I expect, and this is speculation as is everything else anyone's going to post, what this means is that WOTC took a look at what DDB has planned for the near and midterm future, and liked what they saw, and pulled the trigger. Count me as cautiously hopeful about those things. :)
I very much doubt it has anything to do with that, having been on the end of an acquisition showing off what we where going to be doing in the future was a very definite thing we did not do for 2 reasons.
1) The company buying us didn't care, what they cared about was the product we had now they where buying and revenue streams. once we where purchased then within 6 months all our internal priorities changed anyway in terms of what was important to build and work on as the company that bought us pointed us in the direction they had planned for us.
2) Our board where very clear that until paperwork was signed there was every possibility a potential buyer would look at our ideas, decide they could do what we where planning on doing int he future, and then go and do there own thing.
I imagine WOTC bought DDB for a very simple reason, building an app that runs on both web and mobile and developing, architecting and designing the tech stack takes more time, money and effort then buying something that does what you want very well. realistically it would have taken WOTC 3 years to get something to market that matches what DDB does now, but it would have to do it in a way that made it unique to DDB design and UI/UX, now in that 3 years you have 2 options, either remove all competitors and leave a gap in the market, or let DDB continue operating, in which case in 3 years DDB has advanced and is better and you are still 3 years behind.
What this does indicate are certain decisions that have been made recently, I imagine WOTC have been in talks with DDB for a year or so, these things do not happen quickly. The purchase has been completed to coincide with the new financial year, I imagine initial talks began a year ago at least, and so decisions made this past year, like stopping UA content support etc, probably came about on the back of those conversations. WOTC have probably been shaping the roadmap for the past 6 months while the deal was being finalised. I know with the company I worked at at least 3-4 months before it was announced and done the future owner was already shaping decisions management where making regarding roadmap items.
I can't imagine what the endgame strategy is for WotC. But if I can chime in and give my 2 coppers, here's what I hope it will be:
D&D Beyond will be the portal for digital ownership of D&D 5e+ content.
With digital ownership unlocked, an honest to god API that allows other platforms to hook that owned content into their own applications.
WoTC doesn't need to develop yet another VTT and compete with all the others. They just have to provide the tools so any VTT can access owned content. I'd be so happy with just that.
I would not be surprised to see WOTC buy the Above VTT chrome app, and I hope they do, the small team that have developed that for free deserve a payday on the back of there hard work.
A VTT is the natural next step for WOTC and DnD Beyond in terms of monetisation.
You don't have to worry about your stuff disappearing when WoTC moves to 5.5 or 6.0
Codes for D&D Beyond content could start appearing in print books.
WoTC could start offering more digital-only material.
A few questions I have:
What does this mean for DM's Guild?
Will D&D Beyond be able to offer 3rd party books?
Is a VTT option coming "soon"?
As I said earlier, companies like Foundry are screwed. There is zero doubt to maximize the revenue stream and profits, Hasbro will make DBB the go-to location for everything D&D. That most certainly means a VTT portal. And to facilitate that, why would Hasbro keep doing business with a competitor by licensing another VTT portal. This business model is not like the mistake Apple or Blackberry made when they did not allow 3rd party companies to build apps using their OS.
Foundry will be fine, DnD is the one TTRPG that my friends and I do not use foundry for, we will keep playing Vampire, Cyberpunk etc on it.
I can't imagine what the endgame strategy is for WotC. But if I can chime in and give my 2 coppers, here's what I hope it will be:
D&D Beyond will be the portal for digital ownership of D&D 5e+ content.
With digital ownership unlocked, an honest to god API that allows other platforms to hook that owned content into their own applications.
WoTC doesn't need to develop yet another VTT and compete with all the others. They just have to provide the tools so any VTT can access owned content. I'd be so happy with just that.
They can shut down support/ financial ties with other VTT's. There is zero doubt this is only the first shoe to drop. Hasbro is either going to buy a VTT and try to smash DBB and that VTT together, or Hasbro will build one from scratch.
