That is exactly what I wanted to hear. Depending on what type of DRM you plan to use and how I will be able to access the rulebooks will determine my ultimate purchasing decision. But rulebooks for a flat fee is what I was looking for.
I obviously have tons of questions about this that you probably cannot answer. So I'll patiently wait for the official announcement.
Eh, we're close enough that I can at least confirm this - you will absolutely be able to buy all the digital rulebooks, adventures, and any other published WotC content on D&D Beyond for a one-time purchase. A subscription is not required to be able to have full access to those materials.
Subscriptions will be used for other purposes, which will be revealed "soon."
Thanks!
So, my question then is: If this the case, will they be available during the beta for purchase?
Eh, we're close enough that I can at least confirm this - you will absolutely be able to buy all the digital rulebooks, adventures, and any other published WotC content on D&D Beyond for a one-time purchase. A subscription is not required to be able to have full access to those materials.
Subscriptions will be used for other purposes, which will be revealed "soon."
Thanks!
So, my question then is: If this the case, will they be available during the beta for purchase?
No, They made it clear that for the beta there is only SRD and Basic Rules.
The problem we have here is that there a lot of people that want digital rulebooks for 5e. The only path to those rulebooks seems to be D&D Beyond, since WoTC is refusing to make them. So, I am sure there are people looking to D&D Beyond as a source for digital rules that they don't want to subscribe to, but simply pay a one time fee to purchase and have access to, the way people do now, with various other RPG games on the market.
I know that D&D Beyond is trying to be an all encompassing solution that goes beyond just the rulebooks, but, unfortunately, you're all we have, if we want digital rules.
I think that is skewing your numbers when it comes to people who are willing to use the service, and whether they're willing to subscribe or pay a one time fee.
I think the question needs to be asked: If WoTC offered digital rulebooks through a one-time purchase somewhere else, would you still be interested in D&D Beyond? If so, what would you be willing to pay for it?
Eh, we're close enough that I can at least confirm this - you will absolutely be able to buy all the digital rulebooks, adventures, and any other published WotC content on D&D Beyond for a one-time purchase. A subscription is not required to be able to have full access to those materials.
Subscriptions will be used for other purposes, which will be revealed "soon."
Thanks!
I was wondering if you buy an adventure here, would it still be compatible with Roll20? If I buy the Storm King's Thunder in D&D Beyond, would I be able to play it on Roll20, or would I have to buy it there as well (which costs $49.95) if I wanted to play it there? If that's the case:
1) if you buy an adventure on D&D Beyond, can you actually play it online with maps and tokens and voice/chat functionality?
2) if you can't actually play the adventure online on D&D Beyond, why would you buy it here and not on a site like Roll20, or just buy the print version? (lower price point maybe?)
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-If you have the misfortune of coming across a dwarf named Morag, a half-elf that goes by Nichalaus, or their human travelling companions Sukiem-Tor, Ak'huma, Dat'Vi Bek and Doc Ryder, immediately start walking back from whence you came. You'll thank me later.
2) if you can't actually play the adventure online on D&D Beyond, why would you buy it here and not on a site like Roll20, or just buy the print version? (lower price point maybe?)
Somehow I think that you will be able to play the adventure online on D&D Beyond.
I was wondering if you buy an adventure here, would it still be compatible with Roll20? If I buy the Storm King's Thunder in D&D Beyond, would I be able to play it on Roll20, or would I have to buy it there as well (which costs $49.95) if I wanted to play it there? If that's the case:
1) if you buy an adventure on D&D Beyond, can you actually play it online with maps and tokens and voice/chat functionality?
2) if you can't actually play the adventure online on D&D Beyond, why would you buy it here and not on a site like Roll20, or just buy the print version? (lower price point maybe?)
I get the use case for something like Roll20, but that's not why I'd want it on DnD Beyond. I run a game, in person. What I want is more like this guy did with OneNote. Once I've got the Compendium, Encounter Manager, and Campaign Wiki (like Obsidian Portal), I just want to show up with my Surface, dice, and Tact-Tiles.
Again, I'm not knocking anyone who wants to do the whole VTT thing. Just saying that I'd be more than willing to fork over for a nice digital version of the adventure -- especially, if I can tweak a few things (say, to make names, etc. fit my setting) and also click on a room to launch the Encounter Manager (which hasn't been announce, to my knowledge, but is pretty much critical, for me).
