It's a neat tool and I'm sure the compendium will come in handy some day, but they're creating a rift between physical users and digital users.
Let's say you play D&D. You bought the digital gear because you play online.
Okay, now you have a friend who wants to play. He has two friends who want to play. They have one other friend. Holy shit, never did you think this would happ--go buy all the books sucker.
Wanna play? Pay again!
The unfortunate thing, that so many are loving to point out because it makes them seem smarter, is that Wizards never planned ahead to allow those who bought the books, a way of having the material available, or at a discount for having bought it physically.
Because there's no incentive, an individual may simply buy into the digital, which is fine by Wizards because really, they make more of a profit (I imagine) when they don't have to cover retail costs (especially when some chains are selling them as a loss leader).
So an individual who buys only digital has no physical books, which is crazy awesome if you're into living spartanlike, but some of us appreciate having books; okay whatever. Ultimately all of our bitching is for naught, I get that.
This all leads to the rift I speak of. A divide between those who have digital and those who have physical. I know right now there's lots who will have both in the short term (myself included), but in time I expect that will change. Folks who play primarily online will start using only digital and purists (like myself) will continue to bark about it while paying twice.
I'm kind of pissed off (as everyone else) that I now have a bunch of books, and if I do want to make use of a tool that Wizards has FINALLY seen through to release, I have to pay the piper twice over, plus an ongoing fee.
You finally did it, eh, Wizards? Finally managed to pull it off.
Given I stream online, we know that I'll eventually be buying into this because the Twitch benefits of the system cannot be ignored.
During interviews, it's been stated that users will have hoverable names with character sheets attached and I want that shit, along with other benefits they mentioned.
All in due course I suppose.
If you're not into Beyond but want a digital toolset, there are others available as I've written before.
D&D Beyond is the official one though, and it shows already, nevermind moving forward.
Now for all my bitching, let's take that same above example.
You've got a bunch of friends, and they want to play. One is a newbie, two have only ever played fifth and they played with some moron who didn't know why the players wouldn't follow his story, and your buddy who you have gamed with since 3rd edition first came out.
You go to the book store and prepare to drop $150. Stop. Think about this. You spend half of that (after the discount rate period expires) and you've got the material. You pay a DM monthly fee and everyone has access to it under their own account. When you want to give access to those materials to some one else, you simply do so.
Okay, so suddenly we take this whole example and throw it on its ear. Now, you're paying less, to provide more access to the material.
B-b-b-but the books! Tradition! Purity!
Meh; to be honest, I think I'll make the switch to digital and see how I like it. Something tells me I'm going to love it. 90% of my DM real estate is consumed by Monsterous Manual that is falling apart. It'd be nice to alleviate that for more important things.
Ultimately, it's your call what you're okay with. We all have the same complaint, that we bought the books and feel entitled, and frankly, I think we're in the right thereby. At the same time, I'm not concerned personally because $10 a month (after conversion) isn't going to break me and my table donates to a collective fund for things like this, so it's no sweat off my ass.
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