I get the impression that there will be no digital preorders and folks will just have to wait for day 1 to purchase their digibooks. Probably won’t be flashy, blinky borders or dice either.
Also I'm very very much doubtful the CFV and ability mods will work day one.
I get the impression that there will be no digital preorders and folks will just have to wait for day 1 to purchase their digibooks. Probably won’t be flashy, blinky borders or dice either.
Also I'm very very much doubtful the CFV and ability mods will work day one.
Well, the Ability mods will be in the half of the book I plan not to purchase, so I don’t really care about that. But the CFVs are basically the only part of the book I care about, so I hope they do work.
I’ve been playing the new Beast Master in Rime. Some kind souls have the changes working in public homebrew feats. If folks can get it close already with the homebrew tools the devs should be able to get it up and running close to launch.
I’ve been playing the new Beast Master in Rime. Some kind souls have the changes working in public homebrew feats. If folks can get it close already with the homebrew tools the devs should be able to get it up and running close to launch.
wotc is the problem. ddb is just waiting fore preorder confirmaion
I’ve been playing the new Beast Master in Rime. Some kind souls have the changes working in public homebrew feats. If folks can get it close already with the homebrew tools the devs should be able to get it up and running close to launch.
wotc is the problem. ddb is just waiting fore preorder confirmaion
It's never that simple.
The UA for class feature variants was never implemented because it was just so massive. It's the kind of thing DDB is only going to do once. As opposed to subclasses and spells, which are relatively easy to add and remove. And even if you preorder the book in hardcover, which can already be done through your FLGS, that doesn't mean the new options will become available immediately here even if they were ready.
I’ve been playing the new Beast Master in Rime. Some kind souls have the changes working in public homebrew feats. If folks can get it close already with the homebrew tools the devs should be able to get it up and running close to launch.
wotc is the problem. ddb is just waiting fore preorder confirmaion
It's never that simple.
The UA for class feature variants was never implemented because it was just so massive. It's the kind of thing DDB is only going to do once. As opposed to subclasses and spells, which are relatively easy to add and remove. And even if you preorder the book in hardcover, which can already be done through your FLGS, that doesn't mean the new options will become available immediately here even if they were ready.
That does not explain why digital preorders are still unavailable everywhere, not just here.
Experience D&D in a way that you’ve never seen before with Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden releasing in game stores, digitally, and everywhere on September 15, 2020.
Notice that unlike other books, the official website doesn't mention dndbeyond or Roll20
I'm concerned about this as well. The wording of recent job postings at WotC would suggest that they are developing their own digital tools. Management at DDB is spending a lot of time on Cortex, a product that WotC probably sees as competition. Recent legal action taken by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman against WotC shows that Wizards has something of a history of screwing over their business partners.
Experience D&D in a way that you’ve never seen before with Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden releasing in game stores, digitally, and everywhere on September 15, 2020.
Notice that unlike other books, the official website doesn't mention dndbeyond or Roll20
I'm concerned about this as well. The wording of recent job postings at WotC would suggest that they are developing their own digital tools. Management at DDB is spending a lot of time on Cortex, a product that WotC probably sees as competition. Recent legal action taken by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman against WotC shows that Wizards has something of a history of screwing over their business partners.
It doesn't look good to me.
I think it is way to latein the game for them to do their own digital tools, and I myself wouldn't drop DDB to switch over as I have everything here already.
Experience D&D in a way that you’ve never seen before with Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden releasing in game stores, digitally, and everywhere on September 15, 2020.
Notice that unlike other books, the official website doesn't mention dndbeyond or Roll20
I'm concerned about this as well. The wording of recent job postings at WotC would suggest that they are developing their own digital tools. Management at DDB is spending a lot of time on Cortex, a product that WotC probably sees as competition. Recent legal action taken by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman against WotC shows that Wizards has something of a history of screwing over their business partners.
It doesn't look good to me.
I think it is way to latein the game for them to do their own digital tools, and I myself wouldn't drop DDB to switch over as I have everything here already.
I never rule anything out these days. I think if they really want to keep everything in house they will do whatever they need to do it. I would hate it as well as I have spent a good deal of cash on DnD Beyond but we shall see.
Overall I think its because they do not believe they will have the character options available on launch and do not want to get into hot water with pre-orders.
