D&D (2024) New leak looks real bad

[Staffan]

Twilight Imperium 4th Ed + PoK expansion, about 250€.

around 25 games in last year, on average 5 player game, on average 6 hours long.

that is 25, divided by 20, divided by 5, divided by 6, comes down to: 33 cents per hour per player.
and with every game price comes down further.

Dang, you manage to get a Twilight Imperium game in every other week? You must have a very dedicated group.

 

[wingsandsword]

Wow. $30 a month to roll dice with a chatbot? Why not just make a video game and be done?

For that price you could subscribe to an MMORPG of your choice.

D&D Online is cheaper.

So is WoW.

So is just about any MMORPG.

 

[Steampunkette]

For that price you could subscribe to an MMORPG of your choice.

D&D Online is cheaper.

So is WoW.

So is just about any MMORPG.

Two MMORPGs.

But yeah... this is ridiculous and nuts. And it still de-authorizes 1.0. So...

Gonna stick with "No".

 

[wingsandsword]

That's an entirely legitimate opinion based on the information available to us now. Saying that we don't know the full scope of what's being offered doesn't mean that we're wrong, it means that we'll change our minds as we learn more.

Agreed completely, and if I may be honest, we aren't exactly inclined here to give WotC lots of trust and good faith.

They just spent 22+ years of credit and good faith almost overnight by saying they intend to "de authorize" OGL 1.0a, and are probably eventually going to force someone to show in court they can't do that.

WotC just stabbed the entire D&D community in the back, while trying to pick our pockets. . .and we get people urging us to give them more credit and have more faith that they'll make good decisions.

I'm one of the fans who stopped buying D&D stuff when 4e came out, who felt "fired" by WotC as a fan over the things around 4th edition (making 4e radically incompatible with prior editions and non-OGL, cancelling the d20 STL, insulting marketing around 4e etc.). . .and I only just started to come over to 5e in the last couple of years. Now this? Feels like a giant reminder of why I stopped trusting WotC or buying their products again, right as I just started to do it again.

 

[AnotherGuy]

So the question becomes what would I expect for $30 a month subscription?

I think for starters:

All content unlocked
The ability to edit/modify official content for your campaign.
The ability to create additional content for your campaign.
VTT that is even easier to use than Roll20 for an IT-hand-capped individual like me.
Obsidian Portal like-platform for one's campaign worlds.

 

[delericho]

So the question becomes what would I expect for $30 a month subscription?

I think for starters:

All content unlocked

For me, this is the big one.

If my circumstances were different (I had more time to play, I was playing in an environment where I could actually use D&D Beyond, and I didn't object on other grounds), I could see myself getting a subscription - I spent more than that on D&D back in the 3e days of monthly releases.

It's not the price I particularly object to. It's just that right now it's not a worthwhile deal for me. YMMV, of course.

Edit to add: Of course, the issue that it's $30 per month per player is also a problem - back when I was buying all those books, most of my group weren't in a position to do so. There needs to be some sort of 'sharing' tier.

 

[Velderan]

Also, Beyond has 8 million subscribers now. Though they are not paying these rates or possibly any

I think it's actually up to 14 million isn't it?

According to the fireside chat, they have 12 or 13 million USERS (I forget and an not going to go look it up). These are not all paying subscribers. That I know of, we've never seen paying subscription numbers.

The best we've seen is they had at one point in this whole situation a 5 figure ticket queue requesting account deletions, which is anywhere from 10,000 to 99,999. I don't believe we've ever been told for sure. Unless they've changed the process, you don't need a ticket to cancel so not the same thing.

 

[AnotherGuy]

For me, this is the big one.

If my circumstances were different (I had more time to play, I was playing in an environment where I could actually use D&D Beyond, and I didn't object on other grounds), I could see myself getting a subscription - I spent more than that on D&D back in the 3e days of monthly releases.

It's not the price I particularly object to. It's just that right now it's not a worthwhile deal for me. YMMV, of course.

We use Obsidian Portal for record keeping of the campaign world so I'm in +/-$40 a year at least but I did not acquire any WotC books. Instead I spent around $150-$180 or more (really do not keep track) last year on 3pp material.
So that is around $220 for me.*

$360 is not far, and for the additional I listed it would REALLY make it worthwhile. The homebrewing/editing published content would be amazing.
The VTT may be relevant to me right now since I'm pursuing a career change which would see me live overseas for while and I would like to continue DMing for my playgroup. I dunno if that is possible, but we will see.

*Do not see myself purchasing even $50 worth of content this year as I kind of have everything I need for the campaign storyline for the next year or so. My spend fluctuates depending on what I'm running and where I am in the storyline and I'm currently at the tail end so I've kinda got everything I "need".

 

[DarkCrisis]

My point is, if someone thinks it's worth $30 bucks/month, then it is. If enough people think it's worth $30/month to make it profitable, then WotC obviously knew what they were doing. If it fails, then they screwed up.

Casting aspersions on what other people choose to do with their money ("suckers"), especially when we have no idea if this is even real or what would be offered is not cool, IMO. Who are we to judge what other folks do with their (presumably) hard-earned cash? I spend a lot more than $30/month on miniatures and terrain. A $500 box of Dwarven Forge was dropped off at my door last Thursday. Am I a "sucker"?

You can’t get Dwarven Forge for free. You can virtually play D&D for free (after a core book buy in or someone sends you PDFs)

Also as far as I know DF isn’t charging you Per Month.

Spend your hard earned money however you want. I personally don’t see a reason to spend $30 a month on an RPG that is free to play. Even virtually.

BUT I will say while I think $30 is right out, something like $5 isn’t. But for that cost it needs to be one step over the free side of Roll20….. and even then I probably wouldn’t pay it. $5 is $5 after all.

And all of the replies to me have been about how the DM can and does spend all this money…. Just like at the table. Doesn’t really seem to solve the problem and the cost is still on the DM except monthly now!

Not to say I’m frugal, I’d just rather spend 0 than any other amount., if it’s a legal option.

 

[Remathilis]

Anyone who pays any kind of monthly fee to play any RPG is a sucker in my book.

Cool. Now do streaming music and TV services next.