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.

 

[Misanthrope Prime]

You guys know that just because WotC wants you to interface with their content on their terms you don't have to right? If you've got a computer you can probably extract the data you want from the webpage and format it how you see fit, if some pirate hasn't done so already.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

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

Practicality aside, I can afford optometry, but there is only so much corrective optics can do.

But that highlights just how much of a rich persons’ problem this is.

 

[Remathilis]

I’m not convinced those are the only options. Even assuming it’s not economically feasible for WotC to offer this material in print right now, the worst case scenario would be that they save it for a future release. And I would rather wait longer for this material to come out in another book than get it as “DLC” for this book.

I'm convinced that if they didn't feel this material was able to be included in a 112 or 200+ page book, it would be forgotten on a hard drive in WotC.

So I ask again: would you prefer it dlc or never having it?

 

[Zaukrie]

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

Very slowly and carefully! You are right, it is a pain and not great.......but it is doable. Not in any easy or good way, and I'm not suggesting otherwise.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I'm convinced that if they didn't feel this material was able to be included in a 112 or 200+ page book, it would be forgotten on a hard drive in WotC.

So I ask again: would you prefer it dlc or never having it?

The books together will be 380 pages. So, if there wasn't enough room for this stuff in something with that large of a page count, then, yeah, we'd probably wouldn't be seeing it at all outside a digital release.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I’m quite happy with the chemicals in the water turning me gay, thank you very much

It would be rough attending Pride in Palm Springs as a frog, but 100% worth the risk.

I was thinking more about stuff like this:

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

How are you going to spell Astarion's name wrong in the title, but get it right 3 paragraphs later?

The same way you double-posted. Everyone here, as far as I know, is human.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm convinced that if they didn't feel this material was able to be included in a 112 or 200+ page book, it would be forgotten on a hard drive in WotC.

I’m not convinced of that.

So I ask again: would you prefer it dlc or never having it?

Given that it seems like these “DLCs” are going to include updates to pre-2024 subclasses, I don’t believe that their contents never being released is on the table, at all.

 

[Scott Christian]

My guess is any DLC will be player-driven, meaning a bunch of new sub-classes, species, backgrounds, and spells. It would not surprise me if you started to see this stuff cranking out, via an anonymous helper named LLM.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I’m not convinced of that.

A ton of stuff ends up on the cutting room floor - far more than ever makes it into print. That’s the backstory behind The Mortuary.

Given that it seems like these “DLCs” are going to include updates to pre-2024 subclasses

No, they are not, they are going to be short adventures, similar to the ones in the print books.

Subclasses will be in print books, so people have to pay for them. They ain’t giving them away free.