Well, guess I won't be spending any more money on Beyond. Wizards/D&D Beyond are intent on making the player experience worse and worse without actually providing a fully finished product or functioning tools (we're still waiting on Tasha's things to be implemented properly and bugs that were reported three or four years ago are still unfixed). It's drama after drama of making player experiences worse - at the end of our current campaign, we plan to jump ship.
As someone that has never bought a whole book on dndbeyond and solely purchased individual parts of books, this impacts me quite badly. I for one will still not be buying any whole digital books just for the odd subclass, spell, feat etc. If there was an option to buy a physical book that gave me a digital copy, I might feel differently about that.
The lack of transparent communication in advance of this decision smacks of "We didn't want to make anyone aware of this until we removed it by pulling the rug from under your feet". It's typically good business practice to communicate up front rather than after the fact! This move seems partly lazy and not thought out but mostly greedy without any clear justification. They're never going to say publicly though that they expect this to make them more money/profitable.
I doubt they will roll this back but I hope they do.
As this is one of the primary threads for marketplace-related discussion, I'll drop this here as well: there's an issue with PayPal not letting folks use it to pay for things right now. The devs are aware and investigating, and I'll provide an update when I know more.
Also bizzare.... so far "We're providing fewer ways to purchase and fewer ways to pay for any purchases you do make. Progress!!!"
(Still hoping these are all just some major miscommunication and oversight)
Didn't notice this thread sooner, but you can add me to the no longer purchasing club.
In my entire time on D&D Beyond I have only purchased a single book up front, which was Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. All other content I've purchased has been buying sub-classes, feats etc. individually, it was by far one of the main selling points of this site for me. In some cases I would eventually complete a book once I already owned most of it already, or a sale made completing the purchase more enticing.
But ever since Wizards of the Coast bought D&D Beyond the sales have been less generous, and with "a la carte" purchasing being axed the two main ways that I have purchased content have been completely eliminated.
There is no technical reason to have done this; the new storefront is not an improvement in any meaningful way (if anything, it's worse than ever), so axing the best purchasing options is complete insanity. It's only going to drive people away and encourage content piracy, because as we've seen with music and TV shows, the harder/more expensive you make it for people to buy what they want, the way that they want, the less likely they are to buy at all.
Instead of forcing me to pay full price like some corporate shit-heel clearly wants, it forces me to do the opposite; I am now completely unable to purchase any content on this site in future. I will continue my subscription only for as long as my groups require it for access to already purchased content, but I can't imagine that's going to last long without major changes, as with the way Wizards has been behaving we're already highly incentivised to look toward other game systems.
Funnily enough, repeatedly saying "**** you" to your customers only encourages them to say the exact same thing in return.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
As this is one of the primary threads for marketplace-related discussion, I'll drop this here as well: there's an issue with PayPal not letting folks use it to pay for things right now. The devs are aware and investigating, and I'll provide an update when I know more.
Also bizzare.... so far "We're providing fewer ways to purchase and fewer ways to pay for any purchases you do make. Progress!!!"
(Still hoping these are all just some major miscommunication and oversight)
You do realize that she’s saying that they are experiencing an error with PayPal, right? Not that they’re discontinuing acceptance of it. Online payment methods get screwy sometimes; an MMO I’m on is having difficulties with Visa debits, doesn’t mean everyone currently using one for it needs to find another card.
I've said it in another thread, I'll say it here too - not planning on any more purchases on the platform.
I'll keep my sub, as I think that's good value for money, but considering the very noticeable downward decline in quality of the books since say, Icewind Dale and Tashas, I'm less keen to stump up 50 quid (something I did for most previous releases) when the quality of the product I get is something like Spelljammer (not very good at all).
Would have happily spent money on a la carte stuff until the cows came home - I've spent hundreds on full books and individual items over the years. But not any more.
Shame!
Will be looking at other platforms for my 5e content now. None are quite as convenient as dndbeyond, but I'd rather suffer a bit of inconvenience, than support bad customer treatment.
It's a shame though as I do believe DDB are good folk, and it's just WOTC pulling the strings here.
Instead of stripping out a la carte purchasing, why not just produce more content worth buying?
Seems simple, right?
Hey, if it’s that easy why not start up your own game, be the Next Big Thing for TTRPG?
Way things are going, wouldn’t be surprised. Paypal option was dead when the change was made, so im sure it’s just a minor oversight in ability to milk, sorry entice larger transactions.
Instead of stripping out a la carte purchasing, why not just produce more content worth buying?
