I’ll be honest, I do not see 256 pages as all that short - it is longer than most adventures are. And, unlike adventures, which are mostly story content I have no intention of using, about 2/3rds of this book will be dedicated to lore or character options. That alone makes these products worth it to me - always happy to have new monsters, backgrounds, feats, items, etc. to use in my homebrew game, and I would much rather buy a 256 page book with a wide selection of those plus dedicated lore sections than an adventure which might have a handful of new monsters, a background tor two, and some lore hidden inside a story I have no interest in.
I do not care too much about adventures either, but the sourcebook parts total to 160 pages, which is pretty lacking in my opinion.
S:AIS does not provide enough Spelljammers, the monster section felt equally short, and the spell and magic item sections are just awful teases (literally only two spells and two items; and only one of the items is actually brand new). I am not particularly hard to please, just give me more stuff. I mean, taking a look at the Spelljammer wiki, Wizards could have at least recyvled at least another dozen Spelljammers from previous editions.
Plus, due to the triple binding nature of these products, I have no expectations they’ll be the length of a single-bound product. That just is not really how storage space on a bookstore shelf works—bookstores do not want a full size volume with three thick hardcovers in between.
So, given the necessity of a shorter book overall, I am happy to see it at least on par with an Adventure in length. An Adventure-length product with a higher density of content I actually want is more than sufficient to whet my interest.
Not all LGSs carry the core three box set, but for those that do, it fits just fine on the shelves. I am not expecting P:AITM to be the size of the core three box set for its price, but I do expect its page count at least be comparable to one of the core books.
And, frankly, all the things folks complain that Spelljammer was missing? Recall, each Spelljammer book was 64 pages - this book is a full Spelljammer book bigger. That is a massive increase in size—and, had Spelljammer had an entire fourth book dedicated to “piloting and traversing Wildspace, and rules of Wildspace” pretty much every complaint about it would have been solved.
Having Spelljammer combat rules would definitely be nice too, hell, they can even just recycle ship combat rules from GOS and add a few more to flesh things out. For me though, the biggest disappoint was mainly the lack of Spelljammers.
I'm curious as to who has been paying $50 for an adventure on DDB. If the length being comparable to an adventure justifies $50, then which adventure costs that much? The only times I've ever paid $50+ for a D&D purchase (in terms of books) has been with boxsets - so three books, a slipcase and a DM screen. The standout example being Spelljammer, I think I paid $55 for the collector's edition or whatever its called.
Personally, at $50, it's not justifiable for a DDB book. It certainly wasn't for Spelljammer...and while I'm not doomsaying Planescape, it's got an unrealistically high bar to beat to justify it. Yeah, I get the argument that it can't undercut the physical release, but here's the solution - release a standard edition without the slipcase, DM screen or separated books. I'd be much more likely to be persuaded in a normal book at $30 on DDB/$45 physical than the Spelljammer format at $50/$75 (I'm not sure of the physical price for this one). I really don't a fifth DM screen, the separated books are nice but not worth $20-$30. As it is...I'd have to have some very convincing positive reviews to persuade me.
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I'm curious as to who has been paying $50 for an adventure on DDB. If the length being comparable to an adventure justifies $50, then which adventure costs that much? The only times I've ever paid $50+ for a D&D purchase (in terms of books) has been with boxsets - so three books, a slipcase and a DM screen. The standout example being Spelljammer, I think I paid $55 for the collector's edition or whatever its called.
I have been buying the physical-digital bundles since those came out, and I will continue to buy them. If S:AIS and P:AITM were purely adventure books, I would not have minded them being a bit short below 300 pages.
For me, price is not the issue, the main issue is the quantity. At a restaurant, I can simply order a second dish to feel satisfied if the first dish had a small portion. On the other hand for D&D, I cannot simply order the same book twice, reading the same book twice is not the same as eating the same dish twice.
Plus, due to the triple binding nature of these products, I have no expectations they’ll be the length of a single-bound product. That just is not really how storage space on a bookstore shelf works—bookstores do not want a full size volume with three thick hardcovers in between.
