That's a bummer. Still, keeping my fingers crossed.
Also wondering how they will navigate that on CR if their next big campaign is set in Tal'Dorei and they can't use the material on DDB. I suppose Matt Mercer could convert the things he needs into homebrew content and get them in that way, though it would be quite a lot of work for a whole campaign.
That said, I'm hoping their next campaign is set in Marquette or a part of Exandria that we haven't seen yet.
Unless Matt is feeling particularly extra and makes a new class, I'm sure he'll do what he did for campaign 2; homebrew everything that needs to be homebrewed.
I think it won't be on D&D Beyond, because it's an indepentantly published paid content that Wizards gets no money from. It's technically a competitor to WotC products, since they want you to spend money on Fizban's and such, which you might be less likely to do if you buy Tal'dorei Reborn. Putting it on D&D Beyond would, essentially, be promoting their direct competitors and making it easier to choose them over WotC products.
It's very much a shame, since I'd personally pay, like, an extra 5 or so bucks to go directly to WotC, if it meant I could get the content on here :/ Like a 3rd party fee. But I don't see it happening, since they'll be hoping you'll buy a WotC product (from which they get all the profit) instead.
I think it won't be on D&D Beyond, because it's an indepentantly published paid content that Wizards gets no money from. It's technically a competitor to WotC products, since they want you to spend money on Fizban's and such, which you might be less likely to do if you buy Tal'dorei Reborn. Putting it on D&D Beyond would, essentially, be promoting their direct competitors and making it easier to choose them over WotC products.
It's very much a shame, since I'd personally pay, like, an extra 5 or so bucks to go directly to WotC, if it meant I could get the content on here :/ Like a 3rd party fee. But I don't see it happening, since they'll be hoping you'll buy a WotC product (from which they get all the profit) instead.
Products like Tal'Dorei Reborn aren't competitors to Wizards of the Coast products, they're released under the Open Gaming License Systems Reference Document that WotC puts out explicitly so third parties can release paid supplements for D&D. Additionally, I don't see the crossover, thematically speaking, between any of the upcoming books and Tal'Dorei Reborn; it's not really like they're similar books. Wotc benefits from people buying third party products because it keeps people playing D&D and thus buying D&D products.
I do gotta say it's not a great sign that DnD Beyond isn't offering preorders for it though. Probably all the info we need. (Although as soon as I finished typing this I realized only the Beadle Grimm's edition is up for preorder so maybe there's hope)
D&D Beyond doesn't offer any third party paid content and never has. This is something outside the scope of what D&D Beyond can offer and, as mentioned in the recent ddb Dev update, involves a lot of non trivial business hurdles.
So I'm not sure what you mean by "not a great sign"; it's a sign of nothing having changed regarding third party products and publications
D&D Beyond doesn't offer any third party paid content and never has. This is something outside the scope of what D&D Beyond can offer and, as mentioned in the recent ddb Dev update, involves a lot of non trivial business hurdles.
So I'm not sure what you mean by "not a great sign"; it's a sign of nothing having changed regarding third party products and publications
Cool, I knew there were legal hurdles and to me that makes sense with the bigger established 3rd party publishers, but was hopeful the brand new Darrington Press would have less troubles, especially considering the partnerships between DnD Beyond and Critical Role.
I'll assume they're more about what DnD Beyond can legally support and less about other publishers not wanting to share then?
I mean, they are competitors. They are providing similar products to the same audience, and competing for that audience's money. The open gaming licence is WotC being sporting (and realistic) towards the D&D community, but they would, obviously, prefer you buy official products over third party since they don't recieve any money from third party material. If they made Tal'Dorei Reborn available on D&DBeyond, they'd be promoting a product that they gain no profit from. People with limited income that would have bought one of the WofT products might now spend that money on Tal'Dorei, meaning WofT would have lost sales by promoting a competitor.
I think that the fact that James Haeck left Dndbeyond right around the time that they would have been negotiating rights on this is pretty significant. He is a co-author of the Tal'Dorei Campaign guide.
This has all the earmarks of "lawyers told us not to say anything, because the truth would **** everyone off."
Fun fact: It still achieve the same purpose, its just that the lawyer won't be the one blamed when we start migrating to other platforms.
I think that the fact that James Haeck left Dndbeyond right around the time that they would have been negotiating rights on this is pretty significant. He is a co-author of the Tal'Dorei Campaign guide.
This has all the earmarks of "lawyers told us not to say anything, because the truth would **** everyone off."
Fun fact: It still achieve the same purpose, its just that the lawyer won't be the one blamed when we start migrating to other platforms.
Myopic observation. Haeck is also a co-author on Netherdeep, which D&D Beyond will be fully supporting, because it's published by WotC. Thread necromancy squandered on insignificance.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Netherdeep is a completely different situation. It is an official Wizards product.
