Quote from Xaviercross>>

So if you buy a book digitally and you let your subscription expire, do you still have access to your books

You do not need a subscription to buy a digital copy. Once you buy a digital copy is it yours.

Quote from JRedmond >>

Quote from Celeden >>

Quote from Mehetmet >>

Quote from Celeden >>

Honestly, the pricing here makes it a flat out no from me and everyone I play with. None of us are willing to shell out again for book content we already own. A subscription I can get behind, but splat purchases and a sub? Not a chance.

 But you don't need the sub for the things in the books, you need the sub to remove ads, share your content with others, and share the content you bought with others.  You can buy the books digitally and use them without a sub.

Likewise, you can buy a sub and no books, getting the extra features of the sub without shelling the cash for the books. 

I understand that, but I also know that I would expect all of that for a subscription. I also understand why D&D Beyond would want to price this way as a seller (since they didn't get money for my book purchases), but as a customer there's very little incentive for me to buy content I already have. It's the same for future purposes - would I have to buy two lots of Xanathar's? It's just not worth it.

That's the crux of it, it's just not worth it. Far better to just charge a higher sub or at least allow that as an option.

 There is plenty of incentive, what do you mean?  If you're saying you have no need for a digital version of the content that makes it a ton easier to use then why are you here?  If you're saying you can manually recreate everything in homebrew then maybe it doesn't for you.  However most people don't have that much free time.Do 

Quote from Silverwolf75 >>

Quote from JRedmond >>

Quote from Celeden >>

Quote from Mehetmet >>

Quote from Celeden >>

Honestly, the pricing here makes it a flat out no from me and everyone I play with. None of us are willing to shell out again for book content we already own. A subscription I can get behind, but splat purchases and a sub? Not a chance.

 But you don't need the sub for the things in the books, you need the sub to remove ads, share your content with others, and share the content you bought with others.  You can buy the books digitally and use them without a sub.

Likewise, you can buy a sub and no books, getting the extra features of the sub without shelling the cash for the books. 

I understand that, but I also know that I would expect all of that for a subscription. I also understand why D&D Beyond would want to price this way as a seller (since they didn't get money for my book purchases), but as a customer there's very little incentive for me to buy content I already have. It's the same for future purposes - would I have to buy two lots of Xanathar's? It's just not worth it.

That's the crux of it, it's just not worth it. Far better to just charge a higher sub or at least allow that as an option.

 There is plenty of incentive, what do you mean?  If you're saying you have no need for a digital version of the content that makes it a ton easier to use then why are you here?  If you're saying you can manually recreate everything in homebrew then maybe it doesn't for you.  However most people don't have that much free time.Do 

Do agree with his point if it would be a 7 $ sub including all content , it would be a no brainer. ut sub + having to repurchase book makes it a lot less appealing

I'll admit that I'm really disappointed in the lack of a "Diety" subscription option for 10-15$ that would allow access to all content as it comes out (as it wouldn't be that hard to make the PDF/Digital releases same day.)

My only question at this point would be is given the heavy push for Twitch Integration how does that work with these digital options?

Is it directly linked to what you/the DM have/has purchased/homebrew? Is it based on what EVERYONE has? Cause at this point there really is no point in this given the need to rebuy something that'll likely be typed out by one person then just mass copied by everyone within...I'd bet the first month, if not the first week. So a "everything" option would really be useful to prevent the mass of "free content copying" campaigns that'll likely crop up. 

I do hope that more options come up later on cause I really like this idea but even the old 4E digital version was better than this is. 

But that's me, i'll wait for more news. 

Quote from Madclergy >>

I have read some of the comments here, and it's a bit disheartening. That being said I will say my peace and move on.

As it stands I will not be able to afford the content on here. I too was hoping there would be a 15 dollar per month sub that would allow me access to all content, but if I stopped paying then I stopped getting access. Sort of like a pay to play MMORPG. I know it may seem weird, but 15 per month is more doable than 25-50 dollars per book. 

That being said, I am happy that plans for this are moving forward. Thanks Curse!

