Hi. I'm a long time user of DNDBeyond. I also write third party 5e content and sell it on the DMs Guild. I have invested a lot of $$$ into DNDBeyond, and use it as a professional reference for products I write and give WotC a split of the revenue (20%, as is standard for the DMs Guild, as a form of gratitude for letting us draw on much of the unique copyrighted lore of DND for inspiration). Outside of game design, I also have several years of experience working in UI/UX evaluation. So. Time to do my thing.
Love the addition of being able to bundle physical and digital books straight here on the website, at least for US destinations. As WotC continues to integrate the services formerly offered by dnd.wizards.com into DNDBeyond (where a much larger portion of the player base visits regularly), it seems they are really succeeding at improving legitimacy and preventing opportunities for scams.
"You'll also find more information on available products." This is not true. We can see different information on available products, such as samples of art. Some information used to be available but now is not. For example, because of the A La Carte listing options, we could see exactly what subclasses, etc. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything ("Tasha's") offered. This served as a de facto, detailed Table of Contents ("TOC") without revealing the specific details of that content. Now lacking the A La Carte listings, Tasha's was not granted a detailed TOC to replace it. It was not granted any TOC at all. Yes the new Product Details section has lots of interesting, well-written summaries of content we'll find within, but if I want to know the actual names of the specific subclasses, magic items, or other things within, I have to turn to a third party internet source.
The moment I go off the DNDBeyond website and turn to google, I'm suddenly a lot more likely to discover the exact same information (probably illegally) for free online. As in, not just a picture or screenshot of the official TOC, and not even a detailed TOC that lacks the actual mechanics and story text. I just googled "dnd tasha's cauldron of everything," and the first three options were for the dnd.wizards.com, Amazon, and DNDBeyond listings for the product. But listings 4 and 5 are literally just the entire book as a high-quality PDF. I didn't have to sign up for anything, pay anyone any amount, or download potentially malicious files to view the entire, almost 200 page book. Even if I don't want to look at a fully illustrated, chonky PDF (especially if I have a computer with the RAM of a potato), there's easily accessible wikis that pop up that display the book's content only in text format. I'd tell you what websites I already know about that do this so customer support feedback gatherers can forward them to the legal team for further investigation, but I'm concerned I might get in trouble for publicly explaining in the forums exactly where and how to go get pirated WotC products.
I suspect your goal was not to direct potential customers to completely free, probably illegal copies of your products. These PDFs lack integration into the DNDBeyond character builder and other tools, which is a legitimately useful trait the standard DNDBeyond products offer. But until this Marketplace Redesign, DNDBeyond also offered that exact same service - a digital version of the text and images from the book, but lacking integration in the DNDBeyond tools. I believe it was the "Compendium Only" A La Carte option for relevant books. So, if you guys removed that Compendium Only option on purpose, I assume that means you didn't want it as an option anywhere online at all. Well, it's still an option, and it's an option that's dang easy to accidentally stumble upon. Though instead of paying like $20 to DNDBeyond and Wizards for Compendium Only digital version, now we can pay $0 to no one. I guess that's a win for a lot of consumers on a budget who would otherwise not use the book at all, but "exposure" doesn't pay the bills. But WotC put a lot of time, effort, and funding into making such an innovative and imaginative product - they deserve to be compensated for their hard work.
Because we now have to go to another site to look for information on products that the Marketplace used to describe, it's pretty likely a nonnegligible amount of people who were considering spending $20 for a Compendium Only version will scroll down enough to see google search results #4 and 5 and realize they can get the same thing for $0 instead. Oh, except, the $20 Compendium Only version is no longer available. So the people who were going to choose the $30 Tool Integrated version over the $20 Compendium Only version anyways, they might be fine. But the people who just wanted the Compendium Only version, as well as the people who think a $10 difference ($20 to $30) is worth the tool integration but a $30 difference ($0 to $30) is not, well, removing significant portions from the product's Marketplace description is free advertising for these free alternatives.
Bringing this back to the initial praise that Wizards has been improving legitimacy and clarity of their online systems by moving more and more public-facing announcements and such to Wizards-owned sites and social media (e.g. Todd Kenreck video interviews with WotC designers are now paid for by WotC, not Fandom), even if illegal PDFs of WotC products were hard to find for free online or even didn't exist, having to go to an external source to find out important information about a product does not support legitimacy or clarity.
