It's sad that most of the people who used to be active have stopped posting here. Everyone from the "glory days" of this thread is awesome and valuable, so it's startling to see how everything goes on much the same (at least on the forums in general) without them. But that's life, I guess.
I'm sorry to hear that one of the people you play with has passed away. And I hope your wife has the best possible recovery from her surgery.
I haven't played D&D consistently for a while, but my recent session absolutely made me remember what I've been missing. So I'm glad you've had a similar experience as well. DMing is always wonderful.
And yeah, PBP is notoriously slow. Many of us on this thread had a PBP game a while back, but people just stopped posting and it ended ages ago. ):
Anyways, it's great to see that you're still posting! :)
Yeah, this thread was a lot of fun back in the day. I enjoyed, for example, making up that ongoing story about the people in the thread on their "adventure." That was a lot of fun.
Yeah, yesterday was the first day we played again (that game is monthly and in person) since Rickie's death - we put his chair there, put his dice there, and his dice holder, in honor of him.
And yes, was good to DM again, and even yesterday to play in person (Dragonlance) - I had the party slay three young white dragons at the end of that session, which was great, because previously three (different) young white dragons had really got the best of them. So it was a nice revenge story and great to see the party end on a high note. I always have the party roll to see if the dragon's breath recharges - first encounter, they seemed to consistently roll a 5 or 6 - this time, not a single one - so each dragon had their first initial breath - but after that it never recharged each time it was their turn. So that was incredibly fun as well.
And yeah, the PBP game, is probably gonna come to an end. One of the other players recently left (life is too busy) - so I took over their character this session - since this session was pretty much a big story moment for their character (see my note in the link if you're bored)...
And a big fight against dragons is always a great way to wrap things up. :)
Ditto! Nice to see familiar faces! And yes, a fight against dragons was fun to do - but now to somehow find a way to match that excitement for the next session! :D
And should anyone be interested -
Next session of my play by post Lord of the Rings 5e... Session 18.
It's sad that most of the people who used to be active have stopped posting here. Everyone from the "glory days" of this thread is awesome and valuable, so it's startling to see how everything goes on much the same (at least on the forums in general) without them. But that's life, I guess.
I’m one of the few who still feels this way. But lately D&D has started to feel a bit stale for me. I’m not alone in saying that my excitement for yet another Forgotten Realms or Eberron book is practically nonexistent—those releases add very little value for me personally. I can already play as an artificer or bladesinger, and there are whole volumes of setting lore floating around the internet for those worlds. To a large extent, my participation in these forums has been a way to shape ideas and express my creativity, but there’s really not much about 5e that inspires me anymore.
I once thought Dark Sun might be worth revisiting, but it’s the same old story. We first saw it in AD&D 2e, got a soft reboot in Dragon magazine for 3e, and then a hard reboot in 4e. That’s more than enough. Now I’m craving something truly fresh and inventive. Radiant Citadel was a high‑water mark for me—a stunningly rich setting created through a collaborative effort that drew on a broad swath of cultural knowledge. I was really excited when Radiant Citadel was released because I thought it signaled that WotC was serious about investing in new stories. I was wrong. If it were up to me, Justice Arman, Ajit George, and everybody else who contributed to Radiant Citadel would be made creative leads and given free rein to write new and experimental stories.
I’ve also been exploring other systems. I invested a chunk in the Cypher System reboot from Monte Cook, and I’ve found Numenera and Invisible Sun to be among the most creative RPG products I’ve encountered. Aside from Monte Cook himself, Bruce Cordell and Shanna Germain are also some of the most talented designers in the history of the hobby.
On the business side, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) continues to frustrate me. The OGL controversy left a lasting dent in my enthusiasm. While the new SRD being released under Creative Commons is a big win for players, I’m increasingly exhausted always wondering whether the next decision WotC leadership makes will be yet another face-slap. WotC isn’t a pure monopoly, but it is the dominant player, and that level of power makes me nervous.
Because of this uncertainty, I’ve essentially stopped buying anything on D&D Beyond. There’s no guarantee we’ll retain access to those materials in the future. If WotC decided to shut down D&D Beyond tomorrow, everything would disappear and we’d have no recourse. Developers keep assuring us that D&D Beyond isn’t going anywhere soon, but realistically it will eventually end.
WotC does have alternatives—they could release watermarked PDFs or DRM‑locked ePubs, as many other publishers already do. They could also create a desktop application for Beyond with offline functionality. But they haven’t.
