It makes a lot of sense if you consider that their business is built around selling books. Very few people are going to buy Ravinica for $50 just because they want a tiny handful of player options. The expectation is that people buy it because they want Ravinica. So it makes sense to publish a setting-neutral book every once in a while that includes the good player options from setting books, along with plenty of new stuff. Because almost nobody wants all those setting books.
Piecemeal buying was a DDB-only exception, not the norm. And, while handy, it does seem to have created an expectation in some people's minds that they need to have all the character options. And they don't. Most people will never use any given option. They go into setting books because they are thematic for that setting, which increases the chances that players in that setting will want to use it. Why own Loxodons when they probably don't exist in any given game world?
Sure, we don't need all character options... but there are definitely some that I want and am willing to pay for in books that I otherwise don't care about. I'm happy to pay $1.99 for a subclass or a race... I am NOT happy to pay $30 for a book that I really don't care about because of that same one subclass or race because it's in a book that I don't care about! Wizards isn't getting my 30 bucks... they're losing my smaller purchases. I just cannot wrap my head around their thought process.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Unhappy that the market got rid of individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
It makes a lot of sense if you consider that their business is built around selling books. Very few people are going to buy Ravinica for $50 just because they want a tiny handful of player options. The expectation is that people buy it because they want Ravinica. So it makes sense to publish a setting-neutral book every once in a while that includes the good player options from setting books, along with plenty of new stuff. Because almost nobody wants all those setting books.
Piecemeal buying was a DDB-only exception, not the norm. And, while handy, it does seem to have created an expectation in some people's minds that they need to have all the character options. And they don't. Most people will never use any given option. They go into setting books because they are thematic for that setting, which increases the chances that players in that setting will want to use it. Why own Loxodons when they probably don't exist in any given game world?
Sure, we don't need all character options... but there are definitely some that I want and am willing to pay for in books that I otherwise don't care about. I'm happy to pay $1.99 for a subclass or a race... I am NOT happy to pay $30 for a book that I really don't care about because of that same one subclass or race because it's in a book that I don't care about! Wizards isn't getting my 30 bucks... they're losing my smaller purchases.
That's why they republish them in books like Tasha's, which the person I was responding was complaining about.
I just cannot wrap my head around their thought process.
I'm still pretty sure it was "the amount of money in this makes it not worth reimplementing piecemeal in the new marketplace". I don't think they expect any significant number of people to buy full books instead of one player option -- people who were likely to do that were already buying the whole books. I think it was either "the off-the-shelf marketplace package we're using can't do this", or "we can do this, but it'll cost $medium-large and delay rollout at least two months", and the delay may have been more important than anything else, because the new books are coming, and they wanted physical-digital bundles ready for that. (This does not mean that I expect it to come back given time.)
A bundle of all of the usable information without all of the fluff players don’t need, sold in different categories like items, backgrounds, races, etc? Personally I’m playing with what I’ve already purchased from here on out, done giving DnDb any more of my money, but I do think something like player bundles could lure me back.
A bundle of all of the usable information without all of the fluff players don’t need, sold in different categories like items, backgrounds, races, etc? Personally I’m playing with what I’ve already purchased from here on out, done giving DnDb any more of my money, but I do think something like player bundles could lure
A bundle of all of the usable information without all of the fluff players don’t need, sold in different categories like items, backgrounds, races, etc? Personally I’m playing with what I’ve already purchased from here on out, done giving DnDb any more of my money, but I do think something like player bundles could lure me back.
Player bundles would definitely be an improvement over the absolute crap we have right now... I'd still miss piecemeal as we originally knew it, though.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Unhappy that the market got rid of individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
Player bundles would definitely be an improvement over the absolute crap we have right now... I'd still miss piecemeal as we originally knew it, though.
yes it is tougher but when i bought a lot of things it sometimes was cheaper to just buy the whole book
Player bundles would definitely be an improvement over the absolute crap we have right now... I'd still miss piecemeal as we originally knew it, though.
yes it is tougher but when i bought a lot of things it sometimes was cheaper to just buy the whole book
True... but that's the thing people (including me) are mad about: I don't always want to buy a lot of things. Sometimes it's just one or two things and it isn't worth buying an entire book for.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Unhappy that the market got rid of individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
Player bundles would definitely be an improvement over the absolute crap we have right now... I'd still miss piecemeal as we originally knew it, though.
yes it is tougher but when i bought a lot of things it sometimes was cheaper to just buy the whole book
It was never cheaper to buy the whole book unless you weren't paying attention to the cost less what you spent and any sale price which used to stack, previous piecemeal purchases were deducted from the cost of the book, and sale discounts were adjusted from what the remainder of the book would have cost you. You could continue to purchase until you spent more than to original cost without a sale, but it was pretty hard to do in the old store, the new store however is quite the opposite, and to get any piecemeal credits has reportedly taken longer to sus out than sales in the new store seem to last. At least the new store in prettier SMH, & RME.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
I would have thought, just having three bundles per book would be enough:
- Player content(class abilities, spells etc)
- DM Content (items and monsters)
- Compendium content.