"We’ve also made it easier to see what content is unlocked for your account in D&D Beyond tools," I don't know what you mean by this. I can't easily see what content I've unlocked on my account in the tools. I know I own most 5e products, but not all, and there is not an option in the Marketplace that I saw that clearly, intuitively meant "Press this button to see what products you already own" or "Press this button to see what Marketplace content you DON'T already own." Believe me, I looked. I wanted to update my collection so I was caught up through pre-orders of Eve of Ruin and Quests from the Infinite Staircase. Currently, I have to go through every single title in the Marketplace, open it in a new tab, and look for the fine print that may or may not say I already own it. That is prohibitively time consuming and, frankly, annoying. Certainly there's some way you can add a button or search filter option in the Marketplace so you only see products you do or do not own the full, Tool-Integrated versions of.
How do I get a discount when I bundle?
The new experience doesn't immediately raise any concerns for me given the bundles are still available and (from what it sounds like) the same discounts as they've been for ages. But unless a customer is well-read with this particular article or discussions here in the forums, they probably won't know the bundle system is still available. I haven't seen anything in the new Marketplace itself that indicates (especially to people who are new to DNDBeyond and never saw the previous version of the marketplace and may not know bundles exist) that bundles exist, what books you need to own to qualify for a bundle discount, or whether I have to repurchase books I already own to get the discount on the bundle's remaining components (aka, do I need to buy the bundle books all at the same time to get the benefits).
I would love to be able to see the following bundle stuff implemented in the Marketplace:
A section of the front page of the Marketplace specifically dedicated to 1-3 popular bundles, including what books are in the bundle, how much you're saving (e.g. "was $100, now only $70! 30% discount!"), and a button to quick-add the entire bundle to your cart at once.
A "Shop by Categories" category called "Bundles". It repeats the info in the last bullet point, but for all bundles instead of just the omst popular 1-3.
When viewing the product description page of a product that can be included as a bundle, have a clear button that tells you it's part of a bundle, how much you save in that bundle, and a link to that bundle's own description where you can learn all of the above info.
Can I still purchase subclasses, feats, and other game listings à la carte?
"No." Why?
"If you've purchased à la carte items and would like to buy the digital book, your discounts are available to you at any time by contacting customer service." Why can't the system automatically detect what a la carte things I've already bought from each product and then apply the discount to the price displayed for me in the Marketplace front page, product description page, and cart? If real life humans have access to this previous purchase information, wouldn't the Marketplace database already have all that same previous purchase information? Couldn't it access that information by default only a few days ago? Making it automatically applied again means customer support employees can focus more on the issues that computers can't manage so well.
I want to specify, that I imagine it would be best that I can see the discount BEFORE adding the product to my cart. Meaning, if I see the product's price on the Marketplace front page, or am looking at the product's description page, I should be able to see the discount without having to press a button that "feels" like committing, even though it's very easy to add one product to your cart and then remove it.
Additionally, the customer service link brings me to a FAQ that is partially out of date. It still refers to the playtest materials for the 2024 core rulebook updates as "OneD&D," and it says that DNDBeyond does not offer any physical products (granted - that's obviously and extremely recent change). If multiple portions of this FAQ are provably incorrect, how can I trust the rest of the information that looks probably correct but I can't be sure? How can I trust there's not important, recent changes that the FAQ doesn't cover? Why don't the articles seem to explain when they were originally posted or last updated? Once I click the link provided here so I can find out how to contact customer service, it brings me to a FAQ, and the only place on that FAQ landing page that indicates a "Contact Us" function is the "Feedback and Questions" promoted article, which references a request link in "the header" (what header? The "Feedback and Questions" header contains no links) and prompts readers to post in the DNDBeyond forums. So, it appears that if I want to redeem a discount on a book (I imagine that's usually $2-10 for most customers), I have to go through six different pages (reading the article, FAQ landing page, Feedback and Questions article, Feedback or Bugs and Support forums links, make a new threat, post the new thread) to tell the general internet public about my order history and potential purchases, and just hope that a customer support person responds to that forum post or messages me privately about it to discuss further? Why not just link me to those forums directly instead of taking me to an external site (see: legitimacy and clarity)? Why do I have to post about my financial decisions publicly? Even if I have no shameful secrets about how many things I buy or what kinds of things I buy, that still "feels" invasive. It's standard customer support practice to offer a page where you can directly submit a form or a ticket to the support center without requiring anyone to post about their concerns publicly. This page is also usually pretty easy to find on the front page of a customer support FAQ. I mean, there's other standard practices too, but this one sure seems a lot easier for consumers and support employees both.
