I have a several hundred dollars of books purchased on ROLL20, but want those books to be fully usable on DND BEYOND.
Is there a way to link them over, or specifically transfer them to DND Beyond?
I already bought the books, so do I need to buy them again?
Each purchase comes with an active, verifiable license. Can I transfer the license?
Or, maybe the license be accepted in all programs/apps?
My group played on Roll20, but have moved to Foundry.
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Same for the DND Beyond Dice. I bought several on DND Beyond, and want those to work in the foundry software as well, just like the rest of the character sheet does.
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At this point, I feel, this is the scam that goes with licensing, and I want better for consumers.
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Any progress in that area is good for every player.
Not an expert, but I will say I am pretty certain that the answers are, in order:
No way to transfer or link them.
You bought them from and for use on R20, not DDB. To use them on DDB you need to buy them from DDB.
See #2.
Never gonna happen.
Think of it like this: you buy a plane ticket for a Delta flight, but then want to switch to a seat on a Southwest flight. It may be the same seat on the same type of plane, have the same route, and in this magical hypothetical it may even have the same departure and arrival times, but Southwest will never honor a Delta ticket because it's a different company.
Sorry, but WOTC has never done anything like this, and I'm pretty sure they never will. Unlike some of their competitors that give discounts when you buy stuff on multiple platforms, WOTC has never done this.
You're not far off the mark with "the scam that goes with licensing". You don't own anything digital you've "purchased" - it's all just an unspecified rental period. It can even be taken away from you after "purchase".
yes, same thing. I have thousands of dollars in steam, and Epic games, and GOG.
I don't want this to be the norm. I have bought games 3 different times.
IMO, buy 1 license, and this is the kicker...Licensing should be applied to ALL platforms, if the customer choses to do so. Otherwise, why buy the same game 3, 4 times to make it more convenient for the customer, and more profitable for the platforms?
You buy one cell phone, no matter what carrier you go with, it is the same phone. That is YOURS to keep....all contained in one IMEI number. the phones serial number...or code (let us call it the Licensing number).
Same for the games licensing. You buy one game and that games comes with usually ONE license. Like that cell phone, the license is that code. That parent company knows that code is yours, usually connected to your name/address/email/phone number, or other means. You apply that code to where ever you want that supports that game.
Yes, place it to where ever you want, when ever you want. That's called freedom.
While I don't mind a company making money off of me, I don't want them making that money on the same game (or DND books), over, and over, and over again.
Charge whatever, pay that one price, once.
If I buy Skyrim from parent company of Bethsaida, then it is that company that has proof of your purchase, that you are connected to that license.
I understand all about making a profit, freedom of capitalistic society and all that, BUT I am never, never, never about making a killing.
Ultimately, I know this is not the way it works today, but why shouldn't it work this way?
It will never work this way as long as people continue to actually pay for the same thing multiple times over multiple platforms/formats. Why would a platform reduce their income potential when there is no shortage of people willing to pay again and again?
For the record, I am not saying this is right or fair to the consumer, I am just saying that this is why it works this way currently.
You buy one cell phone, no matter what carrier you go with, it is the same phone. That is YOURS to keep....all contained in one IMEI number. the phones serial number...or code (let us call it the Licensing number).
Same for the games licensing. You buy one game and that games comes with usually ONE license. Like that cell phone, the license is that code. That parent company knows that code is yours, usually connected to your name/address/email/phone number, or other means. You apply that code to where ever you want that supports that game.
Yes, place it to where ever you want, when ever you want. That's called freedom.
While I don't mind a company making money off of me, I don't want them making that money on the same game (or DND books), over, and over, and over again.
Charge whatever, pay that one price, once.
If I buy Skyrim from parent company of Bethsaida, then it is that company that has proof of your purchase, that you are connected to that license.
I understand all about making a profit, freedom of capitalistic society and all that, BUT I am never, never, never about making a killing.
Ultimately, I know this is not the way it works today, but why shouldn't it work this way?
That physical cell phone in your hand can be equated to purchasing a physical book, not a license to use a digital product. With that book in your hand, you can use the homebrew tools here (or most any other dnd themed site) to recreate most everything here. Granted this has a steep learning curve and will take dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of hours to complete correctly. You have the freedom to do that.
The license you got from here, or roll20 or foundry, or anywhere else is a license to use that product on that platform, not a license to use that product anywhere you see fit to? Since you purchased it on roll20, does that allow you to walk into a store and pick up the physical book with the excuse you bought it on roll20?
The reason it works this way is because that freedom of a capitalistic society and that is always about making a killing, profit wise. These are the same people that sent Pinkertons to a vlogger's house because he opened a box of cards on camera that wasn't set for public release for a few weeks.
I get where you're coming from, and I agree with some of your points, but that's sadly not how licensing works at all.
If I buy an album or CD I don't automatically get access to the same album on iTunes, unless there's been a specific licensing agreement put in place.