As I have said Above VTT is a free to use chrome app that is fully integrated with DDB for free. The next sensible thing to do if I was WOTC would be to talk to the small team of dedicated devs who have built that in there own time and offer to buy it off them and employ them full time to develop it.
So far this thread seems both calm and respectful given that this is pretty major news, I really hope it stays that way.
I also lament the gazillion kilowatt hours that will be poured back into the physical book should come with free digital even though, as several people have already pointed out, different ownership was the least of the issues for such a plan.
I'm happy to hear this news, I hope that it is to the benefit of the DDB staff and they are happy to hear it too.
Buying/building a VTT, then making that the "if you want to play D&D online, you have to use our VTT, which is married to DBB" platform depends on one thing and one thing only: Do the beancounters at Hasbro think it will increase profits?
Many moons ago, Apple said, "we are keeping our work proprietary, and going to pursue a monopolistic model." Bill Gates at that same time said "sure, we will allow anyone to piggyback on our OS, and build apps, for a fee". Anyone who knows the history of PC's knows how that turned out. Blackberry (formerly RIM)went the Apple route and look how that turned out for Blackberry.
But D&D is NOT like Apple or Microsoft. If you want to play D&D, (at least the most current edition), you are going through Hasbro. Apple had Microsoft as a competitor. Hasbro/D&D does not have such a competitor. If the beancounters decide that a monopolistic VTT model makes more money, support for other VTT's will be pulled as soon as possible. If the beancounters decide the Microsoft approach works, then other D&D friendly VTT's will continue to be supported.
But I am betting the beancounters are saying 'We want it all".
We must have different experiences with digital content.
From my experience, I can say Hasbro has fierce competition in the digital world. For example:
I personally own the Level Up content that was recently kickstarted and it is being actively integrated into Foundry VTT (and Roll20 too, not as knowledgeable about Roll20). All that is stopping me from using that over D&D is an easy to use character builder, a la D&D Beyond for my players, who are spoiled now and won't go back to creating characters by hand. Once LevelUp have that, if Hasbro wants to be heavy handed and say, "Thou shall use OUR VTT for OUR content", I will have the choice to play a 5e ish system in the VTT of my choice. Screw Hasbro.
Foundry VTT has partnered with Paizo and are releasing Foundry ready VTT copies of their adventures and sourcebooks. That means as a DM, I no longer need to create the content (walled and lit maps, NPC's and tokens, journals, heck even MUSIC!) I just buy the VTT version of the adventure on Paizo's website, plug that into Foundry and run the adventure. Prep time hugely reduced! Paizo Nexus is coming soon, spearheaded by Adam Bradford, so I have full confidence it will happen. As soon as there's a good character builder for Pathfinder 2e on Nexus, there will be zero reason my players wouldn't switch.
One of my players funded the kickstarter for Symbaroum 5e and it came with Foundry modules. They are installed and ready to go. I'm not personally knowledgeable about that system, but from my quick browsing, it looks like another 5e knockoff.
Foundry VTT have launched their own in-house content (The Demon Queen Awakens). Ready to go content with maps, NPC's tokens, journals, etc...
And the VTT I choose to use supports ALL of those. So if Hasbro want to be dum dums and try to force their user base to do things their way, I personally will have no reason or hesitation to switch away from D&D given the options I already have, and those coming very soon.
I've just finished DM'ing Out of the Abyss, using VTT's the whole time. The greatest friction point I had running that adventure was porting my owned content from D&D Beyond to the VTT's I used (Started on Roll20, moved to MapTool and then finally to Foundry). I am a player now, for probably the next year or more. But when my turn to DM comes back around, I will for sure look for options that make it easy and frees up my personal time, while maintaining the familiarity of the platform of my choice.
According to Wizards' website, the Beyond team has 80 creators spread across US and Europe.
I am not sure if that number was mentioned before, but that is the first time that I have seen concrete numbers on the number of developers.
According to the press release, Hasbro will buy Beyond from Fandom for $146.3 million in cash (Hasbro has about a billion in cash), and the deal will finalize around the middle of this year. And if I am interpreting it correctly, Hasbro claims that royalties from Beyond for the last three years is one of their fastest growing source of revenue. The aquisition is not going to have much effect on revenue and earnings per share (EPS) this year, but will increase EPS next year and beyond.
