got to buy the whole package to use it, you can also play without it. It's no secret WotC has had a revolving door of video game industry people spin through its executive side, I could see this logic thinking it can "fix" the D&D monetization "problem". I think it's a mistake, and I think the roll out of the new marketplace demonstrates there's a management team over the marketplace that really didn't seem to understand what makes DDB successful and brings people to DDB instead of the major VTT competitors with currently superior VTTs, superior in that core features aren't still in Alpha or a teaser video with no progress publicly reported.
Totally agree, an alpha VTT behind a sub was the straw for me. Now I understand to need testers to shake out bugs, and suggest features, but at least let everyone have a look at whats cooking, and maybe give hints.
Yea, I know bad comes with good as feedback goes, but at least give it a glance. If your gonna consider Ai, let it sort the good from the bad.
Or at the least offer the lower ranks access to a previous version of the VTT in progress, so as to get some utility from it.
I mean come on, not exactly thinking here are they.
Putting in my thoughts... I'm very disappointed in this decision to remove a la carte purchases. I tend to purchase hardcover books and buy digital pieces for my players. I will not be spending twice the money for my players' convenience and I will not just buy digital books I cannot own and keep. So, in my case, sales will be lost.
I understand that mixing player info and GM info into the same book creates more sales because GMs buy most of the books and there are fewer GMs than players. Thus, the company needs lures for player purchases. I also understand that offering a la carte purchases allowed a separation of that mix -- which is probably a big reason they got the ax. However, I would really appreciate less-mixed books and more GM support. Please give back the a la carte purchase ability.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
You know, I do appreciate that it was flippant, so fair play there.
But I think it's a fair point. When Independant creators are able to churn out well balanced subclasses, Feats, magic items, and even adventures with a high degree of regularity, why can't WOTC, with their *significantly* higher degree of resources do the same? Yes there are only so many books you can release before you cause fatigue. But they could provide much better content within the ones they have.
See what, 3 spells and a feat in the book of many things...
And credit where it's due, I think allowing the 3rd party sellers onto Dndbeyond was an ace move to hopefully alleviate some of the "good content drought" we are seeing.
And for what it's worth, I fully confess to not being any good at writing adventures that others could digest and use - but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
Playtest is over. The PHB is in final print review, the next step is going to press. Honestly, while I think it might be a little premature, I can see the logic of removing 2014 piecemeal content being put under Legacy in preparation for 2024. Here's the discussion of the galley reading process a couple of weeks back:
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I've spent years dumping praise on DDB with my friends, and now I'm going to spend a lifetime telling everyone I know in the RPG world to avoid this site like the plague. Your decisions do not factor in your customers whatsoever, and are consistently based entirely around greed.
Prime example: Removing the discount from previously-purchased a la carte content. Yes, you can still get your discount by contacting customer service, but in reality, what you're banking on is that people won't remember that they've previously purchased content from a book, do not contact customer service, and instead you get to steal from them by overcharging.
I've purchased the last of any book content you will ever offer until and unless this decision is reversed, permanently. DDB is not the only tool by which 5e content can be found, and yet you act like you have a monopoly.
Congratulations: Instead of people like me buying the content we need or want here, we're instead going to get it elsewhere and give you absolutely nothing.
Much appreciated, and thank you for the guidance!
But this is probably a digression, and we should keep on topic.
Don't get a DMs Guild account. Just sell on regular drivethrurpg marketplace. While you get access to all that nifty trade dress in the DMs Guild, you also open yourself up to Hasbro harvesting your product and taking it over without credit or proper payment for your hard word.
It's funny you think that WotC would waste time doing that for "DrivethruRPG, but with D&D set dressing" but not for regular DrivethruRPG. It's the same site. Just use the version that will get you to an audience.
I think piecemeal purchases and microtransactions are equivalent. Every D&D book besides the core three are expansions no different from DLCs on the videogame side of things. À la carte purchases are basically microtransactions if you do not want to buy the whole DLC. The only difference I see is that microtransaction got a negative connotation to it, which I do not think it is a big deal because developers got bills to pay and mouths to feed, and if people do not like a particular sales model, they can simply choose to not buy the game.
