D&D 5E Free 'Descent into the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth' Adventure on D&D Beyond

Whizbang Dustyboots · Mar 26, 2024

Uni-the-Unicorn! said:
Interesting. Planescape can be purchased in pieces.

The first time I noticed it was the Eldraine monstrous compendium, but didn't know if it was a specific issue with products from that line. (The monster compendium made with the help of the Make-A-Wish kids can be purchased piecemeal, it should be noted.)

But it's now been months that the Book of Many Things has been available, even after the recall and rerelease, and still no piecemeal. It's been asked about on the DDB forums repeatedly and all that WotC will say is that it's not available to buy piecemeal at this time, which is just a statement of fact.

This feels like the kind of galaxy brain move that whoever wanted to shove the OGL out the window might come up with. Maybe it will sell more books overall, but I suspect the overall revenue will either be flat or slightly hurt. There's a lot of content that I would like, but not enough to buy the full book. If I can't buy it for $1.99 per item, or $4.99 for all the new subclasses, for instance, I'll just homebrew it instead. I suspect a lot of DMs will do that, or pirate it. (The most successful way the music industry was able to fight back against digital piracy back in the day was making purchasing/subscribing to music legally cheap and easy, rather than prosecuting offenders.)

Retreater · Mar 26, 2024

Maybe it just seems more of a "put-out" to have to have everything you need for the adventure right there, conveniently available by hovering over a link with your cursor - only to be redirected to a paywall for bit of the content?
I can't really complain with a free adventure. I just won't run the thing.
But if I'd purchased it, I'd darned well expect to be able to run the adventure.

Uni-the-Unicorn! · Mar 26, 2024

Retreater said:
Maybe it just seems more of a "put-out" to have to have everything you need for the adventure right there, conveniently available by hovering over a link with your cursor - only to be redirected to a paywall for bit of the content?
I can't really complain with a free adventure. I just won't run the thing.
But if I'd purchased it, I'd darned well expect to be able to run the adventure.

As others have noted, that has never been the case traditionally. You usually have to purchase the MM for monsters that are in the MM. Only monsters unique to the adventure are included. That has been standard in 5e and I think 3e and 4e, but i am not 100% sure.

MonsterEnvy · Mar 26, 2024

Retreater said:
Maybe it just seems more of a "put-out" to have to have everything you need for the adventure right there, conveniently available by hovering over a link with your cursor - only to be redirected to a paywall for bit of the content?
I can't really complain with a free adventure. I just won't run the thing.
But if I'd purchased it, I'd darned well expect to be able to run the adventure.

Do you own the Monster Manual? If you do you can run the adventure, If it’s the physical version you own, you can still run it, just won’t have quick links.

Whizbang Dustyboots · Mar 26, 2024

Uni-the-Unicorn! said:
Only monsters unique to the adventure are included.

Well, stuff not in the core three books is reprinted. Wild Beyond the Witchlight reprints a number of magic items from Xanathar's, for instance. And I think the quicklings and boggles were either in Volo's or Tome of Foes, and they got full reprints.

Uni-the-Unicorn! · Mar 26, 2024

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
Well, stuff not in the core three books is reprinted. Wild Beyond the Witchlight reprints a number of magic items from Xanathar's, for instance. And I think the quicklings and boggles were either in Volo's or Tome of Foes, and they got full reprints.

Yes, I forgot 5e typically included anything not in the monster manual. Thank you for the reminder.

Retreater · Mar 26, 2024

Ok. Here's a comparison. When you buy an official WotC adventure on Roll20, it has stats and tokens for all relevant creatures - whether they're original to the adventure, in another supplement, or from one of the other core rulebooks.
I begrudgingly accept that they may not want to reprint stats from the MM in a print book, but they can certainly link it into an adventure you purchase digitally.
And we're not even getting into the ridiculous price of $1.99 for one monster stat block. How many "$1.99" microtransactions would I need to purchase to run this adventure for my group - after presumably having purchased the adventure itself?
I'm just ... I'm just bewildered that anyone is okay with this.
It's like I'm in a Twilight Zone episode about the RPG hobby.

mamba · Mar 26, 2024

Retreater said:
Ok. Here's a comparison. When you buy an official WotC adventure on Roll20, it has stats and tokens for all relevant creatures - whether they're original to the adventure, in another supplement, or from one of the other core rulebooks.

I guess there is the gray area between what is in the SRD vs what is in the MM only. Maybe you got lucky on Roll20 because of that and what you checked came from the SRD?

I agree that all monsters of an adventure should be part of the adventure however, instead of having to also buy the MM.

As to how many monsters at $1.99 you need to buy, no more than 10, at that point you are better off getting the entire MM

Whizbang Dustyboots · Mar 26, 2024

Retreater said:
Ok. Here's a comparison. When you buy an official WotC adventure on Roll20, it has stats and tokens for all relevant creatures - whether they're original to the adventure, in another supplement, or from one of the other core rulebooks.
I begrudgingly accept that they may not want to reprint stats from the MM in a print book, but they can certainly link it into an adventure you purchase digitally.
And we're not even getting into the ridiculous price of $1.99 for one monster stat block. How many "$1.99" microtransactions would I need to purchase to run this adventure for my group - after presumably having purchased the adventure itself?
I'm just ... I'm just bewildered that anyone is okay with this.
It's like I'm in a Twilight Zone episode about the RPG hobby.

I think wanting to buy this adventure but not wanting to buy the Monster Manual is such an edge case that you may literally be one of the first people to run into this.

Whizbang Dustyboots · Mar 26, 2024

mamba said:
As to how many monsters at $1.99 you need to buy, no more than 10, at that point you are better off getting the entire MM

Each a la carte purchase lowers the cost of the overall product by a corresponding amount. So instead of buying that sixteenth monster, you want to just go ahead and purchase the remaining Monster Manual for a buck and change.

D&D 5E Free 'Descent into the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth' Adventure on D&D Beyond

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