"For those seeking more depth, the Hero Tier subscription is aimed primarily at players, allowing them to manage unlimited characters and share and use public homebrew community content. The most fully featured Master Tier is reserved for dedicated DMs and allows them to gain twelve campaign character slots which they use to extend invites to free player accounts. “With a Master Tier subscription, players can use all of the DM’s unlocked content for their characters,” says Bradford. “So if the DM has unlocked Volo’s Guide to Monsters, any players with free accounts that are part of the DM’s campaign can create a tabaxi sorcerer that has a gazer familiar.”
I am probably missing something. But I don't get what is in it for the DM at the Master tier. So I can pay a monthly fee and the only thing it does is let me share the content that I have purchased without the 12 characters. For my monthly fee I as the DM get nothing. No other functionality and no content. If that is all it is I can not see me paying the monthly fee. I would by books but what great advantage is it for me to pay to share that content. Just to be nice? I am already being nice by doing all the work.
IF I am understanding this correctly I would tell my players that they can use the free services and can either build characters using the SRD or if they want more options they can buy for themselves the player's handbook and any other what ever other charter options they want from the other book like the tabaxi sorcerer from Volo's Guide. How does it help me as a DM? I have no problem telling my players to buy their own stuff. The only way I could see this is if I had a group of players that all wanted to chip in to share my content, but most of my players would just want to buy the stuff themselves.
From the discriotion I just don't see much reason for players to pay for the "Player Tier" or for many DMs to pay for the "Master Tier" . For most people I know 6 characters is more than enough. You could always print a character then deleted if you needed another character and then rebuild that character if you needed it another time. I know if I were only a player I would stick with the free version and buy the player's handbook and call it good. For me as a DM I will use the free version but will buy the core books and adventures as needed. No way I am paying monthly unless there is some other amazing feature I am missing.
Don't get me wrong I think DDB is amazing. I just see any value in the monthly fee for most players or for myself.
"For those seeking more depth, the Hero Tier subscription is aimed primarily at players, allowing them to manage unlimited characters and share and use public homebrew community content. The most fully featured Master Tier is reserved for dedicated DMs and allows them to gain twelve campaign character slots which they use to extend invites to free player accounts. “With a Master Tier subscription, players can use all of the DM’s unlocked content for their characters,” says Bradford. “So if the DM has unlocked Volo’s Guide to Monsters, any players with free accounts that are part of the DM’s campaign can create a tabaxi sorcerer that has a gazer familiar.”
I am probably missing something. But I don't get what is in it for the DM at the Master tier. So I can pay a monthly fee and the only thing it does is let me share the content that I have purchased without the 12 characters. For my monthly fee I as the DM get nothing. No other functionality and no content. If that is all it is I can not see me paying the monthly fee. I would by books but what great advantage is it for me to pay to share that content. Just to be nice? I am already being nice by doing all the work.
IF I am understanding this correctly I would tell my players that they can use the free services and can either build characters using the SRD or if they want more options they can buy for themselves the player's handbook and any other what ever other charter options they want from the other book like the tabaxi sorcerer from Volo's Guide. How does it help me as a DM? I have no problem telling my players to buy their own stuff. The only way I could see this is if I had a group of players that all wanted to chip in to share my content, but most of my players would just want to buy the stuff themselves.
From the discriotion I just don't see much reason for players to pay for the "Player Tier" or for many DMs to pay for the "Master Tier" . For most people I know 6 characters is more than enough. You could always print a character then deleted if you needed another character and then rebuild that character if you needed it another time. I know if I were only a player I would stick with the free version and buy the player's handbook and call it good. For me as a DM I will use the free version but will buy the core books and adventures as needed. No way I am paying monthly unless there is some other amazing feature I am missing.
Don't get me wrong I think DDB is amazing. I just see any value in the monthly fee for most players or for myself.
Please keep in mind that full details on features and pricing has not yet been shared for either of the subscription tiers. The content sharing function of the Master Tier sub is intended to simulate the concept of a group of players "sharing books" like what happens all the time around tables already. Many folks (several in this thread even) have expressed a concern that "If my players have to buy the books also, I'll never get them to use this" or something along those lines. Content sharing for the DM is an answer for that.
Additionally, I'll bring up another quote from the article you started with that's a little further down:
"Some players will be able to do everything they want to do without a subscription, while others will find value in one of the other two subscription tiers."
