Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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Are we going to be able to buy MotM by itself? I can't justify spending $100 for a box set where I own 2 of the books already amd the third is just updated stuff from all my other books. (I'd still like MotM but not for the box set price tag)
Also with the new monster updates how will DNDB handle it? 1 version for the original book and 1 for MotM?
I believe Stormknight mentioned something about DDB announcing their plans for MMM sometime close after the new year. Until then, we have no clue whatsoever. The idea's been floated that they could offer the update as a Bundle, similarly to other Bundle options they have, and thus players could benefit from the 'Already Owned Item Discount" on said bundle, but it could also be that Wizards is specifically dispermitting them to even bass-ackwards individually-sell it that way, or that DDB itself chooses not to do so for whatever business reason they have.
We can't know until they tell us, and they ain't dun told us yet.
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Yeah, was kind of miffed that they made an announcement in a token throwaway thread that was basically "We have details, but we'll let you know when we decide to." Even if it was "The announcements have been planned in 2022 due to a request from WoTC", that would have been great.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/general-discussion/128520-monsters-of-the-multiverse-on-dnd-beyond?comment=6
I don't know if Stormknight's post was an "announcement" so much as an acknowledgment MMM could have not inconsiderable impact on races and monsters on DDB and the jury's still out as DDB gets a better sense of the book's content, but also what WotC will allow in online marketplaces. They want to make bank off the boxed set and aren't releasing the big completetist/D&D Whale draw MMM individually until well after those sales dry up. It does leave the online edition retailers (of which DDB is just one) in a bit of a lurch. It's an asymetric partnership.
When folks lay some sort of "D&D Beyond should be doing better on messaging" complaint like this I always ask whether Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds are doing better. If so, then yes DDB could do better on its messaging (I think the compartments of content/community/customer service (if the latter is even an actual compartment) leads to communications on the mixed and muddled front, but I don't know if that's really the case here). If Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds don't have some sort of A game as to what's going on with MMM, then I think the fault is with WotC's partner management than it is with DDB.
I thought it was good the Stormknight in this informal space dropped by to let the community know that DDB was aware that MMM may (may) be a big deal.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Alright, you hit the nerve.
DDB is absolute shit at messaging. Absolute shit. The Dev updates don't get posted to the forums anymore and it's clear the community side of it is focused on content creation and supporting content creation rather than their specific communities. When Joe communicates that they have properly captioned its battle for beyond series via twitter, but they can't be bothered to post a forum thread about what the dev updates were? When the dev updates are not scheduled to happen, they can't be bothered to post an update here? It signaled where priorities were.
I don't use roll20 and fantasy grounds, and I don't give two coppers as to what they're doing on this forum from a management/messaging standpoint. This is the service I pay for, and this is the service I expect messaging on.
Stormknight didn't do anything that we already knew, but instead basically went "We have info, but...." and that was it. Nothing else. Why even bother posting that from a staff member perspective? It does zero to communicate what your stance is.
Multiverse looks to be pretty damn game-changing judging by the War Priest excerpt that Wizards posted. If all enemies are updated as such, it's going to change the entire playstyle of 5e by going away en masse to enemy spellcasting and going toward "Powers".
Now, that being said, judging by how D&D Beyond has handled past content updates where you already owned the content in question? You just get the update. I'm personally OK with this, but I can't imagine the explosion it will create from a business perspective. I have to hope/assume that is the holdup on announcements, and if they're going to present the new monsters as "Variants" or if Wizards has given them the forced go-ahead to go "This is canon now, erase the archives".
Maybe I have more personal feelings invested since I asked the guy about never being around the community, and he answered it by saying he'll earn trust and proceeds to never be around the community. In that thread, he makes a post about bringing the developers on to the Dev Updates, which they have done absolutely regularly and it's a treat to watch Pat and crew get dirty and answer some really good questions about what is happening, but then those things aren't brought here.
Communication from the staff to the users on these forums being good though? Laughable.
I am not completely certain as to why, but this book has my interest piqued more than any other release since TCoE. I think it is the uncertainty of what exactly is in the book and the level of changes that we might see. It could very well be nothing exciting at all.
Based on being told repeatedly that DDB content is automatically updated to the latest version (one of DDB's main selling points), it would be a reasonable assumption that any items updated in the new book will automatically be updated here free of charge.
My guess is that there may also be *new* stuff in the new book that will require a purchase of the book to be accessible here. This is kinda what happened with the Eberron books so my assumptions above are based on that.
But there's a lot to update. I'm sure both WotC want us to spend money and DDB won't want to update a ton of stuff for free.
My guess is that we will be expected to pay for it in some way.... Let's wait and see...
Following on from my previous post, whatever happens, I think WotC have probably put DDB in a tough position here.
DDB will either have to:
1. Do a ton of work for free to update everything
Or..
2. Have to charge customers that have repeatedly been told that legacy stuff can't be accessed as all content is updated to the latest version.
As a business, I have a feeling that DDB will be forced down the option 2 route. But I think an option 3 route will be taken...
They may reclassify items as 'variants' or some other fancy word like 'Core-Alternative', add a toggle somewhere and then charge us for the new book. This way, they get to charge us and it may be seen as 'softening the blow' by giving us the option to use it or not.