Since the acquisition has immaterial impact on revenue for Hasbro this year, I assume that means the royalties from Beyond is still kind of chump change for Hasbro right now, but it is growing very quickly and is expected to have more significant impact as soon as next year.
I hope that means more languages will be supported. That is one way to signficantly increase revenue in my opinion. I also hope that means Wizards will pay attention to and read our forums, and invest more into Beyond so optional features will be implemented quicker. It will be nice if they bring back Unearthed Arcana, and I would not even mind buying archived options, but I have a feeling that they might not.
Not sure how they will go about the VTT thing. Since they are buying Beyond, as others have said, I think they might just buy a VTT and mash them together.
I am very skeptical that they will print digital codes onto books as a standard practice, or whatever other method of combining digital and physical books into one product, since that represents an increase in cost. As I have said before, even if Wizards owns Beyond, they still need to pay Beyond's staff their fair share of labor and there is no way in hell they will give away digital books for free if someone owns the physical books, let alone vice versa.
i imagine removing UA was in part because of negotiations for the sale, a purchase like this for this amount for this amount of cash has probably been 9-12 months in the works, in terms of initial discussions and then follow up meetings.
Removing UA had a very simple, easy explanation DDB gave openly - it was man-hours spent on vaporware that had a fifty-fifty shot at best of becoming real content instead of working through their deep backlog of issues. Any UA more complex than "here's a new subclass" didn't get implemented anyways, and they got yelled at for it. See: the 2+ years of "Y U NO CLASS FEATURE VARIANTS UA, DDB". It wasn't a good decision for them to support it.
Though maybe now that they're plugged into Wizards directly and theoretically have some feedback and clout instead of being a third-party company that has to comply with Wizards' demands or have their shit yanked out from under them, DDB could try and reintroduce certain UA. I don't foresee it happening, but the odds are higher than they were yesterday.
for a brief while blueray movies allowed you access to digital online copies of the same films, but I think that died a death after a couple of years when streaming meant companies could cash in 4 times over for the same product
Initial cinema release DVD/Blueray/Digital purchase release Selling the licence to a streaming service to show it (or show it on your own streaming service and make money from subscription fees) Sell the licence to cable TV, here in the UK movies are usually on Sy Cinema 6 months after cinema release, Sell the licence to terrestrial TV channels, again here in the UK about 2 years after it has been on Sky Cinema you might see a movie appear on BBC/ITV/Channel 4.
Buying/building a VTT, then making that the "if you want to play D&D online, you have to use our VTT, which is married to DBB" platform depends on one thing and one thing only: Do the beancounters at Hasbro think it will increase profits?
Many moons ago, Apple said, "we are keeping our work proprietary, and going to pursue a monopolistic model." Bill Gates at that same time said "sure, we will allow anyone to piggyback on our OS, and build apps, for a fee". Anyone who knows the history of PC's knows how that turned out. Blackberry (formerly RIM)went the Apple route and look how that turned out for Blackberry.
But D&D is NOT like Apple or Microsoft. If you want to play D&D, (at least the most current edition), you are going through Hasbro. Apple had Microsoft as a competitor. Hasbro/D&D does not have such a competitor. If the beancounters decide that a monopolistic VTT model makes more money, support for other VTT's will be pulled as soon as possible. If the beancounters decide the Microsoft approach works, then other D&D friendly VTT's will continue to be supported.
But I am betting the beancounters are saying 'We want it all".
We must have different experiences with digital content.
From my experience, I can say Hasbro has fierce competition in the digital world. For example:
I personally own the Level Up content that was recently kickstarted and it is being actively integrated into Foundry VTT (and Roll20 too, not as knowledgeable about Roll20). All that is stopping me from using that over D&D is an easy to use character builder, a la D&D Beyond for my players, who are spoiled now and won't go back to creating characters by hand. Once LevelUp have that, if Hasbro wants to be heavy handed and say, "Thou shall use OUR VTT for OUR content", I will have the choice to play a 5e ish system in the VTT of my choice. Screw Hasbro.