What happens if I placed a preorder before the marketplace change?
I'm legitimately interested in preordering Vecna: Eve of Ruin to unlock 2 week early access, like so many other DNDBeyond products have been doing in the last year or so. But I can't find anywhere that says it's doing that. So does that mean Eve is now an exception to that trend? If so, why, and why does Quests from the Infinite Staircase also not mention early access? Or did that trend end after the last book (Book of Many Things) and somehow I didn't notice until just now? If it IS going to offer early access for preorders, why doesn't it say that anywhere on the Eve of Ruin product description page? If it says that in other marketing materials, such as interview videos or DNDBeyond articles or official social media posts, why does it still not say that in the product description page? Isn't that page supposed to be the definitive repository of relevant information a consumer likely wants to know while deciding what to purchase?
Miscellaneous Marketplace Feedback
This is where I'm going to put feedback that isn't necessarily about the article in question, but is still relevant.
So yesterday, even before I realized there was a marketplace update, I posted here in Feedback about a topic I thought was unrelated. Except turns out it's related. Basically, the way that the player base at large and most Wizards marketing use the word "core" in regards to rulebooks, sourcebooks, adventures, and the like, is ONLY used in context of referring to the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual. There's plenty of books that are dedicated to expanding on the "core rulebooks," but they are not the "core rulebooks" themselves, and I've never heard an experienced player refer to these optional supplements as "core". I'm thinking of Xanathar's, Tasha's, and Monsters of the Multiverse.
But DNDBeyond calls lots of things "core" besides just the core rulebooks. They've been doing that since before Wizards bought the platform, usually in the "Source Category" filter for character creation (it's an option for the Game Rules databases for monsters and such as a filter in the advanced search options, as is "nonecore"; you can also turn "Noncore" content on/off on the Home page of editing/creating a character in the Character Builder, although there's not a similar option for "Core" content). That's always been confusing for me and plenty of other users. Because the way most of us use the word "core", "noncore" should mean "content from anywhere in 5e EXCEPT the core rulebooks." But it doesn't. The intended audience for these products use those terms to mean something different than how they're being used here.
According to the Game Rules database advanced search filters, here's what "core" DND includes:
The core rulebooks
Content from Forgotten Realms sourcebooks and adventures
Likewise, from Ravenloft
Likewise, from Radiant Citadel
Likewise, from the planes that aren't Sigil and the Outlands (e.g. Feywild's Wild Beyond the Witchlight, or Nine Hells' Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus, or the Far Realm's Phandelver and Below)
Likewise, from Spelljammer
Likewise, from Ghosts of Saltmarsh (which is colloquially and traditionally Greyhawk, but legally is classified as a nonspecific "setting option")
Content from setting-nonspecific sourcebooks, like Xanathar's, Tasha's, Monsters of the Multiverse, the Book of Many Things, Fizban's, Bigby's
Partnered Content (Stranger Things: Hunt for the Thessalhydra)
Miscellaneous (e.g. The Vecna Dossier, Thieves' Gallery)
Here's what "noncore" DND seems to include:
Some but not all core rulebook content
Some but not all content unique to DNDBeyond-only, digital-only adventures and sourcebooks, like Misplaced Monsters and Mordenkainen's Fiendish Folio
Here's what is neither "core" nor "noncore," but simply exists beyond the spectrum of core-ness. These each have their own off-spectrum categories:
Partnered Content (Critical Role)
Dragonlance (including its Monstrous Compendium)
Partnered Content (Drakkenheim)
Eberron
Partnered Content (Grim Hollow)
Partnered Content (Humblewood)
Partnered Content (Kobold Press)
Magic: The Gathering (including Ravnica, Theros, and Strixhaven all at once, as well as Monstrous Compendium Vol. 4: Eldraine Creatures)
Partnered Content (Minecraft)
Planescape (including Adventure Atlas: The Mortuary, but NOT including anything tied to non-Material planes that aren't Sigil and the Outlands; for example, no Spelljammer, Feywild, Nine Hells, or Far Realm content is included here)
Partnered Content (Rick and Morty)
And apparently the Marketplace is doing that too now. The Tasha's product description page calls it a "Part of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS core collection."
