# DM's Guild: What Do The Customers Think?



## Salamandyr

I bought something for the first time this week-end.  I got what I consider was a really good module (though not right for my table) and a set of interesting, but not particularly viable archetypes for the warlock class.  One was listed as a dollar, and the other was pay as you want (in this case I paid a dollar).

My biggest concern was that I felt I was buying largely sight unseen, which caused me to spend less than I might with a larger view of what I was getting.  I don't regret my two dollar purchase, but as I didn't really get any use out of either thing I bought, I probably would have been disappointed if I had spent four or five dollars.

But I'll definitely purchase some other things, as long as they are at a low enough price point as to be an impulse purchase that I won't care if they don't work out.


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## Kite474

I've bought a few things here and their but I have the same problem of not really knowing what I'm buying.

Really I would like to see more high value items compared to one-off adventures and uninteresting subclasses whose descriptions revel jack squat at what said subclass does.  Stuff like Dreamscarred Press's Psionics or Path of War would be nice. 

All in all it feels like the Apple App Store. Except their does not seem to be any diamonds in the ruff.


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## Shroomy

I've bought a handful of adventures and one or two monster files; I'm mainly focused on proven names (whether professional or otherwise), so I wish there was better search functionality on the website, but I'm otherwise satisfied with my purchases.  I'm not really interested in the endless deluge of player content, though I did check out a handful of the popular PWYW offerings to see what the fuss was about.


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## aco175

I'm a bit player with 2 short modules on the site based on Southcrypt (shameless plug).  I have noticed when posting the 2nd one last week that I had the option to list the amount of preview people can see.  I want to say if was up to 20 pages.  I'm not sure if most of the new books and modules posted will have more preview based on this new feature.


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## jerryrice4949

Underwhelmed.  I have bought seven or 8 items and the quality had been okay to good but nothing great yet.  DMs Guild seems to be based on quick and cheap.  I would rather there be some more expensive items of higher quality and original art.


By far my biggest gripe is the stock art.  while stock art is a great idea to a degree, seeing the same art in item after item really takes away from some of the products.


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## AaronOfBarbaria

I've not sunken any money into things just yet, but I've been checking out products that are free or pay what you want to see if I find the contents suitable to use in my campaigns, or get inspired by the ideas within. I've been making careful study of the other products too, reading whatever previews are available and getting a sense of whether something goes on my wishlist or not.

All told, I've not yet come across a product I've put into use - but that doesn't mean that I don't look forward to seeing what new things have been uploaded since my last visit to the site, or that I don't think there is a chance that whatever the next product I take a look at will be one that I put to use in my games.

...and I think if I were a player, rather than a DM, I might actually get more out the DM's Guild products out there so far since so many of them are new races and classes.


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## jayoungr

It was worth it for me just to get _The Frozen Castle._  I'd be thrilled if it becomes an outlet for more supplemental sidequests for official adventures that couldn't fit in the printed book due to page count.


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## ShadowCat5

I think its a good idea.  It is something that happens anyway with the various fansites.  I do wish they were categorized by type of content.  Adventure, Gear, Class Options, Race Options, Campaign Information, etc....


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## Reinhart

I know it's still young, but there's a definite lack of reliable product information and consumer reporting so far. Like most voluntary customer rating systems, there's not going to be a lot of variance in most of the products. For a long time we can expect to see the majority of titles hover around 4-5 stars regardless of their comparative quality and value. Most of the problem is that no one's stepping up yet to curate the DM's Guild or to give proper previews. So, it's on us to take the time and effort to carefully provide public feedback on our purchases.

Now, to practice what I preach:
http://www.runagame.net/2016/03/index-of-5e-pregens-on-dms-guild.html


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## ZeshinX

I've only bought one thing from it (Adventurers of Kara-Tur), but I like the concept.  Still, I'm old school and prefer book-in-hand, so this will be mostly ignored by me.

I'd rather see more sourcebooks (be they splat or setting), but if they've determined that's not a business model they want to use (or can't afford to), fair enough.  I'm happy to give Paizo my money.


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## Inchoroi

I am a fan of the website, solely because it promotes homebrew. I wish there were more longer adventures, rather than single-session sidequests.

There's only a few homebrews that I've actually bought, but only because I've talked with the author on several occasions, and liked his homebrew. 

I am, however, completely and utterly disappointed in WotC for using Unearthed Arcana to promote DMsGuild.


