D&D General Hey, are we all cool with having to buy the same book twice, or what?

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

It sucks that I have to buy the same book twice if I want the digital options. The very simple solution around this is to buy one or the other. DnD Beyond books are cheaper, and have a lot of perks, but physical copies are easier for a lot of people to read and flip through.

This isn't a problem with DnD Beyond, and is more WotC's fault, but it isn't a big deal. They market their content how they want to, and whether or not you agree with their methods makes no difference in the amount of money they get from selling books this way. D&D 5e books get sold very quickly, so whether or not you like that you have to buy it twice if you want both a digital and physical copy of it doesn't really affect the amount of money they make.

 

[Parmandur]

But I don't want the audiobook, I want the ebook.

Similar to how I want a PDF free of any particular platform or paid toolset.

Other companies not only provide this platform agnostic file, but also do so for free with a physical purchase.

The audiobook point is an analogy, not a direct comparison: the audio book is not just buying the same product, it's a different product.

Not providing a particular product in a particular format is not anti-consumer: if someone wants the book and the PDF, Genius Scan is a thing. I can make PDFs of all my books in short order for personal use. The value the WotC wants to sell is for the toolsets, and there is nothing wrong with that.

 

[masshysteria]

After using one of the free D&D Beyond adventures to play an online game, I see the appeal. It's a slick service and the books cost less in digital form. My major problem with it is what happens to my purchases when it goes away?

Note that what you get on D&D Beyond isn't just the book in digital format. You get the functionality of all the mechanics in there as well - so you can make all the sub-classes, feats, spells, races, and such available to players in your campaigns.

If you pay for that option. You can't share the content with players unless you also subscribe. So to really make D&D Beyond shine you need to pay for a $55/year master level subscription and buy the content you want.

 

[Morrus]

After using one of the free D&D Beyond adventures to play an online game, I see the appeal. It's a slick service and the books cost less in digital form. My major problem with it is what happens to my purchases when it goes away?

I guess the same applies for iTunes or Audible or whatever other platforms you use to buy digital content. You just have to factor the risk in to your valuation of the service and decide if it's worth it.

 

[Retreater]

I don't like buying twice. I have done it during the pandemic to get VTT copies of books I own to save time from putting it into the VTT, since that's the only way to game these days. That service has a value to me, apart from merely the content in electronic format. I imagine others find value in D&D Beyond more than merely a PDF copy of the content (such as searchable indices).

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

After using one of the free D&D Beyond adventures to play an online game, I see the appeal. It's a slick service and the books cost less in digital form. My major problem with it is what happens to my purchases when it goes away?

It's quite simple, actually.

you take responsibility for your actions.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

At the moment I'm more offended that I no longer get free MP3s from Amazon when I buy an LP from them (evidently they stopped doing that several years ago, but my turntable was in storage at the time so I didn't notice). I find it a lot easier to use digital platforms while relying on my physical D&D books than to play LPs in my car.

D&D is a small division of WotC that has a lot of ongoing overhead to support a game where many people play while buying little or no actual product from them. Trying to get a bit more out of those who are willing to actually purchase and want multiple formats (something some people are willing to pay a second time for and other buyers have no interest in) seems reasonable enough to me for such a product. Options for a discount multi-format package would seem a bit more fair (and potentially more profitable) but whatever; it is what it is.

 

[Rellott]

After using one of the free D&D Beyond adventures to play an online game, I see the appeal. It's a slick service and the books cost less in digital form. My major problem with it is what happens to my purchases when it goes away?

You whip out the Google Doc copy/paste documents of the books you wisely made years ago from your Beyond account in anticipation of this event. These also have the benefit of being easy to annotate and tweak for personal use.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

The one thing that I do dislike with this system that is solvable is how they delayed Mythic Odysseys of Theros, and I preordered the physical copy. They didn't delay the digital copy, so I guess I'll be left out of the loop for more than a month and a half. I understand this happened because the pandemic caused physical delays, and they don't want to delay the digital version, but now I either have to buy the copy online as well, or just wait a month to get it.

 

[masshysteria]

I guess the same applies for iTunes or Audible or whatever other platforms you use to buy digital content. You just have to factor the risk in to your valuation of the service and decide if it's worth it.

If I buy a song on iTunes I can download a file and just listen to that. If I subscribe to iTunes music, I get to listen to the whole catalog, but it goes away when my subscription ends.

With D&D Beyond, it breaks from that model. Something I buy, I don't get anything unless I make my own unofficial "backup." My subscription doesn't get me the catalog, just sharing or more tools.

So, I think the risk valuation changes with D&D Beyond. You're right, its a risk valuation, but I think the calculus changes.