Hey, I just wanted to create a bit of feedback or discussion here for something I have a major gripe with on this service.
The number of usable character slots is an issue, to begin with I'm aware there need to be limitations in place and bonuses granted to subscription users. However, 6 total slots for use which remain permanently the same has been a growing concern of mine.
Why? I have few people I play D&D with regularly including a long running campaign myself of which I use this site for. The problem is we're either capped on characters or very close. This comes from a couple of reasons; first and foremost however is that we make a lot of characters. Each time one of us wants to make a oneshot, we'd like to use D&D beyond for the character slots since its our service of choice, that usually means we have to delete a previous character though which is something I and my friends find rather egregious. When it comes to our oneshot characters we love to keep them around and have a record of them remaining on the website. Apart from purely sentimental value, there are times we go back to continue a oneshot using the same characters so having access to them is always a mega plus. The second big issue is, in a main campaign characters die. When a character dies we make a new one, this means a slot is permanently taken up in the character slots. The easy answer to this is; delete it. Sure, if you have no attachment, but often we do. I know two of my friends never want to delete their first character but can never really play them again which permanently limits them to 5 slots instead of 6. This will continue indefinitely unless we subscribe to D&D beyond which none of us can afford for a continual basis.
Solution/criticism/advice. 6 is a very small number. Don't get me wrong, for a lot of cases 6 is MORE than enough, but for continual users its not a very large amount. Perhaps a raise to 10 or even just 8 would be a great boon to the service, in terms of simple answers. My gripe is part of the fact subbing does fix this issue but its only temporary and the second we cannot afford to subscribe anymore it is back to the small market of 6. Minding this, the gap between 6 and unlimited is MASSIVE and rather ridiculous. I feel we are being limited to a number so ludicrously small compared to the benefits of subscribing that it is an active coercion to do so, when its simply not an option for everyone. A couple of ideas that would make this far less tight and restrictive are loyalty bonuses or rewards. Perhaps people that have subscribed once can have their slots increase by an amount, or if a person purchases a SourceBook they get a character slot with it. It might also be worth doing something as simple, and a personal favourite idea of mine, as giving us a new character slot for each year the account has been on D&D beyond giving a very slow, yes, but permanent bonus to users. At the very least I would like to posit for the ability, should there never be a slot increase, to archive characters on the service without downloading a PDF that is not part of the 6. An archived characters tab with unlimited space that you can put characters you know you will not use anymore that cannot be edited but simply left as a memento and a place to look at details as necessary.
Larger problem. I would also like to take a moment to posit a larger issue that ties into this I believe is part of how this service runs. The website is rather restrictive for things such as this already but for certain people and a lot of DMs being a subscriber is almost mandatory for the level of campaign they may wish to run. Currently subscribing benefits the players in-place of the one paying as it forks the content over to them and simply gives us more devices and slots to work with. I believe it would be a better marketing strategy, benefit to consumers and idea to change the details of subscribing to something other than showing the tippy-top of the iceberg. Perhaps while subscribed you get access to all source-books to use and at master subscription you can share all those books but as with anything subscription, unsubscribing removes access to them. This gives users a choice if they want everything between the full price of each source-book or a subscription to cheapen it short-term but increase the price in the long-term. Of course this also means that people who buy the source-books can then utilise them permanently without needing to subscribe as well. I do think however, the opportunity to pay a monthly sub to access 400 dollars+ worth of material will be far more of a pull than a loss in terms of getting people interested in subscribing to the service and will make it more useful in the long run, rather than restrictive to places that shouldn't be restricted, such as character slots.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and if this does reach the attention of a moderator of D&D beyond I would heavily appreciate considering what I've had to say. Thank you.
Characters take up server space, an increase from 6 to 8 is a 33% increase in space requirements. They likely settled on 6 as the balance between hosting costs, enough to make the service usable by free users, and low enough to incentivise subscribing
If you really want to keep your characters from one shots, you can always export them
You want unlimited characters saved for prosperity for the least amount of money, you have one player with a sub make unclaimed characters, and then have everyone claim them for the one-shot. They only count towards the 6 limit while claimed, the players can unclaim them afterwards.
DDB has no decision making over the distribution model, the mods having even less so. WotC has done the 'subscription gets you everything' approach with 4e and it did poorly. The current system is designed to separate characters and content in terms of subscription. You can play D&D completely for free using SRD and the 6 slots; if you want to play with more than 6 characters, then you are trying to get so much out of the site as to warrant paying for it.