Then price them at a point in which it would be daft *not* to buy the full book if you were buying two or more. (obviously depending on the split per book. I'd imagine the values would be skewed for certain products like the monster manual, etc).
Would much prefer the old system, but I could appreciate the middle ground concession, if nothing else.
A bundle of all of the usable information without all of the fluff players don’t need, sold in different categories like items, backgrounds, races, etc? Personally I’m playing with what I’ve already purchased from here on out, done giving DnDb any more of my money, but I do think something like player bundles could lure me back.
I'd be totally open to this! Complete piecemeal would obviously be my enormous preference, but I'd still prefer this over buying an entire book of material I don't want/need.
I'd advocate for bundles like those @DnGaF has laid out (over the more general "player" vs. "DM" content model) and would be happy to purchase a bundle even up to $10 or so. To @Robzilla0088's point, if you're buying three or four of those, it would still make sense for some to buy a compendium.
Getting ready to start our D&D campaign back up, and I was excited to see what new character options are available. It's pretty disappointing to know I'll never get to add any new options to the character creator.
Just out of curiosity, I looked at what it would cost to buy a physical copy of one of the new books I haven't gotten anything from. After all, if I were to splurge on an entire book to get a couple spells and a couple background options, I might as well have something to show for it and obviously it's going to come with the digital stuff too, right?
Wrong.
Digital: $50
Physical: $85
Both together: $115
lol
This feels like some poor director under way too much pressure to hit unrealistic sales goals put some napkin math into a powerpoint deck showing that if just X% of the people buying a la carte options end up buying full books instead, they'll make infinity dollars. They make the change, and a few months later they can't figure out why conversion rate keeps getting worse.
Piecemeal buying was a DDB-only exception, not the norm. And, while handy, it does seem to have created an expectation in some people's minds that they need to have all the character options. And they don't. Most people will never use any given option.
It was pretty cool while it lasted, though. I used maybe 5% of the options I purchased, but spending my money on them was worth every penny to me because exploring the options for its own sake is fun.
Unfortunately, this change effectively amounts to them quintupling their prices, which makes the whole, "I don't use 95% of the options I'm buying" problem loom a lot larger for me.
It's disappointing, but you're right. I don't need all the options and they don't need my money.
It's nothing more than greed that enticed them to make this change. Getting rid of piecemeal purchases is just another way to force users into spending more money than necessary but force bundling things together. I am 200% more inclined to buy the individual pieces necessary to make a character to my liking, rather than buying one or two books and just making whatever I can from those. DndBeyond always worked and grew overtime because of its convenience for 5e with others online. Being able to whip up a character, change it in real time, have your fellow campaign members see it such, and the main draw of buying the minor aspects for your character piece by piece. This is no longer the case. I would much rather just do the research and whip up the character with a PDF and give my campaign members that to fill in for free, with content that I can access about 5e online for free. When the usefulness of sites like this begin to wane and shift away from that usefulness and more towards corporate greed. I think that is the time we begin to explore other options.
Until positive changes are made like bringing back piecemeal purchasing of content we desire from books. I have no interest in spending money on this site anymore and I likely neither will my friends. As they utilized this feature tremendously too. I will also not be recommended new users to this site either and seek alternatives.
(notice how we have only heard from 1 staff member in this entire thread. also notice how its been since June since we last had any responses... radio silence on the situation is always a great sign lol)
They should have just made a whole new website for 2024.
They could have left the whole of DDB2014 alone and no longer supported by anything except moderators.
The new website for DDB2024. Could have started with just the PHB and a few forums to answer 2024 only questions.
Money saved on updating the old site. They could have even left the individual purchases option just for 2014.
Yeah that would have been nice, and made some sense. Unfortunately they don't actually want people to continue playing 2014 as it makes them no new (big) money. New editions are partially about updating rules and modernising, but mostly it's about renewing the cashflow. They will continue to say that people can play their own way, but they don't actually want that. It's the whole reason they've done this completely nonsense living game thing and claiming that it's not a new edition and they're compatible - even though more and more it is clear they're not.
