D&D Beyond Drops: Update on the Program

Quote from omnisan >>

I noticed you guys managed to say nothing about whether or not you guys are going to actually keep printing expansion books and rule books you know all of that or am I just being forced to pay a subscription or buy digital content to continue playing D&D now past this edition because if so I am going to be ditching this game faster than xanathar can one shot me because of news flash the fun part of pen and paper RPGs is the pen and paper and being at a table with your friends in person actually having fun instead of talking over webcams

 They also never said they were going to stop. It's literally a "DnDTube" outrage story that will only get bigger if they comment on it.

WotC is a book publisher.  D&D Beyond is only a small aspect of that business.

1. Let's say I sub for 6 months, then I cancel for 6 months before subbing again. Are the drops I earned available when I cancel my sub? Would I be able to purchase what I missed out on? And if the answer is the yearly bundle, would the bundle be discounted since I already have 6 months of drops? 

2. With the current system of buying books, players have the ability to pick and choose, to an extent, what matters to them. You don't need every book, just the ones with the things you want. Why not just make smaller drop bundles? Maybe it's a new player trying to use content from multiple years to make a specific class. Buying multiple yearly bundles for 5% of the content just to make that crazy Warlock build seems counterintuitive. 

I can still barely use this site. None of the drop down menus are showing and I have tried everything to fix this

I am not a subscriber and I dont believe in requiring people to subscribe to a game, which at its core, is a ttrpg and not an interactive video game. That being said, I have bought multiple bundles of book releases in digital and physical formats. I purchased the digital formats mainly so I can theorycraft characters more easily which I plan on using at my tables. When I found out about what the plans for D&D became, i.e. a subscription based digital platform, I immediately began looking into alternatives. While I am glad to read that D&D has admittedly made a mis-step with these drops hidden behind a pay wall, it is more and more often WotC is apologizing for betraying their fan base. Until I feel that D&D is treating its customers as more than wallets, I will not be buying any further products from them. While I do feel that the 5e rules are some of the easiest to learn and funnest to play, D&D must realize that people have a choice in what they play and if this continues, their core fan base WILL abandon them for another system. 

Exactly. It would've saved them some headaches if they just kept the name "Subscriber Perks". 

Quote from Cezmi >>

Reading some of these comments it's hilarious how nothing will satisfy people that want to be critical of anything done on this platform, lol.

Drops will be loathed by people that want to loath anything digital or costing money.

Here's hoping a leaking pipe doesn't ruin your physical print books/forever damaging your access to content, lol.

 Spending money on source books vs paying a monthly membership to access content are two different things entirely. I have no issue buying a book with interesting content or adventures. What I won't do is buy those books (physical or digital) and then be required to pay a monthly fee to access the rest of the content. If people want to subscribe to use the VTT or share their digital content with friends, that's fine, but making it a requirement to access source material is going to drive a lot of business away. 

Quote from Agent53 >>

1. Let's say I sub for 6 months, then I cancel for 6 months before subbing again. Are the drops I earned available when I cancel my sub? Would I be able to purchase what I missed out on? And if the answer is the yearly bundle, would the bundle be discounted since I already have 6 months of drops? 

2. With the current system of buying books, players have the ability to pick and choose, to an extent, what matters to them. You don't need every book, just the ones with the things you want. Why not just make smaller drop bundles? Maybe it's a new player trying to use content from multiple years to make a specific class. Buying multiple yearly bundles for 5% of the content just to make that crazy Warlock build seems counterintuitive. 

 1. You will have access to the content when you are subbed, and when you are not you will not.  If you resub you regain access to all drops including what came out in the intervening period.  You will not lose options that you have added to your character sheet from those characters, but you won't be able to add those options to new characters.

2. They have literally said IN THIS ARTICLE that they intend to provide buyable bundles after the one year, so that people who want to permanently own things can.  They've also mentioned that they may look into smaller class or player options specific bundles, like the Class Packs.

Drops is a response to subscribers saying that the subscription doesn't provide enough value.  Removing the value of drops by giving it to everyone... defeats the purpose of Drops.

Quote from DomDom_Glubber >>

 

Spending money on source books vs paying a monthly membership to access content are two different things entirely. I have no issue buying a book with interesting content or adventures. What I won't do is buy those books (physical or digital) and then be required to pay a monthly fee to access the rest of the content. If people want to subscribe to use the VTT or share their digital content with friends, that's fine, but making it a requirement to access source material is going to drive a lot of business away. 

 You do not need this content.  FOMO is the only thing causing panic here.  WotC remains a book publisher, and intends to remain so for the forseeable future.  DDB is just one small part of their business.

You can download and set up emulators to run a lot of those old games. I still play the gold box SSI ad&d games from time to time for the memories.

Thank you for doing the right thing. It’s important. 

I pray your right 

Hey bud, I know you want to white knight or whatever here. But I'm pretty sure the multi-million dollar corporation can try to defend their TTRPG timeshare without your help. 