Seems simple, right?
Hey, if it’s that easy why not start up your own game, be the Next Big Thing for TTRPG?
You know, I do appreciate that it was flippant, so fair play there.
But I think it's a fair point. When Independant creators are able to churn out well balanced subclasses, Feats, magic items, and even adventures with a high degree of regularity, why can't WOTC, with their *significantly* higher degree of resources do the same? Yes there are only so many books you can release before you cause fatigue. But they could provide much better content within the ones they have.
See what, 3 spells and a feat in the book of many things...
And credit where it's due, I think allowing the 3rd party sellers onto Dndbeyond was an ace move to hopefully alleviate some of the "good content drought" we are seeing.
And for what it's worth, I fully confess to not being any good at writing adventures that others could digest and use - but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
It feels a bit preemptive to be phasing out older content for OneDnD when it feels like people are barely even considering it so far.
I've seen some mild interest and looking over of the playtests but little to no people excited to fully adopt it.
As far as I'm aware it's not even done testing.
Playtest is over. The PHB is in final print review, the next step is going to press. Honestly, while I think it might be a little premature, I can see the logic of removing 2014 piecemeal content being put under Legacy in preparation for 2024. Here's the discussion of the galley reading process a couple of weeks back:
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I've spent years dumping praise on DDB with my friends, and now I'm going to spend a lifetime telling everyone I know in the RPG world to avoid this site like the plague. Your decisions do not factor in your customers whatsoever, and are consistently based entirely around greed.
Prime example: Removing the discount from previously-purchased a la carte content. Yes, you can still get your discount by contacting customer service, but in reality, what you're banking on is that people won't remember that they've previously purchased content from a book, do not contact customer service, and instead you get to steal from them by overcharging.
I've purchased the last of any book content you will ever offer until and unless this decision is reversed, permanently. DDB is not the only tool by which 5e content can be found, and yet you act like you have a monopoly.
Congratulations: Instead of people like me buying the content we need or want here, we're instead going to get it elsewhere and give you absolutely nothing.
but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
Much appreciated, and thank you for the guidance!
But this is probably a digression, and we should keep on topic.
but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
Much appreciated, and thank you for the guidance!
But this is probably a digression, and we should keep on topic.
Don't get a DMs Guild account. Just sell on regular drivethrurpg marketplace. While you get access to all that nifty trade dress in the DMs Guild, you also open yourself up to Hasbro harvesting your product and taking it over without credit or proper payment for your hard word.
but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
Much appreciated, and thank you for the guidance!
But this is probably a digression, and we should keep on topic.
Don't get a DMs Guild account. Just sell on regular drivethrurpg marketplace. While you get access to all that nifty trade dress in the DMs Guild, you also open yourself up to Hasbro harvesting your product and taking it over without credit or proper payment for your hard word.
It's funny you think that WotC would waste time doing that for "DrivethruRPG, but with D&D set dressing" but not for regular DrivethruRPG. It's the same site. Just use the version that will get you to an audience.
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"The mongoose blew out its candle and was asleep in bed before the room went dark." —Llanowar fable
This has come up multiple times, so I'm going to explain one last time why piecemeal purchasing shouldn't be compared to microtransactions.
I think piecemeal purchases and microtransactions are equivalent. Every D&D book besides the core three are expansions no different from DLCs on the videogame side of things. À la carte purchases are basically microtransactions if you do not want to buy the whole DLC. The only difference I see is that microtransaction got a negative connotation to it, which I do not think it is a big deal because developers got bills to pay and mouths to feed, and if people do not like a particular sales model, they can simply choose to not buy the game.
They are usually part of a game and are a method of selling small parts of the product for a reduced price. One.of the key features though that distinguishes them from, say, selling a game in parts (for example, selling expansion packs) is that they tend to lock the game if you don't buy them - you can't play the game with paying for them, or you will be stopped from progressing by a timer - or otherwise pressure you to buy them.
Can you give an example of a game that actually does that? I have not encountered any game that really requires microtransactions to progress.