I generally agree with most of what Caerwyn said in the above post, but I would like to zoom in on this particular paragraph because it seems that this is where our opinions diverge.
1) At least in this thread, we're talking about the digital pricing here. While I do understand that the physical pricing and digital ones can't necessarily be too different, this isn't really a good argument for the bundle. The reason for this is that a massive chunk of the price comes from the DM Screen, which you won't get any version of when purchase this on D&D Beyond. Additionally, there is no cost for binding books Online, so the price definitely shouldn't be accounting for that. Again, I do get that the physical and digital prices are correlated, but it still doesn't make sense to treat things that raise the physical book's price and hardly affect the D&DB version as things that will raise the price equally on both levels.
2) This is a genuine question: Why is Wizards of the Coast even using the bundle formatting? I haven't seen anyone say they like it. So far at least, I've only ever seen people complain about it or use this new formatting system as a justification for increased prices. Honestly, there seems to be little benefit to dividing one book's content into three separate "books" because they're being sold as one and their aren't options to purchase them individually.
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2) This is a genuine question: Why is Wizards of the Coast even using the bundle formatting? I haven't seen anyone say they like it. So far at least, I've only ever seen people complain about it or use this new formatting system as a justification for increased prices. Honestly, there seems to be little benefit to dividing one book's content into three separate "books" because they're being sold as one and their aren't options to purchase them individually.
It is the same reason they use a triple bundle for the core books - in physical it helps a DM control who has access to information by preventing folks from being tempted to flip to things they should not be allowed to see.
For example, a DM could hand the player the player options book and keep the monster information and the adventure story to themselves, preventing spoilers. Or hand over the book with some of the world building elements so they get a background on the setting their character might already know, while not spoiling the adventure itself.
I have seen a few folks say they really liked that flexibility with Spelljammer, for those who actually ran the campaign. It is not ideal for those on digital, where we cannot utilise the segregation, or for home brewers, who do not benefit from the setup…. But not every product should be designed for every player. If this works for some folks, I am fine with it not being ideal for me. I already get plenty of releases that fit my preferred style of book—happy to let them get a product designed for them every now and then (even if that means greater production costs and thus greater pass through costs to me).
2) This is a genuine question: Why is Wizards of the Coast even using the bundle formatting? I haven't seen anyone say they like it. So far at least, I've only ever seen people complain about it or use this new formatting system as a justification for increased prices. Honestly, there seems to be little benefit to dividing one book's content into three separate "books" because they're being sold as one and their aren't options to purchase them individually.
WotC did it that way because they felt they could make more profit that way. Selling the smaller books separately would lower profits (because homebrewers wouldn't buy the adventure, etc), while they can charge for the extra goodies (DM screen, binding, etc) and make greater profit that way.
All else being equal, I like it. Smaller books are easier to read, I can easily segregate who needs what (I can be reviewing the adventure/bestiary while the players are pouring over the player options in the setting book) and it does look nice.
The question is whether that's worth the sacrifices, including almost enough money to buy two adventures. In my opinion, not really. I'd rather they did a full setting book (like VRGtR, I'm assuming anyway - I never got it, wrong genre) and bestiary, then have a separate (or maybe bundled) full adventure, in the ideal. But more to the point, the current boxset set up just sacrifices too much and costs too much for what you're getting. Those who don't have to justify what they spend may find it ok, but for people like me that can afford it but have to weigh it up against other luxuries for their family... it's just hard to justify.
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Only it isn't an adventure module. It is a campaign setting. For context, Eberron RFTLW was 320 pages and $34.99. That's 11 cents a page. Even with the 8% inflation increase from 2019-2023, that's only $37.78. Not $49.99. Inflation is a poor excuse. The truth is they want to squeeze as much money out of everyone before one D&D comes out because they will eventually stop releasing books for D&D beyond, so they want to flash flood their pockets before it becomes a dead site that they don't maintenance. 64 less pages than other campaign settings (an entire 4th book by the new planescape standards).
Except inflation isn't the only factor in play. Manufacturing costs are up all over.
Don't forget distribution, licensing, and ancillary costs all went up.
