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."

 

[FrogReaver]

Yeah. That is quite some heavy extrapolation from a single point of data.

Not really a single data point is it? There’s WOTC past behavior and recent comments, other companies similar behavior and statements, and more broadly, the structural incentive structure for WOTC changes when this is successful. Think more, what is the next 3 steps instead of what is it like right now.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Not really a single data point is it? There’s WOTC past behavior and recent comments, other companies similar behavior and statements, and more broadly, the structural incentive structure for WOTC changes when this is successful. Think more, what is the next 3 steps instead of what is it like right now.

Let's see.

I am not ready for this doomsaying.
And I don't take part in the outrage game.

 

[FrogReaver]

Let's see.

I am not ready for this doomsaying.
And I don't take part in the outrage game.

and im not really into naivety.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

and im not really into naivety.

Me neither.

 

[FrogReaver]

Let's see.

I am not ready for this doomsaying.
And I don't take part in the outrage game.

Good. Me neither.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Good. Me neither.

Cool. Waiting for enough facts to make an estimated prediction is good.

 

[Zaukrie]

The metaphor doesn’t work. It’s not like saying “hey, you can’t use Strixhaven in our Forgotten Realms game”. It’s like having new pages show up in the Players Handbook automatically. These aren’t options players select, they’re added automatically. So players feel like of course this stuff is allowed until a DM has to explicitly exclude it.

This is the reason so many complained about Silvery Barbs. It wasn’t because the spell itself is busted. It’s because anyone who had it didn’t even remember what book it was from and DDB didn’t have (and doesn’t have I don’t think) a good way for a DM to filter material at the book level.

So now WOtC is adding lots of new stuff and thr DM is the bad guy for saying “yeah, no”.

I’m glad you have no problem with any of this. I do and so do many others.

Has this ever been an issue for you? Because I'm every game I've been in, if the DM says no, it's no. For fifty years. I've asked my players, some of whom have played for decades, never an issue for them. I feel like ninety percent of the complaints about digital are theoretical.

I'm not stating things won't eventually change, that's inevitable. I'm suggesting that I feel like there is a lot of doom casting about every move this company makes.

 

[jolt]

One of my concerns with subscription services in general is that every year there are more and more of them, but people still only have X amount of free money to spend every month. Companies always seem to assume that customers have unlimited disposable cash or that their added cost is the only one consumers have to worry about. You can't make everything a subscription service; people don't have enough money.

Even if this service ends up being "good", there will be people who are priced out of it, can't justify the additional cost, or will learn to do without it regardless. $500,000 is a fantastic price for a 2024 Rimac Nevara, but it doesn't matter because I don't have half a million to spend. I think the service will make money, but not enough to make Hasbro happy. I think it will be scrapped within 5 years when Hasbro pivots to some new idea they think will make them even more money. It's like the old joke about corporations who put band-aid vending machines in their offices for "employee health", but either the machines are discarded because they didn't meet revenue goals or managers hit their employees to boost vending revenue.

It just feels to me that WotC/Hasbro are just chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and they're going to fall into a cycle of creating and then scrapping programs trying to find it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I think the service will make money, but not enough to make Hasbro happy. I think it will be scrapped within 5 years when Hasbro pivots to some new idea they think will make them even more money.

DDB will be around longer than that, but yeah, I give this drops program two or three years at most, before it's decided that it didn't meaningfully move the needle and the cost associated with it (which shouldn't be much, so long as it's just material cut for space or because it wasn't the focus of the upcoming book) outweighed the profit it's estimated to generate.

Still, better than all of this stuff ending up on the cutting room floor.

 

[Zaukrie]

One of my concerns with subscription services in general is that every year there are more and more of them, but people still only have X amount of free money to spend every month. Companies always seem to assume that customers have unlimited disposable cash or that their added cost is the only one consumers have to worry about. You can't make everything a subscription service; people don't have enough money.

Even if this service ends up being "good", there will be people who are priced out of it, can't justify the additional cost, or will learn to do without it regardless. $500,000 is a fantastic price for a 2024 Rimac Nevara, but it doesn't matter because I don't have half a million to spend. I think the service will make money, but not enough to make Hasbro happy. I think it will be scrapped within 5 years when Hasbro pivots to some new idea they think will make them even more money. It's like the old joke about corporations who put band-aid vending machines in their offices for "employee health", but either the machines are discarded because they didn't meet revenue goals or managers hit their employees to boost vending revenue.

It just feels to me that WotC/Hasbro are just chasing the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and they're going to fall into a cycle of creating and then scrapping programs trying to find it.

As long as they make DND, I'm ok with them trying to find ways to make money.