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## Bad Fox

The biggest issue for me (so far) is storefront navigation and the way in which product lists are sorted.

For example, I haven't been able to see a way to just search for adventures. This seems pretty fundamental. (Is there a way to do this that I'm just missing somehow?)

In regards to the way that products are sorted, it should be easy to switch between sorting them by "Best Selling" and "Top Rated" and maybe even character level. The current "sort by" tab is pretty weak in terms of usefulness.

Anyway, although I agree with earlier commenters that there's a lack of reliable product information and consumer reporting, I feel like this will naturally resolve itself (more or less?) as DMs Guild becomes more established. I definitely think that better site organization and search options would help speed this up.


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## Guilberwood

I think DM’s Guild is experiencing a process similar to what happened when 3rd edition and the SRD were released. A bunch of new people are putting their products out there but most are not of a very good quality. In time, though, the community will learn how to distinguish the good from the bad, the good authors (and their products) will get recognition, and the community will know which products to look for. 

I also believe that right now we are getting "quick and cheap" items because that's the kind of product you can produce in the timeframe in which DM’s Guild has been around. If someone wants to publish a big sourcebook or a large adventure through DM’s Guild that product is probably not ready yet, unless it was already written and waiting on a shelf (which is probably what happened to Kobold Press’ Tyranny of Dragons adventure).

It’s our job, as a community, to review as many products as we can and spread the word about the good ones. In time we can build a database of all the good products available and when someone needs to find something specific, they know how and where to look for.

It’s something similar to what Bryce is doing at http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/ with modules and Meric is doing with modules, sourcebooks and novels at http://mericb.com/


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## BMaC

jerryrice4949 said:


> Underwhelmed.  I have bought seven or 8 items and the quality had been okay to good but nothing great yet.  DMs Guild seems to be based on quick and cheap.  I would rather there be some more expensive items of higher quality and original art.
> 
> 
> By far my biggest gripe is the stock art.  while stock art is a great idea to a degree, seeing the same art in item after item really takes away from some of the products.




The price of art is astronomical relative to what the DMsGuild authors make (pizza money) so the art will remain cheap and cheerful unless the author has access to a cheap/free source.  In addition, the terms of the DMsGuild prevent some freely available art that has certain Creative Commons designations (CC-BY-SA) from being used.

Most of the things I've purchased have .pdf previews available.


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## ninjayeti

I picked up Journey Through the Center of the Underdark for a buck and was very pleasantly surprised by how good it was.  

But overall it seems like there is too much stuff, by too many different authors with essentially no organization beyond the "top sellers" list to make much sense of it.  And this problem will only get worse as the amount of content grows.  At the very least they need to add organization by type of product (adventure, rule expansion, setting, etc), price, and page count.   

It would also be helpful to have a curator or two willing to wade through everything and provide "Picks of the Week" from the DMG along the lines of what Sean Fannon does with the RPGNow stuff.


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## Patrick McGill

I think it's going to take a bit longer for the dust to settle and the real diamonds in the rough to get there. I've bought a few things, mostly Pay What You Want, but have been very underwhelmed. I am optimistic about the future, however.

I'm hoping the OGL really picks up steam as well.


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## tuxedoraptor

I have looked at a few options, like druidic circles (deathbloom, beast and lifewater) and ways to rebuild the ranger, however..... none of them are truly inspiring me to want them in my game, they all costed nothing since I never pay for something if I can find a legal method around that, but it still means that wizards of the coast is missing out on something they should be doing: Publishing an offical, well made, well balanced ranger that doesn't suck so hard.


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## JDBausch

I've only ever paid (one dollar each) for 2 "pay what you want" items.  But I think if they really want it to be "pay what you want" you should be able to easily increase it later.  I actually had not even downloaded anything "pay what you want" before this weekend, because I hadn't found anything that I knew for a fact I wanted, and I don't want to just keep d/ling things for free with no easy way to up the payment should I decide it is worth it.

Related, they need to have a better preview system than the one page view they have.  because I simply don't know if some of these things are even worth checking out.

Having said all of that, I regularly check for new items on there, so they must be doing something right?  I hope they will smooth out the edges, and keep improving the site.


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## JudgeMonroe

It's creating a real long tail of crap products, and it will take a while for the cream to rise to the top. The best I can hope for is a compilation product that collects the best DM's Guild products on a semi-annual or better basis, gives them an editing and artwork pass and gives them an official stamp of approval.

