I just wanna pop in and say other TRPGs already shrink wrap and sell their books with digital codes already, specifically Vampire the Masquerade.
Specifically with Dungeons and Dragons, with the accessibility and community that exists within it, its almost a moot point because i find it highly unlikely that it would affect the sales for this MegaGiant of Tabletop gaming
Not to mention its extremely unfair specifically for people who invested in physical copies and because of current world events are forced to move to online play and basically be punished for it. I personally prefer physical books and actually hate using this website to play the game, but its mostly for those who have no other option
I just wanna pop in and say other TRPGs already shrink wrap and sell their books with digital codes already, specifically Vampire the Masquerade.
Specifically with Dungeons and Dragons, with the accessibility and community that exists within it, its almost a moot point because i find it highly unlikely that it would affect the sales for this MegaGiant of Tabletop gaming
Some companies find the need to bundle their physical and digital products necessary to stand out and be profitable. Wizards does not. If it is not profitable enough for Wizards, they are not going to do it.
Not to mention its extremely unfair specifically for people who invested in physical copies and because of current world events are forced to move to online play and basically be punished for it. I personally prefer physical books and actually hate using this website to play the game, but its mostly for those who have no other option
People do know that they can use private homebrew to put all the official stuff in their physical books into Beyond for free, right? The only cost is just time and effort, just like how it costed Beyond time and effort too to make that homebrew system available for use by everyone, and not once did Beyond complain about users using the homebrew system for free.
And who says you cannot use pen and paper to play D&D over Skype, Twitch, or whatever video platform you use? Beyond's focus has always been enhancing face-to-face play on a literal physical table, and if you want a virtual tabletop, Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds are much better suited for that.
In my opinion, what is unfair is the almost weekly entitled complaints levied against Beyond and its staff regarding this issue, undermining and devaluing the hard professional work they put into this website. Beyond does not it owe to anybody to offer any kind of discounts to users with physical books. Should I also demand that Amazon and Google Play give me the digital version of my small personal physical library for free?
How would you feel if you boss says that it is unfair to have to pay you for working overtime? They are already paying you for 8 hours of work, so how come you are not cutting your boss some slack and work an extra 2 hours from home for free everyday as part of the your labor bundle?
I honestly dont feel like engaging in this argument but your "analogy" at the end is tone deaf and offensive. But i do not feel like explaining it to someone who obviously has no intention of changing their mind
I honestly dont feel like engaging in this argument but your "analogy" at the end is tone deaf and offensive. But i do not feel like explaining it to someone who obviously has no intention of changing their mind
Tone deaf and offensive is how I feel when I keep reading about people constantly complaining about and devaluing Beyond's work.
Not to mention its extremely unfair specifically for people who invested in physical copies and because of current world events are forced to move to online play and basically be punished for it.
You understand that WotC neither caused the pandemic nor forced you to move online, right?
And you don't need D&D Beyond for online play. You can play with the same pen, paper, dice, and books you used before online. No one is forcing you to use D&D Beyond.
I started playing D&D online before D&D Beyond came out; we used form fillable PDF character sheets in a shared google drive, skype video call, and lots of whatsapping pictures of dice and maps to each other :P
D&D Beyond has been worth every penny in the convenience it provides and the money/time saved when players levelled up and needed access to books. Believe me, trying to explain class features over skype is not fun.
I started playing D&D online before D&D Beyond came out; we used form fillable PDF character sheets in a shared google drive, skype video call, and lots of whatsapping pictures of dice and maps to each other :P
D&D Beyond has been worth every penny in the convenience it provides and the money/time saved when players levelled up and needed access to books. Believe me, trying to explain class features over skype is not fun.
I completely agree with this, I am setting up characters for family members to play online and they are really impressed with how easy the tools make it.
Anyone ever consider a code printed on the receipt? You guys are overthinking this, and many seem to have no experience in publishing or retail sales. Adding a digital copy as a supliment has increased sales in most products that offer them, and if the consumer is truly interested in purchasing the book solely for the digital copy, then purchase the digital copy, and not the physical book - which will surely continue to tank every small book and game store! Everyone seems to be focused on the digital addition not being "free" because it has a cost to assemble, which is true, but the hard costs associated with printing a physical copy far exceed those costs (since the copy writing and research have to be done either way, and the cost to manufacture will always be there, since there will always be a cost to produce and assemble each book that will never be overcome). Nobody is looking for something for free, but when I can purchase countless other books for far less money that offer digital versions with purchase, why can't something costing upwards of $40 do the same? But hey, why make less money when you can make more!