They want to push people away from 2014 and by making it frustrating is their strategy to bring people over. Slowly gating access to the old stuff until it's simply not worth the hassle, whilst making the 2024 look really shiny and cool. It's a terrible strategy but not unheard of. It's what almost all major tech companies do to get people to update their devices.
If they didn't remove piecemeal for 2014 then it'd continue to encourage people to stay on 2014. Why they didn't keep it around for 2024 I don't know, as it was very useful. But money greed is the obvious answer to that.
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.
At this point, I own a lot of 5E material, and they have done very little to convince me that the new version is worth the investment. So far, their strategy seems to be to take or break things that worked fine in an attempt to force me to buy new books. All it has done is convince me once again that Hasbro ownership is a terrible steward of the community and push me to invest less into their products.
At some point, our government and individual corporations need to grow a pair and address the unfettered greed of the 10% that owns 86% of all stock. If not, the other 90% of us are just going to stop playing their game and buy the products.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"When truth presents itself, the wise person see the light, takes it in, and makes adjustments. The fool tries to adjust the truth so he does not have to adjust to it." ~ Henry Cloud #ORC #OpenDND
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Sure, we don't need all character options... but there are definitely some that I want and am willing to pay for in books that I otherwise don't care about. I'm happy to pay $1.99 for a subclass or a race... I am NOT happy to pay $30 for a book that I really don't care about because of that same one subclass or race because it's in a book that I don't care about! Wizards isn't getting my 30 bucks... they're losing my smaller purchases. I just cannot wrap my head around their thought process.
Unhappy that the market got rid of individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
Provide feedback!
I have the feeling the thought process is, "I want another boat this year".
Well, I hate to break it to them, but I don't think that it's going to pan out how they think it will...
Unhappy that the market got rid of individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
Provide feedback!
That's why they republish them in books like Tasha's, which the person I was responding was complaining about.
I'm still pretty sure it was "the amount of money in this makes it not worth reimplementing piecemeal in the new marketplace". I don't think they expect any significant number of people to buy full books instead of one player option -- people who were likely to do that were already buying the whole books. I think it was either "the off-the-shelf marketplace package we're using can't do this", or "we can do this, but it'll cost $medium-large and delay rollout at least two months", and the delay may have been more important than anything else, because the new books are coming, and they wanted physical-digital bundles ready for that. (This does not mean that I expect it to come back given time.)
Been away from this thread for a minute. I bought my preorders for the 2024 rules alt covers at my FLGS but don't expect me to buy more off this site!
Don't ever let this thread die.
Who would be cool with player bundle options?
A bundle of all of the usable information without all of the fluff players don’t need, sold in different categories like items, backgrounds, races, etc?
Personally I’m playing with what I’ve already purchased from here on out, done giving DnDb any more of my money, but I do think something like player bundles could lure me back.
It would be something at least.
Player bundles would definitely be an improvement over the absolute crap we have right now... I'd still miss piecemeal as we originally knew it, though.
Unhappy that the market got rid of individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
Provide feedback!
yes it is tougher but when i bought a lot of things it sometimes was cheaper to just buy the whole book
Pronouns: She/Her
Gender: Nonbinary Female, 1/3 human, 1/3 feline, 1/3 dragon
Mentally and emotionally unstable, anorexic, autism, ADHD, anger issues
True... but that's the thing people (including me) are mad about: I don't always want to buy a lot of things. Sometimes it's just one or two things and it isn't worth buying an entire book for.
Unhappy that the market got rid of individual purchases for one-off subclasses, magic items, and monsters?
Provide feedback!
It was never cheaper to buy the whole book unless you weren't paying attention to the cost less what you spent and any sale price which used to stack, previous piecemeal purchases were deducted from the cost of the book, and sale discounts were adjusted from what the remainder of the book would have cost you. You could continue to purchase until you spent more than to original cost without a sale, but it was pretty hard to do in the old store, the new store however is quite the opposite, and to get any piecemeal credits has reportedly taken longer to sus out than sales in the new store seem to last. At least the new store in prettier SMH, & RME.
CENSORSHIP IS THE TOOL OF COWARDS and WANNA BE TYRANTS.
I would have thought, just having three bundles per book would be enough:
- Player content(class abilities, spells etc)
- DM Content (items and monsters)
- Compendium content.
Then price them at a point in which it would be daft *not* to buy the full book if you were buying two or more. (obviously depending on the split per book. I'd imagine the values would be skewed for certain products like the monster manual, etc).
Would much prefer the old system, but I could appreciate the middle ground concession, if nothing else.