I already dislike the fact that everyone has permission to use "product identity," such as iconic characters and etc. It's a turn-off to see an amateur product with a presumptive title name-checking Drizzt (ugh), recycling or remixing a well-known book title, and generally clogging the Press Releases feed with a torrent of bottom-shelf content.


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## Jabborwacky

It's a nice, professional looking website whose professional appearance happens to be a double edged sword for its intended purpose. I think it succeeds at making buyers interested in looking through the available products, although the quality of products vary much to the same degree games once did on Valve's Steam store. Some quality assurance would go a long way to improving sales at the site.


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## Coreyartus

They desperately need a less generic review system.  What works for Amazon doesn't work for everything.  And they need a search mechanism that has more topical search options rather than the few they have and keywords.  I feel the website itself undermines the capacity of consumers to use it beyond impulse purchasing because you can't do much more than browse through broad "shelves" of product you can't "open".  In lieu of that capacity (which can never happen because digital) they need to supply more options for consumers to more articulately find what they're looking for.


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## Jacqual

I also think it is nice, and I have grabbed some of the free stuff. But the stuff I want to buy isn't on there and I cannot see why they will not add the core books as PDF's I would pay up to 20.00$ for a copy of the Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, Monster Manual and the Sword Coast Adventurers Guide. I have all those books as a dead tree version but would love an e-version for going on the road.


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## chibi graz'zt

everyone's a critic...
In one of the recent D&D podcasts Shelly Mazzanoble says to be kind in your critique, lest it be used to discourage people from sharing their contents. I love DMs guild. Its one of the most innovative things to happen to table-top D&D. I don't mind that every product isn't stellar, or that it isn't *official* or even written by lead designers or writers, I mind that average folk, people like me, are putting up their hard worked ideas on a forum for others to use, borrow, buy. Innovation is the hearts-blood of D&D and this gives it an open virtual depository.  I've picked up:

Critical Hits
15 new backgrounds
Al-Qadim archetypes
5e Player Cheat Sheet, (excellent for new players and convention games)
Epic Level Handbook, (one of my favorites so far)
Drizzt's Armory
Frozen Castle

Ive also downloaded a ton of pre-gen characters.


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## aco175

Bad Fox said:


> The biggest issue for me (so far) is storefront navigation and the way in which product lists are sorted.
> 
> For example, I haven't been able to see a way to just search for adventures. This seems pretty fundamental. (Is there a way to do this that I'm just missing somehow?)




There is a way to sort through looking for modules.  Under Product Type, click on Sourcebooks and then Adventurers.  You can even further refine it by levels.


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## Henry

I love the idea, but unfortunately it's come right at a time when I haven't DMed due to work schedule for at least five months now, so I don't have nearly as much call for products now. I doubt I'll even buy Curse of Strahd for some time to come, much less DM Guild. 

Hopefully it will continue to increase steam, because by this summer when I'm probably back to buying stuff, perhaps there's enough time for more involved projects to be offered. Honestly, it's only been around for two months, I don't expect to see seriously in-depth developed products for a few months yet.


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## 77IM

I keep forgetting to go visit the site. They need a weekly or even monthly newsletter like Paizo sends out. I still skim through that Paizo newsletter even though I haven't bought anything from them in at least five years.


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## ddaley

I have to agree with this.  I have bought a few things from DM's Guild so far.  I think the sellers should take a look at how creators are describing things on kickstarter.  I have spent A LOT of money on RPG projects on kickstarter, because they get me interested in their projects.  I WANT to support people who are talented enough to create interesting material.  Show some excitement about your product.  I am not necessarily talking about a preview, but a short description of what excites you about your product.  Take my money!

Also, not enough of the products have reviews and/or ratings yet.  I like to read what others have thought about the material.  I may be looking for something different than what the reviewer was looking for, but it is nice to see what others liked and didn't like about the material.




Salamandyr said:


> ...
> 
> My biggest concern was that I felt I was buying largely sight unseen, which caused me to spend less than I might with a larger view of what I was getting.  I don't regret my two dollar purchase, but as I didn't really get any use out of either thing I bought, I probably would have been disappointed if I had spent four or five dollars.
> 
> But I'll definitely purchase some other things, as long as they are at a low enough price point as to be an impulse purchase that I won't care if they don't work out.


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## Giant2005

77IM said:


> I keep forgetting to go visit the site. They need a weekly or even monthly newsletter like Paizo sends out. I still skim through that Paizo newsletter even though I haven't bought anything from them in at least five years.