Now, if you didn't post this as a discussion topic, well I would recommend the Zendesk for suggestions.
Just for comparison with another company/game system, Hero Lab Online for PF2E/Starfinder also requires you to buy the books, which are roughly the same price, but no option to buy piecemeal, and you need a subscription (free accounts are limited to lv1 characters), which is 25$/year. There's no content sharing option, so everyone got to buy their own book, and everyone need their own subscription.
On beyond, I was able to split the costs of the books + a master sub among me and 4 other players, and I'm the only one with a sub for content sharing.
If you need more than what the site offers for free, your friends are either going to need a subscription, or go back to pen & paper for these characters that will only be used for one game.
You want unlimited characters saved for prosperity for the least amount of money, you have one player with a sub make unclaimed characters, and then have everyone claim them for the one-shot. They only count towards the 6 limit while claimed, the players can unclaim them afterwards.
I was going to suggest exactly this. Most groups have someone with a sub to share content.
Any chance of getting an additional 2 permanent slots for a one time purchase? It be nice to have enough slots for 1 full table and an extra one for the DM.
Any chance of getting an additional 2 permanent slots for a one time purchase? It be nice to have enough slots for 1 full table and an extra one for the DM.
I don't even know what you are asking for. 1 full table = 8 characters?
What does that have to do with the number of characters each account has?
Any chance of getting an additional 2 permanent slots for a one time purchase? It be nice to have enough slots for 1 full table and an extra one for the DM.
It sounds to me like your idea is that every participant in a game/table would sign in to the same account. This is strictly forbidden in the terms of service. Each person needs their own account: they can all be free accounts. The DM then creates a campaign here, and folks join that campaign with their characters.
Any chance of getting an additional 2 permanent slots for a one time purchase? It be nice to have enough slots for 1 full table and an extra one for the DM.
I don't even know what you are asking for. 1 full table = 8 characters?
What does that have to do with the number of characters each account has?
I haven't used the campaign features and have only DM'd for 1 group. Looks like that would cover what I was requesting.
Any chance of getting an additional 2 permanent slots for a one time purchase? It be nice to have enough slots for 1 full table and an extra one for the DM.
It sounds to me like your idea is that every participant in a game/table would sign in to the same account. This is strictly forbidden in the terms of service. Each person needs their own account: they can all be free accounts. The DM then creates a campaign here, and folks join that campaign with their characters.
I haven't used the campaign features and have only DM'd for 1 group. Looks like that would cover what I was requesting. Thanks for pointing that out.
I would also love to see the ability to purchase character sheet" packs. Price them at $1.99 each, or 10 for $9.99. People who only want a few extra characters will buy them. People who find they keep buying and buying and buying to add more and more characters will soon realize a subscription is better for them.
As for using the six you have, and exporting them when you are done with a one shot, that's not useful if you can't import them as well. If they aren't going to offer the ability to buy extra character sheets, how about the ability to re-import?
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"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing) You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
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Hey, I just wanted to create a bit of feedback or discussion here for something I have a major gripe with on this service.
The number of usable character slots is an issue, to begin with I'm aware there need to be limitations in place and bonuses granted to subscription users.
However, 6 total slots for use which remain permanently the same has been a growing concern of mine.
Why?
I have few people I play D&D with regularly including a long running campaign myself of which I use this site for. The problem is we're either capped on characters or very close. This comes from a couple of reasons; first and foremost however is that we make a lot of characters. Each time one of us wants to make a oneshot, we'd like to use D&D beyond for the character slots since its our service of choice, that usually means we have to delete a previous character though which is something I and my friends find rather egregious. When it comes to our oneshot characters we love to keep them around and have a record of them remaining on the website. Apart from purely sentimental value, there are times we go back to continue a oneshot using the same characters so having access to them is always a mega plus. The second big issue is, in a main campaign characters die. When a character dies we make a new one, this means a slot is permanently taken up in the character slots. The easy answer to this is; delete it. Sure, if you have no attachment, but often we do. I know two of my friends never want to delete their first character but can never really play them again which permanently limits them to 5 slots instead of 6. This will continue indefinitely unless we subscribe to D&D beyond which none of us can afford for a continual basis.