If you don't want to subscribe but still want to use the tools and unlock official content to use with them, then that's a use case we have certainly planned for!
I would be willing to subscribe but the subscription would need to include content.
I don't know that the master tier simulates "sharing books". If I share a book I do not have to pay monthly to do that.
I am the kind of person who spends a lot on D&D. I have almost all the 5th ed. books (all but Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide), and I have a bunch of miniatures and Dwarven Forge terrain. I go all out. So if the master tier seems like a bad proposition to me I just wonder how many people it will attract? Where it breaks down for me is that I would be paying to let other people use my stuff. In my mind, they should be paying to use my stuff. Instead of a Netflix type model, this would be more like me buying digital movies on Amazon and them offering a subscription that let me share my movies with some number of other people. So I buy the movies and pay monthly to let other people watch for free?
Seems to me like it should be the other way around. The player tier should let players share content from up to 3 DMs (or even just one).
Please don't take this as being critical (I know that sometimes written text can come off more harsh than intended). I am truly just attempting to give feedback as to what is and is not an attractive payment model to me. Maybe I am wrong and these subscription tiers are attractive to a lot of people and I am just an outlier.
Now if there was a subscription where I got access to all D&D content and could also share with 12 characters that would be more appealing (depending on the price).
Don't worry though. I will be using DDB for years to come. I think it is amazing what will be truly free with all the SRD content. I think there are a lot of players that could play D&D for years without ever paying anything. Thanks for all your work.
I think this sounds very promising. If a DM does not want to buy all the content by himself, he can make an arrangement with his players to share the costs. It would be nice if players can make gifts to their DM though, so they can bribe their way to the epics levels.
On the other hand, if there is more to the Master Tier than just the sharing feature, than I guess that it will include some exclusive tools/features or content or both.
I am really looking forward to the release. When is the release date again? Summer is long, you know…
I do wish there was more information on what comes with every tier. Something that would be wonderful would be to include the core books as part of the subscription: PHB with the Hero tier, and PHB, DMG, and MM with the Master tier. Although, if that were the case, I'd want to also have a very clear explanation on what's "yours to keep" if you allowed the subscription to lapse.
"For those seeking more depth, the Hero Tier subscription is aimed primarily at players, allowing them to manage unlimited characters and share and use public homebrew community content. The most fully featured Master Tier is reserved for dedicated DMs and allows them to gain twelve campaign character slots which they use to extend invites to free player accounts. “With a Master Tier subscription, players can use all of the DM’s unlocked content for their characters,” says Bradford. “So if the DM has unlocked Volo’s Guide to Monsters, any players with free accounts that are part of the DM’s campaign can create a tabaxi sorcerer that has a gazer familiar.”
I am probably missing something. But I don't get what is in it for the DM at the Master tier. So I can pay a monthly fee and the only thing it does is let me share the content that I have purchased without the 12 characters. For my monthly fee I as the DM get nothing. No other functionality and no content. If that is all it is I can not see me paying the monthly fee. I would by books but what great advantage is it for me to pay to share that content. Just to be nice? I am already being nice by doing all the work.
IF I am understanding this correctly I would tell my players that they can use the free services and can either build characters using the SRD or if they want more options they can buy for themselves the player's handbook and any other what ever other charter options they want from the other book like the tabaxi sorcerer from Volo's Guide. How does it help me as a DM? I have no problem telling my players to buy their own stuff. The only way I could see this is if I had a group of players that all wanted to chip in to share my content, but most of my players would just want to buy the stuff themselves.
From the discriotion I just don't see much reason for players to pay for the "Player Tier" or for many DMs to pay for the "Master Tier" . For most people I know 6 characters is more than enough. You could always print a character then deleted if you needed another character and then rebuild that character if you needed it another time. I know if I were only a player I would stick with the free version and buy the player's handbook and call it good. For me as a DM I will use the free version but will buy the core books and adventures as needed. No way I am paying monthly unless there is some other amazing feature I am missing.
Don't get me wrong I think DDB is amazing. I just see any value in the monthly fee for most players or for myself.
Please keep in mind that full details on features and pricing has not yet been shared for either of the subscription tiers. The content sharing function of the Master Tier sub is intended to simulate the concept of a group of players "sharing books" like what happens all the time around tables already. Many folks (several in this thread even) have expressed a concern that "If my players have to buy the books also, I'll never get them to use this" or something along those lines. Content sharing for the DM is an answer for that.