Experience D&D in a way that you’ve never seen before with Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden releasing in game stores, digitally, and everywhere on September 15, 2020.
Notice that unlike other books, the official website doesn't mention dndbeyond or Roll20
I'm concerned about this as well. The wording of recent job postings at WotC would suggest that they are developing their own digital tools. Management at DDB is spending a lot of time on Cortex, a product that WotC probably sees as competition. Recent legal action taken by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman against WotC shows that Wizards has something of a history of screwing over their business partners.
It doesn't look good to me.
Did you read the legal filing? Because I did, and it does not paint Weis & Hickman in a good light.
Experience D&D in a way that you’ve never seen before with Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden releasing in game stores, digitally, and everywhere on September 15, 2020.
Notice that unlike other books, the official website doesn't mention dndbeyond or Roll20
I'm concerned about this as well. The wording of recent job postings at WotC would suggest that they are developing their own digital tools. Management at DDB is spending a lot of time on Cortex, a product that WotC probably sees as competition. Recent legal action taken by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman against WotC shows that Wizards has something of a history of screwing over their business partners.
It doesn't look good to me.
Did you read the legal filing? Because I did, and it does not paint Weis & Hickman in a good light.
Weis and Hickman are the plaintiffs, their lawyers wrote the filing. It paints WotC in a very bad light.
I'm concerned about this as well. The wording of recent job postings at WotC would suggest that they are developing their own digital tools. Management at DDB is spending a lot of time on Cortex, a product that WotC probably sees as competition. Recent legal action taken by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman against WotC shows that Wizards has something of a history of screwing over their business partners.
It doesn't look good to me.
Did you read the legal filing? Because I did, and it does not paint Weis & Hickman in a good light.
Weis and Hickman are the plaintiffs, their lawyers wrote the filing. It paints WotC in a very bad light.
You are entitled to your opinion.
Lawyers presumably wrote it, though I have a hard time believing a lawyer would bother calling either of them "rock stars". It's completely immaterial to the case. Then again, I may be placing more faith than I should be. Lord knows I've certainly seen some disreputable lawyers, who have no idea what they're doing, over the last few years.
In any case, I was referring to the repeated editing demands by the new book team and Sensitivity Readers. And how WotC finally said they simply weren't accepting any more submissions at the time while they've been fighting negative publicity over being insensitive. It looks bad, sure, but without knowing the terms of the contract there's no way of knowing whether a breach occurred. Unless deadlines are actually broken, they can pause the work and restart it later. We'll just have to wait a while, probably a few years, to find out.
What it looks like is Weis and Hickman are toxic people; irrespective of whatever wrongdoing WotC might be guilty of. It's weird to tell on yourself like that when it arguably isn't necessary.
Weis and Hickman are the plaintiffs, their lawyers wrote the filing. It paints WotC in a very bad light.
The basic claim is "we had a contract, we performed according to the contact, Wizards pulled out without due cause, so we deserve money". Presumably Wizard's response will be one or more of "We provided everything the contract requires", "we had due cause", and "the plaintiffs overstate the value of the contract." That part seems ordinary enough, and probably boils down to fact finding; someone did something wrong, and both sides are going to say it was the other side.
Where the filing goes weird, though, is in the speculation about motivation. In particular, two things stood out to me:
During the writing process, Defendant proposed certain changes in keeping with the modern-day zeitgeist of a more inclusive and diverse story-world. At each step, Plaintiff-Creators timely accommodated such requests, and all others, within the framework of their novels
and
Plaintiff-Creators are informed and believe, and based thereon allege, that a decision was made jointly by Defendant and its parent company, Hasbro, Inc., to deflect any possible criticism or further public outcry regarding Defendant’s other properties by effectively killing the Dragonlance deal with Plaintiff-Creators.
The first seems like an admission that there was something in initial drafts that WotC found problematic for reasons of 'inclusive' and 'diverse'. The second doesn't actually make any sense unless the revised draft was still problematic for the same reasons, because the only way killing Dragonlance helps WotC with its bad PR (about racism and sexism) is if Dragonlance would contribute to or reinforce said bad PR.
The first seems like an admission that there was something in initial drafts that WotC found problematic for reasons of 'inclusive' and 'diverse'. The second doesn't actually make any sense unless the revised draft was still problematic for the same reasons, because the only way killing Dragonlance helps WotC with its bad PR (about racism and sexism) is if Dragonlance would contribute to or reinforce said bad PR.