I used to play Fire Emblem Heroes, a gacha game, and while spending money does make PvP content easier, you do not need to spend money play competitively, and many people play semi-competitively where they coast at a certain competitive level where they can put the least amount of effort and still obtain good participation rewards. PvE content is so easy it is not worth spending money on. For collectors who want their favorite characters, if they do not mind waiting, the game provides enough resources for the casual collector; if a collector has a Gotta Catch 'Em All Pokémon mindset, then obviously they will need shell out some money. And for people who complain about the developers being too money hungry, those idiots can go start their own gaming studio and run their own business and see how they do, because they did not have to experience their favorite video game series getting completely axed. Growing up, I was more into Advance Wars than Fire Emblem, but Advance Wars got cancelled due to poor sales. Fire Emblem as a series has the gacha game to fall back if they accidentally **** up a main series game, so they are able to try new ideas and innovations in game play. Advance Wars got revived with a remake, and while it is nice, there is nothing new and nothing exciting past the nostalgia. Advance Wars is still crawling in a ditch while Fire Emblem is riding high and fine. As a fan who likes both sister series, seeing other fans being that entitled and ungrateful just rubs me the wrong way. This gacha game alone is practically bankrolling the entire series (the gacha game generates more revenue than the rest of the series combined), and that lets the developers go experiement and try new things with confidence and create more waifus and husbandos that the rest of the fandom can go crazy over. For the main line Fire Emblem games, it is like D&D. Every new game is a new edition, and you can buy season passes which are like D&D expansion books, and you can purchase piecemeal content if you do not want the whole season pass and just want a specific map or item or whatever.
Age of Empires III is my favorite and the most unique in the series. While the series as a whole does not have much microtransactions, it does have a few, and it is just cosmetic. A lot of the new DLCs do add new maps and new campaigns, but none of the DLCs in any of the games are required to be successful in PvP.
Ace Combat 7 is super fun, and while I used CFA-44 Nosferatu (one of the most broken and the most noob friendly DLC planes) to beat the game on very easy mode, I do not need to. They even put in very easy mode, so if skill is an issue, even that should not stop a person from completing the game and enjoying the story. While most DLC planes are very strong, the end game plane X-02S Strike Wyvern that you can get in the base game is on par with the average DLC plane, so if you are into PvP, that should not stop you either. And like in D&D, you can either purchase DLC planes à la carte, or get them in a bigger pack.
I used to play Runescape, and it got a lot of fun cosmetics, and a few you can purchase à la carte or as part of a pack . I did not like the FOMOness of some of the cosmetics, but if it is not a cosmetic I care about, then it does not really matter if I missed out. Even if I missed out, they will usually bring it back in one way or another eventually. You can pay your way to getting the best gear too by buying Bonds, but you do not need the best gear for PvM content; second and third best option is not only sufficient, but way more affordable too. PKing is not as popular as it used to be, but I cannot imagine people bringing expensive gear to PK.
They're "scummy" because they're designed to hide the true cost of the game in attempt to make you pay more for the product than you would if you saw the total amount in one go. To take a famous example, EA's Star Wars Battlefront charged you for the game, then locked the most desirable content,.and the main way to unlock it was to pay for loot boxes. You didn't see the game price as $100 (which you might not have paid for), but saw $60 then a bunch of $1ish loot boxes, and all of a sudden you've paid $100. There was that example of the guy who literally spent thousands on his FIFA game.
A more benign (or rather, less sinister) form is Fortnite, which is free and only charges for cosmetic stuff (last I checked, which admittedly has been a long while), but still leads into over paying for content because you see it as 50¢ for a shirt, rather than $90 for the game.
Microtransactions generally carve out parts of the product that you'd normally already consider purchased when you paid for the game itself, then tries to sell it to you. It encourages you to spend more for a product that you would with full knowledge of what you're getting.
Gacha and loot boxes are a subset of microtransactions. I get that purchases based on chance is a turn off for many, but people can also simply not play games that have them. Developers got to eat to too, and in Fire Emblem Heroes' case with all that extra revenue, it lets the developers do more interesting stuff with the main series. I much rather have microtransactions in the main game series with a gacha game on the side, than a game series that got none because it is dead or barely alive. Fire Emblem fans do not need to touch the gacha game at all if they do not want to, but they certainly benefit from all the players like me spent lots of money on the gacha game.
I have not played the new Star Wars Battlefronts, but from what I can tell, the loot boxes just speed up progression rather than locking things behind it? That is no different from Battlefield games that I used to play where you can pay to speed up progression. If players wants to pay for progression, that is fine by me. I am not fan of EA either, but in this case, the main issue is the lootbox system rather than microtransaction as a whole. Literally every major modern FPS game these days got cosmetics.
Cosmetics take time and money to develop too. Why should developers add cosmetics into the game for free when it is not necessary for the core game play? Charging for cosmetics keeps developers fed and helps keep the cost of the core game low.