Additionally, I'll bring up another quote from the article you started with that's a little further down:
"Some players will be able to do everything they want to do without a subscription, while others will find value in one of the other two subscription tiers."
If you don't want to subscribe but still want to use the tools and unlock official content to use with them, then that's a use case we have certainly planned for!
Just want to chip in that, unless my group stops playing 5e for some reason, we will be paying for a Master sub, as long as it's a price we find reasonable. And possibly chipping in together for some content.
I'm really glad to hear that we can grab some stuff from books without buying the whole book. For instance, there are a couple races I want from Volo's, but most of the book is of no real use to me. I don't use monster stat blocks as is, I just grab abilities from them, jot down their proficiencies and HD, and then fill in numbers for skills, saves, HP, attack, and damage based on those values and level. It's basically a system based on how monsters were built in 4e, because it's a stictly superior system.
ANyone, off tangent, on topic, can we buy things like;
All the monsters from an adventure, or all fey from the various books, etc.
Just the items.
Just the traps and hazards.
Thanks for so diligently satisfying our ahead-of-ourselves curiosity, btw. I know it's probably a bit of a chore, at this point.
I just don't see the math adding up. Granted that is with some assumptions. Let's say the Master tier is $10 a month so that is $120 dollars a year and $240 in two years. The only thing that players really need is a player's handbook. DDB has said that there will be discounts on the digital books so let's say the PH is $40 and for 6 players that would also be $240. So if you have 6 players with the Master tier each of you players can make 2 characters, but if they buy the books they can each make 6 characters. For the same amount of money over a two-year period, each of your players owns their own player's handbook and can maintain 6 characters, and after two years you save money every month.
For the average player, what does their character need access to beyond the PH? Also, it is nice if player's want to chip in for the master tier but who want's to keep track of that. "Pass the hat and everyone put in their $1.67 for this month." For me, it is just easier to tell everyone to buy for themselves what they want to use. Then I don't have to worry if someone is not paying their share. If my players don't want to buy the PH that is fine too. They will be able to make a wide range of characters from just the SRD material.
For me, as the DM I plan to use the free tier and buy the 3 core books and maybe whatever adventure I am running (if I am running an official adventurer). If the only thing the Master tier does is let you share material I would not even pay $5 a month.
As a note: Don't forget about homebrew content. The community will be (theoretically) constantly adding material that a master tier subscriber will be able to share with their free tier players. That in itself would save all six (or twelve) of the players from having to subscribe to get access to those homebrew spells, archetypes, sub-races, etc.
As a note: Don't forget about homebrew content. The community will be (theoretically) constantly adding material that a master tier subscriber will be able to share with their free tier players. That in itself would save all six (or twelve) of the players from having to subscribe to get access to those homebrew spells, archetypes, sub-races, etc.
So only with the Master tier you can access other people's homebrew content? I have not seen or heard it stated anywhere that you need to subscribe to have access to homebrew content. In fact in the Dragon article, it says " Players can make that content (homebrew) public and share it with the community." It says nothing about being limited to the Master tier. The same goes for the interview on Dragon Talk. It sounds like anyone (subscription or no) can add public content to their "homebrew collection". So your players would not need you to share it with them as they can get it themselves without any subscription. At least that is my understanding from what I have read and listened to.
As a note: Don't forget about homebrew content. The community will be (theoretically) constantly adding material that a master tier subscriber will be able to share with their free tier players. That in itself would save all six (or twelve) of the players from having to subscribe to get access to those homebrew spells, archetypes, sub-races, etc.
So only with the Master tier you can access other people's homebrew content? I have not seen or heard it stated anywhere that you need to subscribe to have access to homebrew content. In fact in the Dragon article, it says " Players can make that content (homebrew) public and share it with the community." It says nothing about being limited to the Master tier. The same goes for the interview on Dragon Talk. It sounds like anyone (subscription or no) can add public content to their "homebrew collection". So your players would not need you to share it with them as they can get it themselves without any subscription. At least that is my understanding from what I have read and listened to.
You need at least the 1st subscription level (player level) to access public homebrew. Free users can create their own and share it with others in their campaign, but only player level and master level will be able to share "public" homebrew content with their campaign. Because only those two levels will be able to download and upload public homebrew content.
This if tough as I'm willing to pay something, but I'm not going to pay for digital content I have in hard copy format. And I don't feel like I'll be using the service if I do, even if they try the whole "only pay for what you want", I already have and if you the digital service doesn't account for that I'm not going to be that happy about it.
