It's not a complaint, its a statement. This is not how things work out in reality. What Wizards creates is the haves and the have nots. These youth then are unable to play with with those with all the rules. Sure if they stay in their own segregation lane they have no issues. If they play with rich players they are ******.

Your entire post was basically "stay in your lane"

I am going to propose a solution. If someone is never ever going to be able buy these products. Offer everything for free.

Quote from deathmolor >>

It's not a complaint, its a statement. This is not how things work out in reality.

I'm sorry to hear that's been your experience, and I'm sorry that you've been blindsided by a hobby or toy costing money.

As Dungeons and Dragons is a cooperative experience for players, and you're concerned about the divide between 'rich' and 'poor' players, I would recommend talking with them about the value of working together.  Your 'rich' kid only benefits from sharing his books with the 'poor' kids.  Certainly, there are people in my group who haven't been fortunate enough to buy much of the material, but because this is a cooperative experience, the other players have no problem sharing with them. 

We used to be able to buy three books and play. And that was extremely expensive but now we have people demanding you pay hundred of dollars when people struggle to keep food on the table.

It still is that way.  Even if you're not satisfied with the free Basic Rules, the core three books (PHB, DMG, MM) are available on Amazon for less about 30 USD each.  That's about as much as I remember paying for the core books 15 years ago.  If you're not satisfied with the free rules, invest 90 dollars for a set of books for your group to share.

I assume you're citing the 'hundreds of dollars' looking at D&D Beyond's Marketplace for either the Legendary Bundle (which has all the material) for ~600 USD which contains some 27 full books worth of material and a significant amount of 'auxiliary content' like A Grung Above and Locathah Rising.  Its worth noting that the Sourcebook Bundle is only ~300 USD and contains everything except published adventures.  

I understand that sounds like a lot, especially if you're thinking about the simpler, older times.  Like, perhaps, 3rd edition, which was a lot cheaper, right? Except. . . if you tried to buy all the books for 3rd edition, of which there were more than 60, even if you only paid 20 bucks each for them, you'd easily spend 1200 USD.

In my first game back in college, not everyone had the money to buy all three core books either, so what we did was just share a few copies among all of us and it worked fairly well. You still really only need the PHB, DMG, and I wouldn't even say you *need* the monster manual since many monster stats can be found online for free.

Even now, my groups rarely use adventure modules not only because people don't always want to pay extra for them, but because we find that homebrew settings and campaigns allow for more freedom and creativity. 

I hope that helps! 

Please note if your players only want a few things from expanded rules they can either homebrew it or pay 1.99 for just that piece.  DnD and in fact all hobbies have a price point and tools for those that want a little more.  DnD is way more accessible for people to play for free and improve their game economically.  I spent my college years really struggling to buy books to play and for a decade buying very little but still playing.

Quote from deathmolor >>

It's not a complaint, its a statement. This is not how things work out in reality. What Wizards creates is the haves and the have nots. These youth then are unable to play with with those with all the rules. Sure if they stay in their own segregation lane they have no issues. If they play with rich players they are ******.

 If they play with the rich players they generally will get access to whatever content is being allowed for the game.  This is especially true if they're using this site for their campaign, where the content sharing features automate the sharing.

Quote from Ursus_the_Grim >>

Quote from deathmolor >>

It's not a complaint, its a statement. This is not how things work out in reality.

 

I'm sorry to hear that's been your experience, and I'm sorry that you've been blindsided by a hobby or toy costing money.

As Dungeons and Dragons is a cooperative experience for players, and you're concerned about the divide between 'rich' and 'poor' players, I would recommend talking with them about the value of working together.  Your 'rich' kid only benefits from sharing his books with the 'poor' kids.  Certainly, there are people in my group who haven't been fortunate enough to buy much of the material, but because this is a cooperative experience, the other players have no problem sharing with them. 

We used to be able to buy three books and play. And that was extremely expensive but now we have people demanding you pay hundred of dollars when people struggle to keep food on the table.