The price of games has not gone up in literal years, and people who complain about modern vanilla games not being complete have an overly nostalgic view of vanilla games that are "complete" in the past. And if you are like me who buys stuff off platforms like Steam, if anything, the cost of gaming has gone down significantly, at least for PC anyways. For console gaming, consoles have matched inflation, but the base vanilla games have been literally stuck around the $30 to $60 dollar range since I was a kid, so adding extra cosmetics, campaigns, and whatnot as DLCs with microtransactions is fine by me if it means my favorite series stay alive. And vanilla games of today have far more content than vanilla games before, not to mention way more polished and pretty. Most modern Fire Emblem games got dating sim mechanics now, and there is also 3D graphics, beautiful cutscenes, voice acting every dialogue, and so much more features that are not present in the old games. Hell, even Call of Duty these days got vehicular combat, which used to a be thing Battlefield was known for. DLCs and microtransactions are fine if it means developers getting fed and we continue to get games.
Why shouldn't we compare piecemeal purchases to microtransactions?
Superficially, they're similar. You're paying a nominally smaller amount for a portion of the product. They're not the same thing though, not in the whole picture.
Piecemeal purchasing allowed you to buy products at your own pace, at no disadvantage to you. Outside of exceptional circumstances, you never paid more buying piecemeal than if you bought the product outright. This already means half the scumminess of microtransactions does not apply - it's not trying to hide the true cost and slide it past you.
Piecemeal purchasing did not encourage you to "rebuy" the product. You only ever paid for it once - if you wanted the Hexblade, you could buy the Hexblade piecemeal or as part of the book. You don't have to keep on buying it, nor did you buy Tasha's and then be told that you had to buy the Subclasses separately. You never paid more (with a few marginal exceptions) than if you just paid upfront. That's the other half of the scumminess of microtransactions.
Piecemeal purchases allowed you to buy what you needed and ignore a lot of what you didn't. Sure, the pricing was disproportional - you didn't get 10% of the book for 10% of the price - but that's fine and reasonable.
What's wrong with microtransactions in general doesn't apply to piecemeal purchases. It literally saved you money if it were a useful product, as opposed to microtransactions (which is essentially a euphemism for trying to trick you into overspending) which sought to make you overpay.
Please stop bringing up microtransactions as being comparable to piecemeal purchases. Piecemeal purchases were one of the strongest selling points of DDB over its competitors. You may not care about them, but complaining about them is like complaining about the shop selling individual chocolate bars when you only buy multi packs.
I do not agree with your semantics, but I do agree with your passion. Out of all the official digital tools, Beyond had the best and most flexible sales model. The closest thing to Beyond's à la carte option would be some of the bundles on Steam, where the stuff you buy gets deducted from the bundle's total, although that depends more on the developer/publisher than Steam to set that up properly. Roll20 does not have à la carte options, but the books that you buy do get discounted from any bundles they are part of, and I think Fantasy Grounds is similar too. Without à la carte options, there is not really any reason to go to Beyond when you can get more functionality out of other VTTs. Beyond is geared more towards in-person play, but I do not think the other VTTs are that far off in terms of their digital tools for in-person play either. They might not look as pretty as Beyond, but I think they are far more flexible and functional; I am pretty sure Roll20 has spell points and epic boons since ages ago, while Beyond still got nada on that front. For a casual player, Beyond is fine, but if you like to get deep into the details of the game mechanics or homebrew, Beyond is probably the worst platform out of the four in my opinion.
This has come up multiple times, so I'm going to explain one last time why piecemeal purchasing shouldn't be compared to microtransactions.
I think piecemeal purchases and microtransactions are equivalent. Every D&D book besides the core three are expansions no different from DLCs on the videogame side of things. À la carte purchases are basically microtransactions if you do not want to buy the whole DLC. The only difference I see is that microtransaction got a negative connotation to it, which I do not think it is a big deal because developers got bills to pay and mouths to feed, and if people do not like a particular sales model, they can simply choose to not buy the game.
I don't think microtransactions are really the same thing; D&D Beyond's "a la carte" purchases were just letting the customer buy the same content but in smaller, more affordable pieces.
Microtransactions have a bad reputation because they're something slightly different, and much more geared towards constant revenue. Think of things like "special" currencies in mobile games; many of these might let you earn them for free, but at a very slow pace, so you're still heavily incentivised to pay for convenience/speed, and they're usually something you'll need again, and again, so you're incentivised to keep paying.
"A la carte" was just an ordinary one-off purchase, but of only part of a product. You don't need to buy "a la carte" any more than you need to buy a book unless you must have access to that specific content, and once you've got it its unlocked for as long as your account/the service lasts.