SOme folks forget that Inflation measures are overalls across multiple segments, and don't realize that the highest increases are usually in segments that are older and established because they generally only increase in a kind of "batch" system.
Books is exactly like this. Every 8 years or so they jump by about 25% on average in overall production and therefore retail costs.
Of course, some folks also only ever say bad things about wotc, so....
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Said it last time, saying it again. Having what is a single hardcover worth of material, split it into three hardcover books tucked it into a slipcase you're going to call a box, oh and insert a pretty cool screen, price it how you want.
The digital equivalent of all that material (which deletes the functionality of the DM's screen) is going to measure to that of a regular hardcover in terms of play value and should be priced accordingly. Digital consumers shouldn't have to bear a price burden determined by the physical packaging of its print analog, and it's one of the reasons I've drifted from buying DDB products. Maybe I'll pick up the digital exclusives stuff, like this labyrinth thing that got floated out with Planescape, but physically the thing's a hardcover with really sturdy dividers between sections. It's basically the Dragonlance book with sturdier packaging between sections. There's no equivalent experience of that packaging in the digital version.
Manufacturingand distribution costs for digital copy, which this post is about, are not effected nearly as much as physical copy. Little to no distribution cost for the digital comlaratively. Maybe some advertising costs. A $12 increase for a digital product is pretty ridiculous. I don't know why you keep bringing up the physical books. I don't believe I made a reference to them in this thread. Never had a problem with the price increase for a physical product. They would still make plenty of profit if they kept the digital copies at a lower price. But it is what it is. It's their product, they are allowed to charge what they want. And people will speak with their wallets. Clearly most people aren't bothered enough to not buy the book. The digital product should always be cheaper than the hard copy. It is that way with books, and other services. It's going to get to the point where everything is as expensive as WH AOS and 40k. Maybe not soon, but I'm sure we will get there.
This is the same company that plans to charge $30/month PER player for their new "ground breaking" 3D table top. Table top Sim costs $20 once. And once you mess around on it for a bit, it's really simple. I am sure plenty of people will love paying $150 a month for a product that only seems slightly better than TTS, just for the ease of use. But I'm not one of them. I love D&D but that's a pretty steep charge. It should be a yearly sub like DDB, in my opinion, and give your players access to it as well. But not my circus, as they say. Anyways, thanks for your insight into the other side of the argument. I hope you find the book to be well worth the $50!
The truth is they want to squeeze as much money out of everyone before one D&D comes out because they will eventually stop releasing books for D&D beyond, so they want to flash flood their pockets before it becomes a dead site that they don't maintenance.
Not going to bother responding to the rest of your posts - others already are. But I did want to address this conspiratorial nonsense—it is nonsense, but it is nonsense lots of folks believe and I would hate for someone to take this seriously.
Hasbro is struggling for cash right now. They have been bleeding money for years. First there was the collapse of retail - their largest purchasers. Then there was the pandemic, which hit their industries particularly hard (Also, this is why you do not know what you are taking about when you talk 8% inflation. Toys and publishing both had far higher inflation rates - supply chain issues and China’s long lockdowns/economic woes hit toys hard, and publishing has seen something like 20% industry inflation due to wood pulp price increases).
Despite having cash flow issues which are only increasing, Hasbro spent $140+ million on D&D Beyond. When they did so, they made a number of legally-binding statements to investors about how this cash expenditure was justified - long term growth potential that would more than make up for the risk of spending their precious and dwindling cash. With Hasbro as a whole struggling, Beyond’s long term growth potential is a major, major component of their stock price, giving investors some cause for optimism among the otherwise mediocre financial potential of their company.
It is amazing how many people think Wizards is both ruthlessly capitalistic but would simultaneously do decidedly un-capitalistic things like (a) waste some $140 million on a product they want to turn into a “dead site”, (b) showcasing their long-term plan for Beyond in investor releases… inviting a pretty significant lawsuit if they just killed off Beyond, and (c) torpedoing one of the major positive components propping up their stock.
Beyond is almost certainly safe for the foreseeable future, including through the release of OneD&D. It is too critical a piece of the Hasbro portfolio to just let die.
