D&D 5E D&D Beyond Will Delist Two Books On May 17th

D&D Beyond will be permanently removing Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes on May 17th in favor of the upcoming Monsters of the Multiverse book, which largely compiles and updates that material.

As per the D&D Beyond FAQ for Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse:

Can I still buy Volo’s Guide to Monsters or Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes on D&D Beyond?
Starting on May 16, you can acquire the streamlined and up-to-date creatures and character race options, as well as a plethora of exciting new content, by purchasing Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse. On May 17, Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes will be discontinued from our digital marketplace.

If you already own these two books you will still have access to your purchases and any characters or encounters you built with them. They won’t be removed from your purchased sourcebooks. Therefore, if you want the "fluff" and tables in those two tomes in D&D Beyond, you need to purchase them soon.

This is the first time books have been wholesale delisted from the D&D Beyond Platform rather than updated (much like physical book reprints are with errata and changes).

There’s no word from WotC on whether physical books will be discontinued and be allowed to sell out.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

they think that is true today they can not possibly know what they will do after the 2024 books

I am 100% sure the 2024 books are just going to be added to D&D Beyond like the others. As all the recent books are being made with the new core in mind.

I keep hearing speculation of a wotc table top, but I don't know why they would try that again when havingothers licence D&D from them is working so well

Cause it's more profitable for them to have their own. With Fantasy Grounds it sounds like they are getting ready to end their license. Maybe with Roll20 as well.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Slightly different rules scattered across a dozen different books? Sounds like D&D is about to become "Palladium Compatible". Can books full of cut and paste reprints be far behind?

Shades of "The Complete Errata Handbook" for 4e, their shadow release.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I am 100% sure the 2024 books are just going to be added to D&D Beyond like the others.

and what role do you have in WotC and/or Hasbro? and how do you know you will not be replaced in next 2 years? (like maybe you get a better job and they bring in a new guy?)

As all the recent books are being made with the new core in mind.

if they already know what the new core is why wait? why are they doing surveys and questionnaires?

Cause it's more profitable for them to have their own. With Fantasy Grounds it sounds like they are getting ready to end their license. Maybe with Roll20 as well.

so I assume you are in the licensing department to know how much they make from licensing out to 2 tables instead of owning 1?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

and what role do you have in WotC and/or Hasbro? and how do you know you will not be replaced in next 2 years? (like maybe you get a better job and they bring in a new guy?)

if they already know what the new core is why wait? why are they doing surveys and questionnaires?

so I assume you are in the licensing department to know how much they make from licensing out to 2 tables instead of owning 1?

Cause they would have wasted millions for no reason, and they already said they were not doing that.

Play testing and development takes time,
They did years of play testing and surveys before the release of 5e, and the Wizards team have tended to try and get feedback on stuff they are experimenting with for the game.

It’s almost always more profitable to entirely own something then to rely on licensing. Particularly if it already has a large established user base like Beyond.

A lot of the things you are saying only make sense if you assume the Head of the D&D team Winninger is lying about everything he has said. Do you just not trust anything you are told?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Cause they would have wasted millions for no reason, and they already said they were not doing that.

okay I will come back to this with your last part

Play testing and development takes time,

yes, and that is why they can't know for sure (let alone us who have LESS info) about what changes need to be made. '

even going to the craziest least likely change I can imagine... but lets say that they decide that Clerics shouldn't be able to heal (Why, no clue...I doubt it could happen) but that doesn't come up intil the next surveys start to come in. then the starter set today will not match.

take that crazy weird example and switch it with something we will more likly see and you can tell that they can't know that far ahead (Unless you assume the tests and surveys from today on wont matter...and maybe I could entertain that concept)

It’s almost always more profitable to entirely own something then to rely on licensing. Particularly if it already has a large established user base like Beyond.

that isn't true at all. You need to build infrastructure in order to enter a new field, you need to hire experts, and you need to promote it. there is a reason why action figure companies like Mcfarlin and Funkopop get licenses instead of the companies that make those themselves.