Quote from adas >>

I think it's worth pointing out for those of us with the physical books-- With the homebrew option, we can still enter all the data ourselves from all the sourcebooks. No one is making you buy it twice. You're paying to have someone input all that data and fully integrate it with a digital toolset for you. 

In other words, you can still use your physical books with DDB.  But if you'd like someone to do the work for you to have it entered into the system, you'll pay for that service. 

They are providing the entire toolset for free. And a way to enter all your data from your books. For free. This seems reasonable to me. 

I realize there are other points of view on this matter, and I respect that. But I thought I'd share mine.

AD

P.S. As for the price point-- I suspect they've hit it right on. There will be folks who won't buy in. But I think, at these prices with this flexibility, many more will. Especially once they've integrated it with Roll20 and FG. That integration is the killer feature for me these days. Being able to port characters from an easy builder into Roll20 will save me a lot of time.

Quote from Sirdigbychknczr >>

Quote from Madclergy >>

I have read some of the comments here, and it's a bit disheartening. That being said I will say my peace and move on.

As it stands I will not be able to afford the content on here. I too was hoping there would be a 15 dollar per month sub that would allow me access to all content, but if I stopped paying then I stopped getting access. Sort of like a pay to play MMORPG. I know it may seem weird, but 15 per month is more doable than 25-50 dollars per book. 

That being said, I am happy that plans for this are moving forward. Thanks Curse!

 $15/month comes out to $180/year.

$3/month for normal level tier, $36, that leaves $144 for content..  all 3 core books are $20 ea at launch, leaves $84 for additional content.. even if you got the DM sub, you still have almost $50 for extra content left over instead of paying $15 a month.. 

 

I'm not sure the argument makes sense..

Quote from JRedmond >>

Quote from Silverwolf75 >>

Quote from JRedmond >>

Quote from Celeden >>

Quote from Mehetmet >>

Quote from Celeden >>

Honestly, the pricing here makes it a flat out no from me and everyone I play with. None of us are willing to shell out again for book content we already own. A subscription I can get behind, but splat purchases and a sub? Not a chance.

 But you don't need the sub for the things in the books, you need the sub to remove ads, share your content with others, and share the content you bought with others.  You can buy the books digitally and use them without a sub.

Likewise, you can buy a sub and no books, getting the extra features of the sub without shelling the cash for the books. 

I understand that, but I also know that I would expect all of that for a subscription. I also understand why D&D Beyond would want to price this way as a seller (since they didn't get money for my book purchases), but as a customer there's very little incentive for me to buy content I already have. It's the same for future purposes - would I have to buy two lots of Xanathar's? It's just not worth it.

That's the crux of it, it's just not worth it. Far better to just charge a higher sub or at least allow that as an option.

 There is plenty of incentive, what do you mean?  If you're saying you have no need for a digital version of the content that makes it a ton easier to use then why are you here?  If you're saying you can manually recreate everything in homebrew then maybe it doesn't for you.  However most people don't have that much free time.Do 

Do agree with his point if it would be a 7 $ sub including all content , it would be a no brainer. ut sub + having to repurchase book makes it a lot less appealing

 $7 a month for all content would be a no brainer for everyone and a horrible business decision. 

I'm a little bummed to see that it's subscription AND individual purchases... but the keyword is little.

After some thought, it's really not that bad. Especially since my group probably won't be playing with other groups, so they can all just stick to their free accounts.

I'm sorry some of you are disappointed in the pricing structure, but as someone who has followed these boards since Phase 1, I think a bunch of people were going to be mad no matter how much it costs.

No one owes me this product. I'll buy what I can when I can, if my players are on board to chip in. If not, then the books will have to suffice.

I just want to make sure I understand how the sharing aspect of the DM subscription works.

Let's say I have a Hero level account.  But I haven't paid for any of the source books.  So I only have access to the bare bones free stuff.  And then I join a campaign from a person who has a DM level account.  When they share their content with me (all the books they've paid for) I'm only going to have access to those books for the character I made for their game, right?  Not for any and all characters I have made/will make?  Essentially, you're not just giving access to an entire account?

Like, if I have two campaigns going with the same group of 5 friends and I want to share my content with them for both campaigns, that's 10 of my sharing slots, right?

