I find the explanations you provided under "Isn’t there a way to simply redeem a code found within the Hardcover Book?" entirely reasonable. Providing digital copies along with physical books sounds tricky.
Have you considered going the other way around?
For example, a new book comes out and the Physical MSRP is $50 and the D&D Beyond price is $30. You could charge ~$65, unlock the digital content, and then mail a physical copy to the buyer.
I find the explanations you provided under "Isn’t there a way to simply redeem a code found within the Hardcover Book?" entirely reasonable. Providing digital copies along with physical books sounds tricky.
Have you considered going the other way around?
For example, a new book comes out and the Physical MSRP is $50 and the D&D Beyond price is $30. You could charge ~$65, unlock the digital content, and then mail a physical copy to the buyer.
The main issue is that people don't want to have to pay twice for the same content. And no matter which way it's done, they're effectively paying double, as you can buy a physical copy of most books on Amazon for $30 and a digital copy here for $30. D&D Beyond could cut the margin from the physical copy, but you'd still have to pay shipping. Overall, it's unlikely you'd ever pay less than double (the price of a single copy) for both copies regardless of how it's done.
And honestly, they should have to pay twice. If you want two copies (physical and digital), then buy two copies.
It does sound like a reasonable step, however I believe there's reasons this process wouldn't be economically feasible.
VladimirBeowolf has nicely summed up one of the reasons. One of the other reasons is that, in your suggestion of charge ~$65, unlock the digital content, and then mail a physical copy to the buyer, whilst I think that would be a great idea, the problem is that either WotC, DndBeyond or the Book Store that sell the Hardcover would lose out. Someone in another forum made a much clearer example with better explanations somewhere but, essentially, someone in the chain loses out because of who makes the profit/who loses the most from the deal.
Someone with a far better business mind than mine would probably be able to explain it far better than I can!
Hope this helps :)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
The real question is why is the digital book the same price as a hardcover and why dont they offer a subscription service for like 20$ a month so I dont have to give someone 1000$ for something I already own.
By starting a decent sub service, you can split the money with wotc, who probably wont mind because theyd be able to cut their printing costs by a large margin while likely profiting a higher gross
The real question is why is the digital book the same price as a hardcover and why dont they offer a subscription service for like 20$ a month so I dont have to give someone 1000$ for something I already own.
By starting a decent sub service, you can split the money with wotc, who probably wont mind because theyd be able to cut their printing costs by a large margin while likely profiting a higher gross
If you want just the digital book, you can purchase the compendium content for $19.99 instead of the full $29.99 for most books. The compendium content contains just the book without any data integration with the digital tools. The extra $10.00 for the full book is for the digital tools that the developers rightly deserve to be paid for.
I do not think having a subscription for full access is a good idea. If it really was a good idea and would lead to higher profits, Wizards, Beyond, and other digital partners would have done so by now.
If you have not paid attention to the news lately, there is not much costs to be cut. We have a massive supply chain issue and labor shortage going on. It is quite frankly unreasonable to expect costs to go down. If consumers want to find someone to blame for rising costs and all the economic issues we have, blame the unvaccinated who are continually feeding the COVID pandemic.
I found a better explanation for the point raised above by GigawattWarlock. This is a response borrowed (stolen) from pangurjan on this Thread.
For something that for all intents and purposes is the "official" site it seems strange to me that Fandom and WotC haven't worked something out to allow redemption of a digital version of something you've paid them for.
'It's been discussed several times. There are some technical aspects that would be difficult or costly or both, especially with regards to stock that's already sitting in distributors' or retailers' inventory. Moreover, the contents of a book and the use of said contents in digital tools are not the same thing. They're different, so they have separate values and not everyone is interested in both - that means either making things complicated in order to be able to offer books with or without digital version, or increasing the price for everyone whether they want to make use of DDB or not.'
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
Just wanted to drop a line real quick and say I prefer having all my books digital here on DDB as the service does a lot of the math and 'checks n balances' for me and saves time rolling up characters, cross-referencing information, and keeping my game moving in general. We get to skip a lot of the grind and get straight to the gameplay. Can't wait to see what happens with DDB in the future... I do think some of the ways the information is presented has room for improvement (the Artificer class is a good example) and the content itself could be more detailed prior to purchasing (think of flipping through a book in the brick and mortar store prior to deciding whether or not to buy the said book), but for the most part, there's Google for that.