Please, PLEASE. Independent of whether you do anything with the Marketplace's actual mechanics and links and where you present what information, please start making the use of the words "core" and "noncore" consistent across the website and consistent with how Wizards products refer to themselves and how the broad player base refers to them. This will become especially important as the new 2024 Core Rulebook Updates start to approach, and more and more players will be relying on the words "core" and "noncore" to mean what they sound like they're supposed to mean. Given WotC has announced they've started reviewing final drafts of a print version of the new PHB, DNDBeyond will probably start adding that content to the tools and database here in only a few weeks, even if it's not shared with the broader public until September. This is the PERFECT time to start clarifying these misleading terms. I suspect it'll be a lot easier to make the site use the proper definition of "core" BEFORE new content labeled "core" becomes available in the tool sets and character builder. It will only get people confused when they say "Yes, I want my players to only be able to use the core rulebook information," and then their player gets excited because, according to the search engine information, plasmoid artificers are consistent with that restriction.
a suggestion: edit out the part where you discuss getting access to books by... different means. It's against this site TOS, you'll likely get a warning from a mod.
You are failing to see the issue here. I want to know more information about what names of subclasses are included in a specific book. That information no longer exists on D&D Beyond. So let's turn to Google, right? Well, if you google it, illegal sources will pop up at the top. We're actually helping the website AVOID PIRACY BY MENTIONING THIS ISSUE. JUST INCLUDE THE NAMES OF SUBCLASSES AND THIS WON'T BE AN ISSUE.
To just harp on ONE of the issues at hand: the whole "you can still get your product discounts! You just need to contact customer service!" ... AND you need a seperate account to do that... But if THEY can access the list of "what I already own"... then why isn't that already integrated into the store front? We already HAD that feature; and lots of other sites do too; it isn't "too hard to implement" or anything.
Answer: this is a deliberate tactic; the same ones that subscription services like Netflix use to make unsubscribing from them just that little bit harder, take just that few more steps than it need to, all in the hopes that just continuing to pay the subscription; the path of least resistance; might be a net benefit in your busy life... Only here; it's putting up an extra barrier between you and savings you could have... or you could just pay full price and save yourself the headache! ... The fact that makes WOTC more money is just a happy side benefit!
... Overly cynical? Maybe? But it's usually a negative sign when companies start hunting in the couch cushions for loose change: because it means the revenue stream has gone a bit dry; and they're trying to get more by any means necessary. Anyone who has worked in an office knows that when the little luxuries, conveniences and quality of life features start to disappear; that's when to watch out.
UPDATE: I've found out how to see if something is giving preorder! I just have to lie about my nationality. Or rather, I have to go to an external website (granted, a Wizards-owned one, but still not at the DNDBeyond.com domain). Then when it asks me if I'm trying to access the DND Store, if I say yes, the computer can sense I'm in the USA and it redirects me to the DNDBeyond site, which does not mention preorder early access. But if I say no, then it lets me change what world region I claim to be from to override the USA detection. Then I can see the proper "D&D Store," where it says very clearly just beneath the banner that Eve of Ruin preorders WILL get 2 week early access to the digital version of the content.
Again, I had to go to a different website? And then lie to it? To find out basic information about a major, much-hyped product releasing in only a few days/weeks (depending on how you count)?
I've said this elsewhere already, but I really hate when I share playtest and preliminary draft things with team members and focus groups, and they're aghast that I tried to launch it publicly in its current state. I assumed that by explicitly calling it "playtest" or "feedback draft" and providing a survey of questions that explain "This product will change in future renditions before publication. What do you think is important to change? What do you think is important to keep?" made it clear that the version I gave them is NOT final. It's even worse when they categorically refuse to give any feedback at all because they're just so shocked by my audacity. Anyways, if that's going on here for the new marketplace redesign, I'm so sorry DNDBeyond. I hope our feedback is direct and clear enough that you can identify consistent pain points and potential solutions. But there's nothing currently on the Marketplace Redesign or the article announcing it or anywhere else I can find that suggests it's an alpha, beta, Unearthed Arcana, playtest, or other type of not-intended-to-be-final-please-give-us-lots-of-feedback version. I mean, you invite feedback about how you can make it better, but that's in passing at the very end of the article. If the intention was for public review, that was not at all clear. If the intention was for it to be the final version with only minimal adjustments, that's very out of character for WotC. I thought you had learned from the OGL fiasco that people didn't like when you do that kind of thing, at least when real world money is involved.