Solution/criticism/advice.
6 is a very small number. Don't get me wrong, for a lot of cases 6 is MORE than enough, but for continual users its not a very large amount. Perhaps a raise to 10 or even just 8 would be a great boon to the service, in terms of simple answers. My gripe is part of the fact subbing does fix this issue but its only temporary and the second we cannot afford to subscribe anymore it is back to the small market of 6. Minding this, the gap between 6 and unlimited is MASSIVE and rather ridiculous. I feel we are being limited to a number so ludicrously small compared to the benefits of subscribing that it is an active coercion to do so, when its simply not an option for everyone.
A couple of ideas that would make this far less tight and restrictive are loyalty bonuses or rewards. Perhaps people that have subscribed once can have their slots increase by an amount, or if a person purchases a SourceBook they get a character slot with it. It might also be worth doing something as simple, and a personal favourite idea of mine, as giving us a new character slot for each year the account has been on D&D beyond giving a very slow, yes, but permanent bonus to users.
At the very least I would like to posit for the ability, should there never be a slot increase, to archive characters on the service without downloading a PDF that is not part of the 6. An archived characters tab with unlimited space that you can put characters you know you will not use anymore that cannot be edited but simply left as a memento and a place to look at details as necessary.
Larger problem.
I would also like to take a moment to posit a larger issue that ties into this I believe is part of how this service runs. The website is rather restrictive for things such as this already but for certain people and a lot of DMs being a subscriber is almost mandatory for the level of campaign they may wish to run. Currently subscribing benefits the players in-place of the one paying as it forks the content over to them and simply gives us more devices and slots to work with. I believe it would be a better marketing strategy, benefit to consumers and idea to change the details of subscribing to something other than showing the tippy-top of the iceberg. Perhaps while subscribed you get access to all source-books to use and at master subscription you can share all those books but as with anything subscription, unsubscribing removes access to them. This gives users a choice if they want everything between the full price of each source-book or a subscription to cheapen it short-term but increase the price in the long-term. Of course this also means that people who buy the source-books can then utilise them permanently without needing to subscribe as well. I do think however, the opportunity to pay a monthly sub to access 400 dollars+ worth of material will be far more of a pull than a loss in terms of getting people interested in subscribing to the service and will make it more useful in the long run, rather than restrictive to places that shouldn't be restricted, such as character slots.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and if this does reach the attention of a moderator of D&D beyond I would heavily appreciate considering what I've had to say. Thank you.
Now, if you didn't post this as a discussion topic, well I would recommend the Zendesk for suggestions.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Just for comparison with another company/game system, Hero Lab Online for PF2E/Starfinder also requires you to buy the books, which are roughly the same price, but no option to buy piecemeal, and you need a subscription (free accounts are limited to lv1 characters), which is 25$/year. There's no content sharing option, so everyone got to buy their own book, and everyone need their own subscription.
On beyond, I was able to split the costs of the books + a master sub among me and 4 other players, and I'm the only one with a sub for content sharing.
If you need more than what the site offers for free, your friends are either going to need a subscription, or go back to pen & paper for these characters that will only be used for one game.
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I was going to suggest exactly this. Most groups have someone with a sub to share content.
Any chance of getting an additional 2 permanent slots for a one time purchase? It be nice to have enough slots for 1 full table and an extra one for the DM.
I don't even know what you are asking for. 1 full table = 8 characters?
What does that have to do with the number of characters each account has?
It sounds to me like your idea is that every participant in a game/table would sign in to the same account. This is strictly forbidden in the terms of service. Each person needs their own account: they can all be free accounts. The DM then creates a campaign here, and folks join that campaign with their characters.
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 haven't used the campaign features and have only DM'd for 1 group. Looks like that would cover what I was requesting.
I haven't used the campaign features and have only DM'd for 1 group. Looks like that would cover what I was requesting. Thanks for pointing that out.
I would also love to see the ability to purchase character sheet" packs. Price them at $1.99 each, or 10 for $9.99. People who only want a few extra characters will buy them. People who find they keep buying and buying and buying to add more and more characters will soon realize a subscription is better for them.
As for using the six you have, and exporting them when you are done with a one shot, that's not useful if you can't import them as well. If they aren't going to offer the ability to buy extra character sheets, how about the ability to re-import?
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing)
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?