But by doing away with "a la carte" they've made it much more expensive for many of us to unlock new content at all, because many of us didn't buy entire books. And I suspect many of us aren't going to going forward either, because when the affordable options are removed, the free ones reign supreme – legal or otherwise.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
It's a really terrible decision. It'll certainly stop me from buying anything in the future. I have purchased a fair amount of individual things, such as spells, classes, feats and races etc over the years. I have no interest whatsoever in purchasing a full digital book that I can only read on this website. I purchase the actual books and then (previously) bought character creation items on here for my players to use. It seems like a greedy and unnecessary decision removing this ability. Perhaps WotC had reasons, but it'd have been nice for them to have shared them.
DM subscriber since I joined this website. Ended my subscription June 2024 due to the removal of individual purchases. Was the only reason I ever bothered with this website. I use it for character building for my players and occasional referencing. I don't want digital books that can be removed whenever the company sees fit.
January 2025: seems it was a correct move. They're removing 2014 content that we paid for in lieu of their new version of the game. You only rent content on here, never own.
but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
Much appreciated, and thank you for the guidance!
But this is probably a digression, and we should keep on topic.
Don't get a DMs Guild account. Just sell on regular drivethrurpg marketplace. While you get access to all that nifty trade dress in the DMs Guild, you also open yourself up to Hasbro harvesting your product and taking it over without credit or proper payment for your hard word.
It's funny you think that WotC would waste time doing that for "DrivethruRPG, but with D&D set dressing" but not for regular DrivethruRPG. It's the same site. Just use the version that will get you to an audience.
It's run by the same company (Onebookshelf) but the rules for posting on both are completely different, like the other partner sub-sites. What you're saying is incorrect. DMSGuild gives you the ability to use all D&D IP and they can take your content if they wished. I'm not aware of them ever actually doing this without compensation. On DriveThru they cannot do this and you cannot use D&D IP. Also the percentage of money you earn is quite different and you make more money on DriveThru because DMSGuild takes a larger cut. But yes indeed, the audience for D&D is obviously larger on DMSGuild - which is the tradeoff you make for less money.
DM subscriber since I joined this website. Ended my subscription June 2024 due to the removal of individual purchases. Was the only reason I ever bothered with this website. I use it for character building for my players and occasional referencing. I don't want digital books that can be removed whenever the company sees fit.
January 2025: seems it was a correct move. They're removing 2014 content that we paid for in lieu of their new version of the game. You only rent content on here, never own.
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Well, guess I won't be spending any more money on Beyond. Wizards/D&D Beyond are intent on making the player experience worse and worse without actually providing a fully finished product or functioning tools (we're still waiting on Tasha's things to be implemented properly and bugs that were reported three or four years ago are still unfixed). It's drama after drama of making player experiences worse - at the end of our current campaign, we plan to jump ship.
As someone that has never bought a whole book on dndbeyond and solely purchased individual parts of books, this impacts me quite badly. I for one will still not be buying any whole digital books just for the odd subclass, spell, feat etc. If there was an option to buy a physical book that gave me a digital copy, I might feel differently about that.
The lack of transparent communication in advance of this decision smacks of "We didn't want to make anyone aware of this until we removed it by pulling the rug from under your feet". It's typically good business practice to communicate up front rather than after the fact! This move seems partly lazy and not thought out but mostly greedy without any clear justification. They're never going to say publicly though that they expect this to make them more money/profitable.
I doubt they will roll this back but I hope they do.
Also bizzare.... so far "We're providing fewer ways to purchase and fewer ways to pay for any purchases you do make. Progress!!!"
(Still hoping these are all just some major miscommunication and oversight)
Didn't notice this thread sooner, but you can add me to the no longer purchasing club.
In my entire time on D&D Beyond I have only purchased a single book up front, which was Tasha's Cauldron of Everything. All other content I've purchased has been buying sub-classes, feats etc. individually, it was by far one of the main selling points of this site for me. In some cases I would eventually complete a book once I already owned most of it already, or a sale made completing the purchase more enticing.
But ever since Wizards of the Coast bought D&D Beyond the sales have been less generous, and with "a la carte" purchasing being axed the two main ways that I have purchased content have been completely eliminated.
There is no technical reason to have done this; the new storefront is not an improvement in any meaningful way (if anything, it's worse than ever), so axing the best purchasing options is complete insanity. It's only going to drive people away and encourage content piracy, because as we've seen with music and TV shows, the harder/more expensive you make it for people to buy what they want, the way that they want, the less likely they are to buy at all.