So yeah, I may pop on to these forums from time to time when something major happens, but it's not going to be a frequent thing. Such is life!
Also, I think Sposta's gone for good. On their profile, it says they haven't been on in months. I do not know Sposta personally, but they were one of the most positive influences on the forum, having essentially donated what must be months of time helping out other users. If you're seeing this, Sposta, I hope you're well.
Yeah, yesterday was the first day we played again (that game is monthly and in person) since Rickie's death - we put his chair there, put his dice there, and his dice holder, in honor of him.
It's sad that most of the people who used to be active have stopped posting here. Everyone from the "glory days" of this thread is awesome and valuable, so it's startling to see how everything goes on much the same (at least on the forums in general) without them. But that's life, I guess.
I’m one of the few who still feels this way. But lately D&D has started to feel a bit stale for me. I’m not alone in saying that my excitement for yet another Forgotten Realms or Eberron book is practically nonexistent—those releases add very little value for me personally. I can already play as an artificer or bladesinger, and there are whole volumes of setting lore floating around the internet for those worlds. To a large extent, my participation in these forums has been a way to shape ideas and express my creativity, but there’s really not much about 5e that inspires me anymore.
I once thought Dark Sun might be worth revisiting, but it’s the same old story. We first saw it in AD&D 2e, got a soft reboot in Dragon magazine for 3e, and then a hard reboot in 4e. That’s more than enough. Now I’m craving something truly fresh and inventive. Radiant Citadel was a high‑water mark for me—a stunningly rich setting created through a collaborative effort that drew on a broad swath of cultural knowledge. I was really excited when Radiant Citadel was released because I thought it signaled that WotC was serious about investing in new stories. I was wrong. If it were up to me, Justice Arman, Ajit George, and everybody else who contributed to Radiant Citadel would be made creative leads and given free rein to write new and experimental stories.
I’ve also been exploring other systems. I invested a chunk in the Cypher System reboot from Monte Cook, and I’ve found Numenera and Invisible Sun to be among the most creative RPG products I’ve encountered. Aside from Monte Cook himself, Bruce Cordell and Shanna Germain are also some of the most talented designers in the history of the hobby.
On the business side, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) continues to frustrate me. The OGL controversy left a lasting dent in my enthusiasm. While the new SRD being released under Creative Commons is a big win for players, I’m increasingly exhausted always wondering whether the next decision WotC leadership makes will be yet another face-slap. WotC isn’t a pure monopoly, but it is the dominant player, and that level of power makes me nervous.
Because of this uncertainty, I’ve essentially stopped buying anything on D&D Beyond. There’s no guarantee we’ll retain access to those materials in the future. If WotC decided to shut down D&D Beyond tomorrow, everything would disappear and we’d have no recourse. Developers keep assuring us that D&D Beyond isn’t going anywhere soon, but realistically it will eventually end.
WotC does have alternatives—they could release watermarked PDFs or DRM‑locked ePubs, as many other publishers already do. They could also create a desktop application for Beyond with offline functionality. But they haven’t.
So yeah, I may pop on to these forums from time to time when something major happens, but it's not going to be a frequent thing. Such is life!
Also, I think Sposta's gone for good. On their profile, it says they haven't been on in months. I do not know Sposta personally, but they were one of the most positive influences on the forum, having essentially donated what must be months of time helping out other users. If you're seeing this, Sposta, I hope you're well.
Yeah, yesterday was the first day we played again (that game is monthly and in person) since Rickie's death - we put his chair there, put his dice there, and his dice holder, in honor of him.
I'm so sorry to hear this. My condolences.
I’m not an expert in business, but I don’t think DDB is going anywhere. It’s like the hub of their digital empire. They want it to keep making them lots of money.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they (genderfae).
I’m not an expert in business, but I don’t think DDB is going anywhere. It’s like the hub of their digital empire. They want it to keep making them lots of money.
While that optimism is understandable, the reality is that digital services can disappear overnight. D&D Insider survived the 4e era and then vanished; a similar fate could await DDB under a range of plausible scenarios—WotC being acquired, filing for bankruptcy, a catastrophic EMP hitting Seattle, or Hasbro repurposing the servers for cryptocurrency mining or LLM workloads. In any of those cases the site could be shut down instantly, leaving us with no recourse.
Because we can’t back up the material ourselves, we’re entirely dependent on Wizards to preserve it—something they aren’t contractually required to do. By contrast, if we owned a pdf or epub, we could store it offline in a variety of ways: on a hard drive, etched onto a metal plate, or encoded in a frog's DNA or something like that. At the moment, however, we have no means to keep DDB content locally.