Foundry VTT has partnered with Paizo and are releasing Foundry ready VTT copies of their adventures and sourcebooks. That means as a DM, I no longer need to create the content (walled and lit maps, NPC's and tokens, journals, heck even MUSIC!) I just buy the VTT version of the adventure on Paizo's website, plug that into Foundry and run the adventure. Prep time hugely reduced! Paizo Nexus is coming soon, spearheaded by Adam Bradford, so I have full confidence it will happen. As soon as there's a good character builder for Pathfinder 2e on Nexus, there will be zero reason my players wouldn't switch.
One of my players funded the kickstarter for Symbaroum 5e and it came with Foundry modules. They are installed and ready to go. I'm not personally knowledgeable about that system, but from my quick browsing, it looks like another 5e knockoff.
Foundry VTT have launched their own in-house content (The Demon Queen Awakens). Ready to go content with maps, NPC's tokens, journals, etc...
And the VTT I choose to use supports ALL of those. So if Hasbro want to be dum dums and try to force their user base to do things their way, I personally will have no reason or hesitation to switch away from D&D given the options I already have, and those coming very soon.
I've just finished DM'ing Out of the Abyss, using VTT's the whole time. The greatest friction point I had running that adventure was porting my owned content from D&D Beyond to the VTT's I used (Started on Roll20, moved to MapTool and then finally to Foundry). I am a player now, for probably the next year or more. But when my turn to DM comes back around, I will for sure look for options that make it easy and frees up my personal time, while maintaining the familiarity of the platform of my choice.
Above VTT solves a lot of that and is free, friends and I have Foundry, we do not use that for DnD, we use it for other game systems we play (Vampire, Cyberpunk, 7th sea etc)
I can see Wizards creating an API that allows companies like foundry to interact with them for a small cost. Or deciding to bundle a VTT into DDB and include it at a certain tier of subscription, I would prefer this especially if they purchase Above VTT, in terms of your out of the abyss, I have been doig the same and for free I can import all the Out of the Abyss maps into Above VTT seamlessly and easily and for no additional cost.
Removing UA had a very simple, easy explanation DDB gave openly - it was man-hours spent on vaporware that had a fifty-fifty shot at best of becoming real content instead of working through their deep backlog of issues. Any UA more complex than "here's a new subclass" didn't get implemented anyways, and they got yelled at for it. See: the 2+ years of "Y U NO CLASS FEATURE VARIANTS UA, DDB". It wasn't a good decision for them to support it.
Though maybe now that they're plugged into Wizards directly and theoretically have some feedback and clout instead of being a third-party company that has to comply with Wizards' demands or have their shit yanked out from under them, DDB could try and reintroduce certain UA. I don't foresee it happening, but the odds are higher than they were yesterday.
I think it boils down to the development team just needing more investment. Based on what my own team does vs their output, they can't have more than 2-3 full time devs. Double that, and maybe they can keep up. I think this is a lot more likely to happen now.
This will never happen. It's not just that WOTC and DDB were different companies. It's the same premise as buying Fallout 4 on Steam doesn't let you get it on Epic or GOG, or for a console, for free. They are different formats. You still have to pay to have the media in a different format. Same as back in the day, getting a VHS, DVD, and Blu-Ray of the same movie ... owning one format didn't give you access to the others for free.
I do think this is a bit of a different situation. What you're paying for with DDB is not exactly a digital copy of the book. You're paying for the inclusion of that content in their service. Access to the content, not ownership of it.
I don't know if we'll see codes in books, but I wouldn't be surprised if they worked something out where if you can prove ownership, you can gain access in DDB. Think of it as a way to drive users to their platform rather than self-competition.
I think the real goal in this acquisition is obtaining strong control of their digital presence, allowing them to open up new revenue streams via alternative digital content (like DDB dice currently) and do various other obnoxious modern buzzword marketing things. Keep in mind that a lot of online platforms don't make money in a straightforward way. They produce data, they generate and lock in users, and stuff like that which some other branch of the company can capitalize on. Just the Google Analytics of this site is probably worth quite a bit to them.
