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

[Nikosandros]

It matches my experience of wrestling with PDFs, so it passes the smell test.

Since you don't like them, they are universally bad. So bad, that they can't be offered as a choice... OK.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

It is certainly their privilege, but it doesn't seem to me that it is about the user experience.

I mean, Nikos, you can do a test for yourself, because there is an actual example, I believe.

Specifically, you can download the Basic Rules on PDF to your phone or whatever, and you can download the Beyond app to your phone, and if you haven't bought anything I believe it will just have the basic rules and a few other random things for free. Then you can browse the Basic Rules via the Beyond app, and also browse them via the PDF, and thus make a reasonable comparison.

Or if you hate phones, just open the Basic Rules PDF in a browser tab (or w/e) and have Beyond open in another one, and look through the Basic Rules source.

 

[Nikosandros]

I mean, Nikos, you can do a test for yourself, because there is an actual example, I believe.

Specifically, you can download the Basic Rules on PDF to your phone or whatever, and you can download the Beyond app to your phone, and if you haven't bought anything I believe it will just have the basic rules and a few other random things for free. Then you can browse the Basic Rules via the Beyond app, and also browse them via the PDF, and thus make a reasonable comparison.

Or if you hate phones, just open the Basic Rules PDF in a browser tab (or w/e) and have Beyond open in another one, and look through the Basic Rules source.

I have the Beyond App on the phone and on the iPad and I don't like it all. As a matter of fact, I almost never use it. By comparison, I use Beyond on my PC on a daily basis. I read PDFs on my PC and on my iPad also on a daily basis. It's not like I need to make any further tests.

You might all find it hard to believe, but I would prefer to have PDFs in addition (non in place of) D&D Beyond.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

You might all find it hard to believe, but I would prefer to have PDFs in addition (non in place of) D&D Beyond.

I wouldn't find that hard to believe at all. I'd prefer both. I'd just much rather use the app for every usage I'd use PDFs for, except that having the PDFs would give me certainty I'd retain access indefinitely.

 

[jgsugden]

...You might all find it hard to believe, but I would prefer to have PDFs in addition (non in place of) D&D Beyond.

Have you downloaded the D&D Beyond app that gives you access to all the books you've purchased in D&D Beyond in a near pdf format?

 

[Parmandur]

Since you don't like them, they are universally bad. So bad, that they can't be offered as a choice... OK.

Because I don't like the experience, I find it quite plausible that WotC has found them to be generally unappealing to their audience, certainly.

 

[Nikosandros]

Have you downloaded the D&D Beyond app that gives you access to all the books you've purchased in D&D Beyond in a near pdf format?

Yes, as I wrote previously, I don't like it. OTOH, I like D&D Beyond in general and it is always open on the PC while I'm running 5e.

 

[Jester David]

Since I'm playing more games online I'm happier for DnD Beyond, as I can link that to Roll20 with the Beyond20 browser extension. And I love the microtransaction aspect, so I can just drop $3 on a subclass and spell that I need for my character rather than $20 for an entire book.
(For the books I haven't already purchased.)

Now, I think I would use PDFs more. Because I know from experience I use PDFs a lot when homebrewing.
One of the first things I do when I get a new D&D book is scan it into Dropbox so I can reference it at work or on the bus on my iPad. (And stress the spine to prevent the glue from cracking.)
I've tried using the DnD Beyond compendium but find I'm just better at navigating with PDF readers. If there were official PDFs I might feel pressured to buy them rather than making my own.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

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?



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.

And THIS is the essence of my problem with their service, and what I have always said is the issue. I'm fine buying the books in both a physical and digital format. I'm even fine paying a subscription fee to use the D&D Beyond service. But NOT both. Their pricing model is frankly absurd, especially if you do any sort of homebrewing or houseruling of classes/spells/rules, which all requires a subscription in order to do. I'll sooner spend hours tracking down ever changing less than legal websites that post the information online anyway or find copies of the pdfs that "certainly do not exist" than use their service if I have to basically spend both a subscription service fee AND a one time cost damn near the full price of the physical books.

And frankly? I trust the security of the "shady" websites more than the legit ones given WoTC's track record on digital services. The less people I have to let track my data and have my credit card info the better.

 

[seebs]

I had physical copies. Now I have pdfs. I'm okay with that.

Would it have been nicer to get a free pdf with my physical copy? Sure, that would have been great. But the problem with that is other companies are trying to get the word out on their stuff, so offer free or discounted virtual books along with physical ones. WotC doesn't need to do this, so offers physical books for those who want them and virtual ones as well for that group. You want both, you pay for both.

I love just having pdfs now. Much happier with that.

Wait since when can we get PDFs, at all, at any price?