Can you give an example of a game that actually does that? I have not encountered any game that really requires microtransactions to progress.
I used to play Fire Emblem Heroes, a gacha game, and while spending money does make PvP content easier, you do not need to spend money play competitively, and many people play semi-competitively where they coast at a certain competitive level where they can put the least amount of effort and still obtain good participation rewards. PvE content is so easy it is not worth spending money on. For collectors who want their favorite characters, if they do not mind waiting, the game provides enough resources for the casual collector; if a collector has a Gotta Catch 'Em All Pokémon mindset, then obviously they will need shell out some money. And for people who complain about the developers being too money hungry, those idiots can go start their own gaming studio and run their own business and see how they do, because they did not have to experience their favorite video game series getting completely axed. Growing up, I was more into Advance Wars than Fire Emblem, but Advance Wars got cancelled due to poor sales. Fire Emblem as a series has the gacha game to fall back if they accidentally **** up a main series game, so they are able to try new ideas and innovations in game play. Advance Wars got revived with a remake, and while it is nice, there is nothing new and nothing exciting past the nostalgia. Advance Wars is still crawling in a ditch while Fire Emblem is riding high and fine. As a fan who likes both sister series, seeing other fans being that entitled and ungrateful just rubs me the wrong way. This gacha game alone is practically bankrolling the entire series (the gacha game generates more revenue than the rest of the series combined), and that lets the developers go experiement and try new things with confidence and create more waifus and husbandos that the rest of the fandom can go crazy over. For the main line Fire Emblem games, it is like D&D. Every new game is a new edition, and you can buy season passes which are like D&D expansion books, and you can purchase piecemeal content if you do not want the whole season pass and just want a specific map or item or whatever.
Age of Empires III is my favorite and the most unique in the series. While the series as a whole does not have much microtransactions, it does have a few, and it is just cosmetic. A lot of the new DLCs do add new maps and new campaigns, but none of the DLCs in any of the games are required to be successful in PvP.
Ace Combat 7 is super fun, and while I used CFA-44 Nosferatu (one of the most broken and the most noob friendly DLC planes) to beat the game on very easy mode, I do not need to. They even put in very easy mode, so if skill is an issue, even that should not stop a person from completing the game and enjoying the story. While most DLC planes are very strong, the end game plane X-02S Strike Wyvern that you can get in the base game is on par with the average DLC plane, so if you are into PvP, that should not stop you either. And like in D&D, you can either purchase DLC planes à la carte, or get them in a bigger pack.
I used to play Runescape, and it got a lot of fun cosmetics, and a few you can purchase à la carte or as part of a pack . I did not like the FOMOness of some of the cosmetics, but if it is not a cosmetic I care about, then it does not really matter if I missed out. Even if I missed out, they will usually bring it back in one way or another eventually. You can pay your way to getting the best gear too by buying Bonds, but you do not need the best gear for PvM content; second and third best option is not only sufficient, but way more affordable too. PKing is not as popular as it used to be, but I cannot imagine people bringing expensive gear to PK.
Gacha and loot boxes are a subset of microtransactions. I get that purchases based on chance is a turn off for many, but people can also simply not play games that have them. Developers got to eat to too, and in Fire Emblem Heroes' case with all that extra revenue, it lets the developers do more interesting stuff with the main series. I much rather have microtransactions in the main game series with a gacha game on the side, than a game series that got none because it is dead or barely alive. Fire Emblem fans do not need to touch the gacha game at all if they do not want to, but they certainly benefit from all the players like me spent lots of money on the gacha game.
I have not played the new Star Wars Battlefronts, but from what I can tell, the loot boxes just speed up progression rather than locking things behind it? That is no different from Battlefield games that I used to play where you can pay to speed up progression. If players wants to pay for progression, that is fine by me. I am not fan of EA either, but in this case, the main issue is the lootbox system rather than microtransaction as a whole. Literally every major modern FPS game these days got cosmetics.