With the article in the latest Dragon+ issue comes some more clarity on how costs and subscriptions will work, which is great, but I'm hoping we get some more info on what happens if your subscription lapses.
For example, the free tier gets 6 character slots, whereas the Hero tier has unlimited slots - if your Hero subscription lapses for a period, do you still have your old characters, but become unable to create more until you have less than 6? Do you select 6 that you get to keep - and if so are the rest of your characters lost completely or are they recoverable once you re-subscribe?
Likewise, Hero tier is needed for publishing your homebrew and using other people's. When your subscription lapses, does your previously published homebrew stay up in the community? If you've added other people's homebrew, are you locked out of that until you re-subscribe, or can you just not add new stuff.
I go through periods of not having a group to play with/not having time to play, and during those periods it becomes hard to justify paying a subscription just to keep stuff around for when I do get to play, but equally it would be annoying to have to rebuild stuff, republish/refind homebrew, etc, once I start playing again. Obviously the lower the price, the less this is a worry, but it would be nice to get answers on this stuff.
Another question: character building is mentioned a lot, but there's precious little info on the campaign management features.
Can you only create a campaign at Master tier? (If so, what happens to your campaigns when the subscription lapses?)
Or can you create a campaign at lower tiers, but not share it with others until Master? In this case you'd be able to do planning, speculation, and playing about with the tools at lower tiers, but you'd need to upgrade to actually run the campaign with others.
These are two different products -- digital and print. Digital is searchable and has a lot of other features --it's also interfaced with the other services in DnDBeyond. If you want print only then buy that. If you want just digital then buy that. If you want both then buy both. I don't know why someone would be deserving of a discount for a digital version just because they bought a print version two years ago. People want stuff for free. WoTC is a business, not a non-profit. They set price points at a level that will generate the most profit for the company. Whatever the ultimate price some people will happily pay the $$, some people will pay begrudgingly, and others will refuse to pay or are just unable to pay. For better or worse, that is a our capitalist system. There's no free lunch. I just hope they realize that if they price too aggressively they may limit the growth of DnD.
While your logic is sound now is the time to give input to the company on how we in the community feel about possible pricing. When I read these posts I don't see people demanding a "free lunch" or feeling entitled, I see people talking about their situations and concerns and offering their opinion about how things should be handled. Ultimately they will reveal their pricing and consumers will purchase or not. It's silly to wait to give input after they announce the pricing.
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To everyone working on DDB - you folks are AWESOME! Thank you for letting us all into your beta! To the community - thank you for being the friendliest I've ever experienced in a forum!
With the article in the latest Dragon+ issue comes some more clarity on how costs and subscriptions will work, which is great, but I'm hoping we get some more info on what happens if your subscription lapses.
For example, the free tier gets 6 character slots, whereas the Hero tier has unlimited slots - if your Hero subscription lapses for a period, do you still have your old characters, but become unable to create more until you have less than 6? Do you select 6 that you get to keep - and if so are the rest of your characters lost completely or are they recoverable once you re-subscribe?
Likewise, Hero tier is needed for publishing your homebrew and using other people's. When your subscription lapses, does your previously published homebrew stay up in the community? If you've added other people's homebrew, are you locked out of that until you re-subscribe, or can you just not add new stuff.
I go through periods of not having a group to play with/not having time to play, and during those periods it becomes hard to justify paying a subscription just to keep stuff around for when I do get to play, but equally it would be annoying to have to rebuild stuff, republish/refind homebrew, etc, once I start playing again. Obviously the lower the price, the less this is a worry, but it would be nice to get answers on this stuff.
All good questions and I can respond now at least in part.
The general rule throughout D&D Beyond is any limits will be restrictive and not destructive.
If you have a Hero subscription, create 30 characters, then choose to let the subscription lapse, the next time you log in to view your characters you will be prompted to choose which 6 characters you want to continue to use with your free access. The remaining 24 characters will still appear under your "My Characters" area, only grayed out (deactivated). At any point you can subscribe again to access those additional 24 characters - no character is ever lost.
If you have a Hero subscription, create and share public homebrew content, then choose to let the subscription lapse, all the previously-created and published homebrew content will remain available for the community. The only limitation here would be that any homebrew content that is not private (i.e. created by others and not by you) will be grayed out (deactivated) in your Homebrew Collection and you can't use that content with any new characters you create until you re-subscribe. No Homebrew Content that you share publicly is ever lost, regardless of your subscription status.