I'd be totally open to this! Complete piecemeal would obviously be my enormous preference, but I'd still prefer this over buying an entire book of material I don't want/need.
I'd advocate for bundles like those @DnGaF has laid out (over the more general "player" vs. "DM" content model) and would be happy to purchase a bundle even up to $10 or so. To @Robzilla0088's point, if you're buying three or four of those, it would still make sense for some to buy a compendium.
Getting ready to start our D&D campaign back up, and I was excited to see what new character options are available. It's pretty disappointing to know I'll never get to add any new options to the character creator.
Just out of curiosity, I looked at what it would cost to buy a physical copy of one of the new books I haven't gotten anything from. After all, if I were to splurge on an entire book to get a couple spells and a couple background options, I might as well have something to show for it and obviously it's going to come with the digital stuff too, right?
Wrong.
lol
This feels like some poor director under way too much pressure to hit unrealistic sales goals put some napkin math into a powerpoint deck showing that if just X% of the people buying a la carte options end up buying full books instead, they'll make infinity dollars. They make the change, and a few months later they can't figure out why conversion rate keeps getting worse.
It was pretty cool while it lasted, though. I used maybe 5% of the options I purchased, but spending my money on them was worth every penny to me because exploring the options for its own sake is fun.
Unfortunately, this change effectively amounts to them quintupling their prices, which makes the whole, "I don't use 95% of the options I'm buying" problem loom a lot larger for me.
It's disappointing, but you're right. I don't need all the options and they don't need my money.
Well. I think we now know why they got rid of a la carte: https://www.wargamer.com/dnd/beyond-deleting-content-spells-magic-items
They should have just made a whole new website for 2024.
They could have left the whole of DDB2014 alone and no longer supported by anything except moderators.
The new website for DDB2024. Could have started with just the PHB and a few forums to answer 2024 only questions.
Money saved on updating the old site. They could have even left the individual purchases option just for 2014.
Never let this thread die.
It's nothing more than greed that enticed them to make this change. Getting rid of piecemeal purchases is just another way to force users into spending more money than necessary but force bundling things together. I am 200% more inclined to buy the individual pieces necessary to make a character to my liking, rather than buying one or two books and just making whatever I can from those. DndBeyond always worked and grew overtime because of its convenience for 5e with others online. Being able to whip up a character, change it in real time, have your fellow campaign members see it such, and the main draw of buying the minor aspects for your character piece by piece. This is no longer the case. I would much rather just do the research and whip up the character with a PDF and give my campaign members that to fill in for free, with content that I can access about 5e online for free. When the usefulness of sites like this begin to wane and shift away from that usefulness and more towards corporate greed. I think that is the time we begin to explore other options.
Until positive changes are made like bringing back piecemeal purchasing of content we desire from books. I have no interest in spending money on this site anymore and I likely neither will my friends. As they utilized this feature tremendously too. I will also not be recommended new users to this site either and seek alternatives.
(notice how we have only heard from 1 staff member in this entire thread. also notice how its been since June since we last had any responses... radio silence on the situation is always a great sign lol)
Yeah that would have been nice, and made some sense. Unfortunately they don't actually want people to continue playing 2014 as it makes them no new (big) money. New editions are partially about updating rules and modernising, but mostly it's about renewing the cashflow. They will continue to say that people can play their own way, but they don't actually want that. It's the whole reason they've done this completely nonsense living game thing and claiming that it's not a new edition and they're compatible - even though more and more it is clear they're not.
They want to push people away from 2014 and by making it frustrating is their strategy to bring people over. Slowly gating access to the old stuff until it's simply not worth the hassle, whilst making the 2024 look really shiny and cool. It's a terrible strategy but not unheard of. It's what almost all major tech companies do to get people to update their devices.
If they didn't remove piecemeal for 2014 then it'd continue to encourage people to stay on 2014. Why they didn't keep it around for 2024 I don't know, as it was very useful. But money greed is the obvious answer to that.
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.
At this point, I own a lot of 5E material, and they have done very little to convince me that the new version is worth the investment. So far, their strategy seems to be to take or break things that worked fine in an attempt to force me to buy new books. All it has done is convince me once again that Hasbro ownership is a terrible steward of the community and push me to invest less into their products.
At some point, our government and individual corporations need to grow a pair and address the unfettered greed of the 10% that owns 86% of all stock. If not, the other 90% of us are just going to stop playing their game and buy the products.
"When truth presents itself, the wise person see the light, takes it in, and makes adjustments. The fool tries to adjust the truth so he does not have to adjust to it." ~ Henry Cloud #ORC #OpenDND