Cosmetics take time and money to develop too. Why should developers add cosmetics into the game for free when it is not necessary for the core game play? Charging for cosmetics keeps developers fed and helps keep the cost of the core game low.
The price of games has not gone up in literal years, and people who complain about modern vanilla games not being complete have an overly nostalgic view of vanilla games that are "complete" in the past. And if you are like me who buys stuff off platforms like Steam, if anything, the cost of gaming has gone down significantly, at least for PC anyways. For console gaming, consoles have matched inflation, but the base vanilla games have been literally stuck around the $30 to $60 dollar range since I was a kid, so adding extra cosmetics, campaigns, and whatnot as DLCs with microtransactions is fine by me if it means my favorite series stay alive. And vanilla games of today have far more content than vanilla games before, not to mention way more polished and pretty. Most modern Fire Emblem games got dating sim mechanics now, and there is also 3D graphics, beautiful cutscenes, voice acting every dialogue, and so much more features that are not present in the old games. Hell, even Call of Duty these days got vehicular combat, which used to a be thing Battlefield was known for. DLCs and microtransactions are fine if it means developers getting fed and we continue to get games.
I do not agree with your semantics, but I do agree with your passion. Out of all the official digital tools, Beyond had the best and most flexible sales model. The closest thing to Beyond's à la carte option would be some of the bundles on Steam, where the stuff you buy gets deducted from the bundle's total, although that depends more on the developer/publisher than Steam to set that up properly. Roll20 does not have à la carte options, but the books that you buy do get discounted from any bundles they are part of, and I think Fantasy Grounds is similar too. Without à la carte options, there is not really any reason to go to Beyond when you can get more functionality out of other VTTs. Beyond is geared more towards in-person play, but I do not think the other VTTs are that far off in terms of their digital tools for in-person play either. They might not look as pretty as Beyond, but I think they are far more flexible and functional; I am pretty sure Roll20 has spell points and epic boons since ages ago, while Beyond still got nada on that front. For a casual player, Beyond is fine, but if you like to get deep into the details of the game mechanics or homebrew, Beyond is probably the worst platform out of the four in my opinion.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/licenses >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
I don't think microtransactions are really the same thing; D&D Beyond's "a la carte" purchases were just letting the customer buy the same content but in smaller, more affordable pieces.
Microtransactions have a bad reputation because they're something slightly different, and much more geared towards constant revenue. Think of things like "special" currencies in mobile games; many of these might let you earn them for free, but at a very slow pace, so you're still heavily incentivised to pay for convenience/speed, and they're usually something you'll need again, and again, so you're incentivised to keep paying.
"A la carte" was just an ordinary one-off purchase, but of only part of a product. You don't need to buy "a la carte" any more than you need to buy a book unless you must have access to that specific content, and once you've got it its unlocked for as long as your account/the service lasts.
But by doing away with "a la carte" they've made it much more expensive for many of us to unlock new content at all, because many of us didn't buy entire books. And I suspect many of us aren't going to going forward either, because when the affordable options are removed, the free ones reign supreme – legal or otherwise.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
It's a really terrible decision. It'll certainly stop me from buying anything in the future. I have purchased a fair amount of individual things, such as spells, classes, feats and races etc over the years. I have no interest whatsoever in purchasing a full digital book that I can only read on this website. I purchase the actual books and then (previously) bought character creation items on here for my players to use. It seems like a greedy and unnecessary decision removing this ability. Perhaps WotC had reasons, but it'd have been nice for them to have shared them.
DM subscriber since I joined this website. Ended my subscription June 2024 due to the removal of individual purchases. Was the only reason I ever bothered with this website. I use it for character building for my players and occasional referencing. I don't want digital books that can be removed whenever the company sees fit.
January 2025: seems it was a correct move. They're removing 2014 content that we paid for in lieu of their new version of the game. You only rent content on here, never own.
