So when you purchase a sourcebook on D&D Beyond do you actually receive a physical copy or do you only gain access to the content on their website? Paying 30 bucks for a book I can't read anywhere and everywhere w/o power or an internet connection seems like a huge ripoff.
You have the option to purchase both a physical copy and the digital version that's built into the D&D Beyond Toolset. There is no bundling option outside of the D&D Essentials boxed set. Remember you're not _just_ buying the book but the ability to use that book with the D&D Beyond toolset. If that's not incentive for you to purchase, you have the physical option. There are no legal PDF editions of 5e. All 5e digital editions are bound to the providers tools.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
You absolutely do not need an internet connection to use the stuff on here. You do need an internet connection to download the app and the books onto your device, but once you download them, you do not need an internet connection to maintain access to them.
You still need electricity to power your device, but a good external battery will allow your phone to last at least a week. As a GM, I much rather carry my phone, external battery, and a charger, than trying to break my back lugging around a small library of books.
As others have mentioned, you are not just purchasing an ebook. You are purchasing the data integration with the digital tools as well. If you want to purchase just the ebook for reading, you can do so by buying the compendium content at a cheaper price than the full book. I can also argue that physical books are an even bigger rip off, as they do not come with any tools, and making copies of them at a printer is far more time consuming than simply downloading the webpage onto the computer or the app onto the phone. Digital information is far more resilient the physical information in my opinion, since you can simply make copies of the digital information for backup and easily transfer that information to any new device you have. If you accidentally spilt coffee onto your book or dropped the book into the toilet, you have to rebuy that book again.
Additionally, you can still integrate most of the data in your physical books manually into Beyond for FREE. If you do not want to pay money for the data integration with the digital tools, you can pay with time instead.
You absolutely do not need an internet connection to use the stuff on here. You do need an internet connection to download the app and the books onto your device, but once you download them, you do not need an internet connection to maintain access to them.
You still need electricity to power your device, but a good external battery will allow your phone to last at least a week. As a GM, I much rather carry my phone, external battery, and a charger, than trying to break my back lugging around a small library of books.
As others have mentioned, you are not just purchasing an ebook. You are purchasing the data integration with the digital tools as well. If you want to purchase just the ebook for reading, you can do so by buying the compendium content at a cheaper price than the full book. I can also argue that physical books are an even bigger rip off, as they do not come with any tools, and making copies of them at a printer is far more time consuming than simply downloading the webpage onto the computer or the app onto the phone. Digital information is far more resilient the physical information in my opinion, since you can simply make copies of the digital information for backup and easily transfer that information to any new device you have. If you accidentally spilt coffee onto your book or dropped the book into the toilet, you have to rebuy that book again.
Additionally, you can still integrate most of the data in your physical books manually into Beyond for FREE. If you do not want to pay money for the data integration with the digital tools, you can pay with time instead.
I'll echo this:
You can read and use the content offline, if you use the mobile app. Unfortunately, I don't think you can do so on desktop (yet?).
However, you are buying way more than just a digital copy of the book for the $30. If that's all you want, you can get that for much less ($20 for the PHB, for instance). For the full price you also get searchable, indexed content and integration with all the online tools (character builder, encounter builder etc). These are massively valuable, and take a large amount of development work well beyond that which WotC put into creating the content.
TBH I would love to be able to buy a bundle from DDB with both the physical book and the digital content. I would fully expect it to be ITRO $60, but being able to make one purchase would be really nice.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
So when you purchase a sourcebook on D&D Beyond do you actually receive a physical copy or do you only gain access to the content on their website? Paying 30 bucks for a book I can't read anywhere and everywhere w/o power or an internet connection seems like a huge ripoff.
It's a digital book. If you don't like digital books, don't buy them.
Hmmmm I prefer having both around, a digital and a physical copy.
You have the option to purchase both a physical copy and the digital version that's built into the D&D Beyond Toolset. There is no bundling option outside of the D&D Essentials boxed set. Remember you're not _just_ buying the book but the ability to use that book with the D&D Beyond toolset. If that's not incentive for you to purchase, you have the physical option. There are no legal PDF editions of 5e. All 5e digital editions are bound to the providers tools.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Also, dndbeyond is a different company than wizards, which makes the game. DDB needs to make their money somehow to provide this service.
Please read this thread for more information: Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
You absolutely do not need an internet connection to use the stuff on here. You do need an internet connection to download the app and the books onto your device, but once you download them, you do not need an internet connection to maintain access to them.
You still need electricity to power your device, but a good external battery will allow your phone to last at least a week. As a GM, I much rather carry my phone, external battery, and a charger, than trying to break my back lugging around a small library of books.
As others have mentioned, you are not just purchasing an ebook. You are purchasing the data integration with the digital tools as well. If you want to purchase just the ebook for reading, you can do so by buying the compendium content at a cheaper price than the full book. I can also argue that physical books are an even bigger rip off, as they do not come with any tools, and making copies of them at a printer is far more time consuming than simply downloading the webpage onto the computer or the app onto the phone. Digital information is far more resilient the physical information in my opinion, since you can simply make copies of the digital information for backup and easily transfer that information to any new device you have. If you accidentally spilt coffee onto your book or dropped the book into the toilet, you have to rebuy that book again.
Additionally, you can still integrate most of the data in your physical books manually into Beyond for FREE. If you do not want to pay money for the data integration with the digital tools, you can pay with time instead.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/licenses >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
I'll echo this:
You can read and use the content offline, if you use the mobile app. Unfortunately, I don't think you can do so on desktop (yet?).
However, you are buying way more than just a digital copy of the book for the $30. If that's all you want, you can get that for much less ($20 for the PHB, for instance). For the full price you also get searchable, indexed content and integration with all the online tools (character builder, encounter builder etc). These are massively valuable, and take a large amount of development work well beyond that which WotC put into creating the content.
TBH I would love to be able to buy a bundle from DDB with both the physical book and the digital content. I would fully expect it to be ITRO $60, but being able to make one purchase would be really nice.