So much time and money wasted on this company.

I need to rant a bit. I'm so angry, and crestfallen that I've been losing sleep over this. I have a lot to say so this is going to be a little long...

So let me start with some background. I've been playing D&D off an and on since the late 90's. I started with AD&D and moved into 3 and 3.5 when they came out. I stopped playing for a while due to life circumstances before 4th Ed came out. I started getting my kids into the hobby when they were old enough, and moved into 5E when that came out in 2014. I've been an ardent supporter of the hobby. I'm the DM for my friend group. I have DM'd for the local USO when my schedule permitted it. D&D content is my primary source of entertainment, Youtube, Spotify Live Plays, Novels, if it's D&D chances are I'm into it. If there was a bar graph of D&D's biggest fans I'd be somewhere near the top, I'm sure of it.

The issue: I have a large catalogue of D&D content, I own most of the source books on D&D Beyond, and many of the adventures. I've had a Master Tier subscription for years. I preordered the digital/physical combo of the 2024 ruleset + monster manual for my birthday over the summer. Around the time the 2024 DMG came out I noticed a suspicious charge on my account that had a reference to D&D so I reached out to the D&D customer support opening a ticket to confirm its validity. Days went by with no response so I notified my bank to dispute the charge.

A few days later I finally received notice that the charge was an additional cost resultant from the preorder, and that the order was then summarily cancelled. I thought "fine at least now I know. The digital order went through, I'll just pick up a physical copy of the 2024 MM later". Little did I know.

Along with the cancellation came a Lifetime Ban from the service.

So now, I have these three new books on DDB that I can't use. I have hundreds and hundred of dollars of books I can look at, but I can't actually use them on the platform where I bought them. I can't add characters to my campaigns. I can't change characters in my campaigns. I can't even rename my campaigns. I reached out to D&DB customer service about it. They said that because my bank made a claim of fraud against them my account received a lifetime ban as a matter of policy. I wouldn't have needed to do anything if their customer service was able to respond in anything close to a reasonable timeframe.

I'm gutted by this.

I know on some level I share much of the blame for how this happened. I should have looked at the terms of my purchase more closely and expected subsequent charges that's on me. I didn't though, and when I reached out to ask questions I was met with silence for days....When I took action in the absence of their input, I was met with my order being cancelled and a non-negotiable, non expiring, ban.

What the hell WOTC/Hasbro? I watched the OGL debacle and thought, "I'm invested already, they'll right the ship". I listened to Sly Flourish say many times to make sure you own the content you buy, that you're not just leasing it. Because if you're leasing it, it can be taken away. I listened and thought that it didn't apply to me. I figured D&D Beyond would be around forever because they're a big company that couldn't just do a ninja disappearing act.

I'm so pissed about this.

And yet, I have to be as pissed at myself too. I knew better. I know better. I closed my eyes and trusted a publicly traded company to have my best interest at heart, and figured that they wouldn't betray me because in the end they at least want my money right? I feel incredibly stupid.

Well...I've wasted all the money I'm going to. I have assets galore sitting on a digital platform I've been banned from.

Banned. Like I'm some foul mouthed teen spewing hate on X-box, or a scammer on Facebook. It actually makes me nauseous to think about it.

I have a hectic schedule, and don't live in a place where getting a regular in person game is an option for me. I wish I could.

Anyway. I'll be throwing my lot in with Draw Steel when it comes out. When I can afford it, I'll grab a bunch of ShadowDark.

If you're still reading, I'll offer a few words of advice I probably wouldn't have taken: "don't waste your money on WOTC/Hasbro" find someone you consider worthy of your time and money, someone who has shown themselves to be decent, moral, and trustworthy. Find someone who lets you own the content you buy. Find someone who doesn't ask you subscribe to their service so you can use the stuff you own. I can tell you D&D (WOTC/Hasbro) aren't that company.

I have a reasonable idea that you probably already knew that. My hope is that maybe my story is the nudge you needed to move on, and that I helped you make that decision before you'd thrown so much money into the ecosystem that the sunk cost fallacy got its hooks so deep into you that you just put your rose coloured glasses on so you thought nothing of the red flags all around you...

caveat emptor.