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D&D General Dungeons of Drakkenheim & Lairs of Etharis: WotC Adds Third Party Products To D&D Beyond

Products from third party creators include a cosmic-horror campaign and a collection of horror fantasy adventures.

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WotC has just announced that it is adding products from Ghostfire Gaming and Dungeon Dudes to the D&D Beyond platform. The products in question are Ghostfire's Grim Hollow: Lairs of Etharis and Dungeon Dudes' Dungeons of Drakkenheim (produced in conjunction with Ghostfire Gaming) which made over $1M on Kickstarter in 2021.

Ghostfire is often seen on the TTRPG Kickstarter charts and has been involved with multiple 5E million-dollar campaigns.

While material from Critical Role has appeared on DDB, this is the first time that something from a publisher without a visibly established prior relationship has been seen there.


Today Wizards of the Coast announced a partnership with publisher Ghostfire Gaming to bring two exciting new products to its digital toolset on D&D Beyond. Grim Hollow: Lairs of Etharis showcases twenty horror-fantasy adventures with more than 75 new monsters while Dungeons of Drakkenheim presents a full campaign set in a ruined city for players to explore created by the popular Dungeon Dudes YouTube channel. Maps, monsters, and more in these offerings will be available for Dungeon Masters to use across D&D Beyond, including full integration in the Maps feature available to subscribers. With these two additions and more on the horizon, Dungeons & Dragons continues to invest in its talented partners and the inspiring creative community and surrounding the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game.

“It's incredibly important to us to showcase the ingenuity of the D&D community, and we’re excited to share the love of fantasy roleplaying with more fans by bringing the Dungeon Dudes and Ghostfire Gaming to D&D Beyond,” said Marjory Laymon, Vice President of D&D Beyond Product and Tech at Wizards of the Coast. “This is just the first step as we’ve got even more surprises planned for next year as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of D&D.”

Grim Hollow and Drakkenheim really are passion projects for Ghostfire and the Dungeon Dudes, respectively, with rich worlds meant to be explored and have stories woven within,” said Ben Byrne, Creative Content Director at Ghostfire Gaming. “That so many new D&D fans will be introduced to them through D&D Beyond is incredibly humbling.”

The locations, maps, and monsters within these offerings will be available to all fans who purchase them to use in their campaigns on D&D Beyond. Players can add feats, spells, and magic items to their character sheets, choose a new background for their character, or indulge in crafting items from parts harvested from adventuring. Dungeon Masters can quickly reference more than a hundred new monsters, faction NPCs, and more in the D&D Beyond compendium.

Dungeons of Drakkenheim began like every other D&D campaign; as a labor of love shared amongst a few friends at the game table (and a small audience of passionate viewers!) We started this project as a way to express our love of the game and showcase a world filled with all the aspects of fantasy role-playing games that we enjoy most: a blend of gripping action and cosmic horror where the player’s choices matter,” said Montgomery Martin and Kelly Mclaughlin, the Dungeon Dudes. “The original Drakkenheim characters were built and played on D&D Beyond, and so sharing the adventure we created on the platform is a dream come true. We can’t wait to hear the stories of other players’ adventures through the ruined city.”
 

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Parmandur

Book-Friend
I would guess that Ghostfire is giving up a not-insignificant fraction of ales (probably the usual 30%-ish). What I am more curious about is: is WotC doing to conversions in house to maintain quality, or is Ghostfire doing it. I use Fantasy grounds for my VTT and there is a HUGE discrepancy between different products by different companies regarding how the FG conversion works, is automated, looks, etc... I would think that WotC would want to do it in house to maintain consistent quality, but if that is true we are likely to see a very curated library of 3PP content. if they have the companies do it themselves, it suggests they want a much bigger 3PP library.
My guess is the former: WotC provides the conversion and technical side.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend



Sparky McDibben

Adventurer
If love a discussion of what we get here, rather than arguing over WotC being bad again...

I get others disagree, clearly.

So, what can people tell me about these? Also, bring in monster books from others please!
Dungeons of Drakkenheim is a fantastic campaign. I did a deep dive earlier this year; you should be able to find it by searching Drakkenheim. No word on Etharis, but I think that's a Shawn Merwin product. I disagree with Mr. Merwin on several aspects of adventure design, but he's solid, knows his stuff, and produces quality work. This is a big win for DDB subscribers and for the authors.
 

smerwin29

Reluctant Time Traveler
If love a discussion of what we get here, rather than arguing over WotC being bad again...

I get others disagree, clearly.

So, what can people tell me about these? Also, bring in monster books from others please!

During the Grim Hollow: The Monster Grimoire kickstarter, one of the stretch goals was "Lairs of Etharis," a book of 20 lairs covering short adventures covering levels 1-20. The new D&D Beyond offering includes all those lairs, plus supplementary material to support them. So that's 75 new monsters from those lairs (not all from the Grimoire, but a good subset of them). There's a salvage system for harvesting monster parts for crafting. There're 2 feats to support that. A few new spells. Each of the lairs has its own custom battlemap, which are usable in the DDB Maps feature. 10 new magic items to make with monster parts.

I'll let the videos done by the Dungeon Dudes and their interviewers speak to what's coming for their product, because they are far more eloquent than I. :)

Matt and Ben from Ghostfire are at PAX Unplugged this weekend, talking more about the project from Ghostfire's perspective, so I'll let them cover that, because they're more elo--

You know the rest.

Thanks!
 

I see this in a hopeful light. Id like to think that WotC doing this means theyll do more of this. By adopting 3rd party content, they give legitimacy to 3rd party content. The 5e community, more so then other games, does not trust, use, or care about 3rd party content, despite how great much of it is. I am speaking largely of outside DMs Guild btw. By hosting these adventures, wotc declares its own interest in this content. I hope the community follows along.
 

Sparky McDibben

Adventurer
Matt and Ben from Ghostfire are at PAX Unplugged this weekend, talking more about the project from Ghostfire's perspective, so I'll let them cover that, because they're more elo--

You know the rest.

Thanks!
I'll amend - he does quality work and is a gentleman to boot. :) Congratulations on this achievement and I wish you success going forward, sir!
 


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