I am sorry that you feel a) empowered to speak this way to people on the internet or otherwise and B)that extending a conversation about an immediately relevant topic is necromancy. The new book releases tomorrow. I could have started a redundant second conversation, but that would have been, at the risk of repeating myself, redundant.
Open criticism of the behaviors of Dndbeyond is the only realistic means of advocating for improvement in the function and utility of the system. The administrators of Dndbeyond have become increasingly less transparent over the last year. I would hope that they see questions like this as customer service issues. However, because there are extreme examples of lack of public communication and transparency, such as this, all we can do is speak into the digital darkness and hope that we are heard before our only option is to find alternative services. Honestly, if there was a viable alternative service at this point I would be more than happy to completely re-buy the entire Wizards book set there and discontinue working with Dndbeyond immediately. I am perhaps overstating this, but getting responses like what you put here is exactly what makes me want to leave.
Respond as you like. Try to get this locked as necromancy, I don't care anymore. Hopefully one of the other services like roll20 or foundry will get better at character content management. Or Dndbeyond will start making some pretense of trying to improve user experience and basic functionality instead of building frippery.
D&D Beyond is a MAster Tier distributor for WotC product. The Tal'Dorei Reborn book is not an official WotC book as it is made by the in house publishing company Darrington Press. Now Wildemount and Netherdeep are Official WotC books and are why they are on D&D Beyond
D&D beyond is not a part of WotC and are their own company. They can add whomever's material they want to and have added non-official content in the past such as Matthew Mercer's Gunslinger. Its also the same reason why WotC cant give redeemable codes for the D&D beyond version of their books. Two. different. companies. say it with me! maybe eventually people will get this into their heads.
D&D beyond is not a part of WotC and are their own company. They can add whomever's material they want to and have added non-official content in the past such as Matthew Mercer's Gunslinger. Its also the same reason why WotC cant give redeemable codes for the D&D beyond version of their books. Two. different. companies. say it with me! maybe eventually people will get this into their heads.
You are quite correct that they are separate companies. DDB is, however, restricted by their license agreement with WOTC. Whether that agreement covers rules labout third party paid content or not is unknown to those of us on the outside. The non official content you mention being already available is all free. Paid content is another kettle of fish altogether.
D&D beyond is not a part of WotC and are their own company. They can add whomever's material they want to and have added non-official content in the past such as Matthew Mercer's Gunslinger. Its also the same reason why WotC cant give redeemable codes for the D&D beyond version of their books. Two. different. companies. say it with me! maybe eventually people will get this into their heads.
The gunslinger was free content, and it wasn't (at the time) advertising content for a company that was a competitor for WotC. Remember Dark Tides of Bilgewater? It was removed because WotC didn't want content, even free content, on DnDBeyond that could sent people to another company's competing product. If Tal'Dorei was available on DnDBeyond, WotC wouldn't see any of that money, so they would insist it shouldn't be sold here. If DnDBeyond said no, and sold it regardless of WotC wishes, they could terminate their licencing agreement, and boom, DnDBeyond cannot sell or provide WotC content beyond the basic rules. All your official sourcebooks, adventures, etc? Gone. Suddenly they have no customers, because why would anyone choose to stay when there's hardly any content?
You are quite correct that they are separate companies. DDB is, however, restricted by their license agreement with WOTC. Whether that agreement covers rules labout third party paid content or not is unknown to those of us on the outside. The non official content you mention being already available is all free. Paid content is another kettle of fish altogether.
Regardless of what an agreement says, they can be renegotiated. If all involved want it to happen, it takes some legal fees, but it can happen.
It is clear nothing will happen now. If something will happen in the future, it will likely take high demand for it to happen.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
D&D since 79. New to the Carolinas and looking for Gamers.
I would dearly love to see some Critical Role and Kobold Press content offerred here, it would also preemptively nuke any competitors or shenanigans from VTTs (which I would like to see Fandom offer some day).
D&D beyond is not a part of WotC and are their own company. They can add whomever's material they want to and have added non-official content in the past such as Matthew Mercer's Gunslinger. Its also the same reason why WotC cant give redeemable codes for the D&D beyond version of their books. Two. different. companies. say it with me! maybe eventually people will get this into their heads.
No. Just no. Beyond may be a separate company, but that does not mean they can use other entities' intellectual property however they like. What ever agreement Beyond made with Wizards, they cannot just willy nilly add any third party IP onto their own site. IP rights is complicated, and it is not something a business can just mess around with. Case in point, although Disney owns the Marvel IP, even they cannot just make any movie they like, and they have to go through Sony in regards to movies dealing with the Spider-Man IP. Legal contracts matter, and whatever deal Beyond made with Wizards, Beyond cannot ignore it and do whatever they like. Matt Mercer, Beyond, and Wizards have a special three way relationship and they made some kind of agreement before hand, and that is why Beyond is allowed to present some of Matt Mercer's stuff. Maybe people will better understand how business works if they just simply read the news more or take some basic business classes at community colleges.