Sadly, it seems that Unearthed Arcana is taking that role.


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## ddaley

This is a great point.  It would be nice if they sent out a "What's New" and "What's Popular" etc e-mail.  I still read through the Paizo e-mails as well and have been tempted to buy things... I am sure I would have if my group were willing to play Pathfinder again.



77IM said:


> I keep forgetting to go visit the site. They need a weekly or even monthly newsletter like Paizo sends out. I still skim through that Paizo newsletter even though I haven't bought anything from them in at least five years.


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## Kor

I have no end of trouble trying to download stuff from the site.  I have used both Chrome and IE, and have quite a few problems either with it timing out, or downloading incomplete files.  It seems I am the only one though, as I though this forum would be full of people experiencing the same thing.  (Note: there are no firewall concerns on my side, and I have an ultra fast broadband service and new, high-end modem -- the issue I am having is definitely site-based).


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## Bad Fox

aco175 said:


> There is a way to sort through looking for modules.  Under Product Type, click on Sourcebooks and then Adventurers.  You can even further refine it by levels.




Aaah... so I see! Thanks for the heads up. That's much better than I thought, although I'd still make the argument that it's not super  intuitive. 

Hopefully the navigation and layout gets tweaked as the website moves forward.


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## AaronOfBarbaria

[MENTION=82630]ddaley[/MENTION], [MENTION=12377]77IM[/MENTION], if you want e-mail informing you of new products uploaded to the DMs Guild, you can sign in to the site, click on any product for which Dungeon Master's Guild is listed as the publisher (putting on the page where you can see the full product description), and then look at the left side of the screen - just below the "Narrow Results" box, there is a box that says "Follow Your Favorites!" within which there is a checkbox to click that sets you up to receive periodic emails telling you what's new.

It works the same on all the other online stores run by the same company, as far as I know - I use it for some other game lines that don't have frequent releases or reliable sources of release date information so that I can see when something has come out, and it works well enough for me.


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## Bera

A different interface would help. The "most popular" section barely changes, and things vanish from the "newest" section too quickly. It takes multiple clicks to find some specific product types you're looking for. It would be nice to have a separate section for "best rated", "most popular adventure" or whatnot, possibly randomly selecting amongst some of the best rates/most popular products.


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## TrippyHippy

It's alright, but surely it's about time to put the core D&D rule books on pdf too now?


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## CapnZapp

TrippyHippy said:


> It's alright, but surely it's about time to put the core D&D rule books on pdf too now?



Don't beat the dead horse


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## TrippyHippy

CapnZapp said:


> Don't beat the dead horse




Ain't no dead horse till they actually release them.


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## CapnZapp

TrippyHippy said:


> Ain't no dead horse till they actually release them.



Yeah, no. Start your own thread if you want to say what has already been said a million times already. Thanks


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## AaronOfBarbaria

TrippyHippy said:


> It's alright, but surely it's about time to put the core D&D rule books on pdf too now?



The core D&D rules are already free in PDF, they just haven't put up PDFs of the_ expanded_ game yet


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## TrippyHippy

CapnZapp said:


> Yeah, no. Start your own thread if you want to say what has already been said a million times already. Thanks



Well, that is my contribution towards what I feel about DMs Guild, whether you like it or not. 



> The core D&D rules are already free in PDF, they just haven't put up PDFs of the expanded game yet



True, although I obviously want access to the Player's Handbook, DMs Guide and the Monster Manual too. The point is that without these fundamental books, any PDF collection from 3rd party supplements and the like just doesn't have a frame of reference to a core as I'd like. If I turn up to a game night with my tablet or whatever, I want it to have everything I need. At the moment, for me, everything else is made redundant until that core material is released.


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## Nylanfs

Perhaps they need a curator system like what Valve implemented for Steam.


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## CapnZapp

TrippyHippy said:


> Well, that is my contribution towards what I feel about DMs Guild, whether you like it or not.
> 
> True, although I obviously want access to the Player's Handbook, DMs Guide and the Monster Manual too. The point is that without these fundamental books, any PDF collection from 3rd party supplements and the like just doesn't have a frame of reference to a core as I'd like. If I turn up to a game night with my tablet or whatever, I want it to have everything I need. At the moment, for me, everything else is made redundant until that core material is released.



There are no plans to go PDF that we know of.

