Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ

I think it's curious that people are like "WotC already considered all the options and coupons are just impossible" when it's clear that WotC benefits twice from the digital / physical bundles. They get to completely bypass the distributor and local game store / book store and sell the book at full MSRP directly to the customer plus $10 for the digital license vs the probably $15-20 they would have made on the book otherwise. $60 vs. $20 is massive.

If you want me to believe that this isn't about profits but about technology and that WotC has their best people on it, I have one question. Why can we still not gift subscriptions and books? Given the age of many D&D players, being able to gift a sub or digital content is a Must Have and yet, it doesn't exist. Also why is it still a somewhat clunky 2 step process to login to a WotC account? And when you report a showstopper issue about the DNDBeyond VTT, the response is "well it's a beta, just go back to books and dice". The reality is, there's hundreds of millions of dollars at play here and Hasbro is holding the purse strings tight. This isn't about "can't". It's about "won't".

Quote from feldon30 >>

I think it's curious that people are like "WotC already considered all the options and coupons are just impossible" when it's clear that WotC benefits twice from the digital / physical bundles. They get to completely bypass the distributor and local game store / book store and sell the book at full MSRP directly to the customer plus $10 for the digital license vs the probably $15-20 they would have made on the book otherwise. $60 vs. $20 is massive.

If you want me to believe that this isn't about profits but about technology and that WotC has their best people on it, I have one question. Why can we still not gift subscriptions and books? Given the age of many D&D players, being able to gift a sub or digital content is a Must Have and yet, it doesn't exist. Also why is it still a somewhat clunky 2 step process to login to a WotC account? And when you report a showstopper issue about the DNDBeyond VTT, the response is "well it's a beta, just go back to books and dice". The reality is, there's hundreds of millions of dollars at play here and Hasbro is holding the purse strings tight. This isn't about "can't". It's about "won't".

 Apparently I never gifted a friend that copy of Lost Laboratory of Kwalish. Must have been a monetary hallucination last Christmas.

You don't have to lie about small details to say that Hasbro should allocate funds to WotC to revamp Beyond out of the coding they inherited from Fandom.

Quote from MaedraDawnkeeper >>

 Apparently I never gifted a friend that copy of Lost Laboratory of Kwalish. Must have been a monetary hallucination last Christmas.

You don't have to lie about small details to say that Hasbro should allocate funds to WotC to revamp Beyond out of the coding they inherited from Fandom. 

So you can gift books but not subscriptions? That's... weird.

Is there any possibility that extra poster maps might be made available for purchase a la carte in the marketplace?

I wish to purchase extra prints of the POSTER MAP: EASTERN OERIK which is included in the 2024 Dungeon Master's Guide. My need is a result of the inevitable wear incurred on the print version, after having detached it from the book and after repeated folding & unfolding. My family has already gone through two of these (both taken from purchased 2024 DM Guide books) and would prefer to purchase just the poster map at a reasonable price.

The digital copy is of a much lower resolution and is not suitable for printing with the intent to replace the physical poster map. I understand the reasoning for this is likely to limit or hinder unlicensed print reproductions.

So I’m curious as to why  the international sales site is changing HST and the Canadian Border Services Agency charging it as well ? PS what is your HST number?

Quote from Kave >>

So I’m curious as to why  the international sales site is changing HST and the Canadian Border Services Agency charging it as well ? PS what is your HST number?

 That'd probably be a question for the CBSA—if WotC/DDB is registered with the CRA to charge HST at point of sale they'll be in the system for incoming goods. I've heard that if something comes through customs "twice" for whatever reason (even if the reason is the CBSA themselves) you'll get doubled up on HST. Disputing with the CBSA is generally the best bet.

Yes, but the Canadian border services is charging HST again and without the HST/GST number which the retailer is supposed to have and provide.but somewhere in the system they’re not providing it to Canadian border services when they shipped Canada and/ Or me the customer.

Quote from Kave >>

Yes, but the Canadian border services is charging HST again and without the HST/GST number which the retailer is supposed to have and provide.but somewhere in the system they’re not providing it to Canadian border services when they shipped Canada and/ Or me the customer.

 You're probably best of submitting a customer service ticket in that case

I am not sure if this is the place.  I am returning to subscribing soon. I had a game group account and my personal account. I can't get into that other account, that is a work in progress.  Since that group has disbanded, Am I now able to consolidate accounts?  We were not before it became an official account for D&D.  Also I was wondering why the 5e digital content is the same price as the new?  

Quote from MJohnson >>

I am not sure if this is the place.  I am returning to subscribing soon. I had a game group account and my personal account. I can't get into that other account, that is a work in progress.  Since that group has disbanded, Am I now able to consolidate accounts?  We were not before it became an official account for D&D.  Also I was wondering why the 5e digital content is the same price as the new?  

 
What do you mean by "group account"? This service doesn't any such thing to my knowledge and account sharing is against the Terms of Service.