What the agreements say, to an extent, is irrelevant. If all parties subject to those contracts want to change them to allow something different, then it is just a matter of cost.
Amongst 3rd party content providers, Critical Role is closest to WotC. We have several items from Critical Role that are official content. They blur the line. I would really like to see the steps taken that are necessary to fully implement their 3rd party content on D&D Beyond just as if it came directly from WotC.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
D&D since 79. New to the Carolinas and looking for Gamers.
What the agreements say, to an extent, is irrelevant. If all parties subject to those contracts want to change them to allow something different, then it is just a matter of cost.
Amongst 3rd party content providers, Critical Role is closest to WotC. We have several items from Critical Role that are official content. They blur the line. I would really like to see the steps taken that are necessary to fully implement their 3rd party content on D&D Beyond just as if it came directly from WotC.
Right - but as of right now WOTC doesn't seem to want to update the contract to allow 3rd party. The free stuff Matt has published and is available here, WoTC has most likely allowed due to DDB sponsorship of CR.
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Unless Matt is feeling particularly extra and makes a new class, I'm sure he'll do what he did for campaign 2; homebrew everything that needs to be homebrewed.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I think it won't be on D&D Beyond, because it's an indepentantly published paid content that Wizards gets no money from. It's technically a competitor to WotC products, since they want you to spend money on Fizban's and such, which you might be less likely to do if you buy Tal'dorei Reborn. Putting it on D&D Beyond would, essentially, be promoting their direct competitors and making it easier to choose them over WotC products.
It's very much a shame, since I'd personally pay, like, an extra 5 or so bucks to go directly to WotC, if it meant I could get the content on here :/ Like a 3rd party fee. But I don't see it happening, since they'll be hoping you'll buy a WotC product (from which they get all the profit) instead.
Products like Tal'Dorei Reborn aren't competitors to Wizards of the Coast products, they're released under the Open Gaming License Systems Reference Document that WotC puts out explicitly so third parties can release paid supplements for D&D. Additionally, I don't see the crossover, thematically speaking, between any of the upcoming books and Tal'Dorei Reborn; it's not really like they're similar books. Wotc benefits from people buying third party products because it keeps people playing D&D and thus buying D&D products.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
I do gotta say it's not a great sign that DnD Beyond isn't offering preorders for it though. Probably all the info we need. (Although as soon as I finished typing this I realized only the Beadle Grimm's edition is up for preorder so maybe there's hope)
D&D Beyond doesn't offer any third party paid content and never has. This is something outside the scope of what D&D Beyond can offer and, as mentioned in the recent ddb Dev update, involves a lot of non trivial business hurdles.
So I'm not sure what you mean by "not a great sign"; it's a sign of nothing having changed regarding third party products and publications
Find my D&D Beyond articles here
Cool, I knew there were legal hurdles and to me that makes sense with the bigger established 3rd party publishers, but was hopeful the brand new Darrington Press would have less troubles, especially considering the partnerships between DnD Beyond and Critical Role.
I'll assume they're more about what DnD Beyond can legally support and less about other publishers not wanting to share then?
I mean, they are competitors. They are providing similar products to the same audience, and competing for that audience's money. The open gaming licence is WotC being sporting (and realistic) towards the D&D community, but they would, obviously, prefer you buy official products over third party since they don't recieve any money from third party material. If they made Tal'Dorei Reborn available on D&DBeyond, they'd be promoting a product that they gain no profit from. People with limited income that would have bought one of the WofT products might now spend that money on Tal'Dorei, meaning WofT would have lost sales by promoting a competitor.
I think that the fact that James Haeck left Dndbeyond right around the time that they would have been negotiating rights on this is pretty significant. He is a co-author of the Tal'Dorei Campaign guide.
This has all the earmarks of "lawyers told us not to say anything, because the truth would **** everyone off."
Fun fact: It still achieve the same purpose, its just that the lawyer won't be the one blamed when we start migrating to other platforms.
Myopic observation. Haeck is also a co-author on Netherdeep, which D&D Beyond will be fully supporting, because it's published by WotC. Thread necromancy squandered on insignificance.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Netherdeep is a completely different situation. It is an official Wizards product.
I am sorry that you feel a) empowered to speak this way to people on the internet or otherwise and B)that extending a conversation about an immediately relevant topic is necromancy. The new book releases tomorrow. I could have started a redundant second conversation, but that would have been, at the risk of repeating myself, redundant.