 

It still is that way.  Even if you're not satisfied with the free Basic Rules, the core three books (PHB, DMG, MM) are available on Amazon for less about 30 USD each.  That's about as much as I remember paying for the core books 15 years ago.  If you're not satisfied with the free rules, invest 90 dollars for a set of books for your group to share.

I assume you're citing the 'hundreds of dollars' looking at D&D Beyond's Marketplace for either the Legendary Bundle (which has all the material) for ~600 USD which contains some 27 full books worth of material and a significant amount of 'auxiliary content' like A Grung Above and Locathah Rising.  Its worth noting that the Sourcebook Bundle is only ~300 USD and contains everything except published adventures.  

I understand that sounds like a lot, especially if you're thinking about the simpler, older times.  Like, perhaps, 3rd edition, which was a lot cheaper, right? Except. . . if you tried to buy all the books for 3rd edition, of which there were more than 60, even if you only paid 20 bucks each for them, you'd easily spend 1200 USD.

 Again your post melts down to "stay in your lane.". I think you need to start over.

Quote from V2Blast >>

Well, first of all, D&D Beyond is not run by Wizards of the Coast (WotC) - it's owned by Fandom, which is an entirely different company. D&D Beyond (DDB) has a licensing agreement with WotC to distribute their content. They can't just distribute WotC's paid content for free.

Secondly, Stormknight already pointed out that the D&D 5e basic rules are free. The game is totally playable without spending a single cent. The books simply add additional content on top of what's already available for free. If you can't afford them, you can still play using the free content in the basic rules/SRD, or homebrew whatever content you want yourself.

Thirdly, the concept of paying money for books is not "racially discriminating". If that's your sole criterion for racial discrimination, literally everything that's not free is "racially discriminating". It's certainly not "segregation", and frankly it's quite offensive to compare the inability to get a luxury product for free to the systemic separation of people along racial lines in daily life.

 Ya I don't need a strawman and the issue still remains.

Quote from Mehrkat >>

Please note if your players only want a few things from expanded rules they can either homebrew it or pay 1.99 for just that piece.  DnD and in fact all hobbies have a price point and tools for those that want a little more.  DnD is way more accessible for people to play for free and improve their game economically.  I spent my college years really struggling to buy books to play and for a decade buying very little but still playing.

 I did notice micro transactions for things like a race that has a 20 word write up that I could write as an original document myself but other players insist it is available in this platform for them to use for some unknown reason. Which again is classism discrimination and racism all rolled into one. It really turned my stomach when I was confronted with this. My GM said flat out said "pay for a race". I don't blame him, i come here and find out you pay for races.

All the content can be self-created as private homebrew through D&D Beyond's homebrew creation system.  The developers enter the official content the same way users enter homebrew content.  All that is being sold is the convenience of having it done for you.  "Convenience," costs money - as a nod to what you've inferred previously, this is how things work out in reality.  If one desires to recreate the entire sourcebook via the homebrew system, it is entirely possible and will function to the same effect.

Over the past three years, D&D Beyond has proved to be a great supporter of youth programs and schools, offering content bundles at no cost to promote the ideals and opportunities you have depicted.  I have myself assisted with connecting youth groups to the proper parties here to obtain these beneficial resources.  It's a bit concerning to have these pretty large assumptions posted without any insight into what D&D Beyond or Wizards of the Coast is doing to support the community.

As a final thought, please don't confuse or inject race as the pivot point when describing 'poor vs rich' comparisons.  I understand the scenario being painted, but the pigment in our skin is not the determining factor of financial or economic status.

Go to the public library and get a free library card then check out the books you want access to.  All of the branches in my area have multiple copies of the core books and some of the other additional books as well. 