So, sure, feel free to complain about Wizards trying to rob folks blind with this book (I disagree on that, but folks are entitled to their opinion), but let’s not justify complaints about the book’s price with internally inconsistent and conspiratorial ramblings.
Only it isn't an adventure module. It is a campaign setting. For context, Eberron RFTLW was 320 pages and $34.99. That's 11 cents a page. Even with the 8% inflation increase from 2019-2023, that's only $37.78. Not $49.99. Inflation is a poor excuse. The truth is they want to squeeze as much money out of everyone before one D&D comes out because they will eventually stop releasing books for D&D beyond, so they want to flash flood their pockets before it becomes a dead site that they don't maintenance. 64 less pages than other campaign settings (an entire 4th book by the new planescape standards).
What kind of internet conspiracy theory nonsense have you been gobbling up? They’re building an entire VTT to support 1DD on DDB when it comes out.
If all you want is the character-building stuff (feats and backgrounds) for DDB, you can pick that up à la carte for $7 and $4 respectively, then wait for a physical or even digital sale later on for the rest.
Only it isn't an adventure module. It is a campaign setting. For context, Eberron RFTLW was 320 pages and $34.99. That's 11 cents a page. Even with the 8% inflation increase from 2019-2023, that's only $37.78. Not $49.99. Inflation is a poor excuse. The truth is they want to squeeze as much money out of everyone before one D&D comes out because they will eventually stop releasing books for D&D beyond, so they want to flash flood their pockets before it becomes a dead site that they don't maintenance. 64 less pages than other campaign settings (an entire 4th book by the new planescape standards).
Yeah, it's better to speak in terms of your experience as a consumer, and recognize the pricing is likely tied to some formula or scheme in relation to the print editions, where I agree it's sort of a hose job since all the prestige formatting you're paying for in the so called "boxed set" doesn't translate into the digital experience, so you're left with an expensive equivalent to the sort of content you get in the Dragolance book.
But when you go weird and translate your frustration as a customer into some sort of plot to end D&D Beyond, the credibility of your earlier sentiment based argument gets lost in a conclusion divorced from reality.
EDIT: Maybe they learned their lesson, as The Book of Many Things seems to be more in the ballpark of "regular D&D books" and not pair with it's $80-90 print equivalent because, again, the experience of that prestige format doesn't translate to the digital.
This is the same company that plans to charge $30/month PER player for their new "ground breaking" 3D table top. Table top Sim costs $20 once. And once you mess around on it for a bit, it's really simple. I am sure plenty of people will love paying $150 a month for a product that only seems slightly better than TTS, just for the ease of use. But I'm not one of them. I love D&D but that's a pretty steep charge. It should be a yearly sub like DDB, in my opinion, and give your players access to it as well. But not my circus, as they say. Anyways, thanks for your insight into the other side of the argument. I hope you find the book to be well worth the $50!
This is also conspiratorial nonsense. Wizards has not announced any plans for how they will monetize their VTT, and there is no legitimate information available on the pricing.
The $30.00 per month figure floating around the internet was started during the OGL Crisis by a less-than-reputable internet personality who was using the crisis to increase their internet fame. Throughout the crisis, they reported numerous "evil" plans of Wizards based upon their "having an inside source." They lied. They said that there would be big announcements on certain dates... and there were not. They said there would be an imminent $30.00 per month Beyond subscription. There was not. They made many, many, many claims... all of which were wrong. Yet people still believed him.
Since this charlatan made his categorically false "Beyond will cost $30.00 per month" claim, equally irreputable individuals have run with that claim and perpetuated it, fooling innocents who cannot be bothered to fact check into thinking such a change was announced and/or leaked. Most recently, it has been repeated by folks complaining about the VTT--though they conveniently forget to mention it has no basis in reality. It still is a fabrication--and you should really be careful before repeating such things.
First, where exactly are you getting $30/month from?
It was a well circulated "leak" from an "inside source" that never was substantiated, and which WotC denies is true. Many people believe it because it is absolutely in line with recent WotC actions and stated goals from Hasbro about DnD being under-monetized (and because zero people believe WotC when they deny it), but the only evidence is based entirely on hearsay and conjecture
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I do not care too much about adventures either, but the sourcebook parts total to 160 pages, which is pretty lacking in my opinion.
