Pre-Order DLC comes to D&D with Xanathar's Guide to Everything

Anyone who plays videos games knows pre-order bonuses for those willing to pay in advance of product launch. WotC's official toolset, D&D Beyond, is adopting this practice with 16 bonus feats exclusive to those who pre-order Xanathar's Guide to Everything on D&D Beyond.

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Here's what they're offering:

We're excited to announce the bonuses you will receive for pre-ordering Xanathar's Guide to Everything on D&D Beyond:
[h=4]Expanded Racial Feats[/h]You'll get access to 16 new racial feats for all the races available on D&D Beyond outside the Player's Handbook - from the aaracokra to the yuan-ti pureblood. Created by the D&D Beyond team, these feats can be used in your home games or as inspiration for your own upcoming homebrew racial feats.
[h=4]Digital Character Sheet Customization[/h]Get access to new digital character sheet image backgrounds and portrait frame options from artwork in Xanathar's Guide to Everything.
[h=4]Alpha Access to the D&D Beyond Mobile App[/h]Get early alpha access to the D&D Beyond mobile app release later this year, which will include compendium/reader offline access for all the sources you've unlocked on D&D Beyond. Be among the first to help us test an exciting part of D&D Beyond's future!

The book comes out on 10th November, 2017.
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[CapnZapp]

It's basically just third party crap.

It's really hard for me to be surprised.

WotC has invited separate companies into their walled garden. It is only natural they should want to play too.



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[CapnZapp]

I don't see this as a big deal.

They're text; they'll be copy and pasted into a Doc file and shared on the internet within 24 hours.

This is a nothing burger.

This.



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[CapnZapp]

I thought people were complaining of not enough content coming out?

From WotC.

On paper.

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[CapnZapp]

With this I have to gamble or just not get the feats.

If you're so stuck up on reading a simple web page before deciding, then I guess I recommend you to not get the feats.

You talk about piracy as if it were illegal to read any of the numerous blogs that will review and analyze these feats in such detail you will easily be able to use them in your home game.




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[CapnZapp]

People on the internet FREAK OUT!!!!!?!?!

Now that you mention it, I believe I've heard that happening before...



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[CapnZapp]

Far as I can tell, no one is freaking out about a third-party publishing feats they created and expecting to be paid for it. All I've seen here is people turned-off by pre-orders, and pre-order incentives. Do some of them go a little far with their rhetoric about it? Sure. People do that.

I think they are.

Freaking out, that is.

Not because of pre-orders, but because they got the impression the feats will be considered official.

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[Jacqual]

I am waiting for the DDB app which is why i just got the legendary bundle from them. I haven't decided yet if I am getting Xanzthers guide in dead tree format. Having all the books on my iPad is a lot less weight to lug around, especially since my stroke I had in April.

 

[Ricochet]

That app better arrive soon. It's the number one reason for DDB's existence imo, and I think they ought to be presenting something from it fairly soon in order not for me to lose faith in them.

I really enjoy using DDB on my PC when running a session, but all my players are waiting for the quick offline app for looking up rules and managing one's sheet - and understandably so.

 

[Dualazi]

Figures this scummy practice would come to roost in this hobby sooner or later, though it's a small comfort that it's not wizards directly engaging in it. Pre-order bonuses will always be an under-handed and anti-consumer practice entirely predicated on said consumer riding the hype train enough to buy sight-unseen. What little benefits they do offer are usually easy enough to acquire after you can find out definitively whether or not the product is worth it, and I would discourage buyers from engendering this practice in the hobby.

 

[Mattia]

In Italy this I called "fish market", which is different thing from marketing. Right?