Trapdoor Tech Closes Its Doors

Trapdoor Technologies has had a tumultuous ride over the last few years. They burst onto the scene with Codename: Morningstar, the official Dungeons & Dragons electronic toolset which became DungeonScape, before abruptly parting ways with WotC. Their subsequent Kickstarter failed to fund (spectacularly so, with its half-million-dollar funding goal). Their most recent Kickstarter, for an Android version of their Pathfinder tools (known as Playbook) was also struggling. It seems now that their misfortunes are coming to an end - if only because the company is closing down permanently. They sent out the announcement below.


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Dear Trapdoor Technologies fans and Playbook subscribers,

On Wednesday, Oct 19th, Slingshot Capital Partners, the group who own Trapdoor decided to close our company immediately. It is now the staff and management's sad duty to tell you that there will be no new products, product updates, Trapdoor Tuesday releases or other company functions. As you may already know, our Kickstarter campaign for Playbook Essentials on Android has also been canceled. Despite the efforts of the former staff to find a way to keep Playbook going, we have exhausted our options.

The Trapdoor servers which power Playbook will be going offline on or around October 28, 2016. However, even once the servers are offline, Playbook will continue to function. There will be two phases of functionality: during the remainder of your subscription and after your subscription expires.

For the remainder of your current subscription, the app will be running in offline mode. You will still be able to read all the books in your library (both free and purchased). You can still generate characters.

The Party module chat, sharing, in-app purchases in the Store, and announcements will cease to function. Since you won't be able to download new content - please make sure you download any content you want to have available offline.

After your current subscription expires (at the end of the month or year, depending on the level you chose in the app store), Playbook will function in read-only mode.

You will still be able to read any content that you have purchased but the rule books that are included s part of the subscription will cease to function. Previously-created characters will still be available to read and print, but you will not be able to modify the characters or roll up new ones.

Thank you, first and foremost, to the players and fans who helped us bring a mobile, digital RPG companion to life. We are all heart-broken over what might-have-been.

We'd also like to thank our amazing partners. Paizo as a company and their staff as individuals as well as all the Pathfinder Society Officers, have been wonderful to work with. We are so grateful to you for making a great game and putting your fans first. We're excited for Starfinder and crushed we won't be making a Playbook for it.

All our love also goes out to AAW, Legendary Games, and Playground Adventures. Hunt up their stuff online. They're making astounding content with great stories. Though we won’t be bringing them to Playbook, you know we’ll be playing with them at our own game tables.

We also want to shout out to all the media who have put us in their articles and podcasts: GeekDad, TableTop Terrors, The Tome Show, DnDUI, Melvin Smifs Geekery, the Angry GM, BoardgameGeek, and Know Direction!

There are literally hundreds of other people to thank but, part of saying goodbye is knowing when to actually go. Thank you for giving us a shot. We're sorry we have to leave, just as the party was getting started.

Keep gaming,
All of us who were Trapdoor Technologies
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delericho

Legend
As I said in the other thread:

It's always a shame to see a company fold, and I feel for the staff who are undoubtedly going to be affected negatively by this. I hope they land on their feet.

Unfortunately, though, I'm not surprised by this - basically, it has been coming from the day they lost their 5e tie-in.
 



SharnDM

Explorer
They had such a fantastic vision for their work with WotC, I really wanted that to come to fruition. Sadly Wizard's desire to remain faithful to its "dead tree" format ultimately signed the death warrant long ago. I knew the team personally, was there at the initial Codename Morningstar press invitational, they had some awesome ideas. Sad to see them go, hope they land on their feet.
 

Queer Venger

Dungeon Master is my Dad
I saw this coming right after Wizards pulled the plug on them. The fact they decided to back PF smelled of desperation; glad I did not back it. Say what you will about Wizards, but they were smart not to back it either.
 
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One_Shots

First Post
Sadly Wizard's desire to remain faithful to its "dead tree" format ultimately signed the death warrant long ago.
I don't see how this is on WotC. Trapdoor clearly didn't have the skill-base to implement any of their ideas. They overpromised and underdelivered. WotC were just lending them the license to use the D&D IP and only divorced from Trapdoor when it was clear that they couldn't do what they said they could.
 

Pauper

That guy, who does that thing.
Sadly Wizard's desire to remain faithful to its "dead tree" format ultimately signed the death warrant long ago.

I'd say the functionality of the application following the closure of the servers (which is dated today, for anyone who missed it) points out that the 'dead tree' model is still superior to what was being offered here.

If you paid a subscription fee for this service, once the servers shut down, you no longer have access to your rulebooks and you can't modify your character sheets or make new ones. If you paid for 'dead tree' books and character sheets, you can keep right on gaming, even if Paizo vanishes from the face of the earth tomorrow.

Until electronic content providers can figure out how to provide persistent content even when they're not around anymore, traditional 'dead tree' delivery will always have this advantage.

--
Pauper
 

Feeroper

Explorer
I don't see how this is on WotC. Trapdoor clearly didn't have the skill-base to implement any of their ideas. They overpromised and underdelivered. WotC were just lending them the license to use the D&D IP and only divorced from Trapdoor when it was clear that they couldn't do what they said they could.
Exactly this. While it is unfortunate for the staff affected by this (and I wish them all well), it was clear why WotC parted ways with them. The software was a pretty big mess in my time with it and was a deterrent at the table. Given how great 5e launched, this would have been a blemish on that had they pressed on after the signs were there. Ultimately I believe they bit off more than they could chew.

Hopefully they are able to land on their feet.
 

SharnDM

Explorer
Just want to be clear. The vision for the 5e product was never realized because WotC walked. WotC walked because they don't want their material digitalized in the way that was being suggested (they don't even allow pdfs). Then Trapdoor Tech had to pivot into another style of product.

What was released was a pale imitation of what was planned and a lot of that likely had to do with having to accomplish an extreme change in plans, in short notice. They seemed to be picking up steam with Pathfinder but who knows what happened behind closed doors.

I personally prefer “dead tree” myself but lament some of the really cool stuff that they had initially planned for but never got to implement because of the quick toss to the curb from Wizards.
 

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