A lot of the things you are saying only make sense if you assume the Head of the D&D team Winninger is lying about everything he has said. Do you just not trust anything you are told?

yes, I doubt what ANYONE i don't know says and try to make sure they are not talking about things they may have an interest in misleading me on. I then go by history. (If someone lied to me about the same thing before I am less likely to believe them now, there is a reason my Exs are my Exs)

however you DON'T have to think him lying to question it (although again they lied about 3 to 3.5 compatibility and keeping the 4e database and CG up) You only need to ask, is Winniger going to be incharge 3 years from now? Might he get sick (i mean we do still have a plague)? Might he get a better job offer (game companies are not the most profitable business)? Might he get down sized/fired? Could he get a promotion and someone else take over?

 

[Remathilis]

however you DON'T have to think him lying to question it (although again they lied about 3 to 3.5 compatibility and keeping the 4e database and CG up) You only need to ask, is Winniger going to be incharge 3 years from now? Might he get sick (i mean we do still have a plague)? Might he get a better job offer (game companies are not the most profitable business)? Might he get down sized/fired? Could he get a promotion and someone else take over?

I say relax, the world will end in Thermo-nuclear war or Free and Open Internet will cease to exist before 2024, making updating D&D Beyond a moot point.

(The odds of either happening are about the same as the scenarios you're describing.)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I say relax, the world will end in Thermo-nuclear war or Free and Open Internet will cease to exist before 2024, making updating D&D Beyond a moot point.

(The odds of either happening are about the same as the scenarios you're describing.)

I mean the Nuc war I guess but I doubt the lack of an open internet... but someone getting sick (during a plauge) or getting a better job (promotion or other company) or dying or getting fired are all more likely then even the war...

DO you know no one who has ever gotten a new job?

 

[Weiley31]

We are taking applications at this time. Please register your stuff. We will get to you in a timely matter. Be aware if Jasper shows up, do not give him booze as he is a mean drunk.

Don't forget the limited time offer bonus where we'll kick their cat out straight through the glass window for free too! Test Audiences loved that!

 

[MonsterEnvy]

however you DON'T have to think him lying to question it (although again they lied about 3 to 3.5 compatibility and keeping the 4e database and CG up) You only need to ask, is Winniger going to be incharge 3 years from now? Might he get sick (i mean we do still have a plague)? Might he get a better job offer (game companies are not the most profitable business)? Might he get down sized/fired? Could he get a promotion and someone else take over?

I don't know much about the 3 to 3.5 compatibility thing. But the 4e Database remained up for years after support for it went away.

Anyway it's exhausting talk about this stuff with you, time will provide the answers anyway.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Anyway it's exhausting talk about this stuff with you, time will provide the answers anyway.

same

 

[Saracenus]

@GMforPowergamers Corporations are not people despite what the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled. They are complex entities (especially the larger ones) the interaction of corporate culture, leadership, and workforce (internal forces) with customers, economic reality, societal changes (external forces) means that what was true say, 5 years ago, is no longer true today. If you are expecting any corporation to "keep their word" in the face of a everchanging business environment then you are applying a standard that is quite simply unrealistic.

You keep talking about how WotC is somehow going to capriciously end D&D Beyond (for reasons). I cannot with 100% certainty say that WotC would never end D&D Beyond. Yet, that feeling you have doesn't take into consideration factors such as WotC's new CEO comes from an electronic gaming background at Microsoft (Xbox) and every indication points to WotC leveraging their already existing digital presence and then doubling down on it.

Despite it's flaws D&D Beyond is a very successful platform for delivering digital character creation and is starting to be a decent DMs tool for managing a campaign. Unless you are Facebook or Google, corporations generally do not buy something to just kill it (it is just too damn expensive to do that). Fact is if they wanted to build their own version of D&D Beyond to replace it they had a cheaper option, just don't renew the D&D license for D&D Beyond and let it die.

I get it, 3.5 D&D was a flash point for some in D&D Fandom. It was one more trauma in a string of them stretching back to when TSR under the leadership of Gygax started killing off 3rd party partners and eventually TSR going after fan sites after his ouster (TSR Online on AOL era, anyone). Thing is this game has been around for nearly 50 years. There has been a churn on the people in charge of running the business that is D&D. The very people that made the executive decisions about 3.5 and 4e are no longer with the company (yes, some of the creatives are still there) and the trauma of 4e on WotC and their desire to not repeat its mistakes brought us to the long playtest that led to 5e.