Instead of forcing me to pay full price like some corporate shit-heel clearly wants, it forces me to do the opposite; I am now completely unable to purchase any content on this site in future. I will continue my subscription only for as long as my groups require it for access to already purchased content, but I can't imagine that's going to last long without major changes, as with the way Wizards has been behaving we're already highly incentivised to look toward other game systems.
Funnily enough, repeatedly saying "**** you" to your customers only encourages them to say the exact same thing in return.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
You do realize that she’s saying that they are experiencing an error with PayPal, right? Not that they’re discontinuing acceptance of it. Online payment methods get screwy sometimes; an MMO I’m on is having difficulties with Visa debits, doesn’t mean everyone currently using one for it needs to find another card.
I've said it in another thread, I'll say it here too - not planning on any more purchases on the platform.
I'll keep my sub, as I think that's good value for money, but considering the very noticeable downward decline in quality of the books since say, Icewind Dale and Tashas, I'm less keen to stump up 50 quid (something I did for most previous releases) when the quality of the product I get is something like Spelljammer (not very good at all).
Would have happily spent money on a la carte stuff until the cows came home - I've spent hundreds on full books and individual items over the years. But not any more.
Shame!
Will be looking at other platforms for my 5e content now. None are quite as convenient as dndbeyond, but I'd rather suffer a bit of inconvenience, than support bad customer treatment.
It's a shame though as I do believe DDB are good folk, and it's just WOTC pulling the strings here.
And not to chain the rant, but here's an idea.
Instead of stripping out a la carte purchasing, why not just produce more content worth buying?
Seems simple, right?
Hey, if it’s that easy why not start up your own game, be the Next Big Thing for TTRPG?
Way things are going, wouldn’t be surprised. Paypal option was dead when the change was made, so im sure it’s just a minor oversight in ability to milk, sorry entice larger transactions.
You know, I do appreciate that it was flippant, so fair play there.
But I think it's a fair point. When Independant creators are able to churn out well balanced subclasses, Feats, magic items, and even adventures with a high degree of regularity, why can't WOTC, with their *significantly* higher degree of resources do the same? Yes there are only so many books you can release before you cause fatigue. But they could provide much better content within the ones they have.
See what, 3 spells and a feat in the book of many things...
And credit where it's due, I think allowing the 3rd party sellers onto Dndbeyond was an ace move to hopefully alleviate some of the "good content drought" we are seeing.
And for what it's worth, I fully confess to not being any good at writing adventures that others could digest and use - but I'm a dab hand at homebrew and plan to release something pretty substantial, once I get my head around how to be successful in the crowd funding route.
Short answer is, don't waste the time chasing that model. Get a DM's Guild account and start releasing content either for free or for cheap to build an audience and prove you can make good material that people want. Then, once you have an audience, turn it towards monetizing bigger projects.
Playtest is over. The PHB is in final print review, the next step is going to press. Honestly, while I think it might be a little premature, I can see the logic of removing 2014 piecemeal content being put under Legacy in preparation for 2024. Here's the discussion of the galley reading process a couple of weeks back:
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
I've spent years dumping praise on DDB with my friends, and now I'm going to spend a lifetime telling everyone I know in the RPG world to avoid this site like the plague. Your decisions do not factor in your customers whatsoever, and are consistently based entirely around greed.
Prime example: Removing the discount from previously-purchased a la carte content. Yes, you can still get your discount by contacting customer service, but in reality, what you're banking on is that people won't remember that they've previously purchased content from a book, do not contact customer service, and instead you get to steal from them by overcharging.
I've purchased the last of any book content you will ever offer until and unless this decision is reversed, permanently. DDB is not the only tool by which 5e content can be found, and yet you act like you have a monopoly.
Congratulations: Instead of people like me buying the content we need or want here, we're instead going to get it elsewhere and give you absolutely nothing.
Much appreciated, and thank you for the guidance!
But this is probably a digression, and we should keep on topic.
Don't get a DMs Guild account. Just sell on regular drivethrurpg marketplace. While you get access to all that nifty trade dress in the DMs Guild, you also open yourself up to Hasbro harvesting your product and taking it over without credit or proper payment for your hard word.
It's funny you think that WotC would waste time doing that for "DrivethruRPG, but with D&D set dressing" but not for regular DrivethruRPG. It's the same site. Just use the version that will get you to an audience.