Another question: character building is mentioned a lot, but there's precious little info on the campaign management features.
Can you only create a campaign at Master tier? (If so, what happens to your campaigns when the subscription lapses?)
Or can you create a campaign at lower tiers, but not share it with others until Master? In this case you'd be able to do planning, speculation, and playing about with the tools at lower tiers, but you'd need to upgrade to actually run the campaign with others.
Campaign Management will require a good bit of explanation as to its purpose and phases as we get close to launch.
For now, a short answer is that anyone with any type of account (free, Hero, or Master) can create and manage a campaign. A campaign at launch will be a grouping of characters, where party members can see basic information about the other characters in their party (ability scores, level, race, class, etc.) and DMs can view and build with the characters. Other players will have basic "View" access, while the DM has "Edit" access to your character.
If a DM creates a campaign and subscribes at the Master Tier, she then gains access to 12 campaign content sharing slots. These slots can be used to extend invites (via a campaign URL) to players. If a player with a free account accepts an invite, he consumes a content sharing slot, and he can then utilize any of the DM's unlocked content with his character.
Much more will come for Campaign Management in future releases - this is just the starting point. You'll be able to use our upcoming stream integration through that campaign URL, for instance. We plan to add party inventory sharing (bag of holding sharing, etc.), links to encounters once the encounter builder and combat tracker get released, and so on.
Well, free tier for me unfortunately. I'd love to give $$ to Beyond for this, but I can't do monthly fees. Was hoping for a larger one-time fee option I could save up to, but indefinite fees aren't for me. :(
Well, free tier for me unfortunately. I'd love to give $$ to Beyond for this, but I can't do monthly fees. Was hoping for a larger one-time fee option I could save up to, but indefinite fees aren't for me. :(
The Dragon+ Article they're referring to also talks about the item-by-item purchase plan or the bundles that they're planning on allowing users to purchase. No sub fee needed for those and you can pick and choose what you want.
You'll lose out on the ability to have more than 6 characters at a time and you won't be able to share your unlocked content with others, but all other functions of the tools will be available for free users. Subs are more like a luxury item. :D
Yeah I get that, just sucks 'cuz I'd prefer to have Master tier access since I tend to get pegged as the DM and free tier with piecemeal purchases probably wouldn't do it for me either. Oh well!
Question: If you have a Master Tier subscription and you give the players in your campaign access-- Do they get access to all your purchased materials for any characters they make? Or will it only work with one character that they are presumably using in your campaign?
While your logic is sound now is the time to give input to the company on how we in the community feel about possible pricing. When I read these posts I don't see people demanding a "free lunch" or feeling entitled, I see people talking about their situations and concerns and offering their opinion about how things should be handled. Ultimately they will reveal their pricing and consumers will purchase or not. It's silly to wait to give input after they announce the pricing.
So, the logic is sound, but you disagree with it anyway? When you read posts of people that say they should have the digital product for free because they already bought a print product (and there are lots of those posts), how is that not entitlement? That's pretty much the definition of entitlement. If DDB was merely offering a PDF of the print materials, that would make more sense. As we have seen already, however, DDB is a huge project and is a very different product from the print material in digital form. Arguing that one should get DDB material for free because that person has already purchased the books is like buying a DVD and then complaining that there's a different price to also have the Blu-ray.
I do hope that, once pricing details are released, the one-time purchases are less expensive than the printed books. That feeling, however, is based on my understanding of the costs of printing and distributing versus the costs of hosting digital content (which will also be at least somewhat supported by the subscription costs) and not on whether or not I have the books already.
If DDB launches and I end up not subscribing or purchasing anything, it will simply be because my finances won't allow and not because I'm bitter and think that CURSE and WotC are greedy and want me to buy everything twice. Hopefully the prices are low enough that I can participate more fully, but I'm sure Bad Eye and the rest are looking over these posts carefully and are going to present a pricing model that is balanced between getting the most number of people to buy-in while still being able to pay their staff for all the work it takes to put something like this together.
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That is exactly what I wanted to hear. Depending on what type of DRM you plan to use and how I will be able to access the rulebooks will determine my ultimate purchasing decision. But rulebooks for a flat fee is what I was looking for.
I obviously have tons of questions about this that you probably cannot answer. So I'll patiently wait for the official announcement.
I ask only as my understanding of what I read is that Phase 1 will only be Basic Rules/SRD.
I have not read anything that states that will be the case for Phase II & III. If you could point where this is clarified, I would be appreciative.