So yes, the worry is a bit paranoid, but the scenarios I mention are technically feasible. It’s worth weighing the odds, recognizing that relying solely on a third‑party service carries inherent risk.
I’m not an expert in business, but I don’t think DDB is going anywhere. It’s like the hub of their digital empire. They want it to keep making them lots of money.
While that optimism is understandable, the reality is that digital services can disappear overnight. D&D Insider survived the 4e era and then vanished; a similar fate could await DDB under a range of plausible scenarios—WotC being acquired, filing for bankruptcy, a catastrophic EMP hitting Seattle, or Hasbro repurposing the servers for cryptocurrency mining or LLM workloads. In any of those cases the site could be shut down instantly, leaving us with no recourse.
Because we can’t back up the material ourselves, we’re entirely dependent on Wizards to preserve it—something they aren’t contractually required to do. By contrast, if we owned a pdf or epub, we could store it offline in a variety of ways: on a hard drive, etched onto a metal plate, or encoded in a frog's DNA or something like that. At the moment, however, we have no means to keep DDB content locally.
So yes, the worry is a bit paranoid, but the scenarios I mention are technically feasible. It’s worth weighing the odds, recognizing that relying solely on a third‑party service carries inherent risk.
I mean, you say there's no way for you to back up content you own, but there are ways if you wanted to be really crafty about it.
I, myself, am thankful that they have started offering digital & physical copies/bundles for sale now, and that's the route I've gone since they've started that.
For me (and I want to make this clear, I understand your dismay! But speaking for myself) - as for being (you not being) excited about another "Forgotten Realms" or whatever... none of that matters to me. My game I run is 100% homebrew world I created from the ground up, so these books are just new monsters, classes, etc., for me to use or offer to my players, and not so much a "setting." I've created my own lore and such (even about monsters) - so, for example, in my game, the Githyanki used to be Elves who fell from grace after following a Serpent God (who was quite evil) - thus their Elf-like appearance, and yet monstrous look. And the Yaun-Ti (and their ilk) are all humans that worshipped the same Serpent God. And that came about because I had a player who was playing a High Elf, and I introduced the Githyanki as such, and she really sank her teeth into it (since they were headed for a battle in the Astral Plane). So it evolved from that small tidbit to "Oh, what other snake-people are there? Or snake monsters? This Serpent God has had a hand in all of that."
I’m not an expert in business, but I don’t think DDB is going anywhere. It’s like the hub of their digital empire. They want it to keep making them lots of money.
While that optimism is understandable, the reality is that digital services can disappear overnight. D&D Insider survived the 4e era and then vanished; a similar fate could await DDB under a range of plausible scenarios—WotC being acquired, filing for bankruptcy, a catastrophic EMP hitting Seattle, or Hasbro repurposing the servers for cryptocurrency mining or LLM workloads. In any of those cases the site could be shut down instantly, leaving us with no recourse.
Because we can’t back up the material ourselves, we’re entirely dependent on Wizards to preserve it—something they aren’t contractually required to do. By contrast, if we owned a pdf or epub, we could store it offline in a variety of ways: on a hard drive, etched onto a metal plate, or encoded in a frog's DNA or something like that. At the moment, however, we have no means to keep DDB content locally.
So yes, the worry is a bit paranoid, but the scenarios I mention are technically feasible. It’s worth weighing the odds, recognizing that relying solely on a third‑party service carries inherent risk.
I mean, you say there's no way for you to back up content you own, but there are ways if you wanted to be really crafty about it.
I, myself, am thankful that they have started offering digital & physical copies/bundles for sale now, and that's the route I've gone since they've started that.
For me (and I want to make this clear, I understand your dismay! But speaking for myself) - as for being (you not being) excited about another "Forgotten Realms" or whatever... none of that matters to me. My game I run is 100% homebrew world I created from the ground up, so these books are just new monsters, classes, etc., for me to use or offer to my players, and not so much a "setting." I've created my own lore and such (even about monsters) - so, for example, in my game, the Githyanki used to be Elves who fell from grace after following a Serpent God (who was quite evil) - thus their Elf-like appearance, and yet monstrous look. And the Yaun-Ti (and their ilk) are all humans that worshipped the same Serpent God. And that came about because I had a player who was playing a High Elf, and I introduced the Githyanki as such, and she really sank her teeth into it (since they were headed for a battle in the Astral Plane). So it evolved from that small tidbit to "Oh, what other snake-people are there? Or snake monsters? This Serpent God has had a hand in all of that."