Or WotC was concerned that past Dragonlance content would get dredged up once the new "sanitary" version was published, and decided they just didn't want to go there.
The first seems like an admission that there was something in initial drafts that WotC found problematic for reasons of 'inclusive' and 'diverse'. The second doesn't actually make any sense unless the revised draft was still problematic for the same reasons, because the only way killing Dragonlance helps WotC with its bad PR (about racism and sexism) is if Dragonlance would contribute to or reinforce said bad PR.
Or WotC was concerned that past Dragonlance content would get dredged up once the new "sanitary" version was published, and decided they just didn't want to go there.
I think its a mix of both honestly. They would get bad reactions from progressive folks if the setting was not changed. They would get bad reactions from traditionalists if they did change it.
Overall I do not see a way for them to win either way so they just dropped it. Honestly they just need to work in new settings. It would be a breath of fresh air to the Edition and would likely allow new and old players to come in on an equal footing for lore information.
Or WotC was concerned that past Dragonlance content would get dredged up once the new "sanitary" version was published, and decided they just didn't want to go there.
It's been a while since I read Dragonlance (I thought the trilogy was decent, mostly ignored the later books, and I found the adventure series a super annoying railroad), but I don't recall it being bad enough that they'd feel the need to completely bury it unless there were new problems.
As a side point, having glanced at some recent Weis-Hickmann novels in the bookstores, I don't think we're missing anything.
Weis and Hickman are the plaintiffs, their lawyers wrote the filing. It paints WotC in a very bad light.
The basic claim is "we had a contract, we performed according to the contact, Wizards pulled out without due cause, so we deserve money". Presumably Wizard's response will be one or more of "We provided everything the contract requires", "we had due cause", and "the plaintiffs overstate the value of the contract." That part seems ordinary enough, and probably boils down to fact finding; someone did something wrong, and both sides are going to say it was the other side.
Where the filing goes weird, though, is in the speculation about motivation. In particular, two things stood out to me:
During the writing process, Defendant proposed certain changes in keeping with the modern-day zeitgeist of a more inclusive and diverse story-world. At each step, Plaintiff-Creators timely accommodated such requests, and all others, within the framework of their novels
and
Plaintiff-Creators are informed and believe, and based thereon allege, that a decision was made jointly by Defendant and its parent company, Hasbro, Inc., to deflect any possible criticism or further public outcry regarding Defendant’s other properties by effectively killing the Dragonlance deal with Plaintiff-Creators.
The first seems like an admission that there was something in initial drafts that WotC found problematic for reasons of 'inclusive' and 'diverse'. The second doesn't actually make any sense unless the revised draft was still problematic for the same reasons, because the only way killing Dragonlance helps WotC with its bad PR (about racism and sexism) is if Dragonlance would contribute to or reinforce said bad PR.
Thanks for this post, it gave me a sense of the nuances involved in the case.
I tend view this case as a case of "good guy versus good guy". Sometimes decent people have an honest conflict. This is especially when we a need a legal system, so honest people have a reasonable way to resolve the disagreement. Maybe even remain friends afterward, whatever the resolution, as difficult as that can be. It is possible for all involved to maintain each others dignity thru this difficulty.
When WotC is involved, I am usually inclined to view them wearing the black hat. I have very little faith in WotC’s degree of integrity in general, and have for longer than they’ve owned D&D.
Also I'm very very much doubtful the CFV and ability mods will work day one.
Well, the Ability mods will be in the half of the book I plan not to purchase, so I don’t really care about that. But the CFVs are basically the only part of the book I care about, so I hope they do work.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I’ve been playing the new Beast Master in Rime. Some kind souls have the changes working in public homebrew feats. If folks can get it close already with the homebrew tools the devs should be able to get it up and running close to launch.
wotc is the problem. ddb is just waiting fore preorder confirmaion
It's never that simple.
The UA for class feature variants was never implemented because it was just so massive. It's the kind of thing DDB is only going to do once. As opposed to subclasses and spells, which are relatively easy to add and remove. And even if you preorder the book in hardcover, which can already be done through your FLGS, that doesn't mean the new options will become available immediately here even if they were ready.