UPDATE: I was curious, so I just double checked. Searching for the same term I used in my original post, I've discovered the search engine results have changed. There's still 3 legitimate and 2 likely pirated links in the top 5 results, except now instead of only #4 and #5 being the pirated ones, now it's #2 and #4 are pirated.
Literally, LITERALLY the second link when I search for a very popular 5e rulebook for more information, without even typing anything like "pdf free," is a free version of the entire book. Requiring purchasers to go to external websites to learn important information about the books (not including reviews) reduces the legitimacy of Wizards and DNDBeyond as "the official digital toolset" for this edition, and when you don't even provide a link to those external websites (e.g. I have to resort to Google to find a detailed TOC), that makes it very, very, very easy for me to accidentally stumble upon what's probably an illegal 100% discount off the product. Bring important information back to the product pages in the Marketplace won't entirely solve these two problems, but it'll certainly help.
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Hi. I'm a long time user of DNDBeyond. I also write third party 5e content and sell it on the DMs Guild. I have invested a lot of $$$ into DNDBeyond, and use it as a professional reference for products I write and give WotC a split of the revenue (20%, as is standard for the DMs Guild, as a form of gratitude for letting us draw on much of the unique copyrighted lore of DND for inspiration). Outside of game design, I also have several years of experience working in UI/UX evaluation. So. Time to do my thing.
Here's the questions and announcements posed in the "D&D Beyond Marketplace Redesign: See What's New Here!" article from yesterday, available here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1709-d-d-beyond-marketplace-redesign-see-whats-new-here
What's new in the D&D Beyond marketplace?
Love the addition of being able to bundle physical and digital books straight here on the website, at least for US destinations. As WotC continues to integrate the services formerly offered by dnd.wizards.com into DNDBeyond (where a much larger portion of the player base visits regularly), it seems they are really succeeding at improving legitimacy and preventing opportunities for scams.
"You'll also find more information on available products." This is not true. We can see different information on available products, such as samples of art. Some information used to be available but now is not. For example, because of the A La Carte listing options, we could see exactly what subclasses, etc. Tasha's Cauldron of Everything ("Tasha's") offered. This served as a de facto, detailed Table of Contents ("TOC") without revealing the specific details of that content. Now lacking the A La Carte listings, Tasha's was not granted a detailed TOC to replace it. It was not granted any TOC at all. Yes the new Product Details section has lots of interesting, well-written summaries of content we'll find within, but if I want to know the actual names of the specific subclasses, magic items, or other things within, I have to turn to a third party internet source.
The moment I go off the DNDBeyond website and turn to google, I'm suddenly a lot more likely to discover the exact same information (probably illegally) for free online. As in, not just a picture or screenshot of the official TOC, and not even a detailed TOC that lacks the actual mechanics and story text. I just googled "dnd tasha's cauldron of everything," and the first three options were for the dnd.wizards.com, Amazon, and DNDBeyond listings for the product. But listings 4 and 5 are literally just the entire book as a high-quality PDF. I didn't have to sign up for anything, pay anyone any amount, or download potentially malicious files to view the entire, almost 200 page book. Even if I don't want to look at a fully illustrated, chonky PDF (especially if I have a computer with the RAM of a potato), there's easily accessible wikis that pop up that display the book's content only in text format. I'd tell you what websites I already know about that do this so customer support feedback gatherers can forward them to the legal team for further investigation, but I'm concerned I might get in trouble for publicly explaining in the forums exactly where and how to go get pirated WotC products.
I suspect your goal was not to direct potential customers to completely free, probably illegal copies of your products. These PDFs lack integration into the DNDBeyond character builder and other tools, which is a legitimately useful trait the standard DNDBeyond products offer. But until this Marketplace Redesign, DNDBeyond also offered that exact same service - a digital version of the text and images from the book, but lacking integration in the DNDBeyond tools. I believe it was the "Compendium Only" A La Carte option for relevant books. So, if you guys removed that Compendium Only option on purpose, I assume that means you didn't want it as an option anywhere online at all. Well, it's still an option, and it's an option that's dang easy to accidentally stumble upon. Though instead of paying like $20 to DNDBeyond and Wizards for Compendium Only digital version, now we can pay $0 to no one. I guess that's a win for a lot of consumers on a budget who would otherwise not use the book at all, but "exposure" doesn't pay the bills. But WotC put a lot of time, effort, and funding into making such an innovative and imaginative product - they deserve to be compensated for their hard work.