I mean, even if you’re making your own lore, how many monsters items and classes do you really want premade? Looking at the classes and races feels like plenty to me, they’ve got all the bases covered, and if you need one or two extra you can always do some home brew. I guess I just think that buying books purely for those things would get old and excessive
(Disclaimer: I am merely an inexperienced teenager writing this at 12:30 AM. The morn might reveal to me an obvious mistake or flaw in my logic)
I’m not an expert in business, but I don’t think DDB is going anywhere. It’s like the hub of their digital empire. They want it to keep making them lots of money.
While that optimism is understandable, the reality is that digital services can disappear overnight. D&D Insider survived the 4e era and then vanished; a similar fate could await DDB under a range of plausible scenarios—WotC being acquired, filing for bankruptcy, a catastrophic EMP hitting Seattle, or Hasbro repurposing the servers for cryptocurrency mining or LLM workloads. In any of those cases the site could be shut down instantly, leaving us with no recourse.
Because we can’t back up the material ourselves, we’re entirely dependent on Wizards to preserve it—something they aren’t contractually required to do. By contrast, if we owned a pdf or epub, we could store it offline in a variety of ways: on a hard drive, etched onto a metal plate, or encoded in a frog's DNA or something like that. At the moment, however, we have no means to keep DDB content locally.
So yes, the worry is a bit paranoid, but the scenarios I mention are technically feasible. It’s worth weighing the odds, recognizing that relying solely on a third‑party service carries inherent risk.
I mean, you say there's no way for you to back up content you own, but there are ways if you wanted to be really crafty about it.
I, myself, am thankful that they have started offering digital & physical copies/bundles for sale now, and that's the route I've gone since they've started that.
For me (and I want to make this clear, I understand your dismay! But speaking for myself) - as for being (you not being) excited about another "Forgotten Realms" or whatever... none of that matters to me. My game I run is 100% homebrew world I created from the ground up, so these books are just new monsters, classes, etc., for me to use or offer to my players, and not so much a "setting." I've created my own lore and such (even about monsters) - so, for example, in my game, the Githyanki used to be Elves who fell from grace after following a Serpent God (who was quite evil) - thus their Elf-like appearance, and yet monstrous look. And the Yaun-Ti (and their ilk) are all humans that worshipped the same Serpent God. And that came about because I had a player who was playing a High Elf, and I introduced the Githyanki as such, and she really sank her teeth into it (since they were headed for a battle in the Astral Plane). So it evolved from that small tidbit to "Oh, what other snake-people are there? Or snake monsters? This Serpent God has had a hand in all of that."
Yeah, I could ctrl‑A/ctrl‑C every page of the compendium, but the pages are deliberately made to be hard to scrape, which makes the process a pain. I’m not looking for a workaround—I just want a product in a convenient format that I actually own. You know what I mean?
I’m also not thrilled about the physical/digital bundles. The digital side still carries the usual licensing restrictions, so you never get full freedom over the files. As for the physical books, I can grab them locally and enjoy the alternate covers, but the newer micro‑purchases that exist only on D&D Beyond feel like a trap. If Beyond ever disappears, those purchases vanish forever, whereas a printed book stays with me. And I suspect Hasbro is already eyeing a future where print sales are phased out altogether.
Your point about the Forgotten Realms books hits close to home. Since I run a homebrew world, most of the lore feels unnecessary. What bothers me most about the newest releases is that they’re essentially the same monsters and subclasses, just repackaged for 2024.
By contrast, Monte Cook’s products are released as hyperlinked pdfs that are fully searchable, and their stories aren’t tethered to any particular setting. This freedom lets the creators experiment and take risks without worrying about stepping on “sacred ground,” so to speak. Monte Cook isn’t alone in providing pdfs copies—many (most?) other publishers do the same, including Paizo, Free League, Robert Schwalb, Goodman Games, Chaosium, Evil Hat, Magpie, and countless others. In fact, the only two companies I know of that don’t provide pdfs at all are Wizards of the Coast and Fantasy Flight Games—and Fantasy Flight looks to have basically exited the TTRPG market altogether.
In the end, I’m not trying to sway anyone’s opinion. Beyond does offer a useful service, even if it’s temporary and not particularly consumer‑friendly, and people are perfectly entitled to purchase through it. I’m simply sharing my perspective so others understand why I haven’t been very active here. Surely I can't be the only one who feels this way.
