D&D 5E (2014) How Much Would You Pay for Digital Access?

[Nikmal]

Do you own the content? Or do you "own" the content? Is Dungeonscape one of those deals where you pay for the books and they reserve the right to ban you or shut down the service at any time?

This is a subscription then if you ask me.

 

[Khaalis]

Just to throw in my $0.02 worth. If you own the hard copy you should get the PDF free (or maybe $5-10) as it is nothing more than a convenience option. It Gauls me to no end when some of these companies think they can charge full Hard Copy Retail for a pdf since most of the costs of the hard bound is in the printing, stock and storage costs, shipping, marketing, etc. The PDF was used to send the book to printer. Beyond that its just a historical document. Charging full price for it is a complete rip off. If I had to face paying full price for the book as a PDF and I really NEEDED a pdf format that badly, I'd just scan the book before I'd pay full price.

 

[delericho]

If I'm buying a PDF, then it's in addition to my hardcopy of the same book. In which case, I'll pay no more than 40% of cover price for it. The convenience of adding the PDF isn't worth any more than that to me. (Indeed, ideally I'd prefer to get it bundled with the hardcopy, as Paizo and MWP do at least with some buying options. However, I appreciate that not every company wants or is able to do this, and that's their prerogative - it's a "nice to have", nothing more.)

I do, however, expect it to be a PDF or similar standalone format - if I need to log-in to some dedicated service in order to access the material I've paid for, that's a deal-breaker. Nor do I want to be tied to a tablet, or indeed any specific device to use it. Every barrier they put on my unrestricted use cuts into the convenience factor, and it almost immediately ceases to be worth the hassle.

Unlike many other posters in this thread, though, I would be willing to sign-up to a subscription, probably up to $10 a month. However, this would be contingent on it including access to all the published materials - if there's a subscription and then an additional cost to access "book X", then that's again a deal-breaker. I don't mind renting access to the library, but object to double-dipping on the charges!

 

[Khaalis]

To tack onto delericho's statement... On the $$$ subscription front, I would pay a subscription for an actual service I found useful. I'm not paying for content. I have the books for that. If DS offers a service I find useful and that I will use often enough to warrant it, I'd pay. For instance I paid for the 4E digital offering because it gave access to the character generator which was mildly useful, but the real draw was the Dragon/Dungeon magazine access. If DS is nothing more than a digital media access for books I already have with a character generator tacked on, its not worth my money.

 

[BoldItalic]

I prefer books because they don't go away.

I'll take PDFs if they are free.

In the DungeonScape model you can buy content for a one-time fee and its yours forever - as long as the DungeonScape website stays up and you can run their web client to read the content you've bought. Hmm.

 

[HardcoreDandDGirl]

I guess I am weird... I have no problem renting use on a cloud space as long as the monthly payment is low.

heck, that is why I use rent a center and pawn shops and credit cards and lay a way.

I would pay up to $10 a month (hopefully with a discount if you buy the year) for access

 

[Authweight]

I actually prefer the subscription over paying for each thing. I really value having everything, and I value having it immediately. Plus I already bought the phb. $10 a month would be great for me. If I need to drop $30 up front just to use it, that would be a big turnoff.

 

[Jester David]

Do you own the content? Or do you "own" the content? Is Dungeonscape one of those deals where you pay for the books and they reserve the right to ban you or shut down the service at any time?

Own as much as you own any digital content.
DungeonScape will let you download the app and store data on that, so even if offline or they lose their licence you have your books.
But I imagine they can lock your account, preventing access if you break their terms of use (sharing passwords online for example), but that might only impact you if you use the web version.

However, it will likely be limited by their servers staying online and retention of the license. If Trapdoor Tech goes dark (or when their license expires) the web version will go away and you won't be able to download your books again if you change mobile devices.

 

[Mercule]

I'd like to say $20, which would be a fair price for full automation. The reality is, though, that I'd still be buying the print books and paying more than $5 for just a digital version of something I've already bought in print chafes (I know from buying programming books that free PDFs have a huge lure, to the point that I almost exclusively buy from one company). If it's full automation (i.e. Dungeonscape), I'd probably pay $20 for the base, but only $5-10 for each supplement -- and that assumes real bells and whistles. Overall, I voted $10 max.

 

[Uder]

Honestly the more I think about it I'm leery of any licensed product WotC puts out. A big fear is that they trump up reasons to withdraw the product only to sell it through a different* vendor some time later...


* or is dndclassics the same company as RPGNow/DTRPG/FoolMeThrice? I only bought a few PDFs back then, but I'm already burning up just thinking about it again.