Anyone ever consider a code printed on the receipt? You guys are overthinking this, and many seem to have no experience in publishing or retail sales. Adding a digital copy as a supliment has increased sales in most products that offer them, and if the consumer is truly interested in purchasing the book solely for the digital copy, then purchase the digital copy, and not the physical book - which will surely continue to tank every small book and game store! Everyone seems to be focused on the digital addition not being "free" because it has a cost to assemble, which is true, but the hard costs associated with printing a physical copy far exceed those costs (since the copy writing and research have to be done either way, and the cost to manufacture will always be there, since there will always be a cost to produce and assemble each book that will never be overcome). Nobody is looking for something for free, but when I can purchase countless other books for far less money that offer digital versions with purchase, why can't something costing upwards of $40 do the same? But hey, why make less money when you can make more!
-How many POS (Point of Sale) systems would have to be updated/programmed to set this up? Off the top of my head, I can think of: Target, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Square, plus a host of other POS systems used by FLGSs, most of which are independent "mom and pop" shops.
-Who pays for the costs of updating/programming all these POS systems and the other costs involved in setting up and overseeing this system? WOTC? Why would they do so when the code is for a DDB product? DDB? Why would they do so since they receive $0 from the purchase of the print copy?
-These other books that give you digital versions: who gives you those digital versions? Presumably the same company as the company that made the print book (even if you get the book in kindle format, for example. the book originates with the publisher, and presumably they have an arrangement to do this.) Remember, DDB and WOTC are separate companies, and DDB pays licensing fees to WOTC, WOTC does not pay DDB anything for physical copies sold. How does DDB pay its staff if they give away the books for free--especially when they have to pay WOTC in order to do so?
-Do the digital versions of these "other books" come with extensive links and with a suite of databases and other tools? (You are essentially asking for not only a free copy of the digital book, but also free copies of spell cards, a DM screen, monster cards, magic item cards, etc., plus character sheets that do all the math for you.)
-If you really want to see this happen, you need to lobby WOTC, not DDB. And you need to recognize that the cost of the physical books will go up if they opt to follow your suggestion.
Anyone ever consider a code printed on the receipt? You guys are overthinking this, and many seem to have no experience in publishing or retail sales.
I wrote point of sale software for a few years, so I have some experience in this. This isn't an easy task given the hundreds of POS packages in use in stores in just America. Plus the thousands of homebrew POS systems stores use.
I can't imagine my FLGS would upgrade its homebrew POS system just to cater to D&D books.
-If you really want to see this happen, you need to lobby WOTC, not DDB.
This. I'm just wondering if Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds have spaces hijacked by consumers who want them to give away their products too. It seems the real pressure point is WotC and I'm not familiar with any concerted campaign advocating all these proposed innovations to anyone with any actual ability to grant this segment of the consumer base what they want.
It would be interesting what data WotC has in terms of its print product sales, and how much of that market uses DDB or the licensed VTTs.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Anyone ever consider a code printed on the receipt? You guys are overthinking this, and many seem to have no experience in publishing or retail sales. Adding a digital copy as a supliment has increased sales in most products that offer them, and if the consumer is truly interested in purchasing the book solely for the digital copy, then purchase the digital copy, and not the physical book - which will surely continue to tank every small book and game store! Everyone seems to be focused on the digital addition not being "free" because it has a cost to assemble, which is true, but the hard costs associated with printing a physical copy far exceed those costs (since the copy writing and research have to be done either way, and the cost to manufacture will always be there, since there will always be a cost to produce and assemble each book that will never be overcome). Nobody is looking for something for free, but when I can purchase countless other books for far less money that offer digital versions with purchase, why can't something costing upwards of $40 do the same? But hey, why make less money when you can make more!
And plenty of people also have no experience in accounting and finance, and they make wild claims about profit margins and cost without having ever laid eyes on any kind of financial statement. If you are going to make claims about profit margins and cost, then back up your claims with financial data. Please do not make claims about profitability unless you actually know for certain what the numbers are. It is one thing to speculate on financial numbers with research to back it up, but it is an entirely different and foolish thing to just assume or believe some number or fact is true without a single thread of evidence.