The only way I'll get on board is if you can access digital content you've already paid for through some sort of code I guess. Not sure how they could really do that, but from my perspective that's what they're up against.
This if tough as I'm willing to pay something, but I'm not going to pay for digital content I have in hard copy format. And I don't feel like I'll be using the service if I do, even if they try the whole "only pay for what you want", I already have and if you the digital service doesn't account for that I'm not going to be that happy about it.
The only way I'll get on board is if you can access digital content you've already paid for through some sort of code I guess. Not sure how they could really do that, but from my perspective that's what they're up against.
Its been said 1000s of times but they have no way to know what you have purchased and its unlikely to be up to curse to decide so knowing what wotc have been doing with other licensed stuff its very unlikely the books content will be anything other than RRP.
As a note: Don't forget about homebrew content. The community will be (theoretically) constantly adding material that a master tier subscriber will be able to share with their free tier players. That in itself would save all six (or twelve) of the players from having to subscribe to get access to those homebrew spells, archetypes, sub-races, etc.
So only with the Master tier you can access other people's homebrew content? I have not seen or heard it stated anywhere that you need to subscribe to have access to homebrew content. In fact in the Dragon article, it says " Players can make that content (homebrew) public and share it with the community." It says nothing about being limited to the Master tier. The same goes for the interview on Dragon Talk. It sounds like anyone (subscription or no) can add public content to their "homebrew collection". So your players would not need you to share it with them as they can get it themselves without any subscription. At least that is my understanding from what I have read and listened to.
You need at least the 1st subscription level (player level) to access public homebrew. Free users can create their own and share it with others in their campaign, but only player level and master level will be able to share "public" homebrew content with their campaign. Because only those two levels will be able to download and upload public homebrew content.
That's interesting. I had never read that anywhere. At least it is a distinctive feature for those willing to pay a monthly subscription. For me personally it's still not a feature I'm willing to pay a monthly fee for but I could see that having value for other people. Although because it requires a subscription to be able to share your homebrew content with the public and sharing that content is optional that will most likely severely limit the amount of that content available. I guess we will see. Are there any other advantages to the subscription levels that you know of? You obviously have inside knowledge.
I just don't see the math adding up. Granted that is with some assumptions. Let's say the Master tier is $10 a month so that is $120 dollars a year and $240 in two years. The only thing that players really need is a player's handbook. DDB has said that there will be discounts on the digital books so let's say the PH is $40 and for 6 players that would also be $240. So if you have 6 players with the Master tier each of you players can make 2 characters, but if they buy the books they can each make 6 characters. For the same amount of money over a two-year period, each of your players owns their own player's handbook and can maintain 6 characters, and after two years you save money every month.
For the average player, what does their character need access to beyond the PH? Also, it is nice if player's want to chip in for the master tier but who want's to keep track of that. "Pass the hat and everyone put in their $1.67 for this month." For me, it is just easier to tell everyone to buy for themselves what they want to use. Then I don't have to worry if someone is not paying their share. If my players don't want to buy the PH that is fine too. They will be able to make a wide range of characters from just the SRD material.
For me, as the DM I plan to use the free tier and buy the 3 core books and maybe whatever adventure I am running (if I am running an official adventurer). If the only thing the Master tier does is let you share material I would not even pay $5 a month.
Offering a Player's Handbook for $40 is unreasonable, when you can buy one on Amazon for $29.97. If you're going to sell me a digital Player's Handbook that forever locked in D&D Beyond, you might get $15 out of me, max. If that Player's Handbook requires I have Internet access to view it at all times, then we have a deal breaker. If you're going to sell me a PDF or HTML Player's Handbook I can use anywhere, then we have an interesting product that's worth more to me.
I just don't see the math adding up. Granted that is with some assumptions. Let's say the Master tier is $10 a month so that is $120 dollars a year and $240 in two years. The only thing that players really need is a player's handbook. DDB has said that there will be discounts on the digital books so let's say the PH is $40 and for 6 players that would also be $240. So if you have 6 players with the Master tier each of you players can make 2 characters, but if they buy the books they can each make 6 characters. For the same amount of money over a two-year period, each of your players owns their own player's handbook and can maintain 6 characters, and after two years you save money every month.
