D&D (2024) Digital Only Edition

[LordEntrails]

Digital would be fine. It's how I own 5E. Subscription would not.

 

[Micah Sweet]

I can play any RPG through pdfs (although I'd prefer not to), but the subscription model is like counting to 5 with the Holy Hand Grenade (right out).

 

[overgeeked]

Nope. Any subscription can be canceled by the provider. Any online service can end. Unless I have print copies or PDFs on my hard drive, I’m not interested.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

No.

But that is imagining the scenario where this new system is widely rejected due to its obnoxious digital subscription model, and presumably where the old system keeps going strong, probably some third party publisher supports it or a close clone, and it's just WotC missing the boat in favor of fleecing a smaller part of their potential audience and being able to boast about a new technological model in some board meeting.

The real question, I think, is if the rest of the world was bizarrely okay with only ever being able to rent their D&D on devices, and you could basically only find games by accepting that system, would you cave?

 

[Fanaelialae]

I'm a fan of hard copy for most things. I don't mind reading a novel on my Kindle, but when I study more serious subjects (including RPGs) I like to have a book that I can readily flip back and forth in.

Given that in this hypothetical scenario this is the PERFECT edition for me, I might just go to the trouble of transcribing the rules and printing them out, despite that it would be undoubtedly time consuming.

Although, realistically, I can't see them ever going this route. I could absolutely see them going in a more electronic oriented direction, if they ever managed to do it right. But deny people print books? That seems extremely unlikely to me; I think it would be the perfect recipe for the most poorly performing edition ever.

 

[Cruentus]

Out of curiosity, what, for you, is the difference between the players' eyes glued to a screen versus flipping through a book?

A screen offers unlimited other distractions - tweets, TikTok, FB, and so on. It’s easy to switch from the digital character sheet to something completely unrelated. Ime, flipping through a PHB is usually only done to reference a rule, or look up a spell, then it gets put down and back to the game. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or had anyone browse their rulebook during a game.

 

[Quickleaf]

No. And if there was a poll option stronger than "no", I would choose that.

 

[Hex08]

Hard no. If I am playing around a table then physical copies are my preferred method and if I am playing online I like my PDFs. My opinion of a subscription based model involves language that would, at the very least, get me a warning from a Mod.

 

[cbwjm]

Nah, prefer not to have something completely locked by a subscription. I don't mind additional features locked behind a subscription but I'd want to be able to access the books without needing a sub, much like the current set up with dndbeyond.

 

[Vaalingrade]

A screen offers unlimited other distractions - tweets, TikTok, FB, and so on. It’s easy to switch from the digital character sheet to something completely unrelated. Ime, flipping through a PHB is usually only done to reference a rule, or look up a spell, then it gets put down and back to the game. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or had anyone browse their rulebook during a game.

They're going to be on their phones anyway, let's face it.