If Wizards and Beyond really thought it would make them more money to do what you have suggested, they would have done so already.
It cracks me up how heated this and a similar thread had become. I also had a posted asking what people would pay to get both a physical and digital copy. I think it comes down to this, if Wizards actually owned Beyond, this would likely already be happening, but they don't so it hasn't. Honestly, I don't even really care, I like having the books digitally and that is my preferred method. I have Tasha's and Xanathar's in print, but that's all. If I could get both physical/digital for a good deal I would, but that really isn't an option and at this point I am not going to go back and buy physical copies of all the prior content. I will continue to buy the big player compendiums that add a lot, but everything else will remain strictly digital for me.
It cracks me up how heated this and a similar thread had become. I also had a posted asking what people would pay to get both a physical and digital copy. I think it comes down to this, if Wizards actually owned Beyond, this would likely already be happening, but they don't so it hasn't. Honestly, I don't even really care, I like having the books digitally and that is my preferred method. I have Tasha's and Xanathar's in print, but that's all. If I could get both physical/digital for a good deal I would, but that really isn't an option and at this point I am not going to go back and buy physical copies of all the prior content. I will continue to buy the big player compendiums that add a lot, but everything else will remain strictly digital for me.
WotC used to run their own service similar to DDB for 4e D&D. Even then there were no PDFs. (I can’t honestly comment about discounts or bogo bundles or anything like that.) They opted to not bother with that this edition and when Curse stepped up (before Fandom bought and absorbed Curse and DDB with it), WotC jumped at an opportunity to outsource.
On a personal note, I started as a WotC customer way back when Unlimited Edition of M:tG was still on shelves and Revised was just coming out, or just about to (1993/94). It has been my experience that they were always a bunch of money grubbing, blood sucking parasites. I also think it got worse when Hasbro bought them. So even if WotC owned DDB, I believe they would probably charge more than DDB does now, and would not have licensed other companies like Roll20, etc. to sell their products. In other words, it would probably be worse.
It cracks me up how heated this and a similar thread had become. I also had a posted asking what people would pay to get both a physical and digital copy. I think it comes down to this, if Wizards actually owned Beyond, this would likely already be happening, but they don't so it hasn't. Honestly, I don't even really care, I like having the books digitally and that is my preferred method. I have Tasha's and Xanathar's in print, but that's all. If I could get both physical/digital for a good deal I would, but that really isn't an option and at this point I am not going to go back and buy physical copies of all the prior content. I will continue to buy the big player compendiums that add a lot, but everything else will remain strictly digital for me.
WotC used to run their own service similar to DDB for 4e D&D. Even then there were no PDFs. (I can’t honestly comment about discounts or bogo bundles or anything like that.) They opted to not bother with that this edition and when Curse stepped up (before Fandom bought and absorbed Curse and DDB with it), WotC jumped at an opportunity to outsource.
On a personal note, I started as a WotC customer way back when Unlimited Edition of M:tG was still on shelves and Revised was just coming out, or just about to (1993/94). It has been my experience that they were always a bunch of money grubbing, blood sucking parasites. I also think it got worse when Hasbro bought them. So even if WotC owned DDB, I believe they would probably charge more than DDB does now, and would not have licensed other companies like Roll20, etc. to sell their products. In other words, it would probably be worse.
Just to expand (and very slightly correct) on this.
WotC did indeed have something like D&D Beyond that was for 4th Edition - it was a disaster for 3 main reasons: they weren't really up for all the added challenges and work it needed so it was buggy and broken and never updated fast enough. The second reason is that to avoid making people pay again for the digital version of new books (which they did offer) they used a subscription model - you paid a set amount per month to unlock all content. Pirates already pirate but to do so some people needed to still get books, scan them into a computer and make them into PDFs. However, paying a tiny fee and just getting it all there, easy to copy and paste and download ? Oh hells, that made it a walk in the park for literally everyone to just get 1 month, quickly copy everything (which is easy to do) and cancel sub and for $5 you now have hundreds of dollars worth of books. Everyone abused it - the company took a massive hit from this. And finally, the general public weren't too thrilled with 4e and preferred earlier editions so the interest dropped out rather quickly. The sub model stopped and just had you buy digital versions. They stopped work on the character tool and did away with it. It remained a read-only compendium for those that bought the digital books until rather recently.
