That is true! Every company will inevitably try to milk every last penny out of its customer base, and WotC/Hasbro is proving to be no exception. Back in the day when buying physical books made of trees was the only option, the prices kinda made sense. Much of that cost was the production and the shipping of the physical object. But today, when we can simply download all that information without the need of trees or factories or trucks, the prices SHOULD be considerably lower! That's why I prefer to just make up my own stuff. I've written several campaign regions of an entire campaign world, 150 new subclasses, dozens of new spells, a dozen new species options, over 100 new magic items, and enough adventure material to last a lifetime of playing D&D. But if I publish any of that on this website, it instantly becomes the Intellectual Property of the Hasbro Corporation. So it stays between my and my players.
Sure, I could pay for the product of someone else's imagination. And if I find something worth the price, I might buy it. But for now, I've got my own imagination and it's free to use!
That is true! Every company will inevitably try to milk every last penny out of its customer base, and WotC/Hasbro is proving to be no exception. Back in the day when buying physical books made of trees was the only option, the prices kinda made sense. Much of that cost was the production and the shipping of the physical object. But today, when we can simply download all that information without the need of trees or factories or trucks, the prices SHOULD be considerably lower! That's why I prefer to just make up my own stuff. I've written several campaign regions of an entire campaign world, 150 new subclasses, dozens of new spells, a dozen new species options, over 100 new magic items, and enough adventure material to last a lifetime of playing D&D. But if I publish any of that on this website, it instantly becomes the Intellectual Property of the Hasbro Corporation. So it stays between my and my players.
Sure, I could pay for the product of someone else's imagination. And if I find something worth the price, I might buy it. But for now, I've got my own imagination and it's free to use!
Again, and I really do not understand why so many seem not to understand this:
1) Luxury products are luxury products. They are not necessities. You will not be harmed for not purchasing them.
2) For profit companies are for profit companies. They are not charities. They do not owe anyone their products at any given price.
3) Especially given (1), you still have full free will over whether you purchase or not. No one is threatening your life. No one is forcing you to buy any given product from such companies.
It is in their best interest to try to develop products people are willing to buy and to set prices people are willing to spend to acquire said products. If they do not make enough sales, it is they who go without necessities, not you. (That is also not, itself, a reason to buy, again, buy only things you actually can afford and enjoy having and that is especially true with luxuries!).
One bonus thing I really do not understand is that people will complain about the prices of things they don't have to purchase, but then donate to channels complaining about said things...
Counties the pages claimed by the site. For sure I understand that it's actual pages of content are less when one removes the filler pages, like cover, glossary and art.
You do know that web pages are not the same size as print pages and are in fact variable in success l size, right?
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator (Assassin rogue) Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I'm sure WOTC has done extensive market research on this kind of thing, but I for one actually liked the old 2e Complete handbooks and wouldn't mind more of that kind of thing rather than setting-specific books that only have a handful of new PC options that may or may not be useful
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Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard) Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric) Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator (Assassin rogue) Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid) Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I don't hate the concept, but I would have liked it to be packaged like previous PDF's such as the Tortel Package, One Grung, and the Monster Compendiums. Then I can hand my players a nice looking copy to work with since out of all the people I play with on the regular, only two of them use D&DBeyond, and none of them use it for character building or tracking. Just us DM's.
I hate that these are locked to D&D Beyond, meaning that I can neither hold a physical copy for in-person games nor store a local backup just in case. If D&D Beyond ever disappears, goes down, etc. we lose it all, just like with D&D Insider during 4e. This is obviously unkind to end-users. Why does WotC not distribute pdfs like every other ttrpg company?
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That is true! Every company will inevitably try to milk every last penny out of its customer base, and WotC/Hasbro is proving to be no exception. Back in the day when buying physical books made of trees was the only option, the prices kinda made sense. Much of that cost was the production and the shipping of the physical object. But today, when we can simply download all that information without the need of trees or factories or trucks, the prices SHOULD be considerably lower! That's why I prefer to just make up my own stuff. I've written several campaign regions of an entire campaign world, 150 new subclasses, dozens of new spells, a dozen new species options, over 100 new magic items, and enough adventure material to last a lifetime of playing D&D. But if I publish any of that on this website, it instantly becomes the Intellectual Property of the Hasbro Corporation. So it stays between my and my players.
Sure, I could pay for the product of someone else's imagination. And if I find something worth the price, I might buy it. But for now, I've got my own imagination and it's free to use!
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
Again, and I really do not understand why so many seem not to understand this:
1) Luxury products are luxury products. They are not necessities. You will not be harmed for not purchasing them.
2) For profit companies are for profit companies. They are not charities. They do not owe anyone their products at any given price.
3) Especially given (1), you still have full free will over whether you purchase or not. No one is threatening your life. No one is forcing you to buy any given product from such companies.
It is in their best interest to try to develop products people are willing to buy and to set prices people are willing to spend to acquire said products. If they do not make enough sales, it is they who go without necessities, not you. (That is also not, itself, a reason to buy, again, buy only things you actually can afford and enjoy having and that is especially true with luxuries!).
One bonus thing I really do not understand is that people will complain about the prices of things they don't have to purchase, but then donate to channels complaining about said things...
You do know that web pages are not the same size as print pages and are in fact variable in success l size, right?
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Inigo Montoya has some questions here
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator (Assassin rogue)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I'm sure WOTC has done extensive market research on this kind of thing, but I for one actually liked the old 2e Complete handbooks and wouldn't mind more of that kind of thing rather than setting-specific books that only have a handful of new PC options that may or may not be useful
Active characters:
Edoumiaond Willegume "Eddie" Podslee, Vegetanian scholar (College of Spirits bard)
Lan Kidogo, mapach archaeologist and treasure hunter (Knowledge cleric)
Mardan Ferres, elven private investigator (Assassin rogue)
Peter "the Pied Piper" Hausler, human con artist/remover of vermin (Circle of the Shepherd druid)
Xhekhetiel, halfling survivor of a Betrayer Gods cult (Runechild sorcerer/fighter)
I don't hate the concept, but I would have liked it to be packaged like previous PDF's such as the Tortel Package, One Grung, and the Monster Compendiums. Then I can hand my players a nice looking copy to work with since out of all the people I play with on the regular, only two of them use D&DBeyond, and none of them use it for character building or tracking. Just us DM's.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
I hate that these are locked to D&D Beyond, meaning that I can neither hold a physical copy for in-person games nor store a local backup just in case. If D&D Beyond ever disappears, goes down, etc. we lose it all, just like with D&D Insider during 4e. This is obviously unkind to end-users. Why does WotC not distribute pdfs like every other ttrpg company?