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.

View attachment 89175​

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.
[h=3][/h]

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

Oh joy.

What's next, micro transacti......

..oh.

Why must folks sign up early to enjoy something, hopefully, of quality? ''But you don't have to! It's a way of showing su.....''. No. No it really isn't. It's a cheap psychological trick based on manufactured scarcity. Blackmail, even, based on the fear of missing out. I get that companies want to secure sales. That's not a crime. Pre-order bonuses (again, I have nothing against pre-ordering itself) smack of a failure to recognise the loyal customer, while at the same time standing to hit them the hardest. If you're going to buy anyway, you don't want to miss out, right? So you better pre-order for that bonus, right?

Pre-orders? Fine - go for it. Pre-order bonuses?

For the good of the hobby! Right.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Since I was going to buy it anyway I don't care. It's just normal way of the world, like the special cover only available from retailers (and, due to low numbers, are pretty much pre-order bonus too).

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

Since I was going to buy it anyway I don't care. It's just normal way of the world, like the special cover only available from retailers (and, due to low numbers, are pretty much pre-order bonus too).

Hey, if enough folks embrace it then so be it - majority vote and all that. And when enough folks choose to support such practices, it becomes the norm.

 

[Remathilis]

I don't see this as a big deal.

The 16 feats are exclusive to D&DB, but D&D isn't a video game where content is locked to a specific platform and only offered for a limited time. They're text; they'll be copy and pasted into a Doc file and shared on the internet within 24 hours. So D&DB users get them added to the database for free; and most people who buy dead tree copies will find them on the net quickly after with just a simple Google search.

The other two benefits only help D&DB users anyway, so that's a non-issue.

This is a nothing burger.

 

[MichaelSomething]

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

 

[Xaelvaen]

I don't see this as a big deal.

The 16 feats are exclusive to D&DB, but D&D isn't a video game where content is locked to a specific platform and only offered for a limited time. They're text; they'll be copy and pasted into a Doc file and shared on the internet within 24 hours. So D&DB users get them added to the database for free; and most people who buy dead tree copies will find them on the net quickly after with just a simple Google search.

The other two benefits only help D&DB users anyway, so that's a non-issue.

This is a nothing burger.

Another valid point - well said.

 

[lostsanityreturned]

I don't see this as a big deal.

The 16 feats are exclusive to D&DB, but D&D isn't a video game where content is locked to a specific platform and only offered for a limited time. They're text; they'll be copy and pasted into a Doc file and shared on the internet within 24 hours. So D&DB users get them added to the database for free; and most people who buy dead tree copies will find them on the net quickly after with just a simple Google search.

The other two benefits only help D&DB users anyway, so that's a non-issue.

This is a nothing burger.

Exactly, as this person said. If a company offers goods with limitations you disagree with just take the content illegally.

PDFs for everyone.

(poes law demands I explain that I am being sarcastic here)

Seriously though, if it is official content I will be angry but outside of that I don't care.
I buy books because they are far better for my eyes and quicker to flip through/reference. I also had no choice early on and wish to collect the books.

I run games on fantasy grounds mainly now and enjoy it the most for how it organises content (this includes for in person games and non published content)

So if I were wanting these feats and didn't want to purchase this book for a third time I would need to pirate r_r. And all of this before I even know how good the book is, at least with the other two options I can wait and see what the content/reviews are like before making the purchase.

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

 

[TwoSix]

Good for them. More material is always fun, and being on a major distribution platform will give it more of a veneer of "officialness" that a significant portion of the playerbase seems to find important. Win/win here.

 

[MechaPilot]

1) Good for them for finally producing game content instead of mostly just repackaging pre-existing content.

2) Exclusive pre-order content? Thanks for confirming I made the right decision not to support DDB.

 

[Xaelvaen]

Again, I don't think it will stay exclusive for long. If they really wanted to maximize profit, they'll just sell the 16 feats separately so the pre-order people are just saving 5 or 10 bucks in the long haul.