I mean, even if you’re making your own lore, how many monsters items and classes do you really want premade? Looking at the classes and races feels like plenty to me, they’ve got all the bases covered, and if you need one or two extra you can always do some home brew. I guess I just think that buying books purely for those things would get old and excessive
(Disclaimer: I am merely an inexperienced teenager writing this at 12:30 AM. The morn might reveal to me an obvious mistake or flaw in my logic)
Heh, rest assured there's no mistake! Everyone is entitled to do what they wish. :)
For myself, the ease of having everything on D&D Beyond since (4 of the 6 games I run) are done remotely - and using the Beyond20 extension - just makes everything easier having the books. I have, for sure, created my own monsters and items (I think I have something like 20 pages of custom content here on D&D Beyond) - I've not, however, done any custom classes, because without testing the balance, I don't want to deal with that.
For me (more so DMing than being a player) is literal therapy for me. I've probably said it on here before - but it's like painting with words. When you're a writer and hand someone a story you've written they may (or may not) get to it and give you feedback. When you're a painter, good or bad, you can get an instant reaction from someone. DMing for me, is that - it is the story I am making (with the influence of my players) - and getting that instant reaction of whether it's good or not (by seeing if they're enjoying themselves). All six games I run, they as players began with 5th Edition D&D - and not any other pen & paper. We've played a few others (a custom 5e Star Wars game someone made, but in the end, was still 5e). I've tried to convince them to play Star Frontiers or the old school FASERIP Marvel RPG, but it's never taken off. And in the end, I am fine with that - so long as I have players that gather around, whether in person or virtually, and want to walk through the world and stories/campaigns I've created - I am here for it and it will never be "old or excessive" to me. As long as WotC doesn't go around killing puppies, I don't mind supporting the books I am interested in (there's been a few I've not picked up because I've no interest - like the Ebberon book and such).
By contrast, Monte Cook’s products are released as hyperlinked pdfs that are fully searchable, and their stories aren’t tethered to any particular setting. This freedom lets the creators experiment and take risks without worrying about stepping on “sacred ground,” so to speak. Monte Cook isn’t alone in providing pdfs copies—many (most?) other publishers do the same, including Paizo, Free League, Robert Schwalb, Goodman Games, Chaosium, Evil Hat, Magpie, and countless others. In fact, the only two companies I know of that don’t provide pdfs at all are Wizards of the Coast and Fantasy Flight Games—and Fantasy Flight looks to have basically exited the TTRPG market altogether.
Oh, I also wish that WotC would release PDFs of their books if you purchased them digitally, I, however, also understand why they don't. It's too easy at that point to make them readily available to anyone else. Sure, they're watermarked at the footer as to who purchased them (on some of those where you get the PDF) - but that is all too easy to edit out and make these copies available as pirated for others to use. So yeah, bummer they don't, but I also understand why they don't.
This was pretty cool. Someone reached out wondering if the play by post was still going and if there was any openings... having lost 2 of my 4 players (and the 2 who had remained wanted to keep the game going so I filled the role with NPCs) - I said "Sure! Get a character to me!" So they rolled up a 3rd level Hobbit Captain, which I then introduced (perfectly timed because it happened to be Winter Yule in the game!)
This was pretty cool. Someone reached out wondering if the play by post was still going and if there was any openings... having lost 2 of my 4 players (and the 2 who had remained wanted to keep the game going so I filled the role with NPCs) - I said "Sure! Get a character to me!" So they rolled up a 3rd level Hobbit Captain, which I then introduced (perfectly timed because it happened to be Winter Yule in the game!)
This was pretty cool. Someone reached out wondering if the play by post was still going and if there was any openings... having lost 2 of my 4 players (and the 2 who had remained wanted to keep the game going so I filled the role with NPCs) - I said "Sure! Get a character to me!" So they rolled up a 3rd level Hobbit Captain, which I then introduced (perfectly timed because it happened to be Winter Yule in the game!)
That’s great! Really glad you found a new player for your game.
Me too.
I am always curious how it plays out - because the new player is a stranger to me (joined through Discord) - so I never know how personalities will work between them, me, the other players... so far, so good...
Been redesigning and tightening up the site to make it cleaner - so the previous URLs may not work -
I immensely doing the play by post... while combat is atrociously slow... the ability to really flesh out NPCs is such a wonderful thing to keep doing.
As a Dungeon Master, I like to build up to epic stories. (The current main game I am running, the God of Wisdom was slain - and the knowledge placed into the mind of his most trusted Priest who went insane, since he was mortal and shoved a gem in his eye to stop the whispering wisdom he heard and died - that skull became a relic which a Beholder got and now is ascending to godhood to challenge the gods - and the party has been involved in the entire story - and now Level 20 and about to face off with the Beholder in the Council of the Gods).
