D&D (2024) How much would you spend on monthly subscriptions for dnd?

[MNblockhead]

I said $0, but it's possible I could be suckered into something if the price was right and the product worthwhile. I tried using the free version of Beyond, but it just didn't seem like it would be worth paying for after buying the physical products. The subscription model has never appealed to me, even with VTT I use each week. I've considered getting Foundry, but as long as Roll20 is still quite workable at "free," this is a much less appealing option.


I had the same issue, but instead I figured out how to go into my storage and delete everything instead. They don't make this particular option easy to find, but that's to be expected. The size per file is also a bit on the obnoxious side, but I've managed. The only feature that made me consider paying for Roll20 was Dynamic Lighting, but another DM in my group tried using and it was a nightmare.

If you and your players have good internet bandwidth, you might consider Foundry. One time $50 cost. You get best-on-market dynamic lighting, much more easily prepped maps, access to a dizzying number of community mods. If hosting on your own computer, your only storage limits are those of your machine.

I do use a hosting service to host my instance of Foundry, but that mostly because I'm usually running games from an location with not-great bandwidth and my players are in another country. There are other benefits to the hosting service I use, but if I were back working in, and running games from, the United States, I would likely just self-host on my computer. All of my content is fully portable. No lock in.

 

[MNblockhead]

Literally nothing. Print books and purchased PDFs only. Too many free resources to bother buying services.

Yeah, I think this poll only makes sense for those already playing online.

Owlbear Rodeo is so easy and has worked for my table, and because it is lightweight it is pretty fast. There's no character sheets or automation, however.

If you like a light "VTT" that does have character sheets and some very basic automation (at least in terms of dice rolls), check out: playrole.com. Also provide excellent video conferencing.

 

[CleverNickName]

If you and your players have good internet bandwidth, you might consider Foundry. One time $50 cost. You get best-on-market dynamic lighting, much more easily prepped maps, access to a dizzying number of community mods. If hosting on your own computer, your only storage limits are those of your machine.

In my opinion? "Best" and "more easily" and "dizzying number" are exaggerations, but FoundryVTT is a good product. It requires a hosting service, as you describe, but you can self-host if you're savvy enough. (Fair warning: self-hosting is a lot more complicated and requires above-average familiarity with web hosting. It's complicated and unintuitive for the inexperienced user.) Foundry's biggest selling point isn't the dynamic lighting, the maps, or the community mods. It's the price tag: Roll20 can meet or beat everything else, but it can't hold a candle to that one-time purchase price of $50.

 

[MNblockhead]

Personally I don't like the idea of paying a monthly subscription, but in the recent discussions around the "under-monetized" comments, it became clear that many people already use some combination of subscription services.

I wonder about what the average person spends on stuff in the hobby per month. If I had to estimate for myself, I probably spend around $200 per year? Last year/18 months I backed the kickstarters for Vaesen, Mausritter, Herbalist's Primer, and Reach of the Roach God, was briefly subscribed to the lowest tiers for Necrotic Gnome and Luka Rejec on patreon, bought random zines via exalted funeral, and then just bought Death in Space as a gift for a friend. But then I also sold a bunch of rpg books that I wasn't using.

I am sure many will think that my ~30/month on subscriptions to D&D is high (360 a year), but I spent a lot more on kickstarters for minis and terrain when I was running games in person.

 

[MNblockhead]

In my opinion? "Best" and "more easily" and "dizzying number" are exaggerations, but FoundryVTT is a good product. It requires a hosting service, as you describe, but you can self-host if you're savvy enough. (Fair warning: self-hosting is a lot more complicated and requires above-average familiarity with web hosting. It's complicated and unintuitive for the inexperienced user.) Foundry's biggest selling point isn't the dynamic lighting, the maps, or the community mods. It's the price tag: Roll20 can meet or beat everything else, but it can't hold a candle to that one-time purchase price of $50.

My exaggerated wording aside, I spent a LOT of time testing and using all of the major VTTs on the market (albeit most of this was 2 years ago), including Fantasy Grounds (both classic and unity), Roll20, d20pro, and Foundry. Previously I was using Map Tool heavily. I looked at a variety of others, but they didn't interest me enough to really dig in. Also, I'm not including "light VTTs" like Owlbear Rodeo and Role as these are not what most people are thinking about when discussing VTTs.

I like Roll20 and still use it fairly frequently as a player. But as a DM is just became an unresponsive headache with large, complex maps and dynamic lighting. Like, it just wasn't useable. And I spent MANY hours reading help materials, articles, watching YouTube videos on getting the most out of it, and testing it. The amount of time I had to spend prepping my map images just so I could put them into Roll20 to prep them there and still have to cut back on advanced features to avoid performance issues made me eventually cancel my subscription. Foundry has been a breeze in comparison.

I agree that self hosting can be a bit intimidating. But if you are cost sensitive, it may be worth the effort figuring it out.

That said, I'm sure Roll20 has improved over the past couple years and I haven't tried to prep a game as a DM in it (other than Alice is Missing, which really is just a virtual cards, so not demanding at all), so maybe it would work for me now. Also, the requirements of most DMs are much less demanding than mine. Prepping Rappan Athuk in any VTT is no joke.

 

[John R Davis]

Absolute zero.

Buy loads RPG stuff but nothing on any subscription.

I am not the future monetizer they are looking for. I don't use DDB even.

 

[Horwath]

Zero.

Give me a one time purchase.

Also, every book should come with "book key", so you get that digital content for free or at a large discount.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

10 or less... Which I already do. 7 for DnD beyond.
3 Dollars for Ensider.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Zero. No more subscription services for me

 

[kenada]

I would and have subscribed to other services to support my hobby, but I would not subscribe for the core game itself unless I can get it elsewhere (book, PDF, etc) because I do not trust WotC with running such a service.