Because not only did you not answer half of my questions, but what they "intend" to want to maybe do sometime in the future possibly, doesn't mean anything. 

Quote from Perringaiden >>

Quote from DomDom_Glubber >>

 

Spending money on source books vs paying a monthly membership to access content are two different things entirely. I have no issue buying a book with interesting content or adventures. What I won't do is buy those books (physical or digital) and then be required to pay a monthly fee to access the rest of the content. If people want to subscribe to use the VTT or share their digital content with friends, that's fine, but making it a requirement to access source material is going to drive a lot of business away. 

 You do not need this content.  FOMO is the only thing causing panic here.  WotC remains a book publisher, and intends to remain so for the forseeable future.  DDB is just one small part of their business.

 Not a fear of missing out, literally missing out on spells, feats and character options. If WotC is a book publishing company, and is intending to stay that way, show me the book this content is in. They are literally publishing online only content which is only accessible through a subscription and you are arguing they are intending to stay a book publisher? The transition has already started. 

We did not want this AT ALL. Just quit it already.

Quote from DomDom_Glubber >>

Quote from Perringaiden >>

Quote from DomDom_Glubber >>

 

Spending money on source books vs paying a monthly membership to access content are two different things entirely. I have no issue buying a book with interesting content or adventures. What I won't do is buy those books (physical or digital) and then be required to pay a monthly fee to access the rest of the content. If people want to subscribe to use the VTT or share their digital content with friends, that's fine, but making it a requirement to access source material is going to drive a lot of business away. 

 You do not need this content.  FOMO is the only thing causing panic here.  WotC remains a book publisher, and intends to remain so for the forseeable future.  DDB is just one small part of their business.

 Not a fear of missing out, literally missing out on spells, feats and character options. If WotC is a book publishing company, and is intending to stay that way, show me the book this content is in. They are literally publishing online only content which is only accessible through a subscription and you are arguing they are intending to stay a book publisher? The transition has already started. 

 This is literally the point.  This is not "book quality material".  It's internal homebrew.  It's not necessary, you do not need it.

Also:

 We will commit to releasing at least yearly D&D Beyond Drops bundles on the D&D Beyond marketplace every year (in May), covering the previous year’s content and purchasable for all players.

They're making it purchasable a year after the subscribers.  That's a quote from this post.

And from Reddit:

So does this mean content from Drops *won't* be reprinted in books?

GrandPyromania: Not at all! That said it's important for me to caveat that by saying that it's not a guarantee that Drops content will always appear in future books - a lot of it will depend on the product itself (and whether it would make sense to include any existing Drops content) and the timing (as our books often take a few years to produce).

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndbeyond/comments/1tw4qf5/comment/opprnio/

Quote from Perringaiden >>

Quote from DomDom_Glubber >>

Quote from Perringaiden >>

Quote from DomDom_Glubber >>

 

Spending money on source books vs paying a monthly membership to access content are two different things entirely. I have no issue buying a book with interesting content or adventures. What I won't do is buy those books (physical or digital) and then be required to pay a monthly fee to access the rest of the content. If people want to subscribe to use the VTT or share their digital content with friends, that's fine, but making it a requirement to access source material is going to drive a lot of business away. 

 You do not need this content.  FOMO is the only thing causing panic here.  WotC remains a book publisher, and intends to remain so for the forseeable future.  DDB is just one small part of their business.

 Not a fear of missing out, literally missing out on spells, feats and character options. If WotC is a book publishing company, and is intending to stay that way, show me the book this content is in. They are literally publishing online only content which is only accessible through a subscription and you are arguing they are intending to stay a book publisher? The transition has already started. 

 This is literally the point.  This is not "book quality material".  It's internal homebrew.  It's not necessary, you do not need it.

Also:

 We will commit to releasing at least yearly D&D Beyond Drops bundles on the D&D Beyond marketplace every year (in May), covering the previous year’s content and purchasable for all players.

They're making it purchasable a year after the subscribers.  That's a quote from this post.

And from Reddit:

So does this mean content from Drops *won't* be reprinted in books?

GrandPyromania: Not at all! That said it's important for me to caveat that by saying that it's not a guarantee that Drops content will always appear in future books - a lot of it will depend on the product itself (and whether it would make sense to include any existing Drops content) and the timing (as our books often take a few years to produce).

https://www.reddit.com/r/dndbeyond/comments/1tw4qf5/comment/opprnio/

 Unless the physical book is named & a date given for release, some people won't accept anything less.
& even then, they'll demand a discount, for the book to be cheaper than $30, a personal apology from Gpyromania & everyone else involved with this decision, & to be compensated for emotional damages, &...you get the idea.

There is nothing that will satisfy the ravenous void of outrage short of ruin & obliteration as a way of "honestly" saying "sorry". & then it'll find a new thing to devour.

Wait.

You're making "DM ready content..." for us Subscribers, but... we can't share it with the groups we play with?  If this is the case, quite honestly you need to stop sniffing the CEO's farts. Who OK'd this idea?