As a player, I tend to play light hearted characters (and often end up being the face of the party because of my willingness as a player to engage with NPCs - as a Dungeon Master I know every NPC may have more to share and the DM may have prepped for that, so I try to get to that!)
But that said, my games tend to be light hearted and full of a lot of laughing.
It was good to catch up with you!
And a big fight against dragons is always a great way to wrap things up. :)
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
Ever wanted to talk about your parties' worst mistakes? Do so HERE. What's your favorite class, why? Share & explain
HERE.Ditto! Nice to see familiar faces! And yes, a fight against dragons was fun to do - but now to somehow find a way to match that excitement for the next session! :D
And should anyone be interested -
Next session of my play by post Lord of the Rings 5e... Session 18.
https://sites.google.com/view/lordoftheringsroleplaying/session-18-the-road-and-provisions
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Session 19, returns the party to Bree...
https://sites.google.com/view/lordoftheringsroleplaying/session-19-to-bree-and-beyond
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Session 20 - the party arrives at Bree and shares what they've uncovered... and now begin their journey, in the chilling rains, to Archet...
https://sites.google.com/view/lordoftheringsroleplaying/session-20-news-and-travel
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
I’m one of the few who still feels this way. But lately D&D has started to feel a bit stale for me. I’m not alone in saying that my excitement for yet another Forgotten Realms or Eberron book is practically nonexistent—those releases add very little value for me personally. I can already play as an artificer or bladesinger, and there are whole volumes of setting lore floating around the internet for those worlds. To a large extent, my participation in these forums has been a way to shape ideas and express my creativity, but there’s really not much about 5e that inspires me anymore.
I once thought Dark Sun might be worth revisiting, but it’s the same old story. We first saw it in AD&D 2e, got a soft reboot in Dragon magazine for 3e, and then a hard reboot in 4e. That’s more than enough. Now I’m craving something truly fresh and inventive. Radiant Citadel was a high‑water mark for me—a stunningly rich setting created through a collaborative effort that drew on a broad swath of cultural knowledge. I was really excited when Radiant Citadel was released because I thought it signaled that WotC was serious about investing in new stories. I was wrong. If it were up to me, Justice Arman, Ajit George, and everybody else who contributed to Radiant Citadel would be made creative leads and given free rein to write new and experimental stories.
I’ve also been exploring other systems. I invested a chunk in the Cypher System reboot from Monte Cook, and I’ve found Numenera and Invisible Sun to be among the most creative RPG products I’ve encountered. Aside from Monte Cook himself, Bruce Cordell and Shanna Germain are also some of the most talented designers in the history of the hobby.
On the business side, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) continues to frustrate me. The OGL controversy left a lasting dent in my enthusiasm. While the new SRD being released under Creative Commons is a big win for players, I’m increasingly exhausted always wondering whether the next decision WotC leadership makes will be yet another face-slap. WotC isn’t a pure monopoly, but it is the dominant player, and that level of power makes me nervous.
Because of this uncertainty, I’ve essentially stopped buying anything on D&D Beyond. There’s no guarantee we’ll retain access to those materials in the future. If WotC decided to shut down D&D Beyond tomorrow, everything would disappear and we’d have no recourse. Developers keep assuring us that D&D Beyond isn’t going anywhere soon, but realistically it will eventually end.
WotC does have alternatives—they could release watermarked PDFs or DRM‑locked ePubs, as many other publishers already do. They could also create a desktop application for Beyond with offline functionality. But they haven’t.
So yeah, I may pop on to these forums from time to time when something major happens, but it's not going to be a frequent thing. Such is life!
Also, I think Sposta's gone for good. On their profile, it says they haven't been on in months. I do not know Sposta personally, but they were one of the most positive influences on the forum, having essentially donated what must be months of time helping out other users. If you're seeing this, Sposta, I hope you're well.
I'm so sorry to hear this. My condolences.
I’m not an expert in business, but I don’t think DDB is going anywhere. It’s like the hub of their digital empire. They want it to keep making them lots of money.
I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they (genderfae).
While that optimism is understandable, the reality is that digital services can disappear overnight. D&D Insider survived the 4e era and then vanished; a similar fate could await DDB under a range of plausible scenarios—WotC being acquired, filing for bankruptcy, a catastrophic EMP hitting Seattle, or Hasbro repurposing the servers for cryptocurrency mining or LLM workloads. In any of those cases the site could be shut down instantly, leaving us with no recourse.