That does not explain why digital preorders are still unavailable everywhere, not just here.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
I'm concerned about this as well. The wording of recent job postings at WotC would suggest that they are developing their own digital tools. Management at DDB is spending a lot of time on Cortex, a product that WotC probably sees as competition. Recent legal action taken by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman against WotC shows that Wizards has something of a history of screwing over their business partners.
It doesn't look good to me.
I think it is way to latein the game for them to do their own digital tools, and I myself wouldn't drop DDB to switch over as I have everything here already.
I never rule anything out these days. I think if they really want to keep everything in house they will do whatever they need to do it. I would hate it as well as I have spent a good deal of cash on DnD Beyond but we shall see.
Overall I think its because they do not believe they will have the character options available on launch and do not want to get into hot water with pre-orders.
Did you read the legal filing? Because I did, and it does not paint Weis & Hickman in a good light.
Weis and Hickman are the plaintiffs, their lawyers wrote the filing. It paints WotC in a very bad light.
You are entitled to your opinion.
Lawyers presumably wrote it, though I have a hard time believing a lawyer would bother calling either of them "rock stars". It's completely immaterial to the case. Then again, I may be placing more faith than I should be. Lord knows I've certainly seen some disreputable lawyers, who have no idea what they're doing, over the last few years.
In any case, I was referring to the repeated editing demands by the new book team and Sensitivity Readers. And how WotC finally said they simply weren't accepting any more submissions at the time while they've been fighting negative publicity over being insensitive. It looks bad, sure, but without knowing the terms of the contract there's no way of knowing whether a breach occurred. Unless deadlines are actually broken, they can pause the work and restart it later. We'll just have to wait a while, probably a few years, to find out.
What it looks like is Weis and Hickman are toxic people; irrespective of whatever wrongdoing WotC might be guilty of. It's weird to tell on yourself like that when it arguably isn't necessary.
The basic claim is "we had a contract, we performed according to the contact, Wizards pulled out without due cause, so we deserve money". Presumably Wizard's response will be one or more of "We provided everything the contract requires", "we had due cause", and "the plaintiffs overstate the value of the contract." That part seems ordinary enough, and probably boils down to fact finding; someone did something wrong, and both sides are going to say it was the other side.
Where the filing goes weird, though, is in the speculation about motivation. In particular, two things stood out to me:
and
The first seems like an admission that there was something in initial drafts that WotC found problematic for reasons of 'inclusive' and 'diverse'. The second doesn't actually make any sense unless the revised draft was still problematic for the same reasons, because the only way killing Dragonlance helps WotC with its bad PR (about racism and sexism) is if Dragonlance would contribute to or reinforce said bad PR.
Or WotC was concerned that past Dragonlance content would get dredged up once the new "sanitary" version was published, and decided they just didn't want to go there.
I think its a mix of both honestly. They would get bad reactions from progressive folks if the setting was not changed. They would get bad reactions from traditionalists if they did change it.
Overall I do not see a way for them to win either way so they just dropped it. Honestly they just need to work in new settings. It would be a breath of fresh air to the Edition and would likely allow new and old players to come in on an equal footing for lore information.
It's been a while since I read Dragonlance (I thought the trilogy was decent, mostly ignored the later books, and I found the adventure series a super annoying railroad), but I don't recall it being bad enough that they'd feel the need to completely bury it unless there were new problems.
As a side point, having glanced at some recent Weis-Hickmann novels in the bookstores, I don't think we're missing anything.
Thanks for this post, it gave me a sense of the nuances involved in the case.
I tend view this case as a case of "good guy versus good guy". Sometimes decent people have an honest conflict. This is especially when we a need a legal system, so honest people have a reasonable way to resolve the disagreement. Maybe even remain friends afterward, whatever the resolution, as difficult as that can be. It is possible for all involved to maintain each others dignity thru this difficulty.
he / him
When WotC is involved, I am usually inclined to view them wearing the black hat. I have very little faith in WotC’s degree of integrity in general, and have for longer than they’ve owned D&D.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting
For those curious:
In the stream minutes ago it was officially said, that it is because of WotC that the digital released are delayed.
Those are not permitted? (not the exact wording) for all platforms so far.
Did he say what kind of delay? Weeks or months?