-If you have the misfortune of coming across a dwarf named Morag, a half-elf that goes by Nichalaus, or their human travelling companions Sukiem-Tor, Ak'huma, Dat'Vi Bek and Doc Ryder, immediately start walking back from whence you came. You'll thank me later.
With the article in the latest Dragon+ issue comes some more clarity on how costs and subscriptions will work, which is great, but I'm hoping we get some more info on what happens if your subscription lapses.
For example, the free tier gets 6 character slots, whereas the Hero tier has unlimited slots - if your Hero subscription lapses for a period, do you still have your old characters, but become unable to create more until you have less than 6? Do you select 6 that you get to keep - and if so are the rest of your characters lost completely or are they recoverable once you re-subscribe?
Likewise, Hero tier is needed for publishing your homebrew and using other people's. When your subscription lapses, does your previously published homebrew stay up in the community? If you've added other people's homebrew, are you locked out of that until you re-subscribe, or can you just not add new stuff.
I go through periods of not having a group to play with/not having time to play, and during those periods it becomes hard to justify paying a subscription just to keep stuff around for when I do get to play, but equally it would be annoying to have to rebuild stuff, republish/refind homebrew, etc, once I start playing again. Obviously the lower the price, the less this is a worry, but it would be nice to get answers on this stuff.
Another question: character building is mentioned a lot, but there's precious little info on the campaign management features.
Can you only create a campaign at Master tier? (If so, what happens to your campaigns when the subscription lapses?)
Or can you create a campaign at lower tiers, but not share it with others until Master? In this case you'd be able to do planning, speculation, and playing about with the tools at lower tiers, but you'd need to upgrade to actually run the campaign with others.
These are two different products -- digital and print. Digital is searchable and has a lot of other features --it's also interfaced with the other services in DnDBeyond. If you want print only then buy that. If you want just digital then buy that. If you want both then buy both. I don't know why someone would be deserving of a discount for a digital version just because they bought a print version two years ago. People want stuff for free. WoTC is a business, not a non-profit. They set price points at a level that will generate the most profit for the company. Whatever the ultimate price some people will happily pay the $$, some people will pay begrudgingly, and others will refuse to pay or are just unable to pay. For better or worse, that is a our capitalist system. There's no free lunch. I just hope they realize that if they price too aggressively they may limit the growth of DnD.
While your logic is sound now is the time to give input to the company on how we in the community feel about possible pricing. When I read these posts I don't see people demanding a "free lunch" or feeling entitled, I see people talking about their situations and concerns and offering their opinion about how things should be handled. Ultimately they will reveal their pricing and consumers will purchase or not. It's silly to wait to give input after they announce the pricing.
To everyone working on DDB - you folks are AWESOME! Thank you for letting us all into your beta! To the community - thank you for being the friendliest I've ever experienced in a forum!
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D&D Beyond FoundersCampaign Management will require a good bit of explanation as to its purpose and phases as we get close to launch.
For now, a short answer is that anyone with any type of account (free, Hero, or Master) can create and manage a campaign. A campaign at launch will be a grouping of characters, where party members can see basic information about the other characters in their party (ability scores, level, race, class, etc.) and DMs can view and build with the characters. Other players will have basic "View" access, while the DM has "Edit" access to your character.
If a DM creates a campaign and subscribes at the Master Tier, she then gains access to 12 campaign content sharing slots. These slots can be used to extend invites (via a campaign URL) to players. If a player with a free account accepts an invite, he consumes a content sharing slot, and he can then utilize any of the DM's unlocked content with his character.
Much more will come for Campaign Management in future releases - this is just the starting point. You'll be able to use our upcoming stream integration through that campaign URL, for instance. We plan to add party inventory sharing (bag of holding sharing, etc.), links to encounters once the encounter builder and combat tracker get released, and so on.
Such great news. Thanks @BadEye
Well, free tier for me unfortunately. I'd love to give $$ to Beyond for this, but I can't do monthly fees. Was hoping for a larger one-time fee option I could save up to, but indefinite fees aren't for me. :(
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Yeah I get that, just sucks 'cuz I'd prefer to have Master tier access since I tend to get pegged as the DM and free tier with piecemeal purchases probably wouldn't do it for me either. Oh well!
Question: If you have a Master Tier subscription and you give the players in your campaign access-- Do they get access to all your purchased materials for any characters they make? Or will it only work with one character that they are presumably using in your campaign?
AD