I don't really have a dog in this fight since I don't really plan on purhcasing physical D&D books anymore and am already subscribed to Beyond - however, I do have some expertise in both physical and online retail (specifically books as irony would have it).
Books, as with nearly every product that isn't consumable like food, are serialized. Each book is assigned a serial number unique to it. No two are alike.
An easy solution to this would be to allow each physical book's serial number to be redeemed once for a digital copy. This is actually quite common and I own multiple physical books that I have redeemed on iTunes for a free copy - much like I do with my BluRay collection, each one includes a code, that code can be used exactly once to claim a digital copy.
Pretending like there are technical hurdles to this is disingenuous and frankly disrespectful. Your customers are not stupid. Don't treat them like they are.
With Fandom and Wizards being totally different companies, the real reason that they don't allow cross code/serial redemption in this way is because every digital purchase represents a potential lost sale of a physical book, and visa-vsera. If you could give money to WotC for a physical book and then get a Fandom digital product for free, then Fandom doesn't generate income.
This is basic capitalism and isn't bad thing at all. Fandom uses the money generated from sales to pay their employees to maintain their product and provide updates.
Where I take issue with this model is that Fandom isn't completely dependant on the sales of digital books for their income. They are also charging money for digital dice sets, sharing features, and digital character sheets via subscriptions. I think that the better model would be to opperate more like the Apple Bookstore, or Amazon and allow WotC to sell in your digital storefront - that way all physical books would ultimately come with a digital copy, and Fandom would take a portion of the sale cost as revenue. Seems to solve all the problems.
Plus, Fandom can continue to sell thier digital only services such as dice, character sheets, and other visual and custom effects.
The publisher would have to add some sort of security feature to the serial numbers inside the books such as a scratch-off layer or start shrink wrapping all their books to prevent someone from going to a brick and mortar, taking a photo of the number, and going home to enter it on the website. There are logistics to consider in regard to 'buy one, get one'. If they only sold physical copies online to be shipped, that might be a whole other issue that could prevent some scamming and scumming, but for the most part, it would be a giant headache.
The publisher would have to add some sort of security feature to the serial numbers inside the books such as a scratch-off layer or start shrink wrapping all their books to prevent someone from going to a brick and mortar, taking a photo of the number, and going home to enter it on the website. There are logistics to consider in regard to 'buy one, get one'. If they only sold physical copies online to be shipped, that might be a whole other issue that could prevent some scamming and scumming, but for the most part, it would be a giant headache.
Troll logic.
Most books are already shipped in shrink-wrap to help protect against minor scuffs and scratches in transit. For extremely cheap content like the $5.99 paper-back prints this isn't very common, but for most titles over $29.99 the practice of shrink-wrapping is already extremely common. As a Warhammer 40k player, 100% of the books I ordered from GW come shrink-wrapped. It's also common for "premium" books at price points of $49 and up to come in sealed boxes or more complex packaging... and for the record, that cost is extremely low. Facny boxing would be less than $1 per copy (and yes that does scale), but shrink-wrapping costs almost notihng.
People are fallen by nature - we do bad things and act selfishly. A person that wants to steal a code from a book isn't going to be detered from doing so by a 0.1mm thin layer of plastic. Big stores like Barnes & Noble already have securty cameras, and there are plenty of thefts. Loss prevention is basically uneffected by simple security measures.
Even excluding the big box stores - most smaller retailers don't have the shelf space to keep all of their books out - they might have a copy for display but generally keep the bulk of their inventory in "the back" where shipping and receiving takes place. More importantly, small, niche communities like D&D players, tabletop wargamers, and so on tend to be relatively well ascociated with one another. It's not like shopping at Wal*Mart with 400 strangers. I know my local game-store owners and emplyees by name. They know me. Most of the customers know each other, but obviously not all... Theft is still a problem but at a much lower rate than with larger retailers.
I honestly don't want to make an ordeal out of this - Fandom isn't going to change their policy because it presently benefits them to leave it as-is. Even if (as happens to be the case) implementing a solution is quite simple.
I'm not here to convince them - my comment was about being genuine. They sell a product I want - I have money they want. I willingly opt into a transaction based on those terms. If the product changed such that I no longer wanted it, I could simply walk away. All that they need to say is "we're not interested in making changes, we are happy with how much money our current arrangement is bringing in" and I would have nothing negative to say about it. Hell - I'd admire their honesty. Instead, they are making up silly, flimsy excuses and assuming that their customers are uninformed enough to fall for it.