Because we can’t back up the material ourselves, we’re entirely dependent on Wizards to preserve it—something they aren’t contractually required to do. By contrast, if we owned a pdf or epub, we could store it offline in a variety of ways: on a hard drive, etched onto a metal plate, or encoded in a frog's DNA or something like that. At the moment, however, we have no means to keep DDB content locally.
So yes, the worry is a bit paranoid, but the scenarios I mention are technically feasible. It’s worth weighing the odds, recognizing that relying solely on a third‑party service carries inherent risk.
I mean, you say there's no way for you to back up content you own, but there are ways if you wanted to be really crafty about it.
I, myself, am thankful that they have started offering digital & physical copies/bundles for sale now, and that's the route I've gone since they've started that.
For me (and I want to make this clear, I understand your dismay! But speaking for myself) - as for being (you not being) excited about another "Forgotten Realms" or whatever... none of that matters to me. My game I run is 100% homebrew world I created from the ground up, so these books are just new monsters, classes, etc., for me to use or offer to my players, and not so much a "setting." I've created my own lore and such (even about monsters) - so, for example, in my game, the Githyanki used to be Elves who fell from grace after following a Serpent God (who was quite evil) - thus their Elf-like appearance, and yet monstrous look. And the Yaun-Ti (and their ilk) are all humans that worshipped the same Serpent God. And that came about because I had a player who was playing a High Elf, and I introduced the Githyanki as such, and she really sank her teeth into it (since they were headed for a battle in the Astral Plane). So it evolved from that small tidbit to "Oh, what other snake-people are there? Or snake monsters? This Serpent God has had a hand in all of that."
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
I mean, even if you’re making your own lore, how many monsters items and classes do you really want premade? Looking at the classes and races feels like plenty to me, they’ve got all the bases covered, and if you need one or two extra you can always do some home brew.
I guess I just think that buying books purely for those things would get old and excessive
(Disclaimer: I am merely an inexperienced teenager writing this at 12:30 AM. The morn might reveal to me an obvious mistake or flaw in my logic)
Her husband was a hardworking man
Just about a mile from here
His head was found in a driving wheel
But his body never was found..
Yeah, I could ctrl‑A/ctrl‑C every page of the compendium, but the pages are deliberately made to be hard to scrape, which makes the process a pain. I’m not looking for a workaround—I just want a product in a convenient format that I actually own. You know what I mean?
I’m also not thrilled about the physical/digital bundles. The digital side still carries the usual licensing restrictions, so you never get full freedom over the files. As for the physical books, I can grab them locally and enjoy the alternate covers, but the newer micro‑purchases that exist only on D&D Beyond feel like a trap. If Beyond ever disappears, those purchases vanish forever, whereas a printed book stays with me. And I suspect Hasbro is already eyeing a future where print sales are phased out altogether.
Your point about the Forgotten Realms books hits close to home. Since I run a homebrew world, most of the lore feels unnecessary. What bothers me most about the newest releases is that they’re essentially the same monsters and subclasses, just repackaged for 2024.
By contrast, Monte Cook’s products are released as hyperlinked pdfs that are fully searchable, and their stories aren’t tethered to any particular setting. This freedom lets the creators experiment and take risks without worrying about stepping on “sacred ground,” so to speak. Monte Cook isn’t alone in providing pdfs copies—many (most?) other publishers do the same, including Paizo, Free League, Robert Schwalb, Goodman Games, Chaosium, Evil Hat, Magpie, and countless others. In fact, the only two companies I know of that don’t provide pdfs at all are Wizards of the Coast and Fantasy Flight Games—and Fantasy Flight looks to have basically exited the TTRPG market altogether.
In the end, I’m not trying to sway anyone’s opinion. Beyond does offer a useful service, even if it’s temporary and not particularly consumer‑friendly, and people are perfectly entitled to purchase through it. I’m simply sharing my perspective so others understand why I haven’t been very active here. Surely I can't be the only one who feels this way.
Heh, rest assured there's no mistake! Everyone is entitled to do what they wish. :)
For myself, the ease of having everything on D&D Beyond since (4 of the 6 games I run) are done remotely - and using the Beyond20 extension - just makes everything easier having the books. I have, for sure, created my own monsters and items (I think I have something like 20 pages of custom content here on D&D Beyond) - I've not, however, done any custom classes, because without testing the balance, I don't want to deal with that.