For the average player, what does their character need access to beyond the PH? Also, it is nice if player's want to chip in for the master tier but who want's to keep track of that. "Pass the hat and everyone put in their $1.67 for this month." For me, it is just easier to tell everyone to buy for themselves what they want to use. Then I don't have to worry if someone is not paying their share. If my players don't want to buy the PH that is fine too. They will be able to make a wide range of characters from just the SRD material.
For me, as the DM I plan to use the free tier and buy the 3 core books and maybe whatever adventure I am running (if I am running an official adventurer). If the only thing the Master tier does is let you share material I would not even pay $5 a month.
Offering a Player's Handbook for $40 is unreasonable, when you can buy one on Amazon for $29.97. If you're going to sell me a digital Player's Handbook that forever locked in D&D Beyond, you might get $15 out of me, max. If that Player's Handbook requires I have Internet access to view it at all times, then we have a deal breaker. If you're going to sell me a PDF or HTML Player's Handbook I can use anywhere, then we have an interesting product that's worth more to me.
They have already said that at some point content will be available offline but likely not at launch. I agree that $40 seems high with Amazon selling the book for $30 but I was erring on the high side. I think $25 for a digital version would be best and $30 max, but I don't know how much they have to give to WotC.
This if tough as I'm willing to pay something, but I'm not going to pay for digital content I have in hard copy format. And I don't feel like I'll be using the service if I do, even if they try the whole "only pay for what you want", I already have and if you the digital service doesn't account for that I'm not going to be that happy about it.
The only way I'll get on board is if you can access digital content you've already paid for through some sort of code I guess. Not sure how they could really do that, but from my perspective that's what they're up against.
Its been said 1000s of times but they have no way to know what you have purchased and its unlikely to be up to curse to decide so knowing what wotc have been doing with other licensed stuff its very unlikely the books content will be anything other than RRP.
There should be a way to buy a digital license. You buy the book. You go to WoTC and upload a receipt or do some other proof of purchase and this adds the book to your digital locker. Or the retailer does it at time of purchase. You then log in to Roll20, D&D Beyond or whatever site you're using. You then link your WoTC account and the third party site knows what you own and gives you access to it.
This if tough as I'm willing to pay something, but I'm not going to pay for digital content I have in hard copy format. And I don't feel like I'll be using the service if I do, even if they try the whole "only pay for what you want", I already have and if you the digital service doesn't account for that I'm not going to be that happy about it.
The only way I'll get on board is if you can access digital content you've already paid for through some sort of code I guess. Not sure how they could really do that, but from my perspective that's what they're up against.
Its been said 1000s of times but they have no way to know what you have purchased and its unlikely to be up to curse to decide so knowing what wotc have been doing with other licensed stuff its very unlikely the books content will be anything other than RRP.
There should be a way to buy a digital license. You buy the book. You go to WoTC and upload a receipt or do some other proof of purchase and this adds the book to your digital locker. Or the retailer does it at time of purchase. You then log in to Roll20, D&D Beyond or whatever site you're using. You then link your WoTC account and the third party site knows what you own and gives you access to it.
And how do the third party companies that run those services make any money? They are not being paid by WotC to make this stuff. They are paying WotC to use the license. That would be like saying if I bought the Player's Handbook digitally from Roll20, or DDB I should then be able to get a physical copy from Amazon.
I just don't see the math adding up. Granted that is with some assumptions. Let's say the Master tier is $10 a month so that is $120 dollars a year and $240 in two years. The only thing that players really need is a player's handbook. DDB has said that there will be discounts on the digital books so let's say the PH is $40 and for 6 players that would also be $240. So if you have 6 players with the Master tier each of you players can make 2 characters, but if they buy the books they can each make 6 characters. For the same amount of money over a two-year period, each of your players owns their own player's handbook and can maintain 6 characters, and after two years you save money every month.
For the average player, what does their character need access to beyond the PH? Also, it is nice if player's want to chip in for the master tier but who want's to keep track of that. "Pass the hat and everyone put in their $1.67 for this month." For me, it is just easier to tell everyone to buy for themselves what they want to use. Then I don't have to worry if someone is not paying their share. If my players don't want to buy the PH that is fine too. They will be able to make a wide range of characters from just the SRD material.
For me, as the DM I plan to use the free tier and buy the 3 core books and maybe whatever adventure I am running (if I am running an official adventurer). If the only thing the Master tier does is let you share material I would not even pay $5 a month.
