D&D 5E D&D Beyond: No More À La Carte Purchases But US Customers Can Buy Physical Books

WotC has announced some changes to D&D Beyond's marketplace. These include physical products (for US customers), the removal of à la carte purchases, and various navigational changes.

You can no longer buy individual feats, subclasses, etc. -- you'll need to buy the whole book. The full list of changes includes:

• US shoppers can now buy physical books
• More info on product listings, including previews
• UI improvements to makee finding your purchased content and redeeming keys easier
• No more à la carte purchases (though your previous ones still count)

 

[Reynard]

Because they used to offer it, some people used and appreciated it, and now they don't and haven't provided a reason why.

Are they obligated to?

Again: I am no fan of WotC, and I think they are generally anti-consumer, but this particular complaint falls flat with me.

 

[Mirrorrorrim]

I wouldn't call D&D a collaborative storytelling game. Seems reductive to me.

I don't even know what the purpose of that retort is, or what it is supposed to mean. D&D is literally make-believe improv storytelling with rules and math rocks. It's not just that. But I'm not wrong.

I wasn't trying to write a giant paragraph to explain the depths of what role-playing games are. I was purposefully stating something simply as a comparison to a competitive game with a winner. Because the assertion I was contesting was that it could be "Pay-2-Win."

 

[rozgarth]

I’m a little surprised to see so many people in this thread defending what appears to be an objectively negative change for consumers. As some have mentioned, it’s pedantic to say that Beyond’s a la carte options were “microtransactions” because they were small dollar value purchases.

A la carte options are good for consumers. If I wanted a full book, I could buy it. If I wanted only certain content from a book, I could spend less money and get only the options I wanted. Now, I can’t. Consumers who valued a la carte options at a la carte prices (rather than full book prices) can no longer do so. That is straight deadweight loss.

Microtransactions are a pejorative term from video games where a publisher makes you pay for content that should have been included in the base game (cosmetics or skins that are released for additional fees the same day as a video game are Exhibit A). Expansions, sequels, DLC, etc. are not microtransactions in the relevant pejorative sense—they usually take year(s) of additional development time and may not have been developed at all if not for the additional price charged to recoup on the investment.

The fact that other RPG publishers do not offer a la carte content (though even that is disputable—some large publishers, like Paizo, offer all of their rules content for free, not just a limited SRD) does not excuse WotC’s decision here to eliminate a pricing model that already existed. I can only assume that their internal financial modding predicted that enough people would upsell to buy the full book and offset the lost sales from people who would have bought a la carte but now won’t. WotC would not made this decision, especially retroactively, if they expected it to lose them money.

So while some are free to celebrate this, it frankly feels like gaslighting to tell the rest of us that this is a wonderful change and we’re being unreasonable or crazy for pointing out that it’s a net negative for consumers.

 

[cbwjm]

One thing that I did like about the old system (in theory, in practice I always just bought the full book or no book) was that you could buy a few parts of the book as needed, perhaps a subclass or two, a few monsters or other options, and it would bring the overall cost of the book down so that eventually, you could simply buy the final product for the cost of a subclass. You're still paying full price for the book, but it spreads that cost out over several smaller purchases. I expect that would be useful for a lot of players who don't have a huge amount of disposable income to spend on a full purchase all at once.

 

[Clint_L]

I’m a little surprised to see so many people in this thread defending what appears to be an objectively negative change for consumers.

I think the issue is that WotC are in a damned if you do, damned if don't position. Some folks were framing the a la carte options as micro transactions, and claiming they were the thin edge of the wedge towards being able to pay to win, etc. I know, because I was involved in some of those discussions arguing that being able to buy a la carte was great and had nothing to do with pay to win.

And now that WotC is getting rid of the a la carte options, allegedly because they have been linked to micro transactions (though I've yet to see direct evidence of WotC's motives for this change), they are again being framed as the villains who are looking for another way to gouge us, I guess.

So having a la carte options makes WotC evil corporate jerks playing the long game to gouge us, and getting rid of the a la carte options makes WotC evil corporate jerks playing the short game to gouge us, I guess.

I very much agree with the point someone made earlier: there are a lot of folks on this forum with an axe to grind against WotC or 5e, and seem to look at everything that happens with an eye towards finding the way to spin it in the most negative way possible.

 

[cbwjm]

You have to be a special kind of stupid to think that being able to buy a single subclass from a book is pay to win in DnD.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

One thing that I did like about the old system (in theory, in practice I always just bought the full book or no book) was that you could buy a few parts of the book as needed, perhaps a subclass or two, a few monsters or other options, and it would bring the overall cost of the book down so that eventually, you could simply buy the final product for the cost of a subclass. You're still paying full price for the book, but it spreads that cost out over several smaller purchases. I expect that would be useful for a lot of players who don't have a huge amount of disposable income to spend on a full purchase all at once.

That definitely happened with me on books.

"Oh, I just need the new subclasses. ... Well, now I just need the new spells. ... Well, I want those monsters for something else. ... Oh, hey, the book is now just $9 for me? I might as well click the button."

It's going to be hard or impossible for them to know how much of a difference this makes, since they're guaranteed to move a ton of 2024 PHBs and DMGs on DDB this year, which will make this year completely unlike other years for the site.

But I suspect this is more something that was done because of some senior manager's gut feeling anyway, rather than data, and is unlikely to change until that senior manager steps on a rake and is replaced with someone with a different point of view. We know from the OGL crisis that there are people with wildly differing takes on issues inside WotC. It all just depends on who's sitting on the throne there in future.

(I mean, I assume the top manager sits on a throne made of the skulls of vanquished rivals. If not, why are you even working at a company in the fantasy fiction space?)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You have to be a special kind of stupid to think that being able to buy a single subclass from a book is pay to win in DnD.

Twilight Cleric looks around nervously

 

[Mistwell]

Does it matter?

Yes? A microtransaction involves a digital add-on

 

[Micah Sweet]

Are they obligated to?

Again: I am no fan of WotC, and I think they are generally anti-consumer, but this particular complaint falls flat with me.

Of course they aren't, but it's entirely reasonable to be irritated when a company stops doing something you liked for no obvious reason.