Forgotten Realms Books to Have Several Digital DLCs, Including One Featuring Asterion

Wizards of the Coast plans to release several "digital DLCs" alongside the upcoming Forgotten Realms rulebooks. This week, Game Informer released a pair of articles about the upcoming Forgotten Realms rulebooks. Tucked away in the article is the announcement that the upcoming releases will include several "digital DLCs" that expand on the new setting. One example was Asterion's Book of Hungers, which focuses on urban vampire adventures featuring the character from Baldur's Gate 3.

No other details were made available about the upcoming releases, such as whether the new supplements will be paid DLC or free to D&D Beyond subscribers. Wizards has released several digital-only supplements alongside their various books, ranging from mini-bestiaries to supplementary adventures, but all were free to D&D Beyond subscribers or available as pre-order bonuses.

Since the Forgotten Realms books aren't currently available for pre-order, it's hard to say whether this is a new strategy or simply a continuation of current works. The fact that Wizards commissioned art specifically for Asterion's Book of Hungers and the usage of the phrase "digital DLC" suggests that this might be a new monetization scheme for the company, albeit one that makes sense given the growing use of D&D Beyond's marketplace.

 

[Zaukrie]

I've got nothing against digital products, but I dislike those I can only license, even though with DDB that's what I had to accept. PDFs.

I mean, it's all downloadable and printable. I wish we also got ODFs, but we aren't. I've downloaded almost all the DNDbeyond stuff I own.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Believe it or not, it’s possible to care about more than one thing at a time. I am also very concerned about the stork and trying to get more of my fellow frog nerves involved in using our collective power to try and escape it.

Sure, and there are lots of storks that pose an existential threat to every frog in the pond, and you are focused on something so utterly trivial! You know what, I’ve lost all my print stuff from the 80s, and - it doesn’t matter, I’ve moved on. Everything is ephemeral, hoarding print media until you run out of space and have to throw it out isn’t a sensible thing to do.

 

[Nikosandros]

I mean, it's all downloadable and printable. I wish we also got ODFs, but we aren't. I've downloaded almost all the DNDbeyond stuff I own.

Downloadable how? If I save the page or print to PDF it looks like garbage and I have one file for each chapter.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Downloadable how? If I save the page or print to PDF it looks like garbage and I have one file for each chapter.

chapters!? What do you expect? This will be magazine article level media, not a book.

And if it’s worth saving (which I doubt) it’s worth taking the time to edit it into your preferred format.

 

[Charlaquin]

Sure, and there are lots of storks that pose an existential threat to every frog in the pond, and you are focused on something so utterly trivial!

Again, you’re acting like this is the only issue I’m being active about. It’s not. It’s just the one that’s relevant to this discussion, in this thread, on this forum. And sorry, but I don’t think that access to real goods instead of digital licenses is a trivial matter. Maybe this specific instance of it isn’t a huge deal, but that’s the reason for the frog metaphor. It is one more small bleed among a million, and we’re already at the point where we don’t actually own most of the things we pay for, because people tolerate small bleeds.

You know what, I’ve lost all my print stuff from the 80s, and - it doesn’t matter, I’ve moved on. Everything is ephemeral, hoarding print media until you run out of space and have to throw it out isn’t a sensible thing to do.

Nobody is suggesting hoarding print media until you run out of space and have to throw it out. But if I buy a book, and I reach the point where the townhome I pay the owner of for the privilege to continue living in doesn’t have enough space, I should have the option of what to do with that book. Throw it out, donate it to a book drive, sell it, whatever. We should demand to actually own the things we buy.

 

[Nikosandros]

chapters!? What do you expect? This will be magazine article level media, not a book.

And if it’s worth saving (which I doubt) it’s worth taking the time to edit it into your preferred format.

Here I was talking about "standard" D&D books, not this new products about which I still know very little.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Here I was talking about "standard" D&D books, not this new products about which I still know very little.

Nothing stopping you buying standard print books. No use to me, my eyesight isn’t good enough to read a print book.

 

[Nikosandros]

Nothing stopping you buying standard print books. No use to me, my eyesight isn’t good enough to read a print book.

My eyesight is also no longer good, but I can still read WotC's books. However, and maybe we are starting to go in a circle, I was specifically referring to the digital formats of those books...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

We should demand to actually own the things we buy

And we should demand we also always have eyesight that is good enough to read them? Everything is ephemeral, whether you buy it or not. In order to sell a print book, there would have to be someone who wants to buy it. You can’t guarantee that, and you can’t force the publisher to buy it back.

The thing about print books is you read them once, then they just clutter up the place. If they evaporated in a couple of years it would be an improvement.

 

[Charlaquin]

And we should demand we also always have eyesight that is good enough to read them?

I mean, optometry should be included as a part of general health care, which is a basic human right and should be guaranteed for everyone instead of offered as an employment benefit, so… yes.

Everything is ephemeral, whether you buy it or not. In order to sell a print book, there would have to be someone who wants to buy it. You can’t guarantee that, and you can’t force the publisher to buy it back.

Sure, but if I actually own the book, I have the ability to spend as much or as little effort trying to find a buyer as I want to. Or, again, I can decide to donate it, or to recycle the paper it’s printed on, or to make paper mache out of it, or any of a million other things. If I am merely licensed to access it I have none of these options and it can be taken away from me at any time.