Offering a Player's Handbook for $40 is unreasonable, when you can buy one on Amazon for $29.97. If you're going to sell me a digital Player's Handbook that forever locked in D&D Beyond, you might get $15 out of me, max. If that Player's Handbook requires I have Internet access to view it at all times, then we have a deal breaker. If you're going to sell me a PDF or HTML Player's Handbook I can use anywhere, then we have an interesting product that's worth more to me.
They have already said that at some point content will be available offline but likely not at launch. I agree that $40 seems high with Amazon selling the book for $30 but I was erring on the high side. I think $25 for a digital version would be best and $30 max, but I don't know how much they have to give to WotC.
I didn't catch that they'd said offline availability wouldn't be there at launch. That worries me a tiny bit, from the perspective of how such things have worked out with other services as an added feature, but being owned by twitch, I'm not too worried. They likely have the backing needed to be able to say, "Hey, parent company, we need to not make much money for a couple months while we work overtime on this thing that will make the product dramatically more useful and thus profitable." Twitch is definately aware of how popular DnD is right now, and how much people want this product. I've been watching Critical Role, and every other session I think about how much quicker something would resolve if they had DNDBeyond open on a tablet to look up that spell, or whatever.
But anyway, Yeah, I'd pay 30$ for a digital PHB, maybe. Possibly also the MM, although I also kinda plan on making a beastiery of my own that is a little more strongly structured, with 4e style enemy roles that, combined with level, determine HD, proficiency bonus, damage values, etc. Because I think 5e CR is barely better than not having a guide post at all. :D
The nice thing is that there is not much you need to buy to make DDB extremely useful. It is very useful with just the SRD content. Shoot, for most people if they get the player's handbook they have access to all the player options they ever really need. Even as the DM I think all I need is the PH and the MM. I have the physical DM guide and I read through it but I never use it. So let's say the books are $40 (ya kind of high) but that means for $80 I can use DDB for as long as it exists and never pay another penny. Does not sound bad to me. Sure I might buy the occasional adventure (depending on how well they are implemented), but that is not necessary. I love that the subscription is really only for the hardest of hardcore D&D players/DMs. Sure I will have to rebuy a couple books but if it makes my life better as a DM and for my players it will be worth it. If you don't want to rebuy the books just use the free content. That is what I am going to tell my players.
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"For those seeking more depth, the Hero Tier subscription is aimed primarily at players, allowing them to manage unlimited characters and share and use public homebrew community content. The most fully featured Master Tier is reserved for dedicated DMs and allows them to gain twelve campaign character slots which they use to extend invites to free player accounts. “With a Master Tier subscription, players can use all of the DM’s unlocked content for their characters,” says Bradford. “So if the DM has unlocked Volo’s Guide to Monsters, any players with free accounts that are part of the DM’s campaign can create a tabaxi sorcerer that has a gazer familiar.”
I am probably missing something. But I don't get what is in it for the DM at the Master tier. So I can pay a monthly fee and the only thing it does is let me share the content that I have purchased without the 12 characters. For my monthly fee I as the DM get nothing. No other functionality and no content. If that is all it is I can not see me paying the monthly fee. I would by books but what great advantage is it for me to pay to share that content. Just to be nice? I am already being nice by doing all the work.
IF I am understanding this correctly I would tell my players that they can use the free services and can either build characters using the SRD or if they want more options they can buy for themselves the player's handbook and any other what ever other charter options they want from the other book like the tabaxi sorcerer from Volo's Guide. How does it help me as a DM? I have no problem telling my players to buy their own stuff. The only way I could see this is if I had a group of players that all wanted to chip in to share my content, but most of my players would just want to buy the stuff themselves.
From the discriotion I just don't see much reason for players to pay for the "Player Tier" or for many DMs to pay for the "Master Tier" . For most people I know 6 characters is more than enough. You could always print a character then deleted if you needed another character and then rebuild that character if you needed it another time. I know if I were only a player I would stick with the free version and buy the player's handbook and call it good. For me as a DM I will use the free version but will buy the core books and adventures as needed. No way I am paying monthly unless there is some other amazing feature I am missing.
Don't get me wrong I think DDB is amazing. I just see any value in the monthly fee for most players or for myself.
Sounds like that could make for an interesting poll. What subscription tier are you going with when DDB goes live?
Hmmm - Could be fun to watch.
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D&D Beyond FoundersI would be willing to subscribe but the subscription would need to include content.
I don't know that the master tier simulates "sharing books". If I share a book I do not have to pay monthly to do that.