I'm not here to convince them - my comment was about being genuine. They sell a product I want - I have money they want. I willingly opt into a transaction based on those terms. If the product changed such that I no longer wanted it, I could simply walk away. All that they need to say is "we're not interested in making changes, we are happy with how much money our current arrangement is bringing in" and I would have nothing negative to say about it. Hell - I'd admire their honesty. Instead, they are making up silly, flimsy excuses and assuming that their customers are uninformed enough to fall for it.
The only people who could offer the answer you say you would be happy to hear are Wizards of the Coast, who don't frequent these forums. This is a decision by Wizards of the Coast, not by Fandom/DDB. And the explanations you deem "silly" and "flimsy" have not been offered in this thread by DDB or by WOTC staff, but by customers of DDB.
As for your dismissal of the shrink wrap point: books may arrive at bookstores shrink wrapped, but I have never seen books on the shelf in a bookstore shrink wrapped, nor do I remember any books I've ordered on line being shrink wrapped, leaving it dead easy to steal a code.
In the end, it is quite clear that WOTC has no intention of changing this sales model. If you want to hear that from them, you'll have to ask in another venue, as this is not their site, and they don't answer questions here.
The real question is why is the digital book the same price as a hardcover and why dont they offer a subscription service for like 20$ a month so I dont have to give someone 1000$ for something I already own.
By starting a decent sub service, you can split the money with wotc, who probably wont mind because theyd be able to cut their printing costs by a large margin while likely profiting a higher gross
You are under no obligation to purchase anything on DDB
I already told you why a subscription service to access the content is a bad idea - people will pay for one month, scrape the content, and then leave.
WotC is already getting a cut off all sales made through DDB
The Legendary Bundle, which includes all published source and adventure books is currently $887.87 - that's a 15% discount on the total purchase price of all official D&D 5e content (excluding pre-orders). The cost of the same books in dead-tree format is more than $2000.
The Digital books are not the same price as the hardcovers - not even the paperbacks - $19.99 if you want just the content, $29.99 if you want to use the content in the tools. Compare that to a typical price of $49.99 for a physical copy.
you've never heard of amazon have you? all of these books are roughly thirty bucks. [REDACTED]
there are plenty of people who would pay for the subscription service, netflix proved that. billion dollar company. video piracy is on the rise again yes, but thats because there are so many out there now that in order to get them all it costs an arm and a leg. everyone is trying to hop on board the sub money train. amazon has their service too, makes tons of money off digital book sales and subscription services.
[REDACTED]
Notes: Please do not discuss unrelated and prohibited topics
Books, as with nearly every product that isn't consumable like food, are serialized. Each book is assigned a serial number unique to it. No two are alike.
Please provide proof of that. The same book of different print editions or language might have a different ISBN, but other than that, first edition prints of the 5e PHB are all the same and they have no serial number unique to any other first edition 5e PHB. And that applies to other D&D books and most books in general. ISBN is unique to each book title, not to each individual book. If you are not talking about the ISBN, then I have not seen any other numbers either that denotes any kind of uniqueness within the covers and first few pages of books.
there are plenty of people who would pay for the subscription service, netflix proved that. billion dollar company. video piracy is on the rise again yes, but thats because there are so many out there now that in order to get them all it costs an arm and a leg. everyone is trying to hop on board the sub money train. amazon has their service too, makes tons of money off digital book sales and subscription services.
Subscription models do not work for every product, target market, company, or industry. Netflix being successful with a subscription model proves nothing and means jack squat for D&D Beyond, who does not even have the autonomy nor resources to change its revenue model. Even if Beyond is allowed to implement a subscription model for books, that still does not mean they should. If Wizards, Roll20, and Fantasy Grounds are not rushing to implement a subscription model, why should Beyond take that risk and shoot themselves in the foot if it goes wrong?
And not everyone is hopping on the subcription train either; for every game like Crusader Kings II that offer a subscription service to access content, thousands of other games do not offer subscription services that gives access to content. Even in the TTRPG space, Wizards and Paizo do not offer it, and I have not seen anyone else doing subscription services either.
you've never heard of amazon have you? all of these books are roughly thirty bucks. [REDACTED]
NiaKain
You had a query, and LurkyTheHatMan was kind enough to put in the time and answer your query.
This thread is supposed to be a helpful guide and a way to offer support to other users who are not familiar with the 'ins and outs' of the service this website provides.
