D&D General Hey, are we all cool with having to buy the same book twice, or what?

[Urriak Uruk]

Considering how DNDByond and WotC are not the same company, it's not insane that you don't get a digital and hardcopy in one purchase. Both teams need money.

Especially when you consider how DNDBeyond is giving you more than just a PDF. You have access to stuff like the statblocks and items/spells as searchable.

Now to be clear, I don't know why anyone would get both copies. I'm running Ghosts of Saltmarsh and have the hardcopy of it. I don't need a digital version of it, I only need the statblocks of the new monsters to make encounter building easier, which i can pay only $8 to buy on its own on DNDBeyond.

And trade secret here... if you really want a PDF of a book you've got in hardcopy, search for it on google. They aren't hard to find.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Nope, you just made the either/or statement in your original post of essentially "Are other companies wrong for giving away PDFs with a physical copy of their books, or is Wizards of the Coast anti-consumer and are we accepting of that or going to take arms against the man?"

The answer apparently being that while you might have a few people's swords when you storm the WotC offices demanding PDFs... the rest of us just don't care that much. But we also don't think other companies are wrong for giving away PDFs either. Whatever companies want to do is fine and we'll take what we want/need from what they offer.

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

This is important:
D&D Beyond is NOT the same as a PDF. Not technically, not from a user experience.

Buying stuff on DDB (which I've done, more than I bought WotC physical books) gets you usage well beyond "a digital copy of the book".

So, DDB is a different entity providing a wholly different service, thus charging for what they do. Which is totally fine.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

Also, not asking for anything for free. I simply pointed out that other publishers go so far as to provide the PDFs for free with a purchase (you know, that thing that is opposite of free) as a courtesy. At the very least they allow you to buy one. I'd settle for that.

Well, they aren't doing that, and guess what? You're gonna have to deal with that.

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

And trade secret here... if you really want a PDF of a book you've got in hardcopy, search for it on google. They aren't hard to find.

Really hope you're not promoting piracy here, that would seem wrong.

 

[Var]

For reading background, physical all the way.
For convenience PDF is usually great, because it has everything in it on one place and allows CRTL+F as well as copy pasting rules during games regardless if you're logged into the account on your tablet, remember your credentials or not. I can see the piracy problem, but that only means all the PDFs people are using will be pirated copies (quick google check - everything is available in PDF format instantly for download, none of those legal I assume).

Whoever is responsible for the Player's Handbook official PDF did a godawful job by messing with the headline characters in the Player's Handbook PDF which won't allow you to search for a majority of Feats, Spells etc...

So you're usually better off just googling rules, using DnD or a free wikis (that doesn't lock you behind a paywall to look up the full text of a XGTE spell) instead.
I do like the utility Beyond has, I do not like that you have to buy content included in the Player Handbook. I also don't like that you have to pay for the same goddamn book on Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds all over again.

At some point it gets quite silly how many parties want to see money from you to create an Arcane Trickster with a SCAG Background for a Roll20 AL game, each of them requiring to buy the same thing for full price (sans obtained codes YMMV).
Speaking as a working adult in a well paid job with more then enough expandable income to just not care and throw a couple hundred bucks at the problem, that's pretty harsh on some of the guys I play with.
It's not that hard to implement a way to at least get a rebate if you already own everything on DnDBeyond. Looking at the company I work for I'm not gonna point fingers and call it corporate greed, just talking incentive and a missed opportunity for cross platform marketing.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Well, they aren't doing that, and guess what? You're gonna have to deal with that.

O-Okay?

I mean, we're talking about whether it's "cool" or not to do business in this way. Nobody is talking about buying a controlling interest in the company, sitting on the board and changing policy.

Like, complaining about things that aren't in our power to change is basically 99% of all forum posting.

 

[jayoungr]

I've re-bought a few books on Roll20. But I can't say I'm happy about it.

 

[CleverNickName]

Now to be clear, I don't know why anyone would get both copies.

I bought both. Until February, I used the physical books for my D&D tabletop games and to prepare my adventures. I enjoy the tactile experience of having the book itself in front of me. It's the way I've done it for decades, and by George, that's the way it was always going to be.

But since we went under lock-down, we switched to Roll20. Of course, I didn't need to get digital copies of the books, I could have spent I-don't-know-how-many hours inputting all of the various monsters, class features, and maps into Roll20 by myself on my own time. But having the digital books made switching to a VTT format a lot smoother and easier on my players. Especially on such short notice.

(I was pleasantly surprised to discover that all of the maps that were included in the books, like the monster lairs in Volo's Guide to Monsters, or the temple maps in Xanathar's Guide, were already rigged for dynamic lighting and all of the creature tokens had been created and fully-set up.)

I'm not saying that my circumstances are everyone's circumstances, but that's why this Moogle bought both formats. I can't say I enjoyed the price, but I'm satisfied with both products for different reasons.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Really hope you're not promoting piracy here, that would seem wrong.

I'm not really... just saying in the rare circumstances where I need my book and don't have my copy with me, I can search up the PDF fairly easily.

If you do this and don't own a copy, you're skum.