The free basic rule set is more than ample to allow you to play with, and as others have noted you can simply homebrew if you want anything additional you don't wish to pay for.  Or do what I've done for my students who wanted to play D&D but didn't have the means to really buy anything, I sponsored the gaming club and I provided the resources for us to play.  Yes I could have played with them with just the base rules but I already had access to more content by being a player myself so I shared it with them.  If you're working with a youth program as you seem to state, and you truly don't think you can play with just the basic rules have the coordinator/sponsor/director spend the $90 on the three core books.  That's a very minimal cost and is far less than most other programs you would try to run.  If that's still not doable a letter explaining your program and your goals written to Wizards of the Coast, they have been very generous to me and the schools I've worked in.  

I fail to see your logic behind making this a racial or socio-economic issue.  So since you heard a song on the radio should you now get a free copy of the album too or is that also racism and discrimination?  

Take a different tone and approach and I think you'll find there are a great number of people who would be willing to help your cause.

I'm confused. Is the problem that the free content is not free enough or that the non-free content costs money?

D&D has always cost money for the books, but 5e changes things by releasing more than enough content to start playing for free. This is a strict improvement over the past.

Or is the problem now that playable races are called races? I think you are making up problems to be mad at. D&D has always had races, at least now every race can be any class. Yet another thing that is strictly improved from the past.

I don't speak for WotC, but I'm sure they share this sentiment: I'm sorry the most available and most progressive version of this game that has ever existed is not as available or progressive as you want it to be.

Have you tried your local library?  I know the last 2 towns I have lived in both had libraries with DND books.  Also, try using 2nd hand book stores especially the big ones like BAM/2nd and charles you can get put on a list to be called when one of them gets traded in.  I scored several 5e titles for less than 20 bucks each.

I'm going to start a racism/class war against Ferrari, for not issuing free Ferraris to everyone who wants one!

I'm being flippant, obviously, but Ferrari don't give away free cars to those who can't afford them.

WotC give out enough free materials so that anyone, anywhere can play for free.  You don't need the extras to play, but if your rich friends have everything and insist you must have them to play, then ask them to share.  (Just like WotC have done so with their free rules)

Quote from deathmolor >>

It's not a complaint, its a statement. This is not how things work out in reality. What Wizards creates is the haves and the have nots. These youth then are unable to play with with those with all the rules. Sure if they stay in their own segregation lane they have no issues. If they play with rich players they are ******.

 I think your reality is just different than that of many other people.  i have never once seen or even heard of this issue.  "oh, you can't afford enough books, you can't play with us!" i just don't see it. 

and since when did 'rich people' (define that how you want) hang out with 'poor people' (also define that as you want) but only if they all the same D&D books?

Quote from CharlesThePlant >>

In my first game back in college, not everyone had the money to buy all three core books either, so what we did was just share a few copies among all of us and it worked fairly well. You still really only need the PHB, DMG, and I wouldn't even say you *need* the monster manual since many monster stats can be found online for free.

Even now, my groups rarely use adventure modules not only because people don't always want to pay extra for them, but because we find that homebrew settings and campaigns allow for more freedom and creativity. 

I hope that helps! 

 To tell the truth, all you really “need” is the free rules from the PHB.

Considering the D&D Essentials Kit is a great way to start playing and is available at Amazon for literally $1 more than Gary Gygax’s white box in 1978 (as well as the basic rules being 100% free AND as well as D&D Beyond’s great school club program), it’s really easy to get into the game inexpensively. But considering the constant repeating of the same buzzword attacks while completely ignoring any actual points people bring up, I’m with TransmorpherDDS and guessing it’s someone trolling by trying (poorly) to pantomime social justice language.

(And a quick Google search shows there’s a user with that name on many messageboards that likes trolling with ridiculous complaints like the Star Wars video game that uses the wrong sand sound for walking on Tatooine and BioWare needs to get the degree of silica content right. It’s a troll doing it for lolz.)

Quote from KenMarable >>

(And a quick Google search shows there’s a user with that name on many messageboards that likes trolling with ridiculous complaints like the Star Wars video game that uses the wrong sand sound for walking on Tatooine and BioWare needs to get the degree of silica content right. It’s a troll doing it for lolz.)

 Wow. Even uses the same profile pic in some of those.