I am the kind of person who spends a lot on D&D. I have almost all the 5th ed. books (all but Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide), and I have a bunch of miniatures and Dwarven Forge terrain. I go all out. So if the master tier seems like a bad proposition to me I just wonder how many people it will attract? Where it breaks down for me is that I would be paying to let other people use my stuff. In my mind, they should be paying to use my stuff. Instead of a Netflix type model, this would be more like me buying digital movies on Amazon and them offering a subscription that let me share my movies with some number of other people. So I buy the movies and pay monthly to let other people watch for free?
Seems to me like it should be the other way around. The player tier should let players share content from up to 3 DMs (or even just one).
Please don't take this as being critical (I know that sometimes written text can come off more harsh than intended). I am truly just attempting to give feedback as to what is and is not an attractive payment model to me. Maybe I am wrong and these subscription tiers are attractive to a lot of people and I am just an outlier.
Now if there was a subscription where I got access to all D&D content and could also share with 12 characters that would be more appealing (depending on the price).
Don't worry though. I will be using DDB for years to come. I think it is amazing what will be truly free with all the SRD content. I think there are a lot of players that could play D&D for years without ever paying anything. Thanks for all your work.
I think this sounds very promising. If a DM does not want to buy all the content by himself, he can make an arrangement with his players to share the costs. It would be nice if players can make gifts to their DM though, so they can bribe their way to the epics levels.
On the other hand, if there is more to the Master Tier than just the sharing feature, than I guess that it will include some exclusive tools/features or content or both.
I am really looking forward to the release. When is the release date again? Summer is long, you know…
I do wish there was more information on what comes with every tier. Something that would be wonderful would be to include the core books as part of the subscription: PHB with the Hero tier, and PHB, DMG, and MM with the Master tier. Although, if that were the case, I'd want to also have a very clear explanation on what's "yours to keep" if you allowed the subscription to lapse.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
I just don't see the math adding up. Granted that is with some assumptions. Let's say the Master tier is $10 a month so that is $120 dollars a year and $240 in two years. The only thing that players really need is a player's handbook. DDB has said that there will be discounts on the digital books so let's say the PH is $40 and for 6 players that would also be $240. So if you have 6 players with the Master tier each of you players can make 2 characters, but if they buy the books they can each make 6 characters. For the same amount of money over a two-year period, each of your players owns their own player's handbook and can maintain 6 characters, and after two years you save money every month.
For the average player, what does their character need access to beyond the PH? Also, it is nice if player's want to chip in for the master tier but who want's to keep track of that. "Pass the hat and everyone put in their $1.67 for this month." For me, it is just easier to tell everyone to buy for themselves what they want to use. Then I don't have to worry if someone is not paying their share. If my players don't want to buy the PH that is fine too. They will be able to make a wide range of characters from just the SRD material.
For me, as the DM I plan to use the free tier and buy the 3 core books and maybe whatever adventure I am running (if I am running an official adventurer). If the only thing the Master tier does is let you share material I would not even pay $5 a month.
As a note: Don't forget about homebrew content. The community will be (theoretically) constantly adding material that a master tier subscriber will be able to share with their free tier players. That in itself would save all six (or twelve) of the players from having to subscribe to get access to those homebrew spells, archetypes, sub-races, etc.
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This if tough as I'm willing to pay something, but I'm not going to pay for digital content I have in hard copy format. And I don't feel like I'll be using the service if I do, even if they try the whole "only pay for what you want", I already have and if you the digital service doesn't account for that I'm not going to be that happy about it.
The only way I'll get on board is if you can access digital content you've already paid for through some sort of code I guess. Not sure how they could really do that, but from my perspective that's what they're up against.
We do bones, motherf***ker!
The nice thing is that there is not much you need to buy to make DDB extremely useful. It is very useful with just the SRD content. Shoot, for most people if they get the player's handbook they have access to all the player options they ever really need. Even as the DM I think all I need is the PH and the MM. I have the physical DM guide and I read through it but I never use it. So let's say the books are $40 (ya kind of high) but that means for $80 I can use DDB for as long as it exists and never pay another penny. Does not sound bad to me. Sure I might buy the occasional adventure (depending on how well they are implemented), but that is not necessary. I love that the subscription is really only for the hardest of hardcore D&D players/DMs. Sure I will have to rebuy a couple books but if it makes my life better as a DM and for my players it will be worth it. If you don't want to rebuy the books just use the free content. That is what I am going to tell my players.