Is a dndbeyond Subscription Worth It?

When I first started really playing D&D with the kids, the starter kit came with a flyer advertising dndbeyond. At the time they had the encounter builder and the character creation; maps didn’t exist yet. I made use of the encounter builder (which was free at the time - and I think remains free with some limits) and character creator. Around the time that Humblewood was released for dndbeyond, maps started its alpha, available only to Master Tier subscribers. It was quite useful to set up encounters so that the players could visualize where they were relative to the enemy. Since then we’ve continued using dndbeyond (with my Master Tier subscription). Mostly I’ve made use of the maps when playing one-shots with my brother on the other side of the country and occasionally with the kids for the map. I was happy and I was constantly wishing more creators would get their content onto dndbeyond so that I could make use of all the stat blocks without having to “homebrew” anything to add it to the system. Then Brandon Sanderson launched the Cosmere RPG kickstarter. I looked around at the various virtual tabletops that would be supported. I wanted something I could pay for once and own vs a subscription. I ended up choosing FoundryVTT. This eventually led me down a decision matrix that led to the writing of this blog post.

Let me start off with reasons why you might be perfectly happy with paying for dndbeyond. If you are the usual DM for your group - you’re able to share your books with your players. Not only does this let them read it, but it also allows them to access all the classes, items, spells, etc that are in the books you own. If you primarily play D&D as opposed to using many different TTRPGs, it could be a good deal. If you mostly play official D&D content, it’s almost a no-brainer. If all these apply to you, go ahead and choose to subscribe (or keep your subscription). It’s not really my intent to convince anyone of a right or wrong position. What makes sense for you is what you should do. I’m putting this out because many people never re-examine their choices. If they did, Rocket Money would not need to exist.

Here’s the current set of features and cost as of 2 Feb 2025:

I’ll start off by going through these features and then continue on with why I think I won’t be keeping my Master Tier subscription when the current year I’ve paid for ends.

• Early access to rulebooks - now that the big three are out, this doesn’t give me any value. I’ve got at least 2 or 3 D&D official books that I haven’t even started yet. I also have years’ worth of 3rd party D&D 5e content that I’ve bought from Kickstarter or RPG Drive Thru
• Create Unlimited characters - As I wrote in yesterday’s blog post, I don’t really need the character creator anymore. Also, there’s one built into Foundry.
• Create Unlimited Encounters - I actually have a few thoughts here.
  • The encounter builder on its own - apart from the Maps is of very limited use now that it’s incorporated into Maps
  • I’ve found it to be more work to use the encounter builder than to not use it because I’ve mostly been playing 3rd party content and that means I have to spend at least an hour “homebrew”-ing all the monsters into dndbeyond so that I can use the Encounter builder.
  • I’ve been mostly fine running encounters on paper and if I need a CR-calculator, I’m sure tons of those are just a Google away
• Publicly share homebrew content - I never do this
• Exclusive Subscriber Perks - these have been absolutely worthless to me. So far they are virtual dice (which no one sees but me) or backgrounds for my characters (which no one sees but me)
• Host epic game sessions with Maps - this is the first perk that is actually worth anything to me and it requires a Master Tier subscription. However, I rarely use this feature and could just as easily make use of it in FoundryVTT.
• Share unlocked content with other players - also extremely useful and also could be done in Foundry.

So, when I look at the value proposition - $55/year for dndbeyond vs $50 ONCE for FoundryVTT, it seems a no-brainer. However, it’s not perfectly painless for me. Here are my personal downsides to ending my dndbeyond subscription as of right now:

• I already bought the physical and digital core rulebooks. I would need to re-purchase them to use in FoundryVTT (or use ddb importer with a certain Patreon level). However, at ~$90, it would pay for itself within 2 years.
• I do own a few books digitally only on dndbeyond. Again, I would need to either use ddb importer or buy them again. (Or - third way - do a monthly subscription to dndbeyond while I play with those specific books)
• FoundryVTT has almost none of the official D&D books available right now. They only just finally got official support for D&D from Wizards of the Coast last year so they only have the 2024 core rulebooks, Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and Phandelver and Below. I’m guess/hoping that once FoundryVTT stands up the new store they’re partnering with a 3rd party to build, they’ll be able to get more content more quickly. What gives me hope in this realm is that Shard, Fantasy Grounds, and Roll20 seem to have a much larger library of first party D&D content.

Really, in the end, what it comes down to for me can be summed up to the following:

1. I’m playing more than just D&D. I play Tales of the Valiant, Cosmere RPG, and Traveller. (And maybe Daggerheart in the future)
2. I’m playing a lot of 3rd party content that isn’t already on dndbeyond - Dungeon in a Box, DnD Adventure Club, Kobold Press’ Midgard 5e setting, Obojima, and Wonderous One Shots
3. Out of the table of benefits above, only Maps and content sharing are of value to me. I don’t play online often and I can still get those benefits with FoundryVTT and a one-time purchase (which only sets me back for 2 years vs paying for dndbeyond)

I’ll make a new blog post if things change, but I don’t think I’ll be renewing this summer.

• DnDBeyond
• FoundryVTT