D&D 5E Kobold Press' Tome of Beasts Joins D&D Beyond

Tome of Beasts is the latest third party book to appear on D&D Beyond. The book, first published by Kobold Press in 2016, contains over 400 monsters for D&D 5E.

You can pick it up on DDB for $39.99.

Whether you need dungeon vermin or world-shaking villains, Tome of Beasts 1 has it. This book presents foes suitable for any campaign setting—from tiny drakes and peculiar spiders to demon lords and ancient dragons.

These monsters have been designed so that GMs can use them in their favorite settings for fantasy adventure. This monstrous tome contains:

• More than 400 new monsters for use with the D&D Beyond Encounters tool.
• Updated with errata, streamlined mechanics, and new monster art from the original Tome of Beasts.
• Expansive tables that organize creatures by challenge rating, creature type, and terrain.[/callout[

 

[Parmandur]

How do you know that? WotC discounting process is not necessarily written in stone. If they wanted to, they could write into their agreement with a partner that all Legendary or Master subscribers will get a discount and perhaps they would split the value of that discount with the seller. Or they could write into their contract that offering that discount is a price of being on there. They could write any contract they want and if the partner doesn't like it, they just don't participate. Not sure how you could know absolutely who pays for what. I don't think we can know what a sale contract looks like. I mean, Amazon discounts products all the time that are not Amazon-brand products. I'm a self-published author who has been listed on Amazon for 24 years and sometimes they discount the selling price of my book, and they don't even bother telling me. They just do it, and it's out of my hands. They discount it because they want to increase sales even if it reduces the profit that they make per sale. Gross sales profit might mean more to them than volume. And i think that's especially true for digital products. They can add a discount at any time and bump sales without having to increase warehousing.

I mean, it is a very reasonable supposition that the discount in question would take away the margin for profit-sharing here.

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

I mean, it is a very reasonable supposition that the discount in question would take away the margin for profit-sharing here.

Yes, and? I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm disagreeing with the assumption that they wouldn't want to cut into the margin in order to drive volume of sales. Obviously they aren't, but I think I think in many cases that gross profit is more important than margin. So I'm simply denying that it's a no-brainer or obvious not to include the discount.

 

[Parmandur]

Yes, and? I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm disagreeing with the assumption that they wouldn't want to cut into the margin in order to drive volume of sales. Obviously they aren't, but I think I think in many cases that gross profit is more important than margin. So I'm simply denying that it's a no-brainer or obvious not to include the discount.

In pure abstract terms, I'm sure a discount is possible. But it is peobavly not a good fit for WotC and 3pp in this case.

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

In pure abstract terms, I'm sure a discount is possible. But it is peobavly not a good fit for WotC and 3pp in this case.

I'm thinking now that possibly they want to see how sales go before deciding if it should be discounted in the future. Maybe they want to scoop up all the 3PP superfans who will buy it even without a discount. Get the early adopters at full price and then if sales slow down in 6 months, maybe it will be discounted then. That seems logical to me.

 

[Dire Bare]

How do you know that? WotC discounting process is not necessarily written in stone. If they wanted to, they could write into their agreement with a partner that all Legendary or Master subscribers will get a discount and perhaps they would split the value of that discount with the seller. Or they could write into their contract that offering that discount is a price of being on there. They could write any contract they want and if the partner doesn't like it, they just don't participate. Not sure how you could know absolutely who pays for what. I don't think we can know what a sale contract looks like. I mean, Amazon discounts products all the time that are not Amazon-brand products. I'm a self-published author who has been listed on Amazon for 24 years and sometimes they discount the selling price of my book, and they don't even bother telling me. They just do it, and it's out of my hands. They discount it because they want to increase sales even if it reduces the profit that they make per sale. Gross sales profit might mean more to them than volume. And i think that's especially true for digital products. They can add a discount at any time and bump sales without having to increase warehousing.

Dude. Comparing the absolute behemoth that is Amazon to a division within Hasbro . . . .

COULD WotC give you a discount on non-WotC titles on D&D Beyond? Sure. They COULD.

But why should they? They do have to make sure they honor their license with their partners like Kobold and Ghostfire, and their profit margins are less as they have to share that profit.

