3 ms·
It's discombobulating to read an article about DND being "killed" while we're in the middle of what is surely its golden age. There are people making real money
by polemic 5y ago
It's discombobulating to read an article about DND being "killed" while we're in the middle of what is surely its golden age. There are people making real money running games, creating maps and assets and 3rd party software, there's new an interesting _optional_ official content published regularly, and a vibrant homebrew community.
To pick a particular point:
> Users pay nearly as much for digital versions of the core game books as they do hard copies
This comes up a lot, but as someone who's bought both physical copies _and_ the DNDB versions, _you're not paying for the content_. You're paying to have to tightly integrated into the live character sheets, with all of the complexity of the vast rulesets implemented in code in multiple apps. Rulesets that I can then sync into (3rd party) tools like FoundryVTT via (3rd party) tools that talk to the APIs. It's kinda magical and certainly _this_ community could understand why that is a significant task.
And content sharing means that not everyone actually has to buy this stuff. A group can pool, or a tooled up DM can run games using whatever content (including the in-app build your own homebrew content) they have to hand. Its a pretty good balance.
Maybe Hasbro will run it into the ground, that would hardly be surprising, but it seems like we're a long way from that happening. In the meantime there are plenty of other TTRPGS out there if you don't like this one – DND is a gateway into TTRPGs, not a monopoly.
- ygjb 5y agoAs a D&D player i don't mind paying for physical media, and I don't mind paying for electronic versions of the media that are integrated with D&D Beyond or Roll20. What I find galling is that I have to buy the same content on different platforms instead of buying my digital content from WotC, and logging into Roll20 or D&D Beyond with a WotC account with my entitlements. Both D&D Beyond and Roll20 can negotiate with WotC on how payments would be split up, or whatever. The current model is hostile to me as a consumer, and I don't like it :P
- deadbunny 5y agoCheck out FoundryVTT and the d&dbeyond importers module[1]. It's not a solution to the entire problem but if you own the content on DNDB you can import it into Foundry. Also Foundry is much better than roll20 IMO as a long time player and GM on both. 1. https://foundryvtt.com/packages/ddb-importer/ https://foundryvtt.com/packages/ddb-importer/
- polemic 5y agoYeah this is exactly what I do, works great.
- LennyHenrysNuts 5y agoD&D is dead - Hasbro's just parading around in it's skin suit.
- gota 5y agoWell, ok, I can understand not recognizing the current incarnation as the same game (assuming that is the meaning of your post) What if D&D was _just_ the amateur-ish first edition and AD&D had a (proper)name change? Say, "Fantasy Adventures"? Or what if the name change happened between AD&D and the WotC 3rd edition? Would that be the it then? When did "D&D" die? Did it "die" for you when it changed from the version you played as a teen/young person to the next? Cause I played AD&D im my teens and when I see people playing the new stuff I ca recognize most of the "spirit" of those game days of old. Doesn't really seem to matter that much that it has been "commoditized" and is now much more professionally made P.S.: maybe that feeling of awe brought by the rarity of it all is gone - the feeling I got when acquiring a New Book, that none of my friends had seen, usually a partial bootlegged xeroxed version, that I had to travel to an adjacent town by bus in a veritable real-life "quest" to get... maybe that is gone. But I'm sure other wonders can replace it. P.P.S.: it now occurs to me that this feeling is similar to the feeling of discovering and sharing secrets in videogames; which died with the internet
- King-Aaron 5y agoooof this is news to me and my group