Open criticism of the behaviors of Dndbeyond is the only realistic means of advocating for improvement in the function and utility of the system. The administrators of Dndbeyond have become increasingly less transparent over the last year. I would hope that they see questions like this as customer service issues. However, because there are extreme examples of lack of public communication and transparency, such as this, all we can do is speak into the digital darkness and hope that we are heard before our only option is to find alternative services. Honestly, if there was a viable alternative service at this point I would be more than happy to completely re-buy the entire Wizards book set there and discontinue working with Dndbeyond immediately. I am perhaps overstating this, but getting responses like what you put here is exactly what makes me want to leave.
Respond as you like. Try to get this locked as necromancy, I don't care anymore. Hopefully one of the other services like roll20 or foundry will get better at character content management. Or Dndbeyond will start making some pretense of trying to improve user experience and basic functionality instead of building frippery.
D&D Beyond is a MAster Tier distributor for WotC product. The Tal'Dorei Reborn book is not an official WotC book as it is made by the in house publishing company Darrington Press. Now Wildemount and Netherdeep are Official WotC books and are why they are on D&D Beyond
D&D beyond is not a part of WotC and are their own company. They can add whomever's material they want to and have added non-official content in the past such as Matthew Mercer's Gunslinger. Its also the same reason why WotC cant give redeemable codes for the D&D beyond version of their books. Two. different. companies. say it with me! maybe eventually people will get this into their heads.
WotC doesnt own and operate D&D beyond. they own and operate themselves.
You are quite correct that they are separate companies. DDB is, however, restricted by their license agreement with WOTC. Whether that agreement covers rules labout third party paid content or not is unknown to those of us on the outside. The non official content you mention being already available is all free. Paid content is another kettle of fish altogether.
Trying to Decide if DDB is for you? A few helpful threads: A Buyer's Guide to DDB; What I/We Bought and Why; How some DMs use DDB; A Newer Thread on Using DDB to Play
Helpful threads on other topics: Homebrew FAQ by IamSposta; Accessing Content by ConalTheGreat;
Check your entitlements here. | Support Ticket LInk
The gunslinger was free content, and it wasn't (at the time) advertising content for a company that was a competitor for WotC. Remember Dark Tides of Bilgewater? It was removed because WotC didn't want content, even free content, on DnDBeyond that could sent people to another company's competing product. If Tal'Dorei was available on DnDBeyond, WotC wouldn't see any of that money, so they would insist it shouldn't be sold here. If DnDBeyond said no, and sold it regardless of WotC wishes, they could terminate their licencing agreement, and boom, DnDBeyond cannot sell or provide WotC content beyond the basic rules. All your official sourcebooks, adventures, etc? Gone. Suddenly they have no customers, because why would anyone choose to stay when there's hardly any content?
Regardless of what an agreement says, they can be renegotiated. If all involved want it to happen, it takes some legal fees, but it can happen.
It is clear nothing will happen now. If something will happen in the future, it will likely take high demand for it to happen.
D&D since 79. New to the Carolinas and looking for Gamers.
I would dearly love to see some Critical Role and Kobold Press content offerred here, it would also preemptively nuke any competitors or shenanigans from VTTs (which I would like to see Fandom offer some day).
No. Just no. Beyond may be a separate company, but that does not mean they can use other entities' intellectual property however they like. What ever agreement Beyond made with Wizards, they cannot just willy nilly add any third party IP onto their own site. IP rights is complicated, and it is not something a business can just mess around with. Case in point, although Disney owns the Marvel IP, even they cannot just make any movie they like, and they have to go through Sony in regards to movies dealing with the Spider-Man IP. Legal contracts matter, and whatever deal Beyond made with Wizards, Beyond cannot ignore it and do whatever they like. Matt Mercer, Beyond, and Wizards have a special three way relationship and they made some kind of agreement before hand, and that is why Beyond is allowed to present some of Matt Mercer's stuff. Maybe people will better understand how business works if they just simply read the news more or take some basic business classes at community colleges.
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/licenses >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
What the agreements say, to an extent, is irrelevant. If all parties subject to those contracts want to change them to allow something different, then it is just a matter of cost.
Amongst 3rd party content providers, Critical Role is closest to WotC. We have several items from Critical Role that are official content. They blur the line. I would really like to see the steps taken that are necessary to fully implement their 3rd party content on D&D Beyond just as if it came directly from WotC.
D&D since 79. New to the Carolinas and looking for Gamers.
Right - but as of right now WOTC doesn't seem to want to update the contract to allow 3rd party. The free stuff Matt has published and is available here, WoTC has most likely allowed due to DDB sponsorship of CR.