With MOST digital media, in my experience, any discounts are controlled by the publisher, the owner . . . not the retailer. When I go to purchase a digital movie, the price is almost always identical no matter any "discount" and no matter what retailer I shop at (Amazon, Fandango, YouTube). I see this with gaming media as well, both video games and digital TTRPG titles.

Amazon's self-publishing empire is a completely different animal. They incentivize small-time authors to publish extremely prolifically and the titles are often discounted from prices that start small, to maximize sales. Some of those self-published works, perhaps yours, are quality books worth purchasing . . . but many are absolute trash if not actually AI generated. If you are a quality writer and a canny self-promoter, this can work to your advantage (Hugh Howey), but it creates an awful lot of trash on Amazon's site that paradoxically generate a lot of revenue for Amazon, despite the poor quality and low prices.

 

[Dire Bare]

Yes, and? I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm disagreeing with the assumption that they wouldn't want to cut into the margin in order to drive volume of sales. Obviously they aren't, but I think I think in many cases that gross profit is more important than margin. So I'm simply denying that it's a no-brainer or obvious not to include the discount.

Is D&D Beyond adding non-WotC titles solely about increasing unit sales? It certainly is a part of the equation, but . . .

Is it more about making D&D Beyond THE place to go for D&D content? To make D&D Beyond competitive with Role20, Fantasy Grounds, and other digital TTRPG retailers?

How many of us here are sharing our (anecdotal) stories about purchasing titles AGAIN on D&D Beyond after purchasing them digitally elsewhere . . . because we LOVE the idea of having all our stuff in one place? WotC didn't need to discount the Tal'Dorei book from Darrington to get me (and many others) to purchase it on D&D Beyond, and having this and other titles on the service increases the value of that service to me . . . the more books I have on D&D Beyond, the less likely I'll shift to a different provider in the future.

I would certainly appreciate a discount, would love to take advantage of that, but . . . it doesn't bug me in the slightest if these titles are rarely, if ever, discounted on D&D Beyond. I don't see them discounted on Demiplane or other retailers either, other than the occasional sale.

 

[Juxtapozbliss]

Dude. Comparing the absolute behemoth that is Amazon to a division within Hasbro . . . .

COULD WotC give you a discount on non-WotC titles on D&D Beyond? Sure. They COULD.

But why should they? They do have to make sure they honor their license with their partners like Kobold and Ghostfire, and their profit margins are less as they have to share that profit.

With MOST digital media, in my experience, any discounts are controlled by the publisher, the owner . . . not the retailer. When I go to purchase a digital movie, the price is almost always identical no matter any "discount" and no matter what retailer I shop at (Amazon, Fandango, YouTube). I see this with gaming media as well, both video games and digital TTRPG titles.

Amazon's self-publishing empire is a completely different animal. They incentivize small-time authors to publish extremely prolifically and the titles are often discounted from prices that start small, to maximize sales. Some of those self-published works, perhaps yours, are quality books worth purchasing . . . but many are absolute trash if not actually AI generated. If you are a quality writer and a canny self-promoter, this can work to your advantage (Hugh Howey), but it creates an awful lot of trash on Amazon's site that paradoxically generate a lot of revenue for Amazon, despite the poor quality and low prices.

I get your point, that makes sense. But WotC is the Amazon of the RPG world. Everyone else is puny by comparison. They can spare some margin if it drives volume. That said, there's really no way to know exactly how they plan their revenue goals without being an insider--I guess we'll see if they ever apply the discount over the next year.

 

[bedir than]

If you don't have Tome of Beasts I there a gob of fun little beasties that make fun superior Familiars

 

[Dire Bare]

I get your point, that makes sense. But WotC is the Amazon of the RPG world. Everyone else is puny by comparison. They can spare some margin if it drives volume. That said, there's really no way to know exactly how they plan their revenue goals without being an insider--I guess we'll see if they ever apply the discount over the next year.

No, WotC is not the Amazon of the TTRPG world.

WotC is the big dog, sure. They publish the most popular game, sure.

But they don't have the level of power within the industry that Amazon holds over society. Not even remotely.

Hasbro is hemorrhaging and just laid off a ton of WotC staff. D&D itself is profitable, but not in the same sense Amazon is profitable.

 

[Parmandur]

No, WotC is not the Amazon of the TTRPG world.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news for everyone, but...Amazon is the Amazon of the TTRPG space.