So, for 5th edition they realised this isn't something they can handle. And so when they came across companies with compendium style databases and even VTTs they realised this would be better, more sustainable, more profitable and a lot less risky. So they went with that. This is why we have officially licensed VTTs and such sites. It's a lot more profitable and much easier.
The embrace of multiple VTTs and similar sites also meant those companies could handle their own marketing and the more popular they became the more profit they could generate for WotC without any increase in investment, risk or effort by WotC. The fact so many new players can choose from so many tools and systems to help them buy and use D&D 5e products and play games, even online, is also part of 5e's success. I would say its actually a bigger factor to its success than the book content itself (which many, many, players agree to be an improvement compared to previous editions).
I highly doubt they'll ever go back to using their own, even if a 6th Edition is released.
My only correction to Sposta is that they jumped at VTTs like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. D&D Beyond wasn't around then. D&D Beyond is a very late comer to the officially licensed D&D ********-site table. Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds were already well established by the release of D&D 5e (2014), having been around since 2012 (Roll20) and Fantasy Grounds (2004). D&D Beyond came later, in 2017. It has most assuredly surpassed the others, partly due to the more focused character sheet tools (which allowed them to tailor the system specifically for what the players need, compared to the way others have to approach it since they're system agnostic tools). The biggest boost came from their very smart decision to sponsor Critical Role which was seeing a massive explosion in popularity and growth and drew in a massive amount of new customers for this site. With those, the word of mouth got hold - thanks to social media which D&D Beyond capitalised on as well) and this allowed for D&D Beyond to became what it is today. But it wasn't the first that WotC chose for outsourcing as Sposta implies.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond. Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ thisFAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
There are no codes that unlock physical books on Beyond.
If you are asking about discount codes on digital products, they will post those codes at the top of the website in a big, blue banner. These do not happen very often though, so make sure to check the site weekly or daily.
The only codes that unlock digital content on Beyond would be from the physical box sets of the Essential's Kit. People may also choose to gift each other content, and when they buy something on the site, they can select the "gift" option and it will generate a code that they can then give away.
There should be two cards inside the seal essentials kit box; one for the adventure free on DDB, and one for 50% off the Player's Handbook on DDB as well
I just wanna pop in and say other TRPGs already shrink wrap and sell their books with digital codes already, specifically Vampire the Masquerade.
Specifically with Dungeons and Dragons, with the accessibility and community that exists within it, its almost a moot point because i find it highly unlikely that it would affect the sales for this MegaGiant of Tabletop gaming
Not to mention its extremely unfair specifically for people who invested in physical copies and because of current world events are forced to move to online play and basically be punished for it. I personally prefer physical books and actually hate using this website to play the game, but its mostly for those who have no other option
Some companies find the need to bundle their physical and digital products necessary to stand out and be profitable. Wizards does not. If it is not profitable enough for Wizards, they are not going to do it.
People do know that they can use private homebrew to put all the official stuff in their physical books into Beyond for free, right? The only cost is just time and effort, just like how it costed Beyond time and effort too to make that homebrew system available for use by everyone, and not once did Beyond complain about users using the homebrew system for free.
And who says you cannot use pen and paper to play D&D over Skype, Twitch, or whatever video platform you use? Beyond's focus has always been enhancing face-to-face play on a literal physical table, and if you want a virtual tabletop, Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds are much better suited for that.
In my opinion, what is unfair is the almost weekly entitled complaints levied against Beyond and its staff regarding this issue, undermining and devaluing the hard professional work they put into this website. Beyond does not it owe to anybody to offer any kind of discounts to users with physical books. Should I also demand that Amazon and Google Play give me the digital version of my small personal physical library for free?
How would you feel if you boss says that it is unfair to have to pay you for working overtime? They are already paying you for 8 hours of work, so how come you are not cutting your boss some slack and work an extra 2 hours from home for free everyday as part of the your labor bundle?
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 honestly dont feel like engaging in this argument but your "analogy" at the end is tone deaf and offensive. But i do not feel like explaining it to someone who obviously has no intention of changing their mind
Tone deaf and offensive is how I feel when I keep reading about people constantly complaining about and devaluing Beyond's work.
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 >
You understand that WotC neither caused the pandemic nor forced you to move online, right?