S:AIS does not provide enough Spelljammers, the monster section felt equally short, and the spell and magic item sections are just awful teases (literally only two spells and two items; and only one of the items is actually brand new). I am not particularly hard to please, just give me more stuff. I mean, taking a look at the Spelljammer wiki, Wizards could have at least recyvled at least another dozen Spelljammers from previous editions.
Not all LGSs carry the core three box set, but for those that do, it fits just fine on the shelves. I am not expecting P:AITM to be the size of the core three box set for its price, but I do expect its page count at least be comparable to one of the core books.
Having Spelljammer combat rules would definitely be nice too, hell, they can even just recycle ship combat rules from GOS and add a few more to flesh things out. For me though, the biggest disappoint was mainly the lack of Spelljammers.
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I'm curious as to who has been paying $50 for an adventure on DDB. If the length being comparable to an adventure justifies $50, then which adventure costs that much? The only times I've ever paid $50+ for a D&D purchase (in terms of books) has been with boxsets - so three books, a slipcase and a DM screen. The standout example being Spelljammer, I think I paid $55 for the collector's edition or whatever its called.
Personally, at $50, it's not justifiable for a DDB book. It certainly wasn't for Spelljammer...and while I'm not doomsaying Planescape, it's got an unrealistically high bar to beat to justify it. Yeah, I get the argument that it can't undercut the physical release, but here's the solution - release a standard edition without the slipcase, DM screen or separated books. I'd be much more likely to be persuaded in a normal book at $30 on DDB/$45 physical than the Spelljammer format at $50/$75 (I'm not sure of the physical price for this one). I really don't a fifth DM screen, the separated books are nice but not worth $20-$30. As it is...I'd have to have some very convincing positive reviews to persuade me.
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I have been buying the physical-digital bundles since those came out, and I will continue to buy them. If S:AIS and P:AITM were purely adventure books, I would not have minded them being a bit short below 300 pages.
For me, price is not the issue, the main issue is the quantity. At a restaurant, I can simply order a second dish to feel satisfied if the first dish had a small portion. On the other hand for D&D, I cannot simply order the same book twice, reading the same book twice is not the same as eating the same dish twice.
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I generally agree with most of what Caerwyn said in the above post, but I would like to zoom in on this particular paragraph because it seems that this is where our opinions diverge.
1) At least in this thread, we're talking about the digital pricing here. While I do understand that the physical pricing and digital ones can't necessarily be too different, this isn't really a good argument for the bundle. The reason for this is that a massive chunk of the price comes from the DM Screen, which you won't get any version of when purchase this on D&D Beyond. Additionally, there is no cost for binding books Online, so the price definitely shouldn't be accounting for that. Again, I do get that the physical and digital prices are correlated, but it still doesn't make sense to treat things that raise the physical book's price and hardly affect the D&DB version as things that will raise the price equally on both levels.
2) This is a genuine question: Why is Wizards of the Coast even using the bundle formatting? I haven't seen anyone say they like it. So far at least, I've only ever seen people complain about it or use this new formatting system as a justification for increased prices. Honestly, there seems to be little benefit to dividing one book's content into three separate "books" because they're being sold as one and their aren't options to purchase them individually.
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HERE.It is the same reason they use a triple bundle for the core books - in physical it helps a DM control who has access to information by preventing folks from being tempted to flip to things they should not be allowed to see.
For example, a DM could hand the player the player options book and keep the monster information and the adventure story to themselves, preventing spoilers. Or hand over the book with some of the world building elements so they get a background on the setting their character might already know, while not spoiling the adventure itself.
I have seen a few folks say they really liked that flexibility with Spelljammer, for those who actually ran the campaign. It is not ideal for those on digital, where we cannot utilise the segregation, or for home brewers, who do not benefit from the setup…. But not every product should be designed for every player. If this works for some folks, I am fine with it not being ideal for me. I already get plenty of releases that fit my preferred style of book—happy to let them get a product designed for them every now and then (even if that means greater production costs and thus greater pass through costs to me).
