D&D 5E D&D Beyond Will Delist Two Books On May 17th

D&D Beyond will be permanently removing Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes on May 17th in favor of the upcoming Monsters of the Multiverse book, which largely compiles and updates that material.

As per the D&D Beyond FAQ for Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse:

Can I still buy Volo’s Guide to Monsters or Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes on D&D Beyond?
Starting on May 16, you can acquire the streamlined and up-to-date creatures and character race options, as well as a plethora of exciting new content, by purchasing Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. On May 17, Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes will be discontinued from our digital marketplace.

If you already own these two books you will still have access to your purchases and any characters or encounters you built with them. They won’t be removed from your purchased sourcebooks. Therefore, if you want the "fluff" and tables in those two tomes in D&D Beyond, you need to purchase them soon.

This is the first time books have been wholesale delisted from the D&D Beyond Platform rather than updated (much like physical book reprints are with errata and changes).

There’s no word from WotC on whether physical books will be discontinued and be allowed to sell out.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

So you're just being snarky now, not actually engaging in a discussion. Got it.

i thought the same when you said movement.

 

[Blue]

Where would we find this definition?

I don't want to be snarky to you Morris, but when he's claiming that pre-errata spells are "fully compatible", when in truth they are not going to be accepted at the majority of tables, that's on his understanding. I brought up conflating the meaning of "compatible" and "fully compatible" and he acts as if they are identical.

 

[Blue]

Options are fully able to be used together is full compatability in any reasonable measure.

Ahem. So a pre-errata spell that you can't play at the vast majority of tables is "fully compatible"?

Again, there is a difference between compatible and fully compatible.

 

[Parmandur]

Ahem. So a pre-errata spell that you can't play at the vast majority of tables is "fully compatible"?

Again, there is a difference between compatible and fully compatible.

If thry work, then they work. A DM can decide "I like this earlier version better" and have that without breaking the game. The Errata have been good decisions by and large (looking at Thunderstep clarificstions), but they have not remade the game even a little bit. Even the big Tasha's additions work fine next to the 2014 versions, and those are far more far-reaching than any errata has been.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

i thought the same when you said movement.

Perhaps we come from different cultures or something, but in my experience, what I said was a perfectly normal way of using an example of an aforementioned category of thing, without restating the aforementioned category of thing.

That is, I had already mentioned general rules that underpin the game, and which player options are layered on top of, optionally. I then referenced two examples of such general rules, in saying that the general rules wouldn't be changed by adding a variant fighter to the game, nor by replacing the PHB fighter with a more complex version.

You then quoted the smallest possible portion of my post, and tacked on a sarcastic jibe about something that couldn't be further from mattering to the point of the exchange.

 

[embee]

D&D Beyond will be permanently removing Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes on May 17th in favor of the upcoming Monsters of the Multiverse book, which largely couples and updates that material.

View attachment 156969

As per the D&D Beyond FAQ for Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse:



If you already own these two books you will still have access to your purchases and any characters or encounters you built with them. They won’t be removed from your purchased sourcebooks. Therefore, if you want the "fluff" and tables in those two tomes in D&D Beyond, you need to purchase them soon.

This is the first time books have been wholesale delisted from the D&D Beyond Platform rather than updated (much like physical book reprints are with errata and changes).

There’s no word from WotC on whether physical books will be discontinued and be allowed to sell out.

Any word on whether they'll be sending their goons around to confiscate existing physical books?

 

[Blue]

If thrybwork, then they work. A DM can decide "I like this earlier version better" and have that without breaking the game. The Errata have been good decisions by and large (looking at Thunderstep clarificstions), but they have not remade the game even a little bit. Even the big Tasha's additions work fine next to the 2014 versions, and those are far more far-reaching than any errata has been.

Congratulations, you have described "compatible".

Fully compatible is "it's works at all tables unless the DM has a specific house rule changing it."

See the difference?

 

[Saracenus]

I am curious how this is going to interact with WotC's stated policy of Every Expression of D&D Has Its Own Canon (See D&D Studio Blog: D&D Canon). Just to be clear, this is a question of what WotC is going to use as "Canon" for their internal development because for a DM and their players, canon is whatever they decide for their campaign, period.

When that blog was written by Chris Perkins no 5e book had been superseded by another (Yes, elements of the Sword Coast Adventures Guide have been updated and republished in later material but they errata-ed that material in SCAG rather than delisting it). So, when you end a books life on D&D Beyond and presumably will let the last print run sell out does that mean that the material in VOLO'S GUIDE or MORDY'S TOME are no longer in play for the Dev Team?

The reality of this decision doesn't really bother me all that much, I have the books in both physical and digital versions and I can use or ignore them at will. More that likely I will use the updated statblocks because I like their ease of use. As for the lore, well I really use my own anyway. I like reading stuff for inspiration but I am no bound by it.

As a side note Adventure's League likely counts as an "expression" and thus can deviate from canon of the D&D dev team and they are not bound by the AL expression of D&D and The Forgotten Realms. This would also free up the AL devs and authors from having to mother-may-I every story element in the campaign.

 

[embee]

I don't think they'll ever stop publishing physical books in my lifetime (which admittedly means less every passing day), but the day that Wizards stops producing actual books for D&D is the day that I've found my terminal edition of D&D to bother with. At least with PDF publications from other publishers I can back up my books or choose to have them printed if it's really important to me. I have trust issues and can't imagine relying on the DDB ecosystem.

You're being paranoid.

If there's one thing I know about computers its that online databases never ever go down for any reason and are as certain as death and taxes.

 

[Parmandur]

Congratulations, you have described "compatible".

Fully compatible is "it's works at all tables unless the DM has a specific house rule changing it."

See the difference?

Do you have a specific reference from Wizards of the Coast suggesting that you understanding matches their approach?