Because we now have to go to another site to look for information on products that the Marketplace used to describe, it's pretty likely a nonnegligible amount of people who were considering spending $20 for a Compendium Only version will scroll down enough to see google search results #4 and 5 and realize they can get the same thing for $0 instead. Oh, except, the $20 Compendium Only version is no longer available. So the people who were going to choose the $30 Tool Integrated version over the $20 Compendium Only version anyways, they might be fine. But the people who just wanted the Compendium Only version, as well as the people who think a $10 difference ($20 to $30) is worth the tool integration but a $30 difference ($0 to $30) is not, well, removing significant portions from the product's Marketplace description is free advertising for these free alternatives.
Bringing this back to the initial praise that Wizards has been improving legitimacy and clarity of their online systems by moving more and more public-facing announcements and such to Wizards-owned sites and social media (e.g. Todd Kenreck video interviews with WotC designers are now paid for by WotC, not Fandom), even if illegal PDFs of WotC products were hard to find for free online or even didn't exist, having to go to an external source to find out important information about a product does not support legitimacy or clarity.
"We’ve also made it easier to see what content is unlocked for your account in D&D Beyond tools," I don't know what you mean by this. I can't easily see what content I've unlocked on my account in the tools. I know I own most 5e products, but not all, and there is not an option in the Marketplace that I saw that clearly, intuitively meant "Press this button to see what products you already own" or "Press this button to see what Marketplace content you DON'T already own." Believe me, I looked. I wanted to update my collection so I was caught up through pre-orders of Eve of Ruin and Quests from the Infinite Staircase. Currently, I have to go through every single title in the Marketplace, open it in a new tab, and look for the fine print that may or may not say I already own it. That is prohibitively time consuming and, frankly, annoying. Certainly there's some way you can add a button or search filter option in the Marketplace so you only see products you do or do not own the full, Tool-Integrated versions of.
How do I get a discount when I bundle?
The new experience doesn't immediately raise any concerns for me given the bundles are still available and (from what it sounds like) the same discounts as they've been for ages. But unless a customer is well-read with this particular article or discussions here in the forums, they probably won't know the bundle system is still available. I haven't seen anything in the new Marketplace itself that indicates (especially to people who are new to DNDBeyond and never saw the previous version of the marketplace and may not know bundles exist) that bundles exist, what books you need to own to qualify for a bundle discount, or whether I have to repurchase books I already own to get the discount on the bundle's remaining components (aka, do I need to buy the bundle books all at the same time to get the benefits).
I would love to be able to see the following bundle stuff implemented in the Marketplace:
Can I still purchase subclasses, feats, and other game listings à la carte?
"No." Why?
"If you've purchased à la carte items and would like to buy the digital book, your discounts are available to you at any time by contacting customer service." Why can't the system automatically detect what a la carte things I've already bought from each product and then apply the discount to the price displayed for me in the Marketplace front page, product description page, and cart? If real life humans have access to this previous purchase information, wouldn't the Marketplace database already have all that same previous purchase information? Couldn't it access that information by default only a few days ago? Making it automatically applied again means customer support employees can focus more on the issues that computers can't manage so well.
I want to specify, that I imagine it would be best that I can see the discount BEFORE adding the product to my cart. Meaning, if I see the product's price on the Marketplace front page, or am looking at the product's description page, I should be able to see the discount without having to press a button that "feels" like committing, even though it's very easy to add one product to your cart and then remove it.
Additionally, the customer service link brings me to a FAQ that is partially out of date. It still refers to the playtest materials for the 2024 core rulebook updates as "OneD&D," and it says that DNDBeyond does not offer any physical products (granted - that's obviously and extremely recent change). If multiple portions of this FAQ are provably incorrect, how can I trust the rest of the information that looks probably correct but I can't be sure? How can I trust there's not important, recent changes that the FAQ doesn't cover? Why don't the articles seem to explain when they were originally posted or last updated? Once I click the link provided here so I can find out how to contact customer service, it brings me to a FAQ, and the only place on that FAQ landing page that indicates a "Contact Us" function is the "Feedback and Questions" promoted article, which references a request link in "the header" (what header? The "Feedback and Questions" header contains no links) and prompts readers to post in the DNDBeyond forums. So, it appears that if I want to redeem a discount on a book (I imagine that's usually $2-10 for most customers), I have to go through six different pages (reading the article, FAQ landing page, Feedback and Questions article, Feedback or Bugs and Support forums links, make a new threat, post the new thread) to tell the general internet public about my order history and potential purchases, and just hope that a customer support person responds to that forum post or messages me privately about it to discuss further? Why not just link me to those forums directly instead of taking me to an external site (see: legitimacy and clarity)? Why do I have to post about my financial decisions publicly? Even if I have no shameful secrets about how many things I buy or what kinds of things I buy, that still "feels" invasive. It's standard customer support practice to offer a page where you can directly submit a form or a ticket to the support center without requiring anyone to post about their concerns publicly. This page is also usually pretty easy to find on the front page of a customer support FAQ. I mean, there's other standard practices too, but this one sure seems a lot easier for consumers and support employees both.