I'm happy for people to post opinions and have discussions, but asking other users [REDACTED], especially those who have taken the time to answer you without resorting to taunting, that's not on.
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
The news of the purchase of DnDBeyond by WotC has made many of the responses in the initial post outdated (WotC and DNDB are no longer two distinct companies). It would be prudent, I feel, for this issue to be reanalyzed now that the two entities share the same roof. There could be solutions to this problem that were not possible before.
This is interesting news indeed! I will be keeping my ear to the ground as to what changes this will mean going forward and update accordingly.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
This whole thread may become a moot point in the near future. I am looking forward to any news that comes from them regarding physical purchases. Hopefully they make it worth buying physical copies again.
This whole thread may become a moot point in the near future. I am looking forward to any news that comes from them regarding physical purchases. Hopefully they make it worth buying physical copies again.
Pretty sure physical copies outsell DDB still. I am more likely to buy a physical copy and homebrew things I feel I need, and occasionally buy content I that I'm stuck at or don't feel like putting the time in to homebrew.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Stormknight posted a comment in 27/06/2022 with a very loose update of where we are at in response to another user on this thread:
'Unfortunately, there is no possibility of backwards granting access to content on D&D Beyond, for free, based on physical books you already own.
On top of other reasons, there is no way to legitimately discern who has purchased a physical book (barcodes/receipts etc are not viable).
With regards future book purchases, we are exploring options. We're not able to share what that might look like as, at this point, it's still exploratory.'
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
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Hi @Lamoon01
I find the explanations you provided under "Isn’t there a way to simply redeem a code found within the Hardcover Book?" entirely reasonable. Providing digital copies along with physical books sounds tricky.
Have you considered going the other way around?
For example, a new book comes out and the Physical MSRP is $50 and the D&D Beyond price is $30. You could charge ~$65, unlock the digital content, and then mail a physical copy to the buyer.
The main issue is that people don't want to have to pay twice for the same content. And no matter which way it's done, they're effectively paying double, as you can buy a physical copy of most books on Amazon for $30 and a digital copy here for $30. D&D Beyond could cut the margin from the physical copy, but you'd still have to pay shipping. Overall, it's unlikely you'd ever pay less than double (the price of a single copy) for both copies regardless of how it's done.
And honestly, they should have to pay twice. If you want two copies (physical and digital), then buy two copies.
Hi GigawattWarlock!
It does sound like a reasonable step, however I believe there's reasons this process wouldn't be economically feasible.
VladimirBeowolf has nicely summed up one of the reasons. One of the other reasons is that, in your suggestion of charge ~$65, unlock the digital content, and then mail a physical copy to the buyer, whilst I think that would be a great idea, the problem is that either WotC, DndBeyond or the Book Store that sell the Hardcover would lose out. Someone in another forum made a much clearer example with better explanations somewhere but, essentially, someone in the chain loses out because of who makes the profit/who loses the most from the deal.
Someone with a far better business mind than mine would probably be able to explain it far better than I can!
Hope this helps :)
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
The real question is why is the digital book the same price as a hardcover and why dont they offer a subscription service for like 20$ a month so I dont have to give someone 1000$ for something I already own.
By starting a decent sub service, you can split the money with wotc, who probably wont mind because theyd be able to cut their printing costs by a large margin while likely profiting a higher gross
If you want just the digital book, you can purchase the compendium content for $19.99 instead of the full $29.99 for most books. The compendium content contains just the book without any data integration with the digital tools. The extra $10.00 for the full book is for the digital tools that the developers rightly deserve to be paid for.
I do not think having a subscription for full access is a good idea. If it really was a good idea and would lead to higher profits, Wizards, Beyond, and other digital partners would have done so by now.
If you have not paid attention to the news lately, there is not much costs to be cut. We have a massive supply chain issue and labor shortage going on. It is quite frankly unreasonable to expect costs to go down. If consumers want to find someone to blame for rising costs and all the economic issues we have, blame the unvaccinated who are continually feeding the COVID pandemic.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/marketplace >
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 found a better explanation for the point raised above by GigawattWarlock. This is a response borrowed (stolen) from pangurjan on this Thread.
'It's been discussed several times. There are some technical aspects that would be difficult or costly or both, especially with regards to stock that's already sitting in distributors' or retailers' inventory. Moreover, the contents of a book and the use of said contents in digital tools are not the same thing. They're different, so they have separate values and not everyone is interested in both - that means either making things complicated in order to be able to offer books with or without digital version, or increasing the price for everyone whether they want to make use of DDB or not.'