For me (more so DMing than being a player) is literal therapy for me. I've probably said it on here before - but it's like painting with words. When you're a writer and hand someone a story you've written they may (or may not) get to it and give you feedback. When you're a painter, good or bad, you can get an instant reaction from someone. DMing for me, is that - it is the story I am making (with the influence of my players) - and getting that instant reaction of whether it's good or not (by seeing if they're enjoying themselves). All six games I run, they as players began with 5th Edition D&D - and not any other pen & paper. We've played a few others (a custom 5e Star Wars game someone made, but in the end, was still 5e). I've tried to convince them to play Star Frontiers or the old school FASERIP Marvel RPG, but it's never taken off. And in the end, I am fine with that - so long as I have players that gather around, whether in person or virtually, and want to walk through the world and stories/campaigns I've created - I am here for it and it will never be "old or excessive" to me. As long as WotC doesn't go around killing puppies, I don't mind supporting the books I am interested in (there's been a few I've not picked up because I've no interest - like the Ebberon book and such).
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Oh, I also wish that WotC would release PDFs of their books if you purchased them digitally, I, however, also understand why they don't. It's too easy at that point to make them readily available to anyone else. Sure, they're watermarked at the footer as to who purchased them (on some of those where you get the PDF) - but that is all too easy to edit out and make these copies available as pirated for others to use. So yeah, bummer they don't, but I also understand why they don't.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
This was pretty cool. Someone reached out wondering if the play by post was still going and if there was any openings... having lost 2 of my 4 players (and the 2 who had remained wanted to keep the game going so I filled the role with NPCs) - I said "Sure! Get a character to me!" So they rolled up a 3rd level Hobbit Captain, which I then introduced (perfectly timed because it happened to be Winter Yule in the game!)
So this is -
Session 21: The Winter Yule and New Companions.
https://sites.google.com/view/lordoftheringsroleplaying/sessions/session-21-the-winter-yule-and-new-companions
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
That’s great! Really glad you found a new player for your game.
I really like D&D, especially Ravenloft, Exandria and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. My pronouns are she/they (genderfae).
Me too.
I am always curious how it plays out - because the new player is a stranger to me (joined through Discord) - so I never know how personalities will work between them, me, the other players... so far, so good...
Been redesigning and tightening up the site to make it cleaner - so the previous URLs may not work -
So best to just visit the main home page, for anyone interested. :)
https://sites.google.com/view/lordoftheringsroleplaying/home
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Latest session - for anyone following along the Lord of the Rings 5e adventure I have going...
https://sites.google.com/view/lordoftheringsroleplaying/sessions/sessions-21-30/session-23-stranger-in-the-woods-death-on-the-road
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
No sooner did a new player join (last session), they departed the follow (this session) - and tried to make it all flow like a story!
https://sites.google.com/view/lordoftheringsroleplaying/sessions/sessions-21-30/session-24-venom-and-webs
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Session 25! Things get sticky!
https://sites.google.com/view/lordoftheringsroleplaying/sessions/sessions-21-30/session-25-fangs-and-farmers
I immensely doing the play by post... while combat is atrociously slow... the ability to really flesh out NPCs is such a wonderful thing to keep doing.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up
Question Of The Day: Define your TTRPG playstyle
(sorry, can’t think of a great question rn, but I want to revive the thread a bit)
Her husband was a hardworking man
Just about a mile from here
His head was found in a driving wheel
But his body never was found..
As a Dungeon Master, I like to build up to epic stories. (The current main game I am running, the God of Wisdom was slain - and the knowledge placed into the mind of his most trusted Priest who went insane, since he was mortal and shoved a gem in his eye to stop the whispering wisdom he heard and died - that skull became a relic which a Beholder got and now is ascending to godhood to challenge the gods - and the party has been involved in the entire story - and now Level 20 and about to face off with the Beholder in the Council of the Gods).
As a player, I tend to play light hearted characters (and often end up being the face of the party because of my willingness as a player to engage with NPCs - as a Dungeon Master I know every NPC may have more to share and the DM may have prepped for that, so I try to get to that!)
But that said, my games tend to be light hearted and full of a lot of laughing.
Check out my publication on DMs Guild: https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?author=Tawmis%20Logue
Check out my comedy web series - Neverending Nights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wr4-u9-zw0&list=PLbRG7dzFI-u3EJd0usasgDrrFO3mZ1lOZ
Need a character story/background written up? I do it for free (but also take donations!) - https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?591882-Need-a-character-background-written-up