What happens if I placed a preorder before the marketplace change?
I'm legitimately interested in preordering Vecna: Eve of Ruin to unlock 2 week early access, like so many other DNDBeyond products have been doing in the last year or so. But I can't find anywhere that says it's doing that. So does that mean Eve is now an exception to that trend? If so, why, and why does Quests from the Infinite Staircase also not mention early access? Or did that trend end after the last book (Book of Many Things) and somehow I didn't notice until just now? If it IS going to offer early access for preorders, why doesn't it say that anywhere on the Eve of Ruin product description page? If it says that in other marketing materials, such as interview videos or DNDBeyond articles or official social media posts, why does it still not say that in the product description page? Isn't that page supposed to be the definitive repository of relevant information a consumer likely wants to know while deciding what to purchase?
Miscellaneous Marketplace Feedback
This is where I'm going to put feedback that isn't necessarily about the article in question, but is still relevant.
So yesterday, even before I realized there was a marketplace update, I posted here in Feedback about a topic I thought was unrelated. Except turns out it's related. Basically, the way that the player base at large and most Wizards marketing use the word "core" in regards to rulebooks, sourcebooks, adventures, and the like, is ONLY used in context of referring to the Player's Handbook, the Dungeon Master's Guide, and the Monster Manual. There's plenty of books that are dedicated to expanding on the "core rulebooks," but they are not the "core rulebooks" themselves, and I've never heard an experienced player refer to these optional supplements as "core". I'm thinking of Xanathar's, Tasha's, and Monsters of the Multiverse.
But DNDBeyond calls lots of things "core" besides just the core rulebooks. They've been doing that since before Wizards bought the platform, usually in the "Source Category" filter for character creation (it's an option for the Game Rules databases for monsters and such as a filter in the advanced search options, as is "nonecore"; you can also turn "Noncore" content on/off on the Home page of editing/creating a character in the Character Builder, although there's not a similar option for "Core" content). That's always been confusing for me and plenty of other users. Because the way most of us use the word "core", "noncore" should mean "content from anywhere in 5e EXCEPT the core rulebooks." But it doesn't. The intended audience for these products use those terms to mean something different than how they're being used here.
According to the Game Rules database advanced search filters, here's what "core" DND includes:
Here's what "noncore" DND seems to include:
Here's what is neither "core" nor "noncore," but simply exists beyond the spectrum of core-ness. These each have their own off-spectrum categories:
And apparently the Marketplace is doing that too now. The Tasha's product description page calls it a "Part of the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS core collection."
Please, PLEASE. Independent of whether you do anything with the Marketplace's actual mechanics and links and where you present what information, please start making the use of the words "core" and "noncore" consistent across the website and consistent with how Wizards products refer to themselves and how the broad player base refers to them. This will become especially important as the new 2024 Core Rulebook Updates start to approach, and more and more players will be relying on the words "core" and "noncore" to mean what they sound like they're supposed to mean. Given WotC has announced they've started reviewing final drafts of a print version of the new PHB, DNDBeyond will probably start adding that content to the tools and database here in only a few weeks, even if it's not shared with the broader public until September. This is the PERFECT time to start clarifying these misleading terms. I suspect it'll be a lot easier to make the site use the proper definition of "core" BEFORE new content labeled "core" becomes available in the tool sets and character builder. It will only get people confused when they say "Yes, I want my players to only be able to use the core rulebook information," and then their player gets excited because, according to the search engine information, plasmoid artificers are consistent with that restriction.
I explain even further about why this matters in my original post from yesterday, where I also provide some specific, actionable solutions and alternatives you can consider. You can find it here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/d-d-beyond-feedback/196308-the-terms-core-d-d-and-noncore-d-d-are-misleading
really glad, that they' re focusing on the important parts of the website - not things like for example:
- if a subclass (Clockwork Soul, Aberrant Mind, etc) allows for spells to be changed, that you can actually do it in DDB
a suggestion: edit out the part where you discuss getting access to books by... different means. It's against this site TOS, you'll likely get a warning from a mod.
