WotC D&D Digital Library

[Umbran]

Me: So you own D&D Beyond directly now?
Wizards: Yes.
Me: And you also have a way to give out free PDFs from your own website now as well?
Wizards: Yes.
Me: So then, we'll get automatic electronic copies with our physical books now finally?
Wizards: Haha, no.

Wizards: We have a way to give out free pdfs to account holders. We don't have a reliable way to give out free pdfs to hardcopy product owners. It isn't like they are the same thing, you know.

 

[darjr]

Here’s free cool stuff! You need not buy anything!

what?!? How dare you!

I mean that’s how it looks.

I sympathize, I want PDFs of the books.
But the nagging is starting to break me.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Wizards: We have a way to give out free pdfs to account holders. We don't have a reliable way to give out free pdfs to hardcopy product owners. It isn't like they are the same thing, you know.

I mean, if you buy a hardcover off of Cubicle7's site, you get a free pdf. You also get one if you buy at your FLGS. And you could get digital content for free by buying the Essentials Kit for D&D.

I don't think this is exactly a difficult puzzle for WotC to figure out for at least some of its hardcover sales.

 

[Jer]

I mean, if you buy a hardcover off of Cubicle7's site, you get a free pdf. You also get one if you buy at your FLGS. And you could get digital content for free by buying the Essentials Kit for D&D.

I don't think this is exactly a difficult puzzle for WotC to figure out for at least some of its hardcover sales.

Cubicle 7 actually sells both physical and PDF versions of their product, and they sell both directly to the public. Wizards does neither - they don't sell PDFs and they don't sell directly to the public. So it's apples and oranges.

If Wizards ever decides to sell the current version of D&D as PDFs directly to the public then I suspect they'd figure out how to do the same as other companies. But since, unlike other companies, they actually don't have to sell PDFs at all to meet the bottom line I suspect it's a very low priority.

And then figuring out how to give people D&D Beyond access for the physical books they buy is a different question - it takes more labor to put together the DDB stuff for a book than it does to produce a PDF for sale (given that PDFs are an intermediate stage in the printing process while DDB programming/data entry is completely divorced from that process). So paying for that labor needs to be factored in somewhere. There are two obvious ways they could do it - raise the prices on books for everyone to provide "free" access to DDB to everyone - even those who don't use it, or have people who use DDB pay for that labor. They've chosen the latter, and I hope they don't ever switch to the former because I just don't see the value in DDB for 5e (digital tools were a real time saver in 4e, but for 5e I just don't need them).

 

[darjr]

Oh that page is still up. With links to some free stuff, including the rule books for both the Starter Set and the Essentials Kit.

Downloadable Adventures & Resources | Dungeons & Dragons

Get started with downloadable PDF adventures and resources from the lastest edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

dnd.wizards.com

 

[eyeheartawk]

And then figuring out how to give people D&D Beyond access for the physical books they buy is a different question - it takes more labor to put together the DDB stuff for a book than it does to produce a PDF for sale (given that PDFs are an intermediate stage in the printing process while DDB programming/data entry is completely divorced from that process). So paying for that labor needs to be factored in somewhere. There are two obvious ways they could do it - raise the prices on books for everyone to provide "free" access to DDB to everyone - even those who don't use it, or have people who use DDB pay for that labor. They've chosen the latter, and I hope they don't ever switch to the former because I just don't see the value in DDB for 5e (digital tools were a real time saver in 4e, but for 5e I just don't need them).

You could offer a discounted price for D&D Beyond versions of the books moving forward. Though, to be honest, if I had to guess, I would say they may entertain the idea of giving them out for free there to get everyone invested in the digital ecosystem they are likely to be creating out of D&D Beyond. But that's just speculation.

 

[LongTimeLurker]

"Web Enhancements" for physical books? Maybe a code will be included to have a complimentary copy/discount on D&D Beyond (depends on WotC strategy), and here you can reedem more monsters, more rules or more adventures.

For example, think about the "Domains of delight" for Witchlight, it could have been distribuited here "for free" for book owners or by paying in DMsGuild for non book owners.

Just my cents.

Lol. This is the same company (WoTC) that can't get around to putting digital codes in their physical magic:the gathering product.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Cubicle 7 actually sells both physical and PDF versions of their product, and they sell both directly to the public. Wizards does neither - they don't sell PDFs and they don't sell directly to the public. So it's apples and oranges.

If Wizards ever decides to sell the current version of D&D as PDFs directly to the public then I suspect they'd figure out how to do the same as other companies. But since, unlike other companies, they actually don't have to sell PDFs at all to meet the bottom line I suspect it's a very low priority.

And then figuring out how to give people D&D Beyond access for the physical books they buy is a different question - it takes more labor to put together the DDB stuff for a book than it does to produce a PDF for sale (given that PDFs are an intermediate stage in the printing process while DDB programming/data entry is completely divorced from that process). So paying for that labor needs to be factored in somewhere. There are two obvious ways they could do it - raise the prices on books for everyone to provide "free" access to DDB to everyone - even those who don't use it, or have people who use DDB pay for that labor. They've chosen the latter, and I hope they don't ever switch to the former because I just don't see the value in DDB for 5e (digital tools were a real time saver in 4e, but for 5e I just don't need them).

I don't really agree that it's completely apples and oranges. The FLGS example especially, I don't think it would be particularly difficult to at least give FLGS codes to access the DDBeyond content if you purchase a hardcover there. The Essentials Kit had this in its box, so its something they could even do before the merger.

That said, I agree that WotC likely has no interest to actually do anything about this.

 

[Jer]

You could offer a discounted price for D&D Beyond versions of the books moving forward. Though, to be honest, if I had to guess, I would say they may entertain the idea of giving them out for free there to get everyone invested in the digital ecosystem they are likely to be creating out of D&D Beyond. But that's just speculation.

They could, but the issue is how do they get the codes for discounted access to people who have bought the books? Bundling them with the books ends up with the codes getting stolen in just about any industry that has tried to do this.

What I'd like to see is an FLGS incentive program where if you buy via your FLGS, the store owner can generate a promo code for you and you get the access at a discount. That would not make the folks who buy their books on Amazon happy, but hey they're getting their books for a cheaper price than the game store customers so it works out.

 

[Jer]

I don't really agree that it's completely apples and oranges. The FLGS example especially, I don't think it would be particularly difficult to at least give FLGS codes to access the DDBeyond content if you purchase a hardcover there.

Our posts crossed but this is something I think they could do and I think they should do. Along with the special covers only going to game store owners, getting the DDB codes with purchase there would be a nice bennie for game store owners and make people think about buying there instead of from Amazon if they want the DDB access.