D20 Pro : yet another on-line rpg tool

So Wizards of the Coasts are getting into the on-line RPG tool business.
It kind of makes sense, but the business model is a bit confusing/dodgy

Home Page

However … as with anything that is ‘free’ there is a catch, because for some reason they hid the info.

Pricelist :

– 30 day trial : DM + 4 guest license

– DM $50, includes 2 ‘free’ guest seats, 10$ per additional guest

– player license : 10$

– guest license : free, but you can only join a game if the DM has a ‘free’ guest seat available

As such the burden of the cost is on the DM.
The 5e edition rules are going to cost you 600 ‘gold’ (playerhandbook + monster handbook), which appears to equate to 60$
Adventures are listed at 250 gold (25 $).

It looks like some of the stuff is free (Pathfinder), but it looks like you’ll be paying for adventures + modules to use.
I’m not sure how much of the content players need to purchase, but given what the market place lists it is the DM who needs to pay and the players only ever need the equivalent of the players’ handbook.

No voice chat as part of the app, so you’ll have to source your own. This can be good (use whatever works for your group) and bad (needing to use yet another 3rd party app)

I wonder how this will compare to existing options.
This being ‘official’ will probably help sell it to the D&D community if they have never tried an on-line RPG tool to begin with.

The use of a virtual currency kind of stinks. Such things tend to hide the true cost.