We are all reading tea leaves here. We all have incomplete information. But, taking the delisting of two books that have been superseded by a new one and then extrapolating that this is start of a new awful phase of WotC's stewardship of D&D is at best false positive hit on a flight or fight response. I am neither saying the "sky is falling" nor am I saying "everything is awesome." It. Just. Is. The game will continue and my tables will continue.

 

[Saracenus]

I just checked and MP:MotM has finally gone live on my D&D Beyond account. Below is a screen shot of my Sourcebooks and links to the discontinued titles are available for me to read.

I haven't checked if I can share them with my players in my campaigns.
EDIT: I checked and the discontinued books are available to share to my players in a campaign in D&D Beyond.

One annoying thing is, I have no filter to remove those books from being visible in character creation if I so desire. Sometimes it is nice to have less stuff visible to cut down on confusion for my players for a particular campaign.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

@GMforPowergamers Corporations are not people despite what the Supreme Court of the United States has ruled.

please leave poltics out of this... we have enough issues just with D&D

They are complex entities (especially the larger ones) the interaction of corporate culture, leadership, and workforce (internal forces) with customers, economic reality, societal changes (external forces) means that what was true say, 5 years ago, is no longer true today. If you are expecting any corporation to "keep their word" in the face of a everchanging business environment then you are applying a standard that is quite simply unrealistic.

yup...and when I point that out I am told I am wrong... I am getting quite tired of being told both answers are wrong...

I get it, 3.5 D&D was a flash point for some in D&D Fandom.

to say the least

It was one more trauma in a string of them stretching back to when TSR under the leadership of Gygax started killing off 3rd party partners and eventually TSR going after fan sites after his ouster (TSR Online on AOL era, anyone).

I was there to see people who were running early blogs basicly being told they couldn't talk D&D...

Thing is this game has been around for nearly 50 years. There has been a churn on the people in charge of running the business that is D&D. The very people that made the executive decisions about 3.5 and 4e are no longer with the company

yup... and again that means that people in charge today most likely will not be forever... and as such there is 0 need for someone to be lying in order for someone to be wrong.

We are all reading tea leaves here. We all have incomplete information.

I say that too... that it is entirely based on our POVs, and I love sharing that and hearing other POVs except when those POVs come with "but I know and I'm right and your wrong and your dumb for thinking it" that is comming up more and more on here.

But, taking the delisting of two books that have been superseded by a new one and then extrapolating that this is start of a new awful phase of WotC's stewardship of D&D is at best false positive hit on a flight or fight response. I am neither saying the "sky is falling" nor am I saying "everything is awesome." It. Just. Is. The game will continue and my tables will continue.

again thats cool, but I am useing past info to make resnoble assumptions about future information

 

[eyeheartawk]

Guys, what does compatible really mean though?

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Guys, what does compatible really mean though?

nobody knows

 

[eyeheartawk]

nobody knows

Reads last thirty pages of this thread.

Yeah, checks out.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Reads last thirty pages of this thread.

Yeah, checks out.

at the very least most of us can't agree on a single meaning

 

[Saracenus]

Guys, what does compatible really mean though?

Well, there will be what WotC considers compatibility when they publish the 2024 50th Anniversary Core Rule Books and then there is what you consider compatibility. It will be the connect/disconnect between those to states that determines how you feel about it and how successful WotC was in this regard.

I already staked out what defines compatibility for me earlier in this mass thread and it remains to be seen if I will enjoy the latest core offering in 2024.

Personally, I believe that 2024 Core D&D will be an iteration of already playtested ideas that we have seen so far and some that will come out in the next year or so. If they were going to do a completely new edition, a true 6e, we would be back in an open playtest like we did in 5e. WotC is just too cautious after 4e to attempt a blind build again. The financial implications of an unsuccessful edition are just too great and the disruption to their broader media goals would be unacceptable. That would be a career ending mess up...

 

[MonsterEnvy]

again thats cool, but I am useing past info to make resnoble assumptions about future information

That’s been the part I disagree with. I don’t think your assumptions have been reasonable.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

That’s been the part I disagree with. I don’t think your assumptions have been reasonable.

and I don't believe that you are interested in anything but arguing. I have shown why I believe what I do, and how I came to it.