What do you feel about DM's Guild as it is advertised, i.e. a place to buy 3PP after you have bought the physical core books?


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## Silverborne

I've purchased a few things so far.  I am mostly looking for small things that can help me as a DM.  More monsters and NPC stats, simple locations, villages, basic dungeons, etc.  I have my own campaign world and adventures, but it is nice to have a wider array of easy to use tools.  The hard part is finding the things I am looking for.  A better sorting system would be very nice and it would draw people like me to the kinds of things i am looking for.


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## Zaran

I think it's great but it doesn't fulfill the need I have for new content.  If they did something like approve vetted items from the DMGuild for Adventurer's League that would be cool.  I still rather WotC make more content in house instead of getting people to do it for them while they take half the profits.


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## Zero Cochrane

Some products are great quality and some are really bad.  I stick with "Pay What You Want" and "Free" because it's hard to know what you are getting.  "Full Preview" is a big help, but not all products have this option available.  The Star Ratings are helpful, but only if a lot of people have contributed to them.


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## dracomilan

I've used all of my publisher's credits to buy products, and I'm pretty satisfied so far.
The review system is quite broken anyway: people who download for free PWYW products should not be entitled to rate/review a product, while ALL buyers should be gently nudged into reviewing a product - and upgrade a review when a product changes.


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## Gnarl45

I have mixed feelings about it. I don't like keeping track of dozens of small products and the quality is so random that I still haven't bought anything yet. I'm not sure I'll buy anything electronic though. I really like my dead trees.

I also find it frustrating. There are so many fantastic ideas that end up being average because there's no budget for copy editing or original art.

Out of curiosity, is there any particular reason nobody is publishing printed products yet?


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## Morrus

Gnarl45 said:


> Out of curiosity, is there any particular reason nobody is publishing printed products yet?




There's quite a few printed products. Three big hardcovers from Necromancer Games, a full hardcover setting from Sasquatch, a series of softcover adventures from Goodman Games, items from Kobold Press, about a dozen Kickstarters... lots of stuff!


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## Gnarl45

Morrus said:


> There's quite a few printed products. Three big hardcovers from Necromancer Games, a full hardcover setting from Sasquatch, a series of softcover adventures from Goodman Games, items from Kobold Press, about a dozen Kickstarters... lots of stuff!




Aren't these OGL products? I was wondering if there wasn't a technical reason why nobody was publishing printed products on it.


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## Morrus

Gnarl45 said:


> Aren't these OGL products? I was wondering if there wasn't a technical reason why nobody was publishing printed products on it.




On DMsG specifically? It's only a PDF store. I don't believe publishers there have print options. Though I haven't tried, so I could be wrong.


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## AaronOfBarbaria

dracomilan said:


> people who download for free PWYW products should not be entitled to rate/review a product



Mind elaborating on why it is that you feel that to be the case?


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## Storyteller Hero

AaronOfBarbaria said:


> Mind elaborating on why it is that you feel that to be the case?




I think dracomilan probably had a bad review/rating experience. It seems to come with the territory.

There are a number of dangers to setting at PWYW that can frustrate designers (especially new ones that are just starting out) - a reason why PWYW should be considered by designers mainly for experimentation, fun, training, and building an audience. With anonymity of users and the lack of a paywall, it's much easier to get hit by negative reviews that don't actually have anything constructive to say, or get spammed by downvoters that just want to troll a product.

Personally, I think a reasonable compromise would be to force anyone who rates a 1 or 2 star rating to actually write and post a review of 30 words or more, if they want their rating to stick. This would help DMG staffers recognize a rating or review that is potentially a form of spam and remove it at the designer's request. It would also help purchasers recognize whether a review is a real one. An actual typed 1 or 2 star review would also help the designer understand what needs to be improved, assuming that the review is constructive.

In the short term, I think that moving the link that lets you see a chart of all the individual ratings (and lets you see how many actually wrote reviews) into a more visible location on the product page might help a little.


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## dracomilan

> Personally, I think a reasonable compromise would be to force anyone who rates a 1 or 2 star rating to actually write and post a review of 30 words or more, if they want their rating to stick. This would help DMG staffers recognize a rating or review that is potentially a form of spam and remove it at the designer's request. It would also help purchasers recognize whether a review is a real one. An actual typed 1 or 2 star review would also help the designer understand what needs to be improved, assuming that the review is constructive.
> 
> 
> Read more: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...at-Do-The-Customers-Think/page6#ixzz42OIOJ8lm




I would love this kind of solution. 