WotC did it that way because they felt they could make more profit that way. Selling the smaller books separately would lower profits (because homebrewers wouldn't buy the adventure, etc), while they can charge for the extra goodies (DM screen, binding, etc) and make greater profit that way.
All else being equal, I like it. Smaller books are easier to read, I can easily segregate who needs what (I can be reviewing the adventure/bestiary while the players are pouring over the player options in the setting book) and it does look nice.
The question is whether that's worth the sacrifices, including almost enough money to buy two adventures. In my opinion, not really. I'd rather they did a full setting book (like VRGtR, I'm assuming anyway - I never got it, wrong genre) and bestiary, then have a separate (or maybe bundled) full adventure, in the ideal. But more to the point, the current boxset set up just sacrifices too much and costs too much for what you're getting. Those who don't have to justify what they spend may find it ok, but for people like me that can afford it but have to weigh it up against other luxuries for their family... it's just hard to justify.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Only it isn't an adventure module. It is a campaign setting. For context, Eberron RFTLW was 320 pages and $34.99. That's 11 cents a page. Even with the 8% inflation increase from 2019-2023, that's only $37.78. Not $49.99. Inflation is a poor excuse. The truth is they want to squeeze as much money out of everyone before one D&D comes out because they will eventually stop releasing books for D&D beyond, so they want to flash flood their pockets before it becomes a dead site that they don't maintenance. 64 less pages than other campaign settings (an entire 4th book by the new planescape standards).
Except inflation isn't the only factor in play. Manufacturing costs are up all over.
Don't forget distribution, licensing, and ancillary costs all went up.
SOme folks forget that Inflation measures are overalls across multiple segments, and don't realize that the highest increases are usually in segments that are older and established because they generally only increase in a kind of "batch" system.
Books is exactly like this. Every 8 years or so they jump by about 25% on average in overall production and therefore retail costs.
Of course, some folks also only ever say bad things about wotc, so....
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Said it last time, saying it again. Having what is a single hardcover worth of material, split it into three hardcover books tucked it into a slipcase you're going to call a box, oh and insert a pretty cool screen, price it how you want.
The digital equivalent of all that material (which deletes the functionality of the DM's screen) is going to measure to that of a regular hardcover in terms of play value and should be priced accordingly. Digital consumers shouldn't have to bear a price burden determined by the physical packaging of its print analog, and it's one of the reasons I've drifted from buying DDB products. Maybe I'll pick up the digital exclusives stuff, like this labyrinth thing that got floated out with Planescape, but physically the thing's a hardcover with really sturdy dividers between sections. It's basically the Dragonlance book with sturdier packaging between sections. There's no equivalent experience of that packaging in the digital version.
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Manufacturingand distribution costs for digital copy, which this post is about, are not effected nearly as much as physical copy. Little to no distribution cost for the digital comlaratively. Maybe some advertising costs. A $12 increase for a digital product is pretty ridiculous. I don't know why you keep bringing up the physical books. I don't believe I made a reference to them in this thread. Never had a problem with the price increase for a physical product. They would still make plenty of profit if they kept the digital copies at a lower price. But it is what it is. It's their product, they are allowed to charge what they want. And people will speak with their wallets. Clearly most people aren't bothered enough to not buy the book. The digital product should always be cheaper than the hard copy. It is that way with books, and other services. It's going to get to the point where everything is as expensive as WH AOS and 40k. Maybe not soon, but I'm sure we will get there.
This is the same company that plans to charge $30/month PER player for their new "ground breaking" 3D table top. Table top Sim costs $20 once. And once you mess around on it for a bit, it's really simple. I am sure plenty of people will love paying $150 a month for a product that only seems slightly better than TTS, just for the ease of use. But I'm not one of them. I love D&D but that's a pretty steep charge. It should be a yearly sub like DDB, in my opinion, and give your players access to it as well. But not my circus, as they say. Anyways, thanks for your insight into the other side of the argument. I hope you find the book to be well worth the $50!
First, where exactly are you getting $30/month from? Second, how did that suddenly quintuple into $150/month?
