D&D (2024) How much would you spend on monthly subscriptions for dnd?

[MonsterEnvy]

Not charging a fee in the OGL is far better PR than doing so, yet here we are.

I grant you that the OGL is the more esoteric issue for most people, many more are aware of VTTs

No idea where you got forcing Paizo, Kobold and others onto the WotC VTT either

The fee requires making a lot of money, and terms it’s under have not come out yet

 

[MNblockhead]

But hey, when you're paying a monthly fee to even play the game and buying "class packs" using some asinine fake currency like "astral diamonds" and your players are buying magic items against your wishes as a DM using "loot chests" (assuming of course you haven't been replaced by AI DMs at this point), you've only yourself to blame for not being "paranoid" enough to have seen it coming. I for one will not celebrate the painful death of another loved hobby at the hands of corporate greed's corrupting influence over the course of several years. That one pot this particular frog won't just keep swimming in until I'm already boiled.

I don't see this happening, especially "buying magic items against your wishes as a DM using 'loot chests'", but I have no crystal ball. I could be wrong. But I see no reason for worry much less fall into paranoia. One game is not the hobby. Even if they stop printing books and create the VTT hellscape some are worried about, there are older versions of D&D. If they stop making those legally available on DMs Guild, there are lots of great games built based off the open license. There are also lots of great TTRPGs in the fantasy genre, and many other genres, that are not D&D at all.

So if they do all of this stuff, either they will see a huge drop in engagement and customers and will backpedal or lots of people will be perfectly happy with the new way of playing D&D and I'll just move to a retroclone or another system.

I follow these discussion because I find the business developments interesting and some posters have insightful things to say about them. But despite the many hours and dollars I've sunk into D&D since 2014, I still feel like I have very little skin in the game in terms of whatever WotC decides to do with it. And, so far, I'm liking what I see. I engage in much more hand wringing when spending my money on certain streaming services, my tech devices, my travel, or my clothes than I do on my gaming stuff. Hasbro/WotC is one of the most benign corporations I spend money on. About the worst I see them doing in the near future is making a product I'm no longer interested in paying for. Really hard for me to work up any angst about any of this.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

And personally I think you are not weary enough. Or perhaps have far more faith in a handful of out of touch executives to not make shortsighted decisions in pursuit of higher profit margins and the delusions of infinite growth... ya know, like every other corporation out there?

But hey, when you're paying a monthly fee to even play the game and buying "class packs" using some asinine fake currency like "astral diamonds" and your players are buying magic items against your wishes as a DM using "loot chests" (assuming of course you haven't been replaced by AI DMs at this point), you've only yourself to blame for not being "paranoid" enough to have seen it coming. I for one will not celebrate the painful death of another loved hobby at the hands of corporate greed's corrupting influence over the course of several years. That's one pot this particular frog won't just keep swimming in until I'm already boiled.

This is just pointless paranoia.

I would need some actual evidence and precedence to worry about stuff like that.

 

[Cadence]

Depends on what I think of the ethics/morals of the company's actions at the time. Could very easily become $0 if they seem to have veered to scummy. Could be $15 or so otherwise.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

$10/month is the absolute limit for me if you're charging for any content at all separately. And to get that you'd need to give me some really good tools and a bunch of content.

I could see $15 only if absolutely every single piece of WotC content was included and the tools were truly spectacular. Like DDI levels of functionality with a great UI, and super-responsive. Which isn't going to happen.

 

[hedgeknight]

I chose the $10/month option because I'm a sucker for a good gaming magazine. Yes, one you can hold in your hands and flips through the pages over and over again until they are about to fall out. Unfortunately, I haven't found a good one in a very long time. But...the search continues. (Hint: I'm open to suggestions.)
I have zero (0) interest in VTT, or watching other people game on Twitch and YouTube. Zero. Since a lot of old timers like myself are getting harder to find, I do nearly all of my gaming in pbp (play-by-post) forums, to which I contribute annually for server upkeep and fees.
I could care less DnD Beyond, One D&D, and whatever comes after that. I'm going backwards, folks.
But if that's your jam, good gaming to you, I say!

 

[Clint_L]

But hey, when you're paying a monthly fee to even play the game and buying "class packs" using some asinine fake currency like "astral diamonds" and your players are buying magic items against your wishes as a DM using "loot chests" (assuming of course you haven't been replaced by AI DMs at this point)...

So...how would WotC make all this stuff happen? Like, what would be their mechanism? Will they have teams of thugs that show up at my house and force me let my players use "astral diamonds" to buy legendary items and stuff? Or maybe to replace me with the AI? I don't understand how this is supposed to work. Or how this would make money for WotC.

I think it probably just means that they will have a VTT like Roll 20, but hopefully a lot easier to use for stupid people like me. And they will probably let you have a simple version of it for free, but charge you for additional assets, like adventure packs including all the maps and monsters and stuff. They'll probably have a basic character icon generator that is super cheap or free, but charge extra to get bells and whistles for your character. And it's all optional. If you want nothing to do with post 1974 technology, you'll still be able to play D&D with books, paper, pencils, and dice.

 

[Remathilis]

And personally I think you are not weary enough. Or perhaps have far more faith in a handful of out of touch executives to not make shortsighted decisions in pursuit of higher profit margins and the delusions of infinite growth... ya know, like every other corporation out there?

But hey, when you're paying a monthly fee to even play the game and buying "class packs" using some asinine fake currency like "astral diamonds" and your players are buying magic items against your wishes as a DM using "loot chests" (assuming of course you haven't been replaced by AI DMs at this point), you've only yourself to blame for not being "paranoid" enough to have seen it coming. I for one will not celebrate the painful death of another loved hobby at the hands of corporate greed's corrupting influence over the course of several years. That's one pot this particular frog won't just keep swimming in until I'm already boiled.

Pure paranoia.

D&D is not a video game. Unless they completely remove dice, physical books and living DMs from the game, your idea is impossible.

 

[Scribe]

Depends on what I think of the ethics/morals of the companies action at the time. Could very easily become $0 if they seem to have veered to scummy.

Upon further consideration, I'm going from a likely $0, to 'actively give money to anyone that competes with them'.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Upon further consideration, I'm going from a likely $0, to 'actively give money to anyone that competes with them'.

I feel people are getting ahead of themselves.