You are failing to see the issue here. I want to know more information about what names of subclasses are included in a specific book. That information no longer exists on D&D Beyond. So let's turn to Google, right? Well, if you google it, illegal sources will pop up at the top. We're actually helping the website AVOID PIRACY BY MENTIONING THIS ISSUE. JUST INCLUDE THE NAMES OF SUBCLASSES AND THIS WON'T BE AN ISSUE.
To just harp on ONE of the issues at hand: the whole "you can still get your product discounts! You just need to contact customer service!" ... AND you need a seperate account to do that... But if THEY can access the list of "what I already own"... then why isn't that already integrated into the store front? We already HAD that feature; and lots of other sites do too; it isn't "too hard to implement" or anything.
Answer: this is a deliberate tactic; the same ones that subscription services like Netflix use to make unsubscribing from them just that little bit harder, take just that few more steps than it need to, all in the hopes that just continuing to pay the subscription; the path of least resistance; might be a net benefit in your busy life... Only here; it's putting up an extra barrier between you and savings you could have... or you could just pay full price and save yourself the headache! ... The fact that makes WOTC more money is just a happy side benefit!
... Overly cynical? Maybe? But it's usually a negative sign when companies start hunting in the couch cushions for loose change: because it means the revenue stream has gone a bit dry; and they're trying to get more by any means necessary. Anyone who has worked in an office knows that when the little luxuries, conveniences and quality of life features start to disappear; that's when to watch out.
UPDATE: I've found out how to see if something is giving preorder! I just have to lie about my nationality. Or rather, I have to go to an external website (granted, a Wizards-owned one, but still not at the DNDBeyond.com domain). Then when it asks me if I'm trying to access the DND Store, if I say yes, the computer can sense I'm in the USA and it redirects me to the DNDBeyond site, which does not mention preorder early access. But if I say no, then it lets me change what world region I claim to be from to override the USA detection. Then I can see the proper "D&D Store," where it says very clearly just beneath the banner that Eve of Ruin preorders WILL get 2 week early access to the digital version of the content.
Again, I had to go to a different website? And then lie to it? To find out basic information about a major, much-hyped product releasing in only a few days/weeks (depending on how you count)?
I've said this elsewhere already, but I really hate when I share playtest and preliminary draft things with team members and focus groups, and they're aghast that I tried to launch it publicly in its current state. I assumed that by explicitly calling it "playtest" or "feedback draft" and providing a survey of questions that explain "This product will change in future renditions before publication. What do you think is important to change? What do you think is important to keep?" made it clear that the version I gave them is NOT final. It's even worse when they categorically refuse to give any feedback at all because they're just so shocked by my audacity. Anyways, if that's going on here for the new marketplace redesign, I'm so sorry DNDBeyond. I hope our feedback is direct and clear enough that you can identify consistent pain points and potential solutions. But there's nothing currently on the Marketplace Redesign or the article announcing it or anywhere else I can find that suggests it's an alpha, beta, Unearthed Arcana, playtest, or other type of not-intended-to-be-final-please-give-us-lots-of-feedback version. I mean, you invite feedback about how you can make it better, but that's in passing at the very end of the article. If the intention was for public review, that was not at all clear. If the intention was for it to be the final version with only minimal adjustments, that's very out of character for WotC. I thought you had learned from the OGL fiasco that people didn't like when you do that kind of thing, at least when real world money is involved.
UPDATE: I was curious, so I just double checked. Searching for the same term I used in my original post, I've discovered the search engine results have changed. There's still 3 legitimate and 2 likely pirated links in the top 5 results, except now instead of only #4 and #5 being the pirated ones, now it's #2 and #4 are pirated.
Literally, LITERALLY the second link when I search for a very popular 5e rulebook for more information, without even typing anything like "pdf free," is a free version of the entire book. Requiring purchasers to go to external websites to learn important information about the books (not including reviews) reduces the legitimacy of Wizards and DNDBeyond as "the official digital toolset" for this edition, and when you don't even provide a link to those external websites (e.g. I have to resort to Google to find a detailed TOC), that makes it very, very, very easy for me to accidentally stumble upon what's probably an illegal 100% discount off the product. Bring important information back to the product pages in the Marketplace won't entirely solve these two problems, but it'll certainly help.