I do feel bad for all those ‘the sky is falling’ posters that said DDB was going to get shuttered when WotC launched their own website though. What will they do with all this new free time?
Above VTT solves a lot of that and is free, friends and I have Foundry, we do not use that for DnD, we use it for other game systems we play (Vampire, Cyberpunk, 7th sea etc)
I can see Wizards creating an API that allows companies like foundry to interact with them for a small cost. Or deciding to bundle a VTT into DDB and include it at a certain tier of subscription, I would prefer this especially if they purchase Above VTT, in terms of your out of the abyss, I have been doig the same and for free I can import all the Out of the Abyss maps into Above VTT seamlessly and easily and for no additional cost.
Above VTT doesn't solve the problem for those wanting to use 3rd party stuff, like Level Up.
A small cost to use an API for Foundry won't work, because the Foundry company don't host any game servers.
I do feel bad for all those ‘the sky is falling’ posters that said DDB was going to get shuttered when WotC launched their own website though. What will they do with all this new free time?
Tell us all the sky is falling because WOTC has bought DDB :). Or go back to yelling into the void about floating ASI's ;)
Above VTT solves a lot of that and is free, friends and I have Foundry, we do not use that for DnD, we use it for other game systems we play (Vampire, Cyberpunk, 7th sea etc)
I can see Wizards creating an API that allows companies like foundry to interact with them for a small cost. Or deciding to bundle a VTT into DDB and include it at a certain tier of subscription, I would prefer this especially if they purchase Above VTT, in terms of your out of the abyss, I have been doig the same and for free I can import all the Out of the Abyss maps into Above VTT seamlessly and easily and for no additional cost.
I don't want to have to learn 5 different VTT's for 5 different gaming systems I'm interested in playing. I want to learn 1 good VTT that does everything I want, AND is system agnostic so I can use it for any of the 5 systems.
I'm happy you like AboveVTT, but I've invested in Foundry VTT ($$ and dev time making my own modules) and I'm not interested in switching anymore.
Which is the point I'm making in previous posts. Any heavy handed attempt by Hasbro to MAKE me use the VTT of their choice, is going to drive me AWAY from Hasbro. There are enough 5e-like competitors and other interesting systems out there, that I don't feel beholden to D&D.
I don't know if we'll see codes in books, but I wouldn't be surprised if they worked something out where if you can prove ownership, you can gain access in DDB. Think of it as a way to drive users to their platform rather than self-competition.
Exactly. People come up with excuses, but other companies do it. So far, the main convincing reason why WotC couldn't do it was because they didn't have the capacity. DDB could, but had to make money somehow, and so we had them separated. That restriction is gone now.
I'd be shocked if they don't do something. It could be codes in books, but that's just one method. I could easily see then still charging for DDB, but with a discount for it. You pay $30 for DDB, $40 for the book, or $50 for both. They will be doing something, though.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Above VTT solves a lot of that and is free, friends and I have Foundry, we do not use that for DnD, we use it for other game systems we play (Vampire, Cyberpunk, 7th sea etc)
I can see Wizards creating an API that allows companies like foundry to interact with them for a small cost. Or deciding to bundle a VTT into DDB and include it at a certain tier of subscription, I would prefer this especially if they purchase Above VTT, in terms of your out of the abyss, I have been doig the same and for free I can import all the Out of the Abyss maps into Above VTT seamlessly and easily and for no additional cost.
Above VTT doesn't solve the problem for those wanting to use 3rd party stuff, like Level Up.
A small cost to use an API for Foundry won't work, because the Foundry company don't host any game servers.
Does AboveVTT do lighting and walls?
AboveVTT is a very basic VTT currently, largely because it is being developed by I believe a couple of guys in there spare time for free and being made available for free. It does what I need a VTT to do, online maps with fog of war that I can control, I don't want to turn my TTRPG into a computer game and the games we do use foundry for we have decided to ignore dynamic lighting, walls, character LOS etc, it is a map system that is agnostic to a number of systems and is better then roll 20, that was our go to for picking one. I get that other people want something more involved, they like the auto dice rolling etc, and above VTT could offer that if it had money invested to it and the developers building it didn't have to spend time on real day to day jobs.
