Announcement about Subscriptions

[dacoobob]

Originally Posted by sparky77

I think the announced model is progress, and I’m not ungrateful. I think the patron licence option is pretty good for groups of players who campaign.
We however are a gaming couple doing organised play, and though the patron licence will let us share bought resources, it will cost $65... more than twice the standard licence subscription. Whilst I understand sharing resources must cost more than a single licence, this seems like a big hike in price when we’ll get no additional benefit from it.
It would be good for this kind of position to be considered in any future licensing modifications.

do you mean sharing purchased content between the two of you? in that case you don't both need Patron accounts, just one Patron account and one Apprentice account (total price $30).

if you mean sharing content with your players at Organized Play events (with both you and your wife GMing different tables simultaneously) then yes, you'd both need full accounts. but i'm not sure what you mean by "we’ll get no additional benefit from it"-- isn't the ability to share your purchased content with whoever shows up to your tables a benefit? or am i misunderstanding you?

[dacoobob]

Originally Posted by gnomatsu

Buts that's half the purpose. If eople can't access the loot I'm handing out because they haven't got the module it's from then everything breaks.

come on, a DEMO account has to have some sort of restrictions or LW is just giving their product away for free. Wizards can afford to do that with D&D Beyond since they own the game system itself-- D&D Beyond is mostly a way to get more people into playing D&D, so Wizards can sell them their main products--the rulebooks, modules, minis, et cetera. D&D Beyond doesn't have to be profitable on its own; even if it loses money on subscriptions, it still generates revenue for the company overall. it's basically a marketing expense.

LW on the other hand doesn't sell Pathfinder/Starfinder/Shadowrun books, so they have to make a profit on the HeroLab software itself. plus, LW has to pay Paizo and Catalyst for the rights to use their published content. that's why the comparison to D&D Beyond doesn't really work-- from a business standpoint it's a totally different situation.

[Shadowfoot]

I have some questions

1. I just received the receipt for HLO Standard Level (Add 12 Months) as I set it to auto renew.
   Can someone confirm that HLO Promote Standard to Patron (12 months) is on top of this, so it will cost me GM $75/year?
2. Is there a limit to the number of apprentices in a campaign? I have 6 players.
3. I created each of my players' characters on my account so that their characters could use the books I bought. Can I transfer this to their apprentice accounts or do the characters need to be recreated?
4. Can I view characters created by my apprentices? This will allow me to validate their choices and assist with builds.

[Roadie]

The one thing I really don't understand here is why Apprentice has a 4-month term instead of the same 6/12 month term as the others. Charging $7.50 for 6 months or $3.75 for 3 months would work out to the same overall price and get rid of the "huh?" reaction that I and no doubt others had from it.

Originally Posted by Shadowfoot

I have some questions

1. I just received the receipt for HLO Standard Level (Add 12 Months) as I set it to auto renew.
   Can someone confirm that HLO Promote Standard to Patron (12 months) is on top of this, so it will cost me GM $75/year?

If you add it to your cart it'll show you a "Credit for Remaining Standard Level", so it looks like the listed amount is the full price, but you get the pro-rated amount of any existing subscription subtracted from that.

So, if you got Standard for $X and then get Patron for $Y, on the second transaction you're actually only paying $(Y – X) (with whatever tiny adjustment for the number of days it's been, pro-rated).

I think they should put some kind of disclaimer on that page to make this clearer, like "Your current service will apply as credit on the shopping cart page" in yellow text.

[rob]

Originally Posted by Shadowfoot

I have some questions

1. I just received the receipt for HLO Standard Level (Add 12 Months) as I set it to auto renew.
   Can someone confirm that HLO Promote Standard to Patron (12 months) is on top of this, so it will cost me GM $75/year?
2. Is there a limit to the number of apprentices in a campaign? I have 6 players.
3. I created each of my players' characters on my account so that their characters could use the books I bought. Can I transfer this to their apprentice accounts or do the characters need to be recreated?
4. Can I view characters created by my apprentices? This will allow me to validate their choices and assist with builds.

If you have already renewed at Standard level for 12 months, upgrading to Patron level for 12 months is an additional $24.99.

Your entire campaign can consist of Apprentice level players. Campaigns are currently capped at 12 total members, including the GM, so you could have up to 11 players at Apprentice level.

Within a campaign that has content sharing enabled, your players CAN create characters that take full advantage of all the content the GM owns. They can also fully evolve those characters over time as they level up.

If you already have characters created for your players, you can first convert them to GM-controlled characters and then assign control of those characters to the appropriate players.

All characters within a campaign should be viewable by the GM, regardless of whether they are player-owned or campaign-owned to leverage content sharing.

Hope this helps!

[rob]

Originally Posted by Roadie

I think they should put some kind of disclaimer on that page to make this clearer, like "Your current service will apply as credit on the shopping cart page" in yellow text.

We'll get that added!

[evdjj3j]

I'm looking at my HLO license online and it says it expires in 2038 is that correct?

[rob]

Originally Posted by evdjj3j

I'm looking at my HLO license online and it says it expires in 2038 is that correct?

That likely means you're flagged as part of the original Beta team. We'll be reviewing the Beta team again in the weeks ahead, but your license is not currently in need of renewal.

[ronlugge]

Originally Posted by dacoobob

Wizards can afford to do that with D&D Beyond since they own the game system itself-- D&D Beyond is mostly a way to get more people into playing D&D, so Wizards can sell them their main products--the rulebooks, modules, minis, et cetera. D&D Beyond doesn't have to be profitable on its own; even if it loses money on subscriptions, it still generates revenue for the company overall. it's basically a marketing expense.

Your entire comment fails on the simple fact that Wizards doesn't run D&D Beyond, Twitch does.

[Shadowfoot]

Originally Posted by rob

If you have already renewed at Standard level for 12 months, upgrading to Patron level for 12 months is an additional $24.99.

Your entire campaign can consist of Apprentice level players. Campaigns are currently capped at 12 total members, including the GM, so you could have up to 11 players at Apprentice level.

Within a campaign that has content sharing enabled, your players CAN create characters that take full advantage of all the content the GM owns. They can also fully evolve those characters over time as they level up.

If you already have characters created for your players, you can first convert them to GM-controlled characters and then assign control of those characters to the appropriate players.

All characters within a campaign should be viewable by the GM, regardless of whether they are player-owned or campaign-owned to leverage content sharing.

Hope this helps!

Thank you. That is very helpful. I'll upgrade and see which of my players converts their demo accounts to apprentice.