I think piecemeal purchases and microtransactions are equivalent. Every D&D book besides the core three are expansions no different from DLCs on the videogame side of things. À la carte purchases are basically microtransactions if you do not want to buy the whole DLC. The only difference I see is that microtransaction got a negative connotation to it, which I do not think it is a big deal because developers got bills to pay and mouths to feed, and if people do not like a particular sales model, they can simply choose to not buy the game.
Can you give an example of a game that actually does that? I have not encountered any game that really requires microtransactions to progress.
I used to play Fire Emblem Heroes, a gacha game, and while spending money does make PvP content easier, you do not need to spend money play competitively, and many people play semi-competitively where they coast at a certain competitive level where they can put the least amount of effort and still obtain good participation rewards. PvE content is so easy it is not worth spending money on. For collectors who want their favorite characters, if they do not mind waiting, the game provides enough resources for the casual collector; if a collector has a Gotta Catch 'Em All Pokémon mindset, then obviously they will need shell out some money. And for people who complain about the developers being too money hungry, those idiots can go start their own gaming studio and run their own business and see how they do, because they did not have to experience their favorite video game series getting completely axed. Growing up, I was more into Advance Wars than Fire Emblem, but Advance Wars got cancelled due to poor sales. Fire Emblem as a series has the gacha game to fall back if they accidentally **** up a main series game, so they are able to try new ideas and innovations in game play. Advance Wars got revived with a remake, and while it is nice, there is nothing new and nothing exciting past the nostalgia. Advance Wars is still crawling in a ditch while Fire Emblem is riding high and fine. As a fan who likes both sister series, seeing other fans being that entitled and ungrateful just rubs me the wrong way. This gacha game alone is practically bankrolling the entire series (the gacha game generates more revenue than the rest of the series combined), and that lets the developers go experiement and try new things with confidence and create more waifus and husbandos that the rest of the fandom can go crazy over. For the main line Fire Emblem games, it is like D&D. Every new game is a new edition, and you can buy season passes which are like D&D expansion books, and you can purchase piecemeal content if you do not want the whole season pass and just want a specific map or item or whatever.
Age of Empires III is my favorite and the most unique in the series. While the series as a whole does not have much microtransactions, it does have a few, and it is just cosmetic. A lot of the new DLCs do add new maps and new campaigns, but none of the DLCs in any of the games are required to be successful in PvP.
Ace Combat 7 is super fun, and while I used CFA-44 Nosferatu (one of the most broken and the most noob friendly DLC planes) to beat the game on very easy mode, I do not need to. They even put in very easy mode, so if skill is an issue, even that should not stop a person from completing the game and enjoying the story. While most DLC planes are very strong, the end game plane X-02S Strike Wyvern that you can get in the base game is on par with the average DLC plane, so if you are into PvP, that should not stop you either. And like in D&D, you can either purchase DLC planes à la carte, or get them in a bigger pack.
I used to play Runescape, and it got a lot of fun cosmetics, and a few you can purchase à la carte or as part of a pack . I did not like the FOMOness of some of the cosmetics, but if it is not a cosmetic I care about, then it does not really matter if I missed out. Even if I missed out, they will usually bring it back in one way or another eventually. You can pay your way to getting the best gear too by buying Bonds, but you do not need the best gear for PvM content; second and third best option is not only sufficient, but way more affordable too. PKing is not as popular as it used to be, but I cannot imagine people bringing expensive gear to PK.
Gacha and loot boxes are a subset of microtransactions. I get that purchases based on chance is a turn off for many, but people can also simply not play games that have them. Developers got to eat to too, and in Fire Emblem Heroes' case with all that extra revenue, it lets the developers do more interesting stuff with the main series. I much rather have microtransactions in the main game series with a gacha game on the side, than a game series that got none because it is dead or barely alive. Fire Emblem fans do not need to touch the gacha game at all if they do not want to, but they certainly benefit from all the players like me spent lots of money on the gacha game.
I have not played the new Star Wars Battlefronts, but from what I can tell, the loot boxes just speed up progression rather than locking things behind it? That is no different from Battlefield games that I used to play where you can pay to speed up progression. If players wants to pay for progression, that is fine by me. I am not fan of EA either, but in this case, the main issue is the lootbox system rather than microtransaction as a whole. Literally every major modern FPS game these days got cosmetics.
Cosmetics take time and money to develop too. Why should developers add cosmetics into the game for free when it is not necessary for the core game play? Charging for cosmetics keeps developers fed and helps keep the cost of the core game low.
