D&D General (SPOILERS for Vecna: Eve of Ruin) Are My Standards Too High for Adventures?

[MonsterEnvy]

However, WotC could decide to just pull any of those adventures at any time, and they'd vanish from your collection. Like streaming services that decide to retire available shows.

I don't have any reason to think they're planning to do this, but it is a valid concern.

Ok, so what. You are pretty much saying "I won't take this free thing cause I am concerned that it might be taken away at some vague future point." Like I don't get it. It's just pointless fear that gains you nothing. Even if the feared time did came to pass, it just means by not taking the free thing you never benefited from it.

Here is one of the Free Adventures

Claim Giants of the Star Forge now! - D&D Beyond

www.dndbeyond.com

 

[jayoungr]

You are pretty much saying "I won't take this free thing cause I am concerned that it might be taken away at some vague future point."

No, I'm saying @Reynard isn't wrong when he says you don't own anything on D&D Beyond, just rent it.

Also, I didn't have "Giants of the Star Forge," so thanks for the link!

 

[Stormonu]

The main thing that I'm trying to say (and probably failing) is that you never need to throw away an old audience to gain a new audience. This is a huge mistake that I see happen all the time, in various modern ventures.

A bird in hand is worth 2 in the bush.

Yeah, I think it's a mistake to toss out those who WILL make you money to attempt to appeal to those who MAY make you money. Best to throw the widest net and catch as many of both as you can.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

No, I'm saying @Reynard isn't wrong when he says you don't own anything on D&D Beyond, just rent it.

Also, I didn't have "Giants of the Star Forge," so thanks for the link!

Never said he was wrong. I just didn't agree it was predatory. Cause I don't have the same fear of things going away one day.

 

[Stormonu]

No, I'm saying @Reynard isn't wrong when he says you don't own anything on D&D Beyond, just rent it.

Also, I didn't have "Giants of the Star Forge," so thanks for the link!

I like Beyond for the convenience - making and tracking characters, cross-links to items in other areas, encounter making, combining books into one section (such as under the "Spells" and "Monsters" section) and the like. But I treat it as a supplement to the printed books, as I know I'll have the books long past the end of any edition. I do remember when the electronic subscription for 4E went away and the electronic books for it did too, for example (yes, they're on DriveThru now, but for a while, they weren't, and you'd have to rebuy them). I do wish that WotC would do the "buy the book, get the PDF/Beyond version for free. Or at an extremely discounted rate.

In the case of those free adventures, I've used copy & paste to put them into documents for my own use in the knowledge that I'll still have them the day they vanish along with Beyond. Back in the 3E days, Wotc used to do dozens of web supplements, and I've saved off all those too.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

It is typically 50% to WotC, and 50% split between distributor and retailer, is it not?

I don’t think so, but ask @FitzTheRuke he is a retailer in this market

 

[Raiztt]

Dunno whats to worry about, I've heard there are people out there with a PDF of every D&D book without using D&D beyond

 

[wicked cool]

And you can finish Keep on the Borderlands in a couple of sessions. SKT and Frostmaiden are campaigns that can last for dozens of sessions. Two totally different animals. You don’t prep the entirety of Frostmaiden in a single go.

Right but this new approach hasn’t been working

Ravenloft was basically a reprint of a classic adventure

Railroading I agree in todays age might not be a good thing but wotc has recognized these tsr adventures worked and have basically grouped them into books

Rime etc are just not as good as Ravenloft. The villians are not as engaging and the books are even for me somewhat intimidating

I play with an experienced group. Rime has 6-10 towns with somewhat silly subplots but yet it’s not fleshed out like Ravenloft
Ravenloft
Starting detailed town and like say candy land you can easily prep for the unexpected
Rime-hey I’d like to go town b while visiting a. Me as dm crap there wasn’t much so let me make up stuff etc

Me personally and I would argue for many dms less is more
Instead of 6 plus towns in time give me 2 that are ready to go

Phandelver-you do all these side quests tied to rescuing a something and finding a cave. I’m at the part where the party finds the cave. Guess what the description of outside the cave stinks compared to much earlier stuff. The section stinks to be honest. The bad person is located within this section with allies and a setttung that is reminiscent of 1st edition

1st edition
Room 1 kobolds
Room 2 undead
Room 3 a griphon
Room 4 a red dragon

This happens in this part of the adventure and I had to laugh on how did the main bad thing navigate through all this with their allies

Bg3 the video game does a better job in their dungeons than wotc does and that’s a shame. The dungeons make sense
The villians getting to the dungeon makes sense and often leave a trail
The outside encounters are also better

Take out the voice actors etc it’s just better as a blueprint for a good adventure

 

[Faolyn]

I'm with you, but I think it is worth noting that in your example the game didn't actually change: you did.

And yes, I do use 3pp (from WotC's perspective) almost exclusively at this point. I still miss the old take on WotC's owned IP though, and most of my ire is directed there.

But the point still stands: you don't like the game, stop playing it. It doesn't matter if you changed (and the game didn't change with you), or the game changed (and you didn't change with it).

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

However, WotC could decide to just pull any of those adventures at any time, and they'd vanish from your collection. Like streaming services that decide to retire available shows.

I don't have any reason to think they're planning to do this, but it is a valid concern. With books and PDFs, you at least can own the adventures in offline form.

Anything can disappear. We lost our collection of PDFs in a recent move. I’ve lost books in a basement flood. DrivethruRPG could go under, etc., etc. nothing is guaranteed. We were actually very grateful for our DnD beyond books because we didn’t loose those in our move!