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Echoing what someone said earlier, think about entering the entire Monster Manual into the homebrew section. Every single monster. There's, what, like over 400 individual stat blocks? Is someone typing all 400+ stat blocks into the homebrew section worth $20 of effort? (With US minimum wage that's less than 3 hours of labor. You can bet it would take a lot longer than 3 hours to enter 400+ stat blocks!!) Now do that with every spell. Or turning every single class ability into information that a computer can parse and understand.
For comparison, I'm going to take my family to see a movie this weekend (Valerian!! Can't wait!! *ahem* anyway...). Even going to a matinee showing and using reusable popcorn buckets, there's a good chance that one movie will cost more than the $60 for all 3 core rulebooks. As much as I love going to movies, the entertainment value and usefulness of what D&D Beyond offers in making that data usable is vastly greater and longer term than watching that movie will be.
Although I see many making the distinction, people need to remember that being disappointed that something isn't affordable to you doesn't mean that the price isn't fair. They are two very different issues. And with that, the defenders need to realize that someone voicing disappointment in not being able to afford it is different than those who say they "should not have to pay for the same thing twice."
(Hmm... the VHS/DVD analogy is a bad one, a better one might be comparing buying groceries to eating at a fancy restaurant. Because I can buy a cheap steak at the grocery store, why should I pay a world class chef more? Or if I bought a raw steak at the grocery store, should the chef prepare the meal for free?? I dunno. Analogies are weird.)
As a GM I would have to buy at least the 3 core rulebooks before taking the most benefit of using this site for running games. (EDIT: To be honest, I think I could start with a full Monster Manual and Player's Handbook and add extra magic itens as necessary via homebrew, so this point was a little exaggerated). Splitting the cost with my group is not an option to me. $60 at lauch or $90 for content I already have access is pretty high for me.I know it was a lot a work. But as a consumer I think the marginal value of having access to the information I already have in a more convenient format is not enough to justify the full price. This is not entitlement. It is just my subjective and imediatle avaliation of a product value. It just happens that I care enought to leave my feedback.
The other negative point I see is that the GM tools are pretty barebones right now. No GM notes management, no combat tracker. Yes one can easily look at character sheets, monster stats, spells etc... Thats valuable. But for a product that most of the time will see suport from GM's, (I have no data but I believe that most of the time GMs buy most of the books in a rpg group), it needs to provide a stellar GM experience.
I will not jump at lauch, but will look foward for new features and book sales.
It amazes me that people believe splitting this hair actually matters.
The end result is that you're paying more for D&D. You're also paying again for the same D&D you've always played. In new clothes, but the same D&D.
The only thing that matters is whether paying the same price you paid for the PHB again for the content in the PHB has enough extra value to you to warrant buying the service. It's clear that opinions vary on that one.
My personal opinion is that it's a false choice; a more deft approach to pricing would allow for DDB to make the same amount of money without it feeling bad for players.
One thing that ocurred to me now is that I don't care about the DMG in digital format.
All I want is the complete list of magic itens.
The same thing fo VGtM, SCAG, etc...
I already have the hardcovers, so I only care for the monsters and char options.
This can be a game changer to me, depending upon how wil they bundle those things...
This would be fantastic! I love all the tools you guys are giving us, but my wallet is in tears.
The thing I think a lot of people are missing is that no one is EXPECTING or FORCING anyone to pay for anything they have already bought multiple times.
If you already use r20 or FG and are happy with those products, you are likely not the target customer for this product. I'm not familiar with those platforms, but I assume they offer a similar level of searchability and convenience as DDB. Complaining about DDB is like complaining about a store selling shirts because you already own shirts. Other people might need or just want those shirts. If you don't need or want the shirt or can't afford a new shirt, you don't need to poke your head in the door and shout at the employees and other customers about it.
If you already own the books, well yeah, they do expect you to pay for the new platform for that content. You aren't being forced to buy it, as the books still work as well as they always have by themselves, but the new platform provides convenience. And as other people have exhaustingly said over and over again, you can always pay nothing and put in the work and add everything from your books as homebrew and still get the same end benefits of the new platform.
If your financial situation doesn't allow you to buy new products to aide in your gaming experience, that's unfortunate and I'm sorry for your misfortune. I am not trying trying to be too condescending, but it does get frustrating following this thread and seeing people who don't care to read what's already been discussed ad nauseam chime in with silly complaints or defiant stances that are now honestly obsolete.
I'm confused: does subscribing unlock everything (Core + Adventurers)? Or do you have to purchase them, then subscribe to actually use them? What if you purchase but don't subscribe?
As many before have stated, I've already purchased physical copies of the core books and I refuse to pay a penny more for material, until possibly an unearthed arcana bit that's debatable, and if this site requires money to use, this account will just sit. Period.
For my attack I will throw my spear...two handed...for 1d8...
So basically, extra content is bought with one-time fees. Extra site functionality is bought with subscriptions.
Does that help?
Edit to add: To answer your specific question - if you purchase but do not subscribe, you get that content and full access to it. You will just have ads, fewer (4?) character slots, and no access to community created homebrew content. But you will have, and continue to have, full access to the information in every book you purchased, and anything you personally enter into the homebrew section. (At least if I understand this correctly.)
Edited again to clarify about adding your own homebrew (2 added bit in italics). Thanks for the catch, Haioboy1989!