The price of games has not gone up in literal years, and people who complain about modern vanilla games not being complete have an overly nostalgic view of vanilla games that are "complete" in the past. And if you are like me who buys stuff off platforms like Steam, if anything, the cost of gaming has gone down significantly, at least for PC anyways. For console gaming, consoles have matched inflation, but the base vanilla games have been literally stuck around the $30 to $60 dollar range since I was a kid, so adding extra cosmetics, campaigns, and whatnot as DLCs with microtransactions is fine by me if it means my favorite series stay alive. And vanilla games of today have far more content than vanilla games before, not to mention way more polished and pretty. Most modern Fire Emblem games got dating sim mechanics now, and there is also 3D graphics, beautiful cutscenes, voice acting every dialogue, and so much more features that are not present in the old games. Hell, even Call of Duty these days got vehicular combat, which used to a be thing Battlefield was known for. DLCs and microtransactions are fine if it means developers getting fed and we continue to get games.
I do not agree with your semantics, but I do agree with your passion. Out of all the official digital tools, Beyond had the best and most flexible sales model. The closest thing to Beyond's à la carte option would be some of the bundles on Steam, where the stuff you buy gets deducted from the bundle's total, although that depends more on the developer/publisher than Steam to set that up properly. Roll20 does not have à la carte options, but the books that you buy do get discounted from any bundles they are part of, and I think Fantasy Grounds is similar too. Without à la carte options, there is not really any reason to go to Beyond when you can get more functionality out of other VTTs. Beyond is geared more towards in-person play, but I do not think the other VTTs are that far off in terms of their digital tools for in-person play either. They might not look as pretty as Beyond, but I think they are far more flexible and functional; I am pretty sure Roll20 has spell points and epic boons since ages ago, while Beyond still got nada on that front. For a casual player, Beyond is fine, but if you like to get deep into the details of the game mechanics or homebrew, Beyond is probably the worst platform out of the four in my opinion.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/licenses >
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 don't think microtransactions are really the same thing; D&D Beyond's "a la carte" purchases were just letting the customer buy the same content but in smaller, more affordable pieces.
Microtransactions have a bad reputation because they're something slightly different, and much more geared towards constant revenue. Think of things like "special" currencies in mobile games; many of these might let you earn them for free, but at a very slow pace, so you're still heavily incentivised to pay for convenience/speed, and they're usually something you'll need again, and again, so you're incentivised to keep paying.
"A la carte" was just an ordinary one-off purchase, but of only part of a product. You don't need to buy "a la carte" any more than you need to buy a book unless you must have access to that specific content, and once you've got it its unlocked for as long as your account/the service lasts.
But by doing away with "a la carte" they've made it much more expensive for many of us to unlock new content at all, because many of us didn't buy entire books. And I suspect many of us aren't going to going forward either, because when the affordable options are removed, the free ones reign supreme – legal or otherwise.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
It's a really terrible decision. It'll certainly stop me from buying anything in the future. I have purchased a fair amount of individual things, such as spells, classes, feats and races etc over the years. I have no interest whatsoever in purchasing a full digital book that I can only read on this website. I purchase the actual books and then (previously) bought character creation items on here for my players to use. It seems like a greedy and unnecessary decision removing this ability. Perhaps WotC had reasons, but it'd have been nice for them to have shared them.
DM subscriber since I joined this website. Ended my subscription June 2024 due to the removal of individual purchases. Was the only reason I ever bothered with this website. I use it for character building for my players and occasional referencing. I don't want digital books that can be removed whenever the company sees fit.
January 2025: seems it was a correct move. They're removing 2014 content that we paid for in lieu of their new version of the game. You only rent content on here, never own.
It's run by the same company (Onebookshelf) but the rules for posting on both are completely different, like the other partner sub-sites. What you're saying is incorrect. DMSGuild gives you the ability to use all D&D IP and they can take your content if they wished. I'm not aware of them ever actually doing this without compensation. On DriveThru they cannot do this and you cannot use D&D IP. Also the percentage of money you earn is quite different and you make more money on DriveThru because DMSGuild takes a larger cut. But yes indeed, the audience for D&D is obviously larger on DMSGuild - which is the tradeoff you make for less money.
DM subscriber since I joined this website. Ended my subscription June 2024 due to the removal of individual purchases. Was the only reason I ever bothered with this website. I use it for character building for my players and occasional referencing. I don't want digital books that can be removed whenever the company sees fit.
January 2025: seems it was a correct move. They're removing 2014 content that we paid for in lieu of their new version of the game. You only rent content on here, never own.