And to use your example of Skyrim; if I buy it for a console, that doesn't grant me access to versions for other consoles or PC. Could it? Sure, if companies wanted to, but at the end of the day it's likely more complicated than they want to deal with especially when the alternative is someone buying something from them multiple times.
That being said, there's some great plugins from Mr. Primate for FoundryVTT to get your content from DnDBeyond into Foundry.
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I have a several hundred dollars of books purchased on ROLL20, but want those books to be fully usable on DND BEYOND.
Is there a way to link them over, or specifically transfer them to DND Beyond?
I already bought the books, so do I need to buy them again?
Each purchase comes with an active, verifiable license. Can I transfer the license?
Or, maybe the license be accepted in all programs/apps?
My group played on Roll20, but have moved to Foundry.
-----
Same for the DND Beyond Dice. I bought several on DND Beyond, and want those to work in the foundry software as well, just like the rest of the character sheet does.
-----
At this point, I feel, this is the scam that goes with licensing, and I want better for consumers.
-----
Any progress in that area is good for every player.
Not an expert, but I will say I am pretty certain that the answers are, in order:
Think of it like this: you buy a plane ticket for a Delta flight, but then want to switch to a seat on a Southwest flight. It may be the same seat on the same type of plane, have the same route, and in this magical hypothetical it may even have the same departure and arrival times, but Southwest will never honor a Delta ticket because it's a different company.
Sorry, but WOTC has never done anything like this, and I'm pretty sure they never will. Unlike some of their competitors that give discounts when you buy stuff on multiple platforms, WOTC has never done this.
You're not far off the mark with "the scam that goes with licensing". You don't own anything digital you've "purchased" - it's all just an unspecified rental period. It can even be taken away from you after "purchase".
To add: This is basically the same as asking "I bought Call of Duty on Playstation, is there any way I can transfer it to Steam?"
You're exactly right that it's a licensing issue. But yeah, it's a platform-locked purchase.
Well, that's enough comments from the peanut gallery for now.
Are there ANY comments from DND Beyond staff who knows where this may lie in their company meetings?
yes, same thing. I have thousands of dollars in steam, and Epic games, and GOG.
I don't want this to be the norm. I have bought games 3 different times.
IMO, buy 1 license, and this is the kicker...Licensing should be applied to ALL platforms, if the customer choses to do so. Otherwise, why buy the same game 3, 4 times to make it more convenient for the customer, and more profitable for the platforms?
What everyone has said here is correct.
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I look at it this way.
You buy one cell phone, no matter what carrier you go with, it is the same phone. That is YOURS to keep....all contained in one IMEI number. the phones serial number...or code (let us call it the Licensing number).
Same for the games licensing. You buy one game and that games comes with usually ONE license. Like that cell phone, the license is that code. That parent company knows that code is yours, usually connected to your name/address/email/phone number, or other means. You apply that code to where ever you want that supports that game.
Yes, place it to where ever you want, when ever you want. That's called freedom.
While I don't mind a company making money off of me, I don't want them making that money on the same game (or DND books), over, and over, and over again.
Charge whatever, pay that one price, once.
If I buy Skyrim from parent company of Bethsaida, then it is that company that has proof of your purchase, that you are connected to that license.
I understand all about making a profit, freedom of capitalistic society and all that, BUT I am never, never, never about making a killing.
Ultimately, I know this is not the way it works today, but why shouldn't it work this way?
It will never work this way as long as people continue to actually pay for the same thing multiple times over multiple platforms/formats. Why would a platform reduce their income potential when there is no shortage of people willing to pay again and again?
For the record, I am not saying this is right or fair to the consumer, I am just saying that this is why it works this way currently.
That physical cell phone in your hand can be equated to purchasing a physical book, not a license to use a digital product. With that book in your hand, you can use the homebrew tools here (or most any other dnd themed site) to recreate most everything here. Granted this has a steep learning curve and will take dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of hours to complete correctly. You have the freedom to do that.
The license you got from here, or roll20 or foundry, or anywhere else is a license to use that product on that platform, not a license to use that product anywhere you see fit to? Since you purchased it on roll20, does that allow you to walk into a store and pick up the physical book with the excuse you bought it on roll20?
The reason it works this way is because that freedom of a capitalistic society and that is always about making a killing, profit wise. These are the same people that sent Pinkertons to a vlogger's house because he opened a box of cards on camera that wasn't set for public release for a few weeks.
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I get where you're coming from, and I agree with some of your points, but that's sadly not how licensing works at all.
If I buy an album or CD I don't automatically get access to the same album on iTunes, unless there's been a specific licensing agreement put in place.
And to use your example of Skyrim; if I buy it for a console, that doesn't grant me access to versions for other consoles or PC. Could it? Sure, if companies wanted to, but at the end of the day it's likely more complicated than they want to deal with especially when the alternative is someone buying something from them multiple times.
That being said, there's some great plugins from Mr. Primate for FoundryVTT to get your content from DnDBeyond into Foundry.