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.

 

[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.