DDB will have to implement M³ at some point. It's a separate book and has new content. People who haven't bought the original Mord's and want to buy M³ will still need all of the content, old and new, be made available. So it's not work "for free". It's work they have to do if they want to be able to make money off of the new book anyway.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I thought that DDB has very little, if any, wiggle room in changing stuff. I’ve heard that they even have to keep typos if that is how the book is released so I have doubts on “variant” versions of monsters on this sight. Or allowing current stat blocks and MMM blocks at the same time.
Guess we will have to wait and see
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https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Yes, they have to do the work for people who want to buy the new book but what I'm talking about are the vast number of people who already have a lot of that content that is being updated. Potentially, they may be giving that work away for free essentially.
DDB is required to update content, so that extra work is part of getting to sell any content anyway. They were paid when it was bought in its original form, and it was bought with the expectation that it would get updated if WotC made official changes. DDB can 'luck out' with content that never gets changed, but that's not the starting premisse. Any work needed to update anything is paid for, because it's part of the product - that's the sales pitch, after all. Plus, I expect a majority of the vast number of people who have bought the original content to buy the new book regardless.
To sum it up: even those that won't buy the new content but do get the updates don't get it for free - they paid for content that would get updated - and the fact that the new/updated content will be sold means DDB isn't doing it for free in any case. They're probably going to get less money than if it were completely new content customers wouldn't get access to without buying it, but less money is not no money.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
Unless they’re actually publishing errata that change Mordenkainen’s and Volo’s, those two books will still exist in their current forms with their current stat blocks, which would seem to suggest that DDB will be required to maintain current stat blocks and MMM stat blocks at the same time.
This is a weird situation that hasn’t happened before in D&D Beyond’s lifetime. We don’t know exactly how it’s going to work. And so far at least, DDB aren’t communication anything useful to us (but what else is new?).
I'd hazard we've seen it before, in how they dealt with the different orc variants. Just like we got Orc of Exandria and Orc of Eberron, we'll get X of the Multiverse, or something along those lines, if the stat blocks turn out to be different.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
Or how they handled Dragonborn from Fizban's.
That's not exactly true as far as how DDB has updated content since I want to say at least Tasha's. Take this passage taken from the Support section's first (staff post) when Wild Beyond the Witchlight was released:
There's a similar post leading all the recent book releases.
These changes applied to the statblock within D&D Beyond regardless whatever source entitled the user access to the stat block (Volo's, Mords;, MM, etc). Just like how the Bladesinger changed the way the Bladesinger worked on DDB regardless of whether you owned SCAG's original presentation of the subclass. Van Richten's is where alignments were starting to be taken out, I believe, and it effected the stat block a user had access to regardless of their owning VRGtR or not. I'm sure it's been clarified somewhere but DDB either has taken it upon itself or does this as a condition of its license (I'm guessing having "just one" monster or item etc to link to makes linking sourcebooks to adventures a bit easier).
It's weird only because an update of existing content just hasn't happened on this scale before. As I noted, it's been DDB's policy to update monsters, magic items, spells, and classes to reflect the latest text. They've done this with races in errata, but I think this is the first time they're doing it because of book publication. It's that policy, not the errata outrage eruption that has users curious how DDB is going to handle it. Per their practice, when MMM goes DDB online, there's precedent for a lot of users to get a bunch of "free" updates ... whether they want them or not.
It seems we'll get some communication on this shortly after the New Year, which would be a month out from the box set release. That's what I'm really curious about is whether they'd go ahead with their usual update policy or will be embargo'd by WotC to ensure sales of the boxed set, a not inconsiderable number of which will be completist types who also want to have a "first look" at "the future of D&D" or whatever hype language being used to sell it.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
It just really depends on whether the monsters presented in the new book is intended as a replacement for the old, or parallel monsters. So, let's say, for example, they change Orcs to have 100HP instead of 15 (just to be absurd). The question is, are all Orcs intended to now have 100HP, or is it just that kind of Orc has 100HP, but other Orcs have 15HP? If the former, then I'm pretty sure they'll be updating the old stuff. If the latter, then it's a new monster, that just happens to share a name and bear rather similarities to an old one. In that case, you'd be expected to buy the new book to get it. Just because I have paid to PHB, that doesn't grant me access to the new(er) class abilities of Rangers fron TCoE.
Personally, from what I've heard, I'm leaning to it being an update. Still, we'll find out soon enough. It releases in less than a month.
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It's been described by the people who actually produce the book as an update, and "fixing" some aspects of monster statting they think problematizes the game (like the whole spell slots to actions sort of thing).
Tasha's optional content (unlike say it's Bladesinger was an update and replacement to a prior version) was literally sold as optional. Nothing in the language used by WotC to hype MMM makes it sound like an option, but instead "the way they're going forward."
It's really curious that these "new ways" were never UA'd. But I see UA as largely hype than real play testing, especially granted its most recent survey windows.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I don't believe UA has anything to do with playtesting for balance. Playtest feedback from "the wild" is almost universally useless. It's, as you say, about hype - gauging interest and trying to generate it. Actual playtesting is, I'm pretty sure, controlled and consists of multiple iterations.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I think you're right. Still think it was a sorta communicaton misstep doing the "new way" announcement via the mouth of Ray Winninger as opposed to UA with follow uo. I think the uncertainty is what's getting more folks to consume the stew Bell of Lost Souls is stirring.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.