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
Just wanted to drop a line real quick and say I prefer having all my books digital here on DDB as the service does a lot of the math and 'checks n balances' for me and saves time rolling up characters, cross-referencing information, and keeping my game moving in general. We get to skip a lot of the grind and get straight to the gameplay. Can't wait to see what happens with DDB in the future... I do think some of the ways the information is presented has room for improvement (the Artificer class is a good example) and the content itself could be more detailed prior to purchasing (think of flipping through a book in the brick and mortar store prior to deciding whether or not to buy the said book), but for the most part, there's Google for that.
I don't really have a dog in this fight since I don't really plan on purhcasing physical D&D books anymore and am already subscribed to Beyond - however, I do have some expertise in both physical and online retail (specifically books as irony would have it).
Books, as with nearly every product that isn't consumable like food, are serialized. Each book is assigned a serial number unique to it. No two are alike.
An easy solution to this would be to allow each physical book's serial number to be redeemed once for a digital copy. This is actually quite common and I own multiple physical books that I have redeemed on iTunes for a free copy - much like I do with my BluRay collection, each one includes a code, that code can be used exactly once to claim a digital copy.
Pretending like there are technical hurdles to this is disingenuous and frankly disrespectful. Your customers are not stupid. Don't treat them like they are.
With Fandom and Wizards being totally different companies, the real reason that they don't allow cross code/serial redemption in this way is because every digital purchase represents a potential lost sale of a physical book, and visa-vsera. If you could give money to WotC for a physical book and then get a Fandom digital product for free, then Fandom doesn't generate income.
This is basic capitalism and isn't bad thing at all. Fandom uses the money generated from sales to pay their employees to maintain their product and provide updates.
Where I take issue with this model is that Fandom isn't completely dependant on the sales of digital books for their income. They are also charging money for digital dice sets, sharing features, and digital character sheets via subscriptions. I think that the better model would be to opperate more like the Apple Bookstore, or Amazon and allow WotC to sell in your digital storefront - that way all physical books would ultimately come with a digital copy, and Fandom would take a portion of the sale cost as revenue. Seems to solve all the problems.
Plus, Fandom can continue to sell thier digital only services such as dice, character sheets, and other visual and custom effects.
The publisher would have to add some sort of security feature to the serial numbers inside the books such as a scratch-off layer or start shrink wrapping all their books to prevent someone from going to a brick and mortar, taking a photo of the number, and going home to enter it on the website. There are logistics to consider in regard to 'buy one, get one'. If they only sold physical copies online to be shipped, that might be a whole other issue that could prevent some scamming and scumming, but for the most part, it would be a giant headache.
Troll logic.
Most books are already shipped in shrink-wrap to help protect against minor scuffs and scratches in transit. For extremely cheap content like the $5.99 paper-back prints this isn't very common, but for most titles over $29.99 the practice of shrink-wrapping is already extremely common. As a Warhammer 40k player, 100% of the books I ordered from GW come shrink-wrapped. It's also common for "premium" books at price points of $49 and up to come in sealed boxes or more complex packaging... and for the record, that cost is extremely low. Facny boxing would be less than $1 per copy (and yes that does scale), but shrink-wrapping costs almost notihng.
People are fallen by nature - we do bad things and act selfishly. A person that wants to steal a code from a book isn't going to be detered from doing so by a 0.1mm thin layer of plastic. Big stores like Barnes & Noble already have securty cameras, and there are plenty of thefts. Loss prevention is basically uneffected by simple security measures.
Even excluding the big box stores - most smaller retailers don't have the shelf space to keep all of their books out - they might have a copy for display but generally keep the bulk of their inventory in "the back" where shipping and receiving takes place. More importantly, small, niche communities like D&D players, tabletop wargamers, and so on tend to be relatively well ascociated with one another. It's not like shopping at Wal*Mart with 400 strangers. I know my local game-store owners and emplyees by name. They know me. Most of the customers know each other, but obviously not all... Theft is still a problem but at a much lower rate than with larger retailers.
I honestly don't want to make an ordeal out of this - Fandom isn't going to change their policy because it presently benefits them to leave it as-is. Even if (as happens to be the case) implementing a solution is quite simple.