It's run by the same company (Onebookshelf) but the rules for posting on both are completely different, like the other partner sub-sites. What you're saying is incorrect. DMSGuild gives you the ability to use all D&D IP and they can take your content if they wished. I'm not aware of them ever actually doing this without compensation. On DriveThru they cannot do this and you cannot use D&D IP. Also the percentage of money you earn is quite different and you make more money on DriveThru because DMSGuild takes a larger cut. But yes indeed, the audience for D&D is obviously larger on DMSGuild - which is the tradeoff you make for less money.
DM subscriber since I joined this website. Ended my subscription June 2024 due to the removal of individual purchases. Was the only reason I ever bothered with this website. I use it for character building for my players and occasional referencing. I don't want digital books that can be removed whenever the company sees fit.
January 2025: seems it was a correct move. They're removing 2014 content that we paid for in lieu of their new version of the game. You only rent content on here, never own.
Regardless of their reasons, I bought al la cart here instead of on roll20 because it was more convenient.
Now, I have already started switching fully over to roll20. I have beta tested for them and I know what's coming, and I believe it will be better. The Al la Cart kept me loyal through last year's debacle, but this? No way am I putting up with this.
Certainly not buying the new books except on roll20...where all of my adventures are as well. Not buying print books either.
Check us out on Twitch, YouTube and the DISCORD!
Disappointing.
It was great like steam bundles, now its not.
If I only had a little to spend, I could buy just the things I needed now, and then later buy the whole book without having 'wasted' any money or having to pay twice. And when there is only a few dollars left to get the rest of it, then why not,
Now, I might not buy anything at all because I might not have the money up front for all of it, and that expendable income might go to something else instead now.
Not to sidetrack even further, but another important distinction between the two: on DMs Guild you can only post content that uses approved official D&D settings (currently: Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Eberron, Ravnica, Theros, Arcavios (Strixhaven), and Spelljammer) or setting agnostic content (no homebrewed cities, towns, worlds, etc.).
Are they really better than Wizards' stuff though? What about them makes it better than Wizards' content? I do not see this perceived quality increase that third party content has over official content. Granted I do not care much for third party content in general so I have not seen much, but I have not seen anything that amazed me either out of the stuff that I do see. If anything, I find more interesting things and get more inspirations outside of the TTRPG space than in it. The only two things that third party can potentially do better than Wizards is on price of content, and the organization of the content.
Another thing to consider is convenience and quality of life experience. Wizards and Paizo can provide everything you need to run a game smoothly and easily. As a GM, one of my most important tools are monster cards and Beyond's monster database. Paizo got a database and cards too, but I am not aware of any other game that has their own database of monsters or sell their own monster cards. Additionally, looking up rules is way easier with Beyond, and while Beyond's search does suck, with how popular D&D is, you will have an easier time looking things up on Google compared to another game. And as horribly monolingual Beyond is, Wizards as a whole is not, and you can share the joys of D&D with people who speak a different language than you with the physical books in different languages. It is going to be extremely difficult to communicate, but you can do hack-and-slash and dungeon crawling games and rely on the boardgame aspect of D&D.
And most uniquely, I do not know of any other TTRPG that lets you purchase piecemeal content at Beyond's level of granularity and scale. D&D and Beyond no longer has it either, hence this sad PSA thread, but it did have it at one point!
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/licenses >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
Was the idea that OneDnD is Backwards Compatible with 5e scrapped?
If not, I don't see what the harm in the legacy piecemeal content still existing is.
(Honestly I didn't think they were in the right for making the Volo's versions of old races unbuyable either.)
I just wonder how much of a difference in the revision of the rules there is that the ability to construct the a-la-carte segments requires a complete shutdown this soon?
I could understand if a complete overhaul of the core database code, it’s reaching the 10yr milestone and probably looks like a hoarder storage shed, is required but this isn’t how to handle it.
This however, reeks of corporate stupidity, employees are only following orders frantically signing it’s bad while having to give their official response.
If some corporate a-hole doesn’t get their yearly $500,000 bonus because of stupid decisions of late, well then cry me a river and see if I give a $h!t.