If you need to consolidate accounts due to different purchases made under each then contact support (Contact Us at bottom of page). 

5e digital content is same price as 5.5e because people will play that edition and it has similar amount of content, so it remains worth the price. 

Yeah this is probably best done as a customer service ticket.

Hey thanks for the reply.  I will place another customer service request.  What part of the D&D Beyond platform do you work for?   Under the previous owner of this site, they declined my request to merge accounts.  I have a personal account and have another paid account for my gaming group.  That group altered its structure, and I wanted to no longer just share the files through two accounts.  The group account was the initial account.  Then we found there are features that are maximized with each of the group having individual accounts.  I just kept paying for the two accounts and shared all of the content with the members.  I left the game and went to play other versions and other TTRP games.  

As for the 5.0 and 5.5 content being equally worth the cost, the drive to make the platform profitable, the game profitable is my thought as to why they are still the same.  the 5.0 files are legacy content and already in the pipeline.  The 5.5 current content has maybe not reached a profitable level with the platform.  Any older game content of any other editions and other systems trends to be lower in costs.  I had hoped that since I will need to repurchase my content from the group account I maintained, that it would be cheaper.  

Thanks! I will try it with the current management team.

Quote from MJohnson >>

Hey thanks for the reply.  I will place another customer service request.  What part of the D&D Beyond platform do you work for?   Under the previous owner of this site, they declined my request to merge accounts.  I have a personal account and have another paid account for my gaming group.  That group altered its structure, and I wanted to no longer just share the files through two accounts.  The group account was the initial account.  Then we found there are features that are maximized with each of the group having individual accounts.  I just kept paying for the two accounts and shared all of the content with the members.  I left the game and went to play other versions and other TTRP games.  

As for the 5.0 and 5.5 content being equally worth the cost, the drive to make the platform profitable, the game profitable is my thought as to why they are still the same.  the 5.0 files are legacy content and already in the pipeline.  The 5.5 current content has maybe not reached a profitable level with the platform.  Any older game content of any other editions and other systems trends to be lower in costs.  I had hoped that since I will need to repurchase my content from the group account I maintained, that it would be cheaper.  

 
There is a lot here that is very confusing to me. 

"Under the previous owner of this site, they declined my request to merge accounts. "

Did they give a reason? I've seen them merge accounts while under Curse (original owners), Fandom (previous owners) and WotC (current owners). Seems strange they'd refuse your request. But then, there's a lot about your situation that seems strange and confusing and it might be worthwhile to resolve why that it is before expecting them to agree this time.

"What part of the D&D Beyond platform do you work for?"

None.

"I have a personal account and have another paid account for my gaming group"

Why? I don't understand what possible benefit that would have, given you can control any content sharing on a per account basis, and results in complication when wanting to use content you purchased for yourself. 

"I wanted to no longer just share the files through two accounts"

Why share content through two account when you only need one? If you bought content on one account you can just get the master tier sub for that account and share all purchased content with players in your campaign. What's the point of having two separate accounts?

"Then we found there are features that are maximized with each of the group having individual accounts."

You're meant to have individual accounts - anything else breaks terms of service.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/en/terms-conditions

2.2 Account Integrity: Your D&D Beyond account and the content you access are personal to you and can't be shared, sold, given away, or transferred to anyone else. Your access to and use of these services are guided by the Privacy Policy and Code of Conduct, which may be updated or amended as needed. We will not have any liability to you (or anyone you share your account with) for consequences arising out of such sharing or misuse.

VIII. Account Management: Sharing, buying, selling, transferring, gifting, lending, stealing, misappropriating, or misusing D&D Beyond accounts is not allowed. This includes the appropriate use of keys/codes, which should only be gifted, transferred, or used as permitted by D&D Beyond. For any queries or problems, our customer support is available to assist.

"I just kept paying for the two accounts and shared all of the content with the members"

Again, why two accounts? Why buy content across two accounts instead of just one? 

"the 5.0 files are legacy content and already in the pipeline"

The phrase 'in the pipeline' means something being worked on and due to be released in near future. This doesn't match the context, so I'm not sure what you're trying to say there.

"The 5.5 current content has maybe not reached a profitable level with the platform.  Any older game content of any other editions and other systems trends to be lower in costs"

Generally costs go down when there is enough people using the new content. 5.5e is still comparatively new with a very limited amount of expansion or additional content beyond the core rules. Meanwhile 5e has a lot of expansion and additional content and is still considerably more popular than 5.5e at this time. It may be a while before there is enough shift of focus to 5.5e to consider any loss of profit on legacy content. Eventually it will stop being sold here. But we are quite a ways from that - so for now they're still selling the same. 

"I had hoped that since I will need to repurchase my content from the group account I maintained, that it would be cheaper. "

Why are you repurchasing anything? If they refuse to merge then just use the account that has the content and if they agree to merge then problem solved you still have all the content? Neither process will remove any content you purchased from you.