DM's Guild: What Do The Customers Think?

ZeshinX · Mar 7, 2016

I've only bought one thing from it (Adventurers of Kara-Tur), but I like the concept. Still, I'm old school and prefer book-in-hand, so this will be mostly ignored by me.

I'd rather see more sourcebooks (be they splat or setting), but if they've determined that's not a business model they want to use (or can't afford to), fair enough. I'm happy to give Paizo my money.

Inchoroi · Mar 7, 2016

I am a fan of the website, solely because it promotes homebrew. I wish there were more longer adventures, rather than single-session sidequests.

There's only a few homebrews that I've actually bought, but only because I've talked with the author on several occasions, and liked his homebrew.

I am, however, completely and utterly disappointed in WotC for using Unearthed Arcana to promote DMsGuild.

Bad Fox · Mar 7, 2016

The biggest issue for me (so far) is storefront navigation and the way in which product lists are sorted.

For example, I haven't been able to see a way to just search for adventures. This seems pretty fundamental. (Is there a way to do this that I'm just missing somehow?)

In regards to the way that products are sorted, it should be easy to switch between sorting them by "Best Selling" and "Top Rated" and maybe even character level. The current "sort by" tab is pretty weak in terms of usefulness.

Anyway, although I agree with earlier commenters that there's a lack of reliable product information and consumer reporting, I feel like this will naturally resolve itself (more or less?) as DMs Guild becomes more established. I definitely think that better site organization and search options would help speed this up.

Guilberwood · Mar 7, 2016

I think DM’s Guild is experiencing a process similar to what happened when 3rd edition and the SRD were released. A bunch of new people are putting their products out there but most are not of a very good quality. In time, though, the community will learn how to distinguish the good from the bad, the good authors (and their products) will get recognition, and the community will know which products to look for.

I also believe that right now we are getting "quick and cheap" items because that's the kind of product you can produce in the timeframe in which DM’s Guild has been around. If someone wants to publish a big sourcebook or a large adventure through DM’s Guild that product is probably not ready yet, unless it was already written and waiting on a shelf (which is probably what happened to Kobold Press’ Tyranny of Dragons adventure).

It’s our job, as a community, to review as many products as we can and spread the word about the good ones. In time we can build a database of all the good products available and when someone needs to find something specific, they know how and where to look for.

It’s something similar to what Bryce is doing at http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/ with modules and Meric is doing with modules, sourcebooks and novels at http://mericb.com/

BMaC · Mar 7, 2016

jerryrice4949 said:
Underwhelmed. I have bought seven or 8 items and the quality had been okay to good but nothing great yet. DMs Guild seems to be based on quick and cheap. I would rather there be some more expensive items of higher quality and original art.

By far my biggest gripe is the stock art. while stock art is a great idea to a degree, seeing the same art in item after item really takes away from some of the products.

The price of art is astronomical relative to what the DMsGuild authors make (pizza money) so the art will remain cheap and cheerful unless the author has access to a cheap/free source. In addition, the terms of the DMsGuild prevent some freely available art that has certain Creative Commons designations (CC-BY-SA) from being used.

Most of the things I've purchased have .pdf previews available.

ninjayeti · Mar 7, 2016

I picked up Journey Through the Center of the Underdark for a buck and was very pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

But overall it seems like there is too much stuff, by too many different authors with essentially no organization beyond the "top sellers" list to make much sense of it. And this problem will only get worse as the amount of content grows. At the very least they need to add organization by type of product (adventure, rule expansion, setting, etc), price, and page count.

It would also be helpful to have a curator or two willing to wade through everything and provide "Picks of the Week" from the DMG along the lines of what Sean Fannon does with the RPGNow stuff.

Patrick McGill · Mar 7, 2016

I think it's going to take a bit longer for the dust to settle and the real diamonds in the rough to get there. I've bought a few things, mostly Pay What You Want, but have been very underwhelmed. I am optimistic about the future, however.

I'm hoping the OGL really picks up steam as well.

tuxedoraptor · Mar 7, 2016

I have looked at a few options, like druidic circles (deathbloom, beast and lifewater) and ways to rebuild the ranger, however..... none of them are truly inspiring me to want them in my game, they all costed nothing since I never pay for something if I can find a legal method around that, but it still means that wizards of the coast is missing out on something they should be doing: Publishing an offical, well made, well balanced ranger that doesn't suck so hard.

JDBausch · Mar 7, 2016

I've only ever paid (one dollar each) for 2 "pay what you want" items. But I think if they really want it to be "pay what you want" you should be able to easily increase it later. I actually had not even downloaded anything "pay what you want" before this weekend, because I hadn't found anything that I knew for a fact I wanted, and I don't want to just keep d/ling things for free with no easy way to up the payment should I decide it is worth it.

Related, they need to have a better preview system than the one page view they have. because I simply don't know if some of these things are even worth checking out.

Having said all of that, I regularly check for new items on there, so they must be doing something right? I hope they will smooth out the edges, and keep improving the site.

JudgeMonroe · Mar 7, 2016

It's creating a real long tail of crap products, and it will take a while for the cream to rise to the top. The best I can hope for is a compilation product that collects the best DM's Guild products on a semi-annual or better basis, gives them an editing and artwork pass and gives them an official stamp of approval.

I already dislike the fact that everyone has permission to use "product identity," such as iconic characters and etc. It's a turn-off to see an amateur product with a presumptive title name-checking Drizzt (ugh), recycling or remixing a well-known book title, and generally clogging the Press Releases feed with a torrent of bottom-shelf content.