( this is again, pointing out the elephant in the room, not meant to inflame. )
D&D is an RPG that works game wise more like Minecraft, than monopoly. A-la-carte was the mod packs of the D&D core, that could be added to the most basic rules to custom build not only players characters but the eventual expansion in a custom universe of ones own creation.
Sure we can still do all those things, but now it’s 5 times harder, and expensive. Far too much of what this site offers can be discovered outside, but at least here most of it could be acquired for a reasonable price. But as being noted, that is no longer a service.
If corporate wants to complain about being under- monetized, this is sure as hell not the way to do it.
I could be utterly descriptive of what I think of the corporate leadership of WotC & Hasbro, but I will let you imagine the words and displeasure one feels when one has been blatantly bent over.
You're answering your own question there. The 2024 D&D will be compatible with 2014 content, but MMM superseding Volo's and Mord's and the content of those older books becoming available only through Legacy access is exactly how I expect 2024 to roll out (everyone forgets MMM was a peak at what the 2024 content was supposed to look like, that's why they bundled it with two books a lot of buyers already had for a year end sale spike). I would have figured there would have been some overlap like there was with MMM and Volos/Mord's but if the disappearance of piecemeal content is part of prepping the marketplace for the 2024 expression, maybe there won't be. You may not think the MMM from Volo/Mord's transition was right, but it's what they did. Moreover, I'd say it was better in that IIRC they did give the community some heads up. Had they announced they were pulling piecemeal content, that might have actually caused a boost in sales that my guess are flattening as potential new buyers are waiting for the 2024 books to drop. And given what happened, I think people are going to be gun-shy about buying _anything_ on DDB until the new books drop. The Marketplace has a shifting floor now.
I don't think it's a technical matter so much as juking anticipated sales stats to give credit to the 2024 rules. Let's say piecemeal purchases return in the new books (big IF, but that's the only sane thing I see happening barring something else I float below in this response). Someone's been wanting to buy a Soul Knife, they can't now; but with the 2024 PHB dropping they can and the sale goes to 2024 stats making it sound more successful because they can slake all that hunger for piecemeal content with the new version. I think folks on this board forget how, at least it seems to me, the bulk of D&D players play and buy much more casually. Folks on this board are outraged, the larger player base is more than willing to buy the edition that will be supported on the horizon.
The other alternative for pulling piecemeal pieces is treating books after the core as the way many video games treat "season passes." There's new areas to play through and new player options, but you got to buy the whole package to use it, you can also play without it. It's no secret WotC has had a revolving door of video game industry people spin through its executive side, I could see this logic thinking it can "fix" the D&D monetization "problem". I think it's a mistake, and I think the roll out of the new marketplace demonstrates there's a management team over the marketplace that really didn't seem to understand what makes DDB successful and brings people to DDB instead of the major VTT competitors with currently superior VTTs, superior in that core features aren't still in Alpha or a teaser video with no progress publicly reported.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Totally agree, an alpha VTT behind a sub was the straw for me. Now I understand to need testers to shake out bugs, and suggest features, but at least let everyone have a look at whats cooking, and maybe give hints.
Yea, I know bad comes with good as feedback goes, but at least give it a glance. If your gonna consider Ai, let it sort the good from the bad.
Or at the least offer the lower ranks access to a previous version of the VTT in progress, so as to get some utility from it.
I mean come on, not exactly thinking here are they.
Putting in my thoughts... I'm very disappointed in this decision to remove a la carte purchases. I tend to purchase hardcover books and buy digital pieces for my players. I will not be spending twice the money for my players' convenience and I will not just buy digital books I cannot own and keep. So, in my case, sales will be lost.
I understand that mixing player info and GM info into the same book creates more sales because GMs buy most of the books and there are fewer GMs than players. Thus, the company needs lures for player purchases. I also understand that offering a la carte purchases allowed a separation of that mix -- which is probably a big reason they got the ax. However, I would really appreciate less-mixed books and more GM support. Please give back the a la carte purchase ability.