And you don't need D&D Beyond for online play. You can play with the same pen, paper, dice, and books you used before online. No one is forcing you to use D&D Beyond.
I started playing D&D online before D&D Beyond came out; we used form fillable PDF character sheets in a shared google drive, skype video call, and lots of whatsapping pictures of dice and maps to each other :P
D&D Beyond has been worth every penny in the convenience it provides and the money/time saved when players levelled up and needed access to books. Believe me, trying to explain class features over skype is not fun.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I completely agree with this, I am setting up characters for family members to play online and they are really impressed with how easy the tools make it.
Anyone ever consider a code printed on the receipt? You guys are overthinking this, and many seem to have no experience in publishing or retail sales. Adding a digital copy as a supliment has increased sales in most products that offer them, and if the consumer is truly interested in purchasing the book solely for the digital copy, then purchase the digital copy, and not the physical book - which will surely continue to tank every small book and game store! Everyone seems to be focused on the digital addition not being "free" because it has a cost to assemble, which is true, but the hard costs associated with printing a physical copy far exceed those costs (since the copy writing and research have to be done either way, and the cost to manufacture will always be there, since there will always be a cost to produce and assemble each book that will never be overcome). Nobody is looking for something for free, but when I can purchase countless other books for far less money that offer digital versions with purchase, why can't something costing upwards of $40 do the same? But hey, why make less money when you can make more!
-How many POS (Point of Sale) systems would have to be updated/programmed to set this up? Off the top of my head, I can think of: Target, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Square, plus a host of other POS systems used by FLGSs, most of which are independent "mom and pop" shops.
-Who pays for the costs of updating/programming all these POS systems and the other costs involved in setting up and overseeing this system? WOTC? Why would they do so when the code is for a DDB product? DDB? Why would they do so since they receive $0 from the purchase of the print copy?
-These other books that give you digital versions: who gives you those digital versions? Presumably the same company as the company that made the print book (even if you get the book in kindle format, for example. the book originates with the publisher, and presumably they have an arrangement to do this.) Remember, DDB and WOTC are separate companies, and DDB pays licensing fees to WOTC, WOTC does not pay DDB anything for physical copies sold. How does DDB pay its staff if they give away the books for free--especially when they have to pay WOTC in order to do so?
-Do the digital versions of these "other books" come with extensive links and with a suite of databases and other tools? (You are essentially asking for not only a free copy of the digital book, but also free copies of spell cards, a DM screen, monster cards, magic item cards, etc., plus character sheets that do all the math for you.)
-If you really want to see this happen, you need to lobby WOTC, not DDB. And you need to recognize that the cost of the physical books will go up if they opt to follow your suggestion.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
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I wrote point of sale software for a few years, so I have some experience in this. This isn't an easy task given the hundreds of POS packages in use in stores in just America. Plus the thousands of homebrew POS systems stores use.
I can't imagine my FLGS would upgrade its homebrew POS system just to cater to D&D books.
This. I'm just wondering if Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds have spaces hijacked by consumers who want them to give away their products too. It seems the real pressure point is WotC and I'm not familiar with any concerted campaign advocating all these proposed innovations to anyone with any actual ability to grant this segment of the consumer base what they want.
It would be interesting what data WotC has in terms of its print product sales, and how much of that market uses DDB or the licensed VTTs.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
And plenty of people also have no experience in accounting and finance, and they make wild claims about profit margins and cost without having ever laid eyes on any kind of financial statement. If you are going to make claims about profit margins and cost, then back up your claims with financial data. Please do not make claims about profitability unless you actually know for certain what the numbers are. It is one thing to speculate on financial numbers with research to back it up, but it is an entirely different and foolish thing to just assume or believe some number or fact is true without a single thread of evidence.
If Wizards and Beyond really thought it would make them more money to do what you have suggested, they would have done so already.
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 >
It cracks me up how heated this and a similar thread had become. I also had a posted asking what people would pay to get both a physical and digital copy. I think it comes down to this, if Wizards actually owned Beyond, this would likely already be happening, but they don't so it hasn't. Honestly, I don't even really care, I like having the books digitally and that is my preferred method. I have Tasha's and Xanathar's in print, but that's all. If I could get both physical/digital for a good deal I would, but that really isn't an option and at this point I am not going to go back and buy physical copies of all the prior content. I will continue to buy the big player compendiums that add a lot, but everything else will remain strictly digital for me.
