D&D Beyond executives explain why subscribers can't share Drops content

D&D Beyond executives claim that content sharing isn't enabled for their new Drops material because they want to make sure designers get paid. On Friday, D&D Beyond's executive producer Brian Perry and new head of Drops content Jay Jani answered questions on Reddit about D&D Beyond Drops, a new compendium of maps, images, and rules exclusive to D&D Beyond subscribers. Unsurprisingly, the biggest question on many users' minds were why Drops content wasn't sharable via the Master tier subscription like other material. In several posts, Perry stated that the reason was monetary in nature.

"We need to pay the great designers, artists, and developers working on D&D Beyond Drops," Perry said in a comment. "We also really think it's important to make the entire subscriber content library accessible to Hero Tier subscribers (as well as Master Tier). Not making Drops content eligible for content sharing was a necessary tradeoff to hit these goals."

However, given the amount of feedback among fans about making Drops content sharable among players, Perry said they were actively looking at alternative solutions. "With that said, I hear and really appreciate the feedback on being able to share Drops content with players in your group that don't have the disposable income for a Hero Tier subscription," Perry said. "The team is taking another look at the tradeoffs and considering other solutions."

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I mean...makes sense.

 

[trib]

Of course it's money. Everything is about money and extracting shareholder value once something becomes corporatised.

Now, that's not ipso facto a bad thing. You can do capitalism better than it's mostly done. But in this case, WotC/Hasbro broke a model where they had established expectations and a degree of trust that DMs could pay the Master subscription and share content with their players.

To my mind, the upset in the community is more about the breaking of that trust and expectation, than putting new content behind a paywall (one that I do pay for).

What the corporates and marketers seem not to have realised at this point is that we all have a vast range of 3rd party material we can access that's arguably better than WotC material in many cases, and that we're prepared to support the ecosystem of small to quite large studios with our money and games. And that we can always play old school with paper and books around a table.

 

[sevenbastard]

I still believe in Gold is XP so maximizing profits means maximizing level gains.

 

[SothFan]

important to make the entire subscriber content library accessible to Hero Tier subscribers

If the DM disables it, is it still accessible?

Does a DM no longer have a say in what is allowed in their game and must allow drops, no matter what they are?

To those executives:

 

[Selas]

If they're using Maps VTT, then the DM can disable it, and they can ban the use as part of the table rules if pen and paper or using another VTT. However, players with subscription obviously retain the material, but won't be able to use it

 

[Whisper-Kitten]

They failed their diplomacy roll.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

If the DM disables it, is it still accessible?

Does a DM no longer have a say in what is allowed in their game and must allow drops, no matter what they are?

To those executives:

They are the same amount of banned as anything else the player’s own that the DM says is banned

 

[EthanSental]

I’m okay with it as a master tier subscriber and share stuff now with my players. I don’t share EVERYTHING with them anyway and if it’s something cool.we’ll figure out a way to share it at the table.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

To my mind, the upset in the community is more about the breaking of that trust and expectation, than putting new content behind a paywall (one that I do pay for).

I legit don’t understand any upset right now related to this.