Not going to bother responding to the rest of your posts - others already are. But I did want to address this conspiratorial nonsense—it is nonsense, but it is nonsense lots of folks believe and I would hate for someone to take this seriously.
Hasbro is struggling for cash right now. They have been bleeding money for years. First there was the collapse of retail - their largest purchasers. Then there was the pandemic, which hit their industries particularly hard (Also, this is why you do not know what you are taking about when you talk 8% inflation. Toys and publishing both had far higher inflation rates - supply chain issues and China’s long lockdowns/economic woes hit toys hard, and publishing has seen something like 20% industry inflation due to wood pulp price increases).
Despite having cash flow issues which are only increasing, Hasbro spent $140+ million on D&D Beyond. When they did so, they made a number of legally-binding statements to investors about how this cash expenditure was justified - long term growth potential that would more than make up for the risk of spending their precious and dwindling cash. With Hasbro as a whole struggling, Beyond’s long term growth potential is a major, major component of their stock price, giving investors some cause for optimism among the otherwise mediocre financial potential of their company.
It is amazing how many people think Wizards is both ruthlessly capitalistic but would simultaneously do decidedly un-capitalistic things like (a) waste some $140 million on a product they want to turn into a “dead site”, (b) showcasing their long-term plan for Beyond in investor releases… inviting a pretty significant lawsuit if they just killed off Beyond, and (c) torpedoing one of the major positive components propping up their stock.
Beyond is almost certainly safe for the foreseeable future, including through the release of OneD&D. It is too critical a piece of the Hasbro portfolio to just let die.
So, sure, feel free to complain about Wizards trying to rob folks blind with this book (I disagree on that, but folks are entitled to their opinion), but let’s not justify complaints about the book’s price with internally inconsistent and conspiratorial ramblings.
What kind of internet conspiracy theory nonsense have you been gobbling up? They’re building an entire VTT to support 1DD on DDB when it comes out.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
If all you want is the character-building stuff (feats and backgrounds) for DDB, you can pick that up à la carte for $7 and $4 respectively, then wait for a physical or even digital sale later on for the rest.
Yeah, it's better to speak in terms of your experience as a consumer, and recognize the pricing is likely tied to some formula or scheme in relation to the print editions, where I agree it's sort of a hose job since all the prestige formatting you're paying for in the so called "boxed set" doesn't translate into the digital experience, so you're left with an expensive equivalent to the sort of content you get in the Dragolance book.
But when you go weird and translate your frustration as a customer into some sort of plot to end D&D Beyond, the credibility of your earlier sentiment based argument gets lost in a conclusion divorced from reality.
EDIT: Maybe they learned their lesson, as The Book of Many Things seems to be more in the ballpark of "regular D&D books" and not pair with it's $80-90 print equivalent because, again, the experience of that prestige format doesn't translate to the digital.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
This is also conspiratorial nonsense. Wizards has not announced any plans for how they will monetize their VTT, and there is no legitimate information available on the pricing.
The $30.00 per month figure floating around the internet was started during the OGL Crisis by a less-than-reputable internet personality who was using the crisis to increase their internet fame. Throughout the crisis, they reported numerous "evil" plans of Wizards based upon their "having an inside source." They lied. They said that there would be big announcements on certain dates... and there were not. They said there would be an imminent $30.00 per month Beyond subscription. There was not. They made many, many, many claims... all of which were wrong. Yet people still believed him.
Since this charlatan made his categorically false "Beyond will cost $30.00 per month" claim, equally irreputable individuals have run with that claim and perpetuated it, fooling innocents who cannot be bothered to fact check into thinking such a change was announced and/or leaked. Most recently, it has been repeated by folks complaining about the VTT--though they conveniently forget to mention it has no basis in reality. It still is a fabrication--and you should really be careful before repeating such things.
It was a well circulated "leak" from an "inside source" that never was substantiated, and which WotC denies is true. Many people believe it because it is absolutely in line with recent WotC actions and stated goals from Hasbro about DnD being under-monetized (and because zero people believe WotC when they deny it), but the only evidence is based entirely on hearsay and conjecture