As for 3rd party content, the question here is if WOTC decides it wants to work with them, or only allows them to integrate if as a company they pay a licence fee, i don't care about the level up content because I don;t use it but that does not make you argument invalid. Wizards may decide to make integration with DDB more seamless, in which case they then lose the licensing money they make from roll 20 and the other VTT companies that charge for DnD content. more likely they instead charge those companies to integrate with DDB now.
As it stands now if I want to buy out of the abyss for Roll 20 I have to pay for it, so maybe they will instead allow users who own a DDB account to integrate with an external VTT.
Above VTT solves a lot of that and is free, friends and I have Foundry, we do not use that for DnD, we use it for other game systems we play (Vampire, Cyberpunk, 7th sea etc)
I can see Wizards creating an API that allows companies like foundry to interact with them for a small cost. Or deciding to bundle a VTT into DDB and include it at a certain tier of subscription, I would prefer this especially if they purchase Above VTT, in terms of your out of the abyss, I have been doig the same and for free I can import all the Out of the Abyss maps into Above VTT seamlessly and easily and for no additional cost.
I don't want to have to learn 5 different VTT's for 5 different gaming systems I'm interested in playing. I want to learn 1 good VTT that does everything I want, AND is system agnostic so I can use it for any of the 5 systems.
I'm happy you like AboveVTT, but I've invested in Foundry VTT ($$ and dev time making my own modules) and I'm not interested in switching anymore.
Which is the point I'm making in previous posts. Any heavy handed attempt by Hasbro to MAKE me use the VTT of their choice, is going to drive me AWAY from Hasbro. There are enough 5e-like competitors and other interesting systems out there, that I don't feel beholden to D&D.
Thinking about it, currently if I own Roll 20 and want DnD content (official campaign books etc) then I have to pay for it, I can see Wizards bringing this all in house under DDB, opening up an API gateway and allowing any VTT to integrate with DDB, it just requires you own a DDB account (possibly every player even), and possibly the DM is a tier that allows external integration to a VTT. You then remove the need for users to own the same content multiple times all over the place.
So I can see foundry users having a formal module, or at least a set of API's that you can integrate with, that allow you to integrate directly with character sheets, monster stats etc, assuming you have authenticated as a DDB user of the correct tier?
I very much doubt it has anything to do with that, having been on the end of an acquisition showing off what we where going to be doing in the future was a very definite thing we did not do for 2 reasons.
1) The company buying us didn't care, what they cared about was the product we had now they where buying and revenue streams. once we where purchased then within 6 months all our internal priorities changed anyway in terms of what was important to build and work on as the company that bought us pointed us in the direction they had planned for us.
2) Our board where very clear that until paperwork was signed there was every possibility a potential buyer would look at our ideas, decide they could do what we where planning on doing int he future, and then go and do there own thing.
I imagine WOTC bought DDB for a very simple reason, building an app that runs on both web and mobile and developing, architecting and designing the tech stack takes more time, money and effort then buying something that does what you want very well. realistically it would have taken WOTC 3 years to get something to market that matches what DDB does now, but it would have to do it in a way that made it unique to DDB design and UI/UX, now in that 3 years you have 2 options, either remove all competitors and leave a gap in the market, or let DDB continue operating, in which case in 3 years DDB has advanced and is better and you are still 3 years behind.
What this does indicate are certain decisions that have been made recently, I imagine WOTC have been in talks with DDB for a year or so, these things do not happen quickly. The purchase has been completed to coincide with the new financial year, I imagine initial talks began a year ago at least, and so decisions made this past year, like stopping UA content support etc, probably came about on the back of those conversations. WOTC have probably been shaping the roadmap for the past 6 months while the deal was being finalised. I know with the company I worked at at least 3-4 months before it was announced and done the future owner was already shaping decisions management where making regarding roadmap items.
