Dear DND Beyond,
Thank you for your message about how excited you are about the changes to your Marketplace. I know you believe this is the way to go in life with your changes. Some of the changes might be great for making it easier to buy the book and get the digital version with it. But you are making most of our lives much more difficult.
I thought we were in this together. You provide an opportunity for us to have fun playing Dungeons and Dragons and we pay you money for books and a subscription. But you continue to make it more and more difficult to enjoy this game that we are partnering on for fun. You have taken out one of the best parts of our partnership with the à la carte items.
You made these changes on April 30th of this year. You didn’t tell us about it until after you made the changes. There was no warning or discussion You just made these changes. You pretended like we would love these changes but you knew we wouldn’t really.
For those of us trying to game and DM on a budget, this change hampers what we have enjoyed for years about your site. We could look at a new book and buy an item or spell or subclass for a fee. Now we have to buy the whole $30 plus book if we want them.
Practically, I cannot buy every book you put out. And honestly, I don’t want them all. Some of them are not geared for the type of games I am involved with. It doesn’t make them bad but rather makes buying the whole book ridiculous. In the past, my players would ask if they could be a certain subclass or have a special item and I could find it and then buy it from that book either in a group or individually for $1.99 to $6.00. This allowed me to provide it for your group without having to tell them “No I cannot afford this whole book.” Sometimes it led me to buy the whole book eventually.
I know your hope. You see us as a cash cow and that D&D is “under-monetized.” You hope this will lead us as sheep to buy all of your books at full price.
This is having the opposite effect on me. No one like to feel used and you are making me feel that in a bad way. I see how you have “over-monetized” D&D. I am now less likely to buy books. My players will just have to customize items and classes to meet what they want. Honestly, I am now less likely to buy a book from you than I was just a week ago.
You do realize that D&D is one of the only areas of HASBRO to make money. You are now sucking the life force out of the money maker with other gaming systems looming. Critical Role’s Daggerheart looks like a lot of fun. Kobold Press’ Tales of the Valiant looks amazing. I know people who swear by Pathfinder and their books keep selling out. You are facing harder completion than ever and you are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
It might be time to make it easier for people to play Dungeons and Dragons and get the cool stuff they want instead of making life harder on your players and DMs.
I am putting you on notice, I would rather pay for a whole new system, learn the new system, and move on from you and my investment than to be made to feel this way. You are not considerate. You only are thinking about yourself. I will have to think hard about our relationship. When the breakup happens just know, it will be about you and not about me.
Sincerely,
DMs and Players everywhere
P.S. Now give us the à la carte back!
Stay Geeky!