I'm not here to convince them - my comment was about being genuine. They sell a product I want - I have money they want. I willingly opt into a transaction based on those terms. If the product changed such that I no longer wanted it, I could simply walk away. All that they need to say is "we're not interested in making changes, we are happy with how much money our current arrangement is bringing in" and I would have nothing negative to say about it. Hell - I'd admire their honesty. Instead, they are making up silly, flimsy excuses and assuming that their customers are uninformed enough to fall for it.
The only people who could offer the answer you say you would be happy to hear are Wizards of the Coast, who don't frequent these forums. This is a decision by Wizards of the Coast, not by Fandom/DDB. And the explanations you deem "silly" and "flimsy" have not been offered in this thread by DDB or by WOTC staff, but by customers of DDB.
As for your dismissal of the shrink wrap point: books may arrive at bookstores shrink wrapped, but I have never seen books on the shelf in a bookstore shrink wrapped, nor do I remember any books I've ordered on line being shrink wrapped, leaving it dead easy to steal a code.
In the end, it is quite clear that WOTC has no intention of changing this sales model. If you want to hear that from them, you'll have to ask in another venue, as this is not their site, and they don't answer questions here.
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;
Check your entitlements here. | Support Ticket LInk
you've never heard of amazon have you? all of these books are roughly thirty bucks. [REDACTED]
there are plenty of people who would pay for the subscription service, netflix proved that. billion dollar company. video piracy is on the rise again yes, but thats because there are so many out there now that in order to get them all it costs an arm and a leg. everyone is trying to hop on board the sub money train. amazon has their service too, makes tons of money off digital book sales and subscription services.
[REDACTED]
Please provide proof of that. The same book of different print editions or language might have a different ISBN, but other than that, first edition prints of the 5e PHB are all the same and they have no serial number unique to any other first edition 5e PHB. And that applies to other D&D books and most books in general. ISBN is unique to each book title, not to each individual book. If you are not talking about the ISBN, then I have not seen any other numbers either that denotes any kind of uniqueness within the covers and first few pages of books.
Subscription models do not work for every product, target market, company, or industry. Netflix being successful with a subscription model proves nothing and means jack squat for D&D Beyond, who does not even have the autonomy nor resources to change its revenue model. Even if Beyond is allowed to implement a subscription model for books, that still does not mean they should. If Wizards, Roll20, and Fantasy Grounds are not rushing to implement a subscription model, why should Beyond take that risk and shoot themselves in the foot if it goes wrong?
And not everyone is hopping on the subcription train either; for every game like Crusader Kings II that offer a subscription service to access content, thousands of other games do not offer subscription services that gives access to content. Even in the TTRPG space, Wizards and Paizo do not offer it, and I have not seen anyone else doing subscription services either.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/marketplace >
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 >
NiaKain
You had a query, and LurkyTheHatMan was kind enough to put in the time and answer your query.
This thread is supposed to be a helpful guide and a way to offer support to other users who are not familiar with the 'ins and outs' of the service this website provides.
I'm happy for people to post opinions and have discussions, but asking other users [REDACTED], especially those who have taken the time to answer you without resorting to taunting, that's not on.
Please be civil.
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
The news of the purchase of DnDBeyond by WotC has made many of the responses in the initial post outdated (WotC and DNDB are no longer two distinct companies). It would be prudent, I feel, for this issue to be reanalyzed now that the two entities share the same roof. There could be solutions to this problem that were not possible before.
This is interesting news indeed! I will be keeping my ear to the ground as to what changes this will mean going forward and update accordingly.
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
This whole thread may become a moot point in the near future. I am looking forward to any news that comes from them regarding physical purchases. Hopefully they make it worth buying physical copies again.
I don't see how. The issues aroung putting codes in a physical book in a way that ensures they can't be stolen are not connected to who owns what.
Pretty sure physical copies outsell DDB still. I am more likely to buy a physical copy and homebrew things I feel I need, and occasionally buy content I that I'm stuck at or don't feel like putting the time in to homebrew.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Stormknight posted a comment in 27/06/2022 with a very loose update of where we are at in response to another user on this thread:
'Unfortunately, there is no possibility of backwards granting access to content on D&D Beyond, for free, based on physical books you already own.
On top of other reasons, there is no way to legitimately discern who has purchased a physical book (barcodes/receipts etc are not viable).
With regards future book purchases, we are exploring options. We're not able to share what that might look like as, at this point, it's still exploratory.'
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.