WotC used to run their own service similar to DDB for 4e D&D. Even then there were no PDFs. (I can’t honestly comment about discounts or bogo bundles or anything like that.) They opted to not bother with that this edition and when Curse stepped up (before Fandom bought and absorbed Curse and DDB with it), WotC jumped at an opportunity to outsource.
On a personal note, I started as a WotC customer way back when Unlimited Edition of M:tG was still on shelves and Revised was just coming out, or just about to (1993/94). It has been my experience that they were always a bunch of money grubbing, blood sucking parasites. I also think it got worse when Hasbro bought them. So even if WotC owned DDB, I believe they would probably charge more than DDB does now, and would not have licensed other companies like Roll20, etc. to sell their products. In other words, it would probably be worse.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
Just to expand (and very slightly correct) on this.
WotC did indeed have something like D&D Beyond that was for 4th Edition - it was a disaster for 3 main reasons: they weren't really up for all the added challenges and work it needed so it was buggy and broken and never updated fast enough. The second reason is that to avoid making people pay again for the digital version of new books (which they did offer) they used a subscription model - you paid a set amount per month to unlock all content. Pirates already pirate but to do so some people needed to still get books, scan them into a computer and make them into PDFs. However, paying a tiny fee and just getting it all there, easy to copy and paste and download ? Oh hells, that made it a walk in the park for literally everyone to just get 1 month, quickly copy everything (which is easy to do) and cancel sub and for $5 you now have hundreds of dollars worth of books. Everyone abused it - the company took a massive hit from this. And finally, the general public weren't too thrilled with 4e and preferred earlier editions so the interest dropped out rather quickly. The sub model stopped and just had you buy digital versions. They stopped work on the character tool and did away with it. It remained a read-only compendium for those that bought the digital books until rather recently.
So, for 5th edition they realised this isn't something they can handle. And so when they came across companies with compendium style databases and even VTTs they realised this would be better, more sustainable, more profitable and a lot less risky. So they went with that. This is why we have officially licensed VTTs and such sites. It's a lot more profitable and much easier.
The embrace of multiple VTTs and similar sites also meant those companies could handle their own marketing and the more popular they became the more profit they could generate for WotC without any increase in investment, risk or effort by WotC. The fact so many new players can choose from so many tools and systems to help them buy and use D&D 5e products and play games, even online, is also part of 5e's success. I would say its actually a bigger factor to its success than the book content itself (which many, many, players agree to be an improvement compared to previous editions).
I highly doubt they'll ever go back to using their own, even if a 6th Edition is released.
My only correction to Sposta is that they jumped at VTTs like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. D&D Beyond wasn't around then. D&D Beyond is a very late comer to the officially licensed D&D ********-site table. Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds were already well established by the release of D&D 5e (2014), having been around since 2012 (Roll20) and Fantasy Grounds (2004). D&D Beyond came later, in 2017. It has most assuredly surpassed the others, partly due to the more focused character sheet tools (which allowed them to tailor the system specifically for what the players need, compared to the way others have to approach it since they're system agnostic tools). The biggest boost came from their very smart decision to sponsor Critical Role which was seeing a massive explosion in popularity and growth and drew in a massive amount of new customers for this site. With those, the word of mouth got hold - thanks to social media which D&D Beyond capitalised on as well) and this allowed for D&D Beyond to became what it is today. But it wasn't the first that WotC chose for outsourcing as Sposta implies.
Click ✨ HERE ✨ For My Youtube Videos featuring Guides, Tips & Tricks for using D&D Beyond.
Need help with Homebrew? Check out ✨ this FAQ/Guide thread ✨ by IamSposta.
Where do you find the codes
There are no codes that unlock physical books on Beyond.
If you are asking about discount codes on digital products, they will post those codes at the top of the website in a big, blue banner. These do not happen very often though, so make sure to check the site weekly or daily.
The only codes that unlock digital content on Beyond would be from the physical box sets of the Essential's Kit. People may also choose to gift each other content, and when they buy something on the site, they can select the "gift" option and it will generate a code that they can then give away.
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 mean in the essential kits
There should be two cards inside the seal essentials kit box; one for the adventure free on DDB, and one for 50% off the Player's Handbook on DDB as well
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