Quote from filcat >>

Quote from Xaviercross>>

So if you buy a book digitally and you let your subscription expire, do you still have access to your books

You do not need a subscription to buy a digital copy. Once you buy a digital copy is it yours.

 

Will we need Master Tier subscriptions in order to access the yet-to-be-added elements of the campaign tracker?

Quote from SpeedGeek >>

Quote from filcat >>

Quote from Xaviercross>>

So if you buy a book digitally and you let your subscription expire, do you still have access to your books

You do not need a subscription to buy a digital copy. Once you buy a digital copy is it yours.

 

If the digital copy relies on the D&DB site in order to work, it's not truly purchased.  It is licensed, and that license can go away.  Those of us who purchased the online version of the game Dominion can attest to this.  I'd personally rather see D&DB stick with subscription tiers.

Quote from Sirdigbychknczr >>

Quote from Madclergy >>

I have read some of the comments here, and it's a bit disheartening. That being said I will say my peace and move on.

As it stands I will not be able to afford the content on here. I too was hoping there would be a 15 dollar per month sub that would allow me access to all content, but if I stopped paying then I stopped getting access. Sort of like a pay to play MMORPG. I know it may seem weird, but 15 per month is more doable than 25-50 dollars per book. 

That being said, I am happy that plans for this are moving forward. Thanks Curse!

 $15/month comes out to $180/year.

$3/month for normal level tier, $36, that leaves $144 for content..  all 3 core books are $20 ea at launch, leaves $84 for additional content.. even if you got the DM sub, you still have almost $50 for extra content left over instead of paying $15 a month.. 

 

I'm not sure the argument makes sense..

Quote from filcat >>

Quote from SpeedGeek >>

Quote from filcat >>

Quote from Xaviercross>>

So if you buy a book digitally and you let your subscription expire, do you still have access to your books

You do not need a subscription to buy a digital copy. Once you buy a digital copy is it yours.

 

If the digital copy relies on the D&DB site in order to work, it's not truly purchased.  It is licensed, and that license can go away.  Those of us who purchased the online version of the game Dominion can attest to this.  I'd personally rather see D&DB stick with subscription tiers.

 DDB will work offline as well.

With the multitude of things on my plate during the year, it would actually benefit me to be hit with a 1 time charge and that unlock everything slated for the upcoming year.  Give me a package of a couple hundred dollars to cover the year, and "tokens" for all the books, supplements and options that would release in the year and we are good.  But just nickle and diming me through the year is going to wear really thin.

I think a huge part of the problem is that WotC has been so stingy with digital content. No legally clear ability to get digital copies of the books without having to use services one doesn't need for table top such as Fantasy Grounds, roll20, and now apparently this has some people a bit miffed. And since Wizards has linked this as being the digital toolset for d&d 5e and not just a twitch streaming enhancer, there is some clash between expectation and reality. 

As it is, I'm happy to invest $60 for a 1 stop campaign manager (first week purchase of phb, volo, and mm- and with realization that this would truly be an investment for services that aren't available yet) but $30 for further "dlc" is a steep.

I hope the curse team is taking this as feedback and not "entitlement" - my needs and your offering apparently don't line up exactly. If you guys can address this along with your aspirations to become the digital replacement for the published materials, I can see you guys making more money - assuming this doesn't fall outside your agreement with WotC.

I want to support this platform. I really do. Beyond is off to a very promising start. But a subscription + re-purchase (at about half-price) of source materials is asking a lot. It penalizes players and DMs who have already invested in the game. As with R20 and FG, it just feels like a money grab. I was really hoping official materials access (minus the adventures) would be wrapped into a subscription. Or at the very least be offered at a substantially lower price, even if it meant committing to a longer-term subscription (e.g., $15 with a one-year sub, $10 with a two-year commitment). 

So for now, I'll likely be sticking with my current digital apps and sources.

Quote from Sedge >>

One is not 'gaining electronic access' to their previously-owned physical copies.  One is purchasing a new license for intellectual property offered in a different medium.

One does not receive a free DVD because they purchased the VHS years prior.  We all choose which medium to purchase our entertainment, knowing it can be outdated as technology advances.  :D