D&D 5E How Much Would You Pay for Digital Access?

[Jester David]

If WotC begins charging for Digital Access to books (either PDFs or as an in-app purchase for DungeonScape) how much would you be willing to pay for full access to a single book?
(This would be the one time fee to own the digital product, and not the per annum subscription cost. )

Trying to do some market research.
I'm mostly just curious, but if the results are interesting I might end up doing a blog.

 

[Mercurius]

I voted "only if free" because I dislike PDFs and will only use or buy them if there is no hard copy, or for shorter adventures.

A lot of my enjoyment of this hobby is the tactile experience of reading a book. To put it another way...

From my cold, dead hands...

 

[bruceparis]

I voted "Up to $40". I'm assuming you mean "$40 per annum subscription" (as it does appear from what I've read that the subscription model is the most likely). However, I would only be prepared to pay $40 per annum if it was as functional as the 4E Builder and Monster Compendium (incl. the ability to drag and drop monster traits/abilities to re-skin and create). It would also have to be bug free and render a heck of a lot faster than it does at present (in beta) - incl. a lot faster than the Silverlight 4E Builder.

 

[Nivenus]

We talking annually or monthly? Because that makes a big difference.

I'd be willing to pay probably about $60-70 annually but anything significantly above $10 per month seems exorbitant to me (D&DI was about that price IIRC and it seemed right).

 

[Jester David]

I voted "Up to $40". I'm assuming you mean "$40 per annum subscription" (as it does appear from what I've read that the subscription model is the most likely). However, I would only be prepared to pay $40 per annum if it was as functional as the 4E Builder and Monster Compendium (incl. the ability to drag and drop monster traits/abilities to re-skin and create). It would also have to be bug free and render a heck of a lot faster than it does at present (in beta) - incl. a lot faster than the Silverlight 4E Builder.

We talking annually or monthly? Because that makes a big difference.

I'd be willing to pay probably about $60-70 annually but anything significantly above $10 per month seems exorbitant to me (D&DI was about that price IIRC and it seemed right).

One time fee per book. That's what it sounds like they're doing with DungeonScape. No subscription, you just pay and own the content you want.

 

[BrockBallingdark]

One time fee per book. That's what it sounds like they're doing with DungeonScape. No subscription, you just pay and own the content you want.

If they do that, then I'm in. If they pull what they did with the 4E DDI subscription, I'm not paying a dime.

 

[Thank Dog]

Unless the web version of DungeonScape changes dramatically from the beta (and I don't just mean bugs, I mean the entire design of it), then I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay anything at all.

 

[Nivenus]

One time fee per book. That's what it sounds like they're doing with DungeonScape. No subscription, you just pay and own the content you want.

That's... interesting. I'm intrigued but does that mean someone who already has the PHB, MM, and DMG in print would have to pay for them a second time? Because if so that's a big turn-off.

 

[Zardnaar]

Probably around $70 per year or $20 per PDF book. Paizo has PDFs for $10 and their AP PDFs are under $20 as well.

 

[SigmaOne]

That's... interesting. I'm intrigued but does that mean someone who already has the PHB, MM, and DMG in print would have to pay for them a second time? Because if so that's a big turn-off.

But you'd pay a monthly fee? That doesn't make sense. In the long run a monthly fee is way more expensive. And you certainly were not promised a free e-copy of the print book when you bought it. Anyway, this is definitely how it will be. I don't expect the cost for the electronic version will approach the cost of the print copy, but the free stuff will mirror the free pdf and for phb and other book content you have to pay. They've discussed the idea of doing things a la carte too -- if you always play a half orc barbarian, then you can just get the half orc stuff and the barbarian stuff and not pay for the full phb.