D&D (2024) D&D Beyond: Any negative experiences?

[pawsplay]

My FLGS sold out of Monster Manuals before I could get there today, and I was pondering maybe just ordering one line. One option is the DND Beyond bookstore, which I noticed has a physical + digital bundle for not very much extra money. I haven't touched DND Beyond in a while, and I can't even remember the various changes it has gone through. To the point where I have a username and password for an account written down, but it didn't work any more and I had to create a new account linked to my email. I think the last interaction I had was downloading some playtest materials and the free version of the rules.

The question I have is, has anyone ever purchased anything through them with money, and simply regretted it in any way? I would prefer to support local retailers, and I would prefer to support another retailer over buying direct, but if this is the best way to get the book right now, I could see how having the MM would be theoretically useful for browsing content at my computer. Is there anyone who wants to tell me to save the $10 or just order through B&N or just wait until Friday or Saturday or something?

 

[Leatherhead]

I've never actually ordered anything physical from them.

The closest things I have had to negative experiences with their services are:

The search bar generally being bad. It's slow, and false positives choke the search results. (Direct navigation, on the other hand, is simply handled with hyperlinks, so if you already know what book you are looking in, you just go to it easily)

Having monsters updated without me realizing they were updated. (The opposite of a problem for just playing with the monsters with errata already included, but at the time I was looking at older stats for reference so it became my problem. )

I will say however, having monsters in a database format is really damn nice for using monsters and even cross-referencing them. (If you actually allow computers at your game table)

 

[mellored]

No.

 

[pukunui]

I am based overseas. I have bought a few physical items through DDB. All arrived in good condition, but the first few times, they took a long time to arrive, and one of them got lost and they had to send me a replacement. It seems like their service has improved since those early days.

 

[Sword of Spirit]

While I use it extensively, one negative for me is that they sometimes update products you buy with significant revisions to the original text, not just rules errata.

For instance paragraphs, and even columns, in some 5.0e books have been removed or replaced for various reasons.

So anything on D&D Beyond is a "living document", with the pros and cons that comes with that.

 

[kayakingpoodle]

I regret evrey penny I have spent there. It is a platform for those that want the most current form of the game. If you want to play a consistent game books are best, and they are cheaper from almost anywhere else.
It is also important to note that any digital products bout there are not yours, you can not own anything digital on DDB.

 

[Clint_L]

I regret evrey penny I have spent there. It is a platform for those that want the most current form of the game. If you want to play a consistent game books are best, and they are cheaper from almost anywhere else.

I do want the most current form of the game. And books on DDB cost a fraction of what they do anywhere else, so I don’t know where your information is coming from.

But yes, it’s a digital platform. If you don’t like digital platforms, it’s not for you. It saves me a ton of time, space, and money.

 

[MNblockhead]

I like D&D Beyond and have no regrets. I like to have have both the physical and DDB versions of the rule books (DMG, PHB, MM) but generally only buy the DDB version of adventures if I'm going to run an official adventure. DDB is very convenient both when playing virtually and in person. Even the app is useful. As other have said, I wish there were more advanced search functionality. One issue with natural language used for rules is that searching for certain rules is going to bring up a lot of other non-relevant results.

Generally, I use the physical books to read and browse on my own, but in game I rely entirely on DDB.

 

[Distracted DM]

I had one negative experience with DDB which is unlikely to be replicated: it was a bug that prevented you from re-upping your subscription if your yearly DM subscription ended within a certain date range. A bunch of folks were locked out of their characters, players couldn't access content, etc. for about a month... but this also happened during the OGL debacle, when folks were mass-canceling their DDB subs, so I imagine there was something going on there that's unlikely to occur again.

Still, that was enough to turn me off of buying any more content on there... but my experience was definitely not the norm.

 

[pawsplay]

So, at this point, I think I've decided against shelling out the additional $10 for a searchable but slightly clunky searchable database of monsters that is subject to stealth revisions.