I would not be surprised to see WOTC buy the Above VTT chrome app, and I hope they do, the small team that have developed that for free deserve a payday on the back of there hard work.
A VTT is the natural next step for WOTC and DnD Beyond in terms of monetisation.
Foundry will be fine, DnD is the one TTRPG that my friends and I do not use foundry for, we will keep playing Vampire, Cyberpunk etc on it.
As I have said Above VTT is a free to use chrome app that is fully integrated with DDB for free. The next sensible thing to do if I was WOTC would be to talk to the small team of dedicated devs who have built that in there own time and offer to buy it off them and employ them full time to develop it.
So far this thread seems both calm and respectful given that this is pretty major news, I really hope it stays that way.
I also lament the gazillion kilowatt hours that will be poured back into the physical book should come with free digital even though, as several people have already pointed out, different ownership was the least of the issues for such a plan.
I'm happy to hear this news, I hope that it is to the benefit of the DDB staff and they are happy to hear it too.
We must have different experiences with digital content.
From my experience, I can say Hasbro has fierce competition in the digital world. For example:
And the VTT I choose to use supports ALL of those. So if Hasbro want to be dum dums and try to force their user base to do things their way, I personally will have no reason or hesitation to switch away from D&D given the options I already have, and those coming very soon.
I've just finished DM'ing Out of the Abyss, using VTT's the whole time. The greatest friction point I had running that adventure was porting my owned content from D&D Beyond to the VTT's I used (Started on Roll20, moved to MapTool and then finally to Foundry). I am a player now, for probably the next year or more. But when my turn to DM comes back around, I will for sure look for options that make it easy and frees up my personal time, while maintaining the familiarity of the platform of my choice.
i imagine removing UA was in part because of negotiations for the sale, a purchase like this for this amount for this amount of cash has probably been 9-12 months in the works, in terms of initial discussions and then follow up meetings.
Removing UA had a very simple, easy explanation DDB gave openly - it was man-hours spent on vaporware that had a fifty-fifty shot at best of becoming real content instead of working through their deep backlog of issues. Any UA more complex than "here's a new subclass" didn't get implemented anyways, and they got yelled at for it. See: the 2+ years of "Y U NO CLASS FEATURE VARIANTS UA, DDB". It wasn't a good decision for them to support it.
Though maybe now that they're plugged into Wizards directly and theoretically have some feedback and clout instead of being a third-party company that has to comply with Wizards' demands or have their shit yanked out from under them, DDB could try and reintroduce certain UA. I don't foresee it happening, but the odds are higher than they were yesterday.
Please do not contact or message me.
for a brief while blueray movies allowed you access to digital online copies of the same films, but I think that died a death after a couple of years when streaming meant companies could cash in 4 times over for the same product
Initial cinema release
DVD/Blueray/Digital purchase release
Selling the licence to a streaming service to show it (or show it on your own streaming service and make money from subscription fees)
Sell the licence to cable TV, here in the UK movies are usually on Sy Cinema 6 months after cinema release,
Sell the licence to terrestrial TV channels, again here in the UK about 2 years after it has been on Sky Cinema you might see a movie appear on BBC/ITV/Channel 4.
Congrats and good luck to DDB!
I hope this partnership lasts:)
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HERE.Above VTT solves a lot of that and is free, friends and I have Foundry, we do not use that for DnD, we use it for other game systems we play (Vampire, Cyberpunk, 7th sea etc)
I can see Wizards creating an API that allows companies like foundry to interact with them for a small cost. Or deciding to bundle a VTT into DDB and include it at a certain tier of subscription, I would prefer this especially if they purchase Above VTT, in terms of your out of the abyss, I have been doig the same and for free I can import all the Out of the Abyss maps into Above VTT seamlessly and easily and for no additional cost.
I think it boils down to the development team just needing more investment. Based on what my own team does vs their output, they can't have more than 2-3 full time devs. Double that, and maybe they can keep up. I think this is a lot more likely to happen now.
I do think this is a bit of a different situation. What you're paying for with DDB is not exactly a digital copy of the book. You're paying for the inclusion of that content in their service. Access to the content, not ownership of it.