Yeah basically if you don't pay even a cent you are already stating something about the product, and the author is sure getting the message. A 1 star rating with no review is just... unfair.


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## AaronOfBarbaria

[MENTION=6813635]Storyteller Hero[/MENTION], [MENTION=6704093]dracomilan[/MENTION], thanks for providing some insight. I hadn't actually considered that potential effect of allowing free access, and I can understand why a person seeking to publish gaming material and maybe make a little cash from it would feel unfairly treated by a bad rating with no explanation of why that rating was given.


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## ddaley

From a buyer's perspective, this would be helpful too.  I don't give much weight to ratings that have no textual review.  I read some of the good and bad reviews to see what they liked and didn't like.  Often, they may complain about things that don't bother me or they may like things that I would not like.  So, just a star rating is not very helpful.



Storyteller Hero said:


> Personally, I think a reasonable compromise would be to force anyone who rates a 1 or 2 star rating to actually write and post a review of 30 words or more, if they want their rating to stick. This would help DMG staffers recognize a rating or review that is potentially a form of spam and remove it at the designer's request. It would also help purchasers recognize whether a review is a real one. An actual typed 1 or 2 star review would also help the designer understand what needs to be improved, assuming that the review is constructive.


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## akr71

My wishlist is starting to get rather long and I will probably purchase a few things soon.  So far I have only downloaded a few free adventures in the very early days of the Guild being up & running.  Except of 'Mines of Madness' which was co-written by Chris Perkins, they were all worth what I paid for them.  Interesting adventures with some really creative ideas, but they were obviously rushed and contained typos and grammar issues which caused me some confusion as to the author's intent.

What I would really like would be for the items to be tagged to help searching.  If I want to only search for adventures, I only get adventures.  If I want character classes/backgrounds/new options, my search only gives those results.  When I go to Amazon, I don't have to search through electronics to find science fiction books.  There is the 'Product Type' filter, but it doesn't seem to do much...


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## Quickleaf

Bad Fox said:


> The biggest issue for me (so far) is storefront navigation and the way in which product lists are sorted.
> 
> For example, I haven't been able to see a way to just search for adventures. This seems pretty fundamental. (Is there a way to do this that I'm just missing somehow?)




It's built into the search function, so you need to start typing before you'll see the option to search for "adventures" as a product type. Definitely not how I would do it, especially given that they have a tab on the left for Product Types that doesn't includes adventures as an option.


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## TonyP

akr71 said:


> My wishlist is starting to get rather long and I will probably purchase a few things soon.  So far I have only downloaded a few free adventures in the very early days of the Guild being up & running.  Except of 'Mines of Madness' which was co-written by Chris Perkins, they were all worth what I paid for them.  Interesting adventures with some really creative ideas, but they were obviously rushed and contained typos and grammar issues which caused me some confusion as to the author's intent.
> 
> What I would really like would be for the items to be tagged to help searching.  If I want to only search for adventures, I only get adventures.  If I want character classes/backgrounds/new options, my search only gives those results.  When I go to Amazon, I don't have to search through electronics to find science fiction books.  There is the 'Product Type' filter, but it doesn't seem to do much...





For adventures go to Product Type>Sourcebook>Adventures


I would like to see the menu and search function adjusted, but I understand such a move is in the works.


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## TonyP

ninjayeti said:


> I picked up Journey Through the Center of the Underdark for a buck and was very pleasantly surprised by how good it was.





THANKS!!!!

I'm quite happy at how well its sold but what thrills me even more is all the pleasant things folk have said on the product page reviews and elsewhere, like yours.

So, if ya'll have bought something you've enjoyed, let the author know. Accolades from strangers is surprisingly more satisfying than I ever woulda thought.  

uhh.. err... pardon the threadjack


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## oreofox

I haven't bought much of anything on there, mostly just a few PWYW and free monsters and a couple races, as those are what I have been interested in most. Many have been of so-so quality. Seeing the "Best Sellers" part almost never change is annoying (though a couple new ones have popped up there with the ability of making Ravenloft stuff). Maybe something for a "best of this week" would be nice.


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## smiteworks

If you are a DM's Guild author considering PWYW, I would instead encourage you to set an actual price that you think is fair and then open up the free preview to cover the entire contents. That way, buyers know exactly what they are getting and then they can agree with you and buy it or move along. Anyone who decides to buy it then has the option to leave a review.


