Apple actually has always allowed other companies to create software and accessories for thier products.
The way it works for D&D is that anyone can use the OGL to create thier own content which then encourages more players to then purchase the PHB, DMG, MM and so forth. " A rising tide raises all boats" system.
It is ok to spend money on Beyond if it makes you and your friends happy.
As someone who was around in the scene before the OGL 1.0 was put in place and then witnessed the OGL Crisis, and have been semi familiar with the leadership off and on, my perspective is this. The new guy's credentials make me nervous, but I will give him a chance, the state of the OGL is pretty great now, but i have a lot of ill feelings about what it took to get there, and i have an ever growing animosity toward Hasbro, believer me i mean it when i say.
It is ok to spend money on Beyond if it makes you and your friends happy.
There is a lot of bad stuff happening in the world, so if this helps you deal with it, then go ahead. Yeah it sucks that you have to pay a sub, to use stuff you already paid for, that is the major weakness of Beyond. You also don't have to, since there are other sites like Roll20, That you can get access to the materials through as well, and Roll20 is a little more homebrew friendly. If you have the physical books, it will be time consuming, but you can type or transfer the text into Roll20 and make it work. (it is tetchy, but it works better than the homebrew stuff on beyond, and it comes free with the 2014 sheets, that can easily handle making 2024 characters with.)
talk to you players. If it is beyond or nothing, no shame in paying if you are happy, if they are willing to jump ship, experiment with other VTTs. Beyond isn't the only one.
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He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player. The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call To rise up in triumph should we all unite The spark for change is yours to ignite." Kalandra - The State of the World
Even if you have absolutely zero trust for "the new guy," guess what? D&D 5e's SRD is in Creative Commons now. You can play a theoretically infinite number of D&D campaigns and never have to send a dime to WotC - just stick with the SRD and third-party content and/or homebrew. When you're buying a new book from them, what you're paying for is convenience and
Personally speaking, I don't trust any corporation because "trust" is ultimately irrelevant to our transactional relationship. Their job is to create content I'm willing to pay for, at a price I'm willing to pay. That's the extent of what I need or expect them to do. Ayoub's promises to investors on Wall Street might mean more stuff I get to enjoy in the future, but until that stuff exists, it barely matters to me.
Thank you for letting me know that. Any company that grants open license is not a death penalty, but awfully close. Open license is great for the consumer, but bad for business. An example is the PC industry. Apple never gave/authorized any type of open licenses and therefore have survived over the decades.
The OGL has existed since 2000 and is regarded as pretty good for everyone; Wizards of the Coast has done pretty well off of it in the last 25 years.
In fact, the ogl kind of went on hiatus for a few years during 4e. It had some other acronym and wasn’t nearly as good. And there wasn’t the robust 3rd party ecosystem we had in 3.x and have in 5. And 4e flopped (for a lot of reasons). But that seems to reinforce your point that having it works very well.
Yeah it sucks that you have to pay a sub, to use stuff you already paid for, that is the major weakness of Beyond.
You don’t have to pay a subscription to use your purchased books, only to share them.
ok, this may sound pedantic, but in the context of the guy DMing, being able to share them is using them. You want your players to have access to all the materials. sooo.... point stands.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player. The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call To rise up in triumph should we all unite The spark for change is yours to ignite." Kalandra - The State of the World
Yeah it sucks that you have to pay a sub, to use stuff you already paid for, that is the major weakness of Beyond.
You don’t have to pay a subscription to use your purchased books, only to share them.
ok, this may sound pedantic, but in the context of the guy DMing, being able to share them is using them. You want your players to have access to all the materials. sooo.... point stands.
Except you're not being pedantic, you're being wrong. To be actually pedantic and not just incorrect, no one has to sub to use the stuff they own, but do they have to be part of a campaign where at least one person has subbed in order to share what they own. There is a non trivial difference there.
Apple actually has always allowed other companies to create software and accessories for thier products.
The way it works for D&D is that anyone can use the OGL to create thier own content which then encourages more players to then purchase the PHB, DMG, MM and so forth. " A rising tide raises all boats" system.
It is ok to spend money on Beyond if it makes you and your friends happy.
As someone who was around in the scene before the OGL 1.0 was put in place and then witnessed the OGL Crisis, and have been semi familiar with the leadership off and on, my perspective is this.
The new guy's credentials make me nervous, but I will give him a chance, the state of the OGL is pretty great now, but i have a lot of ill feelings about what it took to get there, and i have an ever growing animosity toward Hasbro, believer me i mean it when i say.
It is ok to spend money on Beyond if it makes you and your friends happy.
There is a lot of bad stuff happening in the world, so if this helps you deal with it, then go ahead. Yeah it sucks that you have to pay a sub, to use stuff you already paid for, that is the major weakness of Beyond.
You also don't have to, since there are other sites like Roll20, That you can get access to the materials through as well, and Roll20 is a little more homebrew friendly. If you have the physical books, it will be time consuming, but you can type or transfer the text into Roll20 and make it work. (it is tetchy, but it works better than the homebrew stuff on beyond, and it comes free with the 2014 sheets, that can easily handle making 2024 characters with.)
talk to you players. If it is beyond or nothing, no shame in paying if you are happy, if they are willing to jump ship, experiment with other VTTs. Beyond isn't the only one.
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
Even if you have absolutely zero trust for "the new guy," guess what? D&D 5e's SRD is in Creative Commons now. You can play a theoretically infinite number of D&D campaigns and never have to send a dime to WotC - just stick with the SRD and third-party content and/or homebrew. When you're buying a new book from them, what you're paying for is convenience and
Personally speaking, I don't trust any corporation because "trust" is ultimately irrelevant to our transactional relationship. Their job is to create content I'm willing to pay for, at a price I'm willing to pay. That's the extent of what I need or expect them to do. Ayoub's promises to investors on Wall Street might mean more stuff I get to enjoy in the future, but until that stuff exists, it barely matters to me.
In fact, the ogl kind of went on hiatus for a few years during 4e. It had some other acronym and wasn’t nearly as good. And there wasn’t the robust 3rd party ecosystem we had in 3.x and have in 5. And 4e flopped (for a lot of reasons). But that seems to reinforce your point that having it works very well.
You don’t have to pay a subscription to use your purchased books, only to share them.
ok, this may sound pedantic, but in the context of the guy DMing, being able to share them is using them.
You want your players to have access to all the materials. sooo.... point stands.
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
Except you're not being pedantic, you're being wrong. To be actually pedantic and not just incorrect, no one has to sub to use the stuff they own, but do they have to be part of a campaign where at least one person has subbed in order to share what they own. There is a non trivial difference there.
Find my D&D Beyond articles here