I don't know if we'll see codes in books, but I wouldn't be surprised if they worked something out where if you can prove ownership, you can gain access in DDB. Think of it as a way to drive users to their platform rather than self-competition.
I think the real goal in this acquisition is obtaining strong control of their digital presence, allowing them to open up new revenue streams via alternative digital content (like DDB dice currently) and do various other obnoxious modern buzzword marketing things. Keep in mind that a lot of online platforms don't make money in a straightforward way. They produce data, they generate and lock in users, and stuff like that which some other branch of the company can capitalize on. Just the Google Analytics of this site is probably worth quite a bit to them.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm
This was fantastic news to wake up to.
I do feel bad for all those ‘the sky is falling’ posters that said DDB was going to get shuttered when WotC launched their own website though. What will they do with all this new free time?
DM mostly, Player occasionally | Session 0 form | He/Him/They/Them
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Above VTT doesn't solve the problem for those wanting to use 3rd party stuff, like Level Up.
A small cost to use an API for Foundry won't work, because the Foundry company don't host any game servers.
Does AboveVTT do lighting and walls?
Tell us all the sky is falling because WOTC has bought DDB :).
Or go back to yelling into the void about floating ASI's ;)
I don't want to have to learn 5 different VTT's for 5 different gaming systems I'm interested in playing. I want to learn 1 good VTT that does everything I want, AND is system agnostic so I can use it for any of the 5 systems.
I'm happy you like AboveVTT, but I've invested in Foundry VTT ($$ and dev time making my own modules) and I'm not interested in switching anymore.
Which is the point I'm making in previous posts. Any heavy handed attempt by Hasbro to MAKE me use the VTT of their choice, is going to drive me AWAY from Hasbro. There are enough 5e-like competitors and other interesting systems out there, that I don't feel beholden to D&D.
Exactly. People come up with excuses, but other companies do it. So far, the main convincing reason why WotC couldn't do it was because they didn't have the capacity. DDB could, but had to make money somehow, and so we had them separated. That restriction is gone now.
I'd be shocked if they don't do something. It could be codes in books, but that's just one method. I could easily see then still charging for DDB, but with a discount for it. You pay $30 for DDB, $40 for the book, or $50 for both. They will be doing something, though.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
AboveVTT is a very basic VTT currently, largely because it is being developed by I believe a couple of guys in there spare time for free and being made available for free. It does what I need a VTT to do, online maps with fog of war that I can control, I don't want to turn my TTRPG into a computer game and the games we do use foundry for we have decided to ignore dynamic lighting, walls, character LOS etc, it is a map system that is agnostic to a number of systems and is better then roll 20, that was our go to for picking one. I get that other people want something more involved, they like the auto dice rolling etc, and above VTT could offer that if it had money invested to it and the developers building it didn't have to spend time on real day to day jobs.
As for 3rd party content, the question here is if WOTC decides it wants to work with them, or only allows them to integrate if as a company they pay a licence fee, i don't care about the level up content because I don;t use it but that does not make you argument invalid. Wizards may decide to make integration with DDB more seamless, in which case they then lose the licensing money they make from roll 20 and the other VTT companies that charge for DnD content. more likely they instead charge those companies to integrate with DDB now.
As it stands now if I want to buy out of the abyss for Roll 20 I have to pay for it, so maybe they will instead allow users who own a DDB account to integrate with an external VTT.
Don't get me wrong, I love this news.
But I was blind sided by this, was there any previous indication something like this was in the works?
Thinking about it, currently if I own Roll 20 and want DnD content (official campaign books etc) then I have to pay for it, I can see Wizards bringing this all in house under DDB, opening up an API gateway and allowing any VTT to integrate with DDB, it just requires you own a DDB account (possibly every player even), and possibly the DM is a tier that allows external integration to a VTT. You then remove the need for users to own the same content multiple times all over the place.
So I can see foundry users having a formal module, or at least a set of API's that you can integrate with, that allow you to integrate directly with character sheets, monster stats etc, assuming you have authenticated as a DDB user of the correct tier?