D&D 5E D&D Beyond: No More À La Carte Purchases But US Customers Can Buy Physical Books

WotC has announced some changes to D&D Beyond's marketplace. These include physical products (for US customers), the removal of à la carte purchases, and various navigational changes.

You can no longer buy individual feats, subclasses, etc. -- you'll need to buy the whole book. The full list of changes includes:

• US shoppers can now buy physical books
• More info on product listings, including previews
• UI improvements to makee finding your purchased content and redeeming keys easier
• No more à la carte purchases (though your previous ones still count)

 

[MNblockhead]

Whenever I travel I like to go to gamestores just to look around. I always try to buy something. Usually that ends up being either a couple of MTG packs or a set of dice. I wonder if there's a lot of other people who do the same.

I don't have to try. I have to try not to. Which never works. Book stores and game stores strip away my normal discipline against impulse buying.

I wish it were just some new dice, but it tends to be a $30+ board game or book.

 

[MNblockhead]

I might as well start buying things for Foundry instead of D&D Beyond once that option opens up.

I'm really interested in seeing how things will play out with mods that sync your DDB content to Foundry once you are able to buy the official content. Will Foundry somehow make such mods not work with the Official D&D Game System for Foundry? Or will WotC & Foundry just trust that the official content will provide such a superior experience that most people will not want to deal with the mods.

 

[MNblockhead]

Actually that is not always WotC's fault.
I know two types of (F)LGS, those with the F and those without.
I have been in game stores where I have felt welcomed when I was young, and I have been in game stores where I felt that I bothered the owner by just being there.
Game store owners need to be friendly and actually make young people wanting to enter their store. This is why I buy my books there (and not Amazon). Because I want the Game Stores to stay. I have a personal interest in it.

I'm a bit of a broken record on this topic, but I think a FLGS is only important to community if it is offering facilities and services that support the creation of in-person communities. I just don't see FLGS as a viable business if they rely on retail for most of their profits. Maybe if they have a really great location, but I don't think most people are going to inconvenience themselves to go to a retail store to pay more for something they can get online, delivered to their door step. Many people would pay more to NOT have to go to the store.

While this does mean that FLGS are going to have to start charging for things that used to be free (like play space and more for-pay events), people are willing to pay for that if a good experience is provided. In another thread I wrote about my trying to find my new go-to FLGS in Milwaukee. The one I found it outside of Milwaukee and a bit of drive, but I happily drive past the 10 or so retail game stores much more conveniently located to spend a Saturday at a great venue.

 

[Mistwell]

Treantmonk just pointed something out which makes me feel dumb for not noticing before myself. "You can access the piece meal stuff for free through homebrew on D&DB anyways."

Oh right. You can. Turn Homebrew settings on, and...they're all stuff you can do as homebrew anyway as options.

 

[Cadence]

Treantmonk just pointed something out which makes me feel dumb for not noticing before myself. "You can access the piece meal stuff for free through homebrew on D&DB anyways."

Oh right. You can. Turn Homebrew settings on, and...they're all stuff you can do as homebrew anyway as options.

How do you do that? I tried to make a homebrew based off of the Ruined background (which I don't own), and it wasn't on the list. What obvious thing am I missing?

 

[Mistwell]

How do you do that? I tried to make a homebrew based off of the Ruined background (which I don't own), and it wasn't on the list. What obvious thing am I missing?

I find it under the communities existing homebrew feats. As in someone else has already duplicated all the a la carte features as homebrew with open access to them.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

People effectively pirating WotC's material on DDB feels like a hole they will patch pretty quickly, especially now that someone with 81k followers has told people about it.

 

[Cadence]

I find it under the communities existing homebrew feats. As in someone else has already duplicated all the a la carte features as homebrew with open access to them.

I... I feel like I should be conflicted. I usually try to follow copyright and buy things I want (exceptions being just looking up a random pdf module or rulebook or Dragon issue to win an internet argument or playing random wake-up songs for my teen in the morning on Youtube). But if WotC doesn't do as @Whizbang Dustyboots suggests and they leave it up on their own platform, while also taking away the ability of me to buy it separately, I'm just not feeling the usual urge to feel guilty.

 

[Mistwell]

I... I feel like I should be conflicted. I usually try to follow copyright and buy things I want (an exceptions being just looking up a random pdf module or rulebook or Dragon issue to win an internet argument or playing random wake-up songs for my teen in the morning on Youtube). But if WotC doesn't do as @Whizbang Dustyboots suggests and they leave it up on their own platform, while also taking away the ability of me to buy it separately, I'm just not feeling the usual urge to feel guilty.

If they don't care, I don't care.

 

[mamba]

You probably still want "content keys" for the SRD content - or how else do you reference that a character has an SRD class, and subclass with a specific ability that references a specific spell on D&DB? When you want to show or reference the mechanics, you want those keys, right?

keys to reference it yes, but you do not need any access restrictions and ownership tracking for it

Aside - this is a way to do "legacy" content. You don't edit or erase old content, you stand up new keys, and reference them going forward, but leave the old ones around for when you want them.

yes, the keys and ownership stays in place, there just cannot be any new owners any more