D&D 5E A word for those of you publishing monster books on DMGuild

[Mouseferatu]

Guys, you really need to do better with your previews.

Seriously, you need to include a full table of contents and at least one full monster. If I can't get a good sense of how many critters I'm getting, or a vague idea of what they are--i.e. name and, preferably, CR--I'm pretty much guaranteed not to buy. Similarly, unless you're already an established 5E author, I need to see an example monster to know how solid your stat blocks are.

And while I haven't taken a poll or anything, I'm willing to bet I'm far from the only person who feels this way.

I want to buy more monsters, but if you don't give me the info I need to know if I want to buy, the answer's an automatic no.

 

[GX.Sigma]

I fully agree. I'd even go so far as to say that every DM's Guild product should have a high-level overview, a detailed table of contents breaking down every single thing in it, and an excerpt.

90% of everything is crap, and this is certainly true of DM's Guild. Thus, when I'm looking at a DM's Guild store page, I need to know two things right away:

1. Does this product have the content I'm looking for?
2. Is this product competently made?

You need to sell me on both of those things, or I'm not going to pay more than 10 cents for it.

 

[Giant2005]

The preview option of DM's Guild isn't very good. You don't get to choose specific pages to be shown in the preview, you only get to choose a page range. That means if you preview the opening contents page as well as something midway within the book, you are forced to preview everything in between.
It is a limitation which is probably too cumbersome to workaround for most. You can however make a separate preview book that includes the actual pages you want to preview and if you upload it before the full version of the book, that will be the version that is previewed. Many people probably don't even realize that such a thing is possible, so their previews suck.

Edit: Here is an example of what I mean. I may have got a little carried away by previewing over half of the book, but by making a separate preview PDF, I was able to skip enough pages to show tidbits of everything.

 

[CapnZapp]

Put the preview monster first?

These things aren't rocket science, you know...

 

[Storyteller Hero]

I think there may be an option to embed images in the product description space. I might have seen someone using that on their product page.

I could be thinking of a different site though.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I fully agree. I'd even go so far as to say that every DM's Guild product should have a high-level overview, a detailed table of contents breaking down every single thing in it, and an excerpt.

Happy that I've dodged THAT newbie bullet for my first monster product.

 

[Transformer]

Not to derail your thread, but when oh when will someone release a collection of spellcasters with one-stop stat blocks on DMsGuild?

Now that is something I'd pay good money for. A collection of 20+ spellcasters, with stat blocks that include mechanics for all the spells, or at least a summary of the mechanics for all the spells likely to be used in combat. My understanding is that under the DMsGuild rules, you could get away with such a thing (correct me if I'm wrong). But sadly, no one has obliged me yet. I almost made a whole new thread about this, because it's the one product that would help me most as a DM, and it doesn't seem to exist.

 

[Ath'kethin]

Not to derail your thread, but when oh when will someone release a collection of spellcasters with one-stop stat blocks on DMsGuild?

Now that is something I'd pay good money for. A collection of 20+ spellcasters, with stat blocks that include mechanics for all the spells, or at least a summary of the mechanics for all the spells likely to be used in combat. My understanding is that under the DMsGuild rules, you could get away with such a thing (correct me if I'm wrong). But sadly, no one has obliged me yet. I almost made a whole new thread about this, because it's the one product that would help me most as a DM, and it doesn't seem to exist.

Is there a reason you can't make it? You've obviously identified a need/opportunity.

 

[Transformer]

Is there a reason you can't make it? You've obviously identified a need/opportunity.

Well, I've thought about it. The main obstacles are:

• I have no graphic design experience, no experience creating stat-blocks, etc. And I would want this product to look nice and professional.
• I have no other experience with the PDF publishing process either. No idea where to find good public-domain art, properly credit artists, learn the minutiae of the DmsGuild rules, and so on.
• I am lazy and busy. Mostly lazy.

I want someone else to do the work for me and let me pay them for it, basically. But no one (that I know of) seems to be working on exactly what I want.

I have plenty of monsters. Between the MM, the monster-a-day subreddit, all the free/PWYW stuff already on DMsGuild, and the ease of reflavoring/tweaking all of the above, I really don't need another collection of monsters. What I don't have are spellcasters I can run without having to painstakingly reference a dozen different spells in the PHB.

 

[TwoSix]

Is there a reason you can't make it? You've obviously identified a need/opportunity.

I would assume if someone is looking for something on DMsGuild, it's because they lack the time and/or inclination to do so themselves.