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## Jester David

smiteworks said:


> If you are a DM's Guild author considering PWYW, I would instead encourage you to set an actual price that you think is fair and then open up the free preview to cover the entire contents. That way, buyers know exactly what they are getting and then they can agree with you and buy it or move along. Anyone who decides to buy it then has the option to leave a review.




That's might thoughts as wekk,


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## Jeremy E Grenemyer

I like the Full Preview option as a customer and as an author. 

What annoys me is that when a product's info page is edited, sometimes the Full Preview option disappears. 

I imagine there are authors out there who have made minor adjustments to their product page that think they have set up a Full Preview, that don't realize it has gone away.


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## transcendantviewer

I've been doing what I can to support the community. When I find some "Pay What You Want" content that turns out really decent, I try to go back to it and send some money their way. I like that it's a creative vent for people, but I wish the community more readily supplied constructive criticism. I've seen a lot of products that were hardly worth the download, and some that were free that I'd gladly pay money for. If there was a more active community, willing to expose these would-be creators with better feedback, the publishers would have an easier time improving their products. I want to see this community grow stronger and give rise to more amazing content. But that requires more people throwing money at it, and a better system of offering critiques.


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## BMaC

I find it very annoying that people are naming things to get to the top of the list:
!#55 Magic Item Compilation Set 1
$0 5e Ranger Revised

This kind of thing needs to be policed.  It seems like Wizards set up the website and then just left.


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## Bera

BMaC said:


> I find it very annoying that people are naming things to get to the top of the list:
> !#55 Magic Item Compilation Set 1
> $0 5e Ranger Revised
> 
> This kind of thing needs to be policed.  It seems like Wizards set up the website and then just left.




This.


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## Morrus

BMaC said:


> I find it very annoying that people are naming things to get to the top of the list:
> !#55 Magic Item Compilation Set 1
> $0 5e Ranger Revised
> 
> This kind of thing needs to be policed.  It seems like Wizards set up the website and then just left.




That's been happening on DTRPG and RPGNow for years. They've gotten it down to hashtags, parenthesis, apostrophes, and numbers now.


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## Giant2005

Morrus said:


> That's been happening on DTRPG and RPGNow for years. They've gotten it down to hashtags, parenthesis, apostrophes, and numbers now.




Can't they just change the default display options? If they have it as anything else but the title, it wouldn't be able to be abused.


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## Ampolitor

well it's still new, I'm sure people are also out there working on things. I have already finished my map, and going over the initial details of a module I am working on. You guys are right though, art is very, very expensive, so I hand draw my maps. The module is set in the battle of Bones area, with info out of the old Elminsters Ecologies battle of bones sourcebook. I am just trying to sort out all the details and can only work on it in my free time. I'll be honest though, I would be more apt to write a lot more if they open up to other worlds like Birthright, or Planescape.


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## jodyjohnson

It'll get worse when people start adding all the popular tag words to their descriptions so all the searches start pulling the same stuff.
ranger feat blood ravenloft archetype ....... 

The problem with some gamers is that they game things.  Powergaming the DMsGuild - figure out the rules then exploit them.


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## Bera

jodyjohnson said:


> It'll get worse when people start adding all the popular tag words to their descriptions so all the searches start pulling the same stuff.
> ranger feat blood ravenloft archetype .......
> 
> The problem with some gamers is that they game things.  Powergaming the DMsGuild - figure out the rules then exploit them.




But, there's no real incentive to share knowledge of system mastery. In fact, if anyone figures out how to game that system they're financially incentivized to avoid sharing their discoveries...


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## TheMiddleAgedOne

bought like 5 things one day(month ago? 2?) Haven't had time to look at it much. got a generally unfavorable view of main thing I went there for, but to be fair to author ,need to look at it more in depth, but for the price I can't complain at all. Will def buy more things in future! Love the idea! Now that I started a blog I think that will be my first review(once I give it a fair shake)


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## dave2008

jerryrice4949 said:


> Underwhelmed.  I have bought seven or 8 items and the quality had been okay to good but nothing great yet.  DMs Guild seems to be based on quick and cheap.  I would rather there be some more expensive items of higher quality and original art.
> 
> 
> By far my biggest gripe is the stock art.  while stock art is a great idea to a degree, seeing the same art in item after item really takes away from some of the products.




There are items on the Guild by the pros with original art, high production values and, I assume, quality content.  However, the amateur stuff does very quite a lot.


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