D&D General NFTs Are Here To Ruin Dungeons & Dragons

[darjr]

This isn't a new idea. We can buy pregen characters for D&D 5E right now.

Wizards of the Coast is selling pregen characters for D&D 5E on DM's Guild. They are packaged as a single character concept (such as a wood elf ranger) at 1st thru 10th level. In other words, one 1st level wood elf ranger, that same ranger at 2nd level, then 3rd, etc. The asking price is $0.00. One character at ten different levels, for free.

They are only slightly more expensive if you are asking for pregen characters that are ready for import into VTT systems. A FantasyGrounds-compatible download of a dragonborn sorcerer, which contains 10 .XML files for the same character at 10 different levels of experience is available for $0.00, with the option to "pay what you want" and a suggested price of $1.00. Ten characters in a proprietary digital format, also for free...but with a tiny amount of social pressure to make a $1 donation.

I don't see this idea catching on. At all.

And they are not “used”. Eewwww!!

who the heck cares that I played a character to tenth level? I’m not sure I care enough to spend a wooden nickel on “dibs”!

 

[Mort]

Re: “What if the character you paid money for dies?”

You get someone to cast Raise Dead on them. Obviously. It’s still a terrible business model, but I don’t think this particular critique is as incisive as people are making it out to be.

At 1st level?

And how much will THAT cost? you don't think they're going to waste their hard earned (randomly generated) spells for free do you?

 

[Charlaquin]

At 1st level

I mean, they’d kinda have to make sure that’s an option, right? Presumably you’ll be able to get it done at any temple, otherwise the business model doesn’t work.

And how much with THAT cost? you don't think they're going to waste their hard earned (randomly generated) spells for free do you?

Oh, yeah, I’m sure it will be expensive.

 

[Remathilis]

Setting the NFT angle aside for a moment -

The model here seems to be:

Buy a character for approx $300.00;
Play the character to a higher level and acquire items etc. to "add value";
Sell the character for profit.

I can't see spending that much on a "new" character regardless, but I would think a "used" character would be worth less not more!

Sure the "used" character is higher level, but that just means there are less adventures they can potentially go on, every extra level is less use you can get out of the character!

I suppose, from a collector's mentality high level characters are worth more because of "rarity" and if you can get someone to pay $300 for a 1st level character, the sky is the limit for a character close to 20?

Another weird concern: for the kind of money they're asking - the adventures would have to be cakewalks! who wants to pay THAT much for a character only to have them get killed off?

Unless of course, they actually find people where that's the alure, the adventures are meatgrinders, people pay gobs of money (or pay other people who have gone through the meatgrinders and survived) to get a high level character as some kind of point of pride. Human nature has seen stranger things.

Can't see this happening, but I guess you don't ask for it you don't get it?

For me, even without the NFT angle, I'm having a pretty hard time with this business model - as seen so far.

What might work would be if the adventures themselves are unique, once run events with unique rewards only one person could achieve.

For example, you buy a unique PC and then pay to play the Tomb of Utter Badstuff, a module you can only you and the players you played with can claim you completed. At the end, you get the Sword of FUD, a unique item that no other character can ever have. Thus, you can now sell your PC as the True PC who survived the Tomb and obtained the True sword. If both things end up as famous as a certain other Tomb full of Horrors or the Sword is extremely powerful, it might warrant someone being interested in buying that unique PC with that unique experience.

Of course, that logic is furthered by the notion that a PC you didn't play is still valuable to anyone. Perhaps it's a bit of bragging rights to own the PC who survived Gary's original Tomb, or the original character sheet of Jester, Arkhan the Cruel or Tasselhoff, or the One True Eye of Vecna. And with streaming being a thing, your character's unique exploits could be shown to the world for additional validation. Imagine if you could actually buy your favorite CR character and get access and rights to them both for gaming but also for art and merch?

Of course, this assumes a market for this sort of unique experience exists, and it assumes that (like NFTs) original ownership of something that can be easily replicated has value beyond bragging rights and speculation.

So the best method of payout is:
1. Buy a unique, validated PC.
2. Buy and play a bunch of unique, validated adventures and get unique, validated treasure.
3. Stream said play events online.
4. Become the next Critical Role in terms of fan devotion.
5. Sell your PC to some fan.
6. Profit.

See, easy.

 

[Mort]

What might work would be if the adventures themselves are unique, once run events with unique rewards only one person could achieve.

For example, you buy a unique PC and then pay to play the Tomb of Utter Badstuff, a module you can only you and the players you played with can claim you completed. At the end, you get the Sword of FUD, a unique item that no other character can ever have. Thus, you can now sell your PC as the True PC who survived the Tomb and obtained the True sword. If both things end up as famous as a certain other Tomb full of Horrors or the Sword is extremely powerful, it might warrant someone being interested in buying that unique PC with that unique experience.

Of course, that logic is furthered by the notion that a PC you didn't play is still valuable to anyone. Perhaps it's a bit of bragging rights to own the PC who survived Gary's original Tomb, or the original character sheet of Jester, Arkhan the Cruel or Tasselhoff, or the One True Eye of Vecna. And with streaming being a thing, your character's unique exploits could be shown to the world for additional validation. Imagine if you could actually buy your favorite CR character and get access and rights to them both for gaming but also for art and merch?

Of course, this assumes a market for this sort of unique experience exists, and it assumes that (like NFTs) original ownership of something that can be easily replicated has value beyond bragging rights and speculation.

Forgetting for a moment that one of the main draws of a shared world is a shared experience, being able to discuss the adventures you went through with others who also did, even if not at the same time:

Can you IMAGINE how much they would charge for a single use adventure?!?

One with a writer, an artist (NFTs - don't forget the art) and a DM to run it. Keep in mind you're paying $300ish for just a randomly generated character (presumably more if you want a higher level to start).

If they COULD get people to pay exorbitant (and it would be exorbitant) prices for such a thing, then (forgetting the NFT angle), good for them!

 

[Vaalingrade]

Next step would be to charge sadboy fun money to participate in adventures or gain items/level. Maybe pay to enable or disable options in the game. Want to troll everyone? Pay to remove feats and variant humans, add gritty rests and variant encumbrance after everyone else has signed up.

 

[Remathilis]

Forgetting for a moment that one of the main draws of a shared world is a shared experience, being able to discuss the adventures you went through with others who also did, even if not at the same time:

Can you IMAGINE how much they would charge for a single use adventure?!?

One with a writer, an artist (NFTs - don't forget the art) and a DM to run it. Keep in mind you're paying $300ish for just a randomly generated character (presumably more if you want a higher level to start).

If they COULD get people to pay exorbitant (and it would be exorbitant) prices for such a thing, then (forgetting the NFT angle), good for them!

Residual money could be made on non-validated versions of said adventure. I mean, how many players have played through the Dragonlance modules, yet none of them are the Original Tanis or Caramon? Instead, there is a player who is the owner of the limited amount of Official PCs who completed that module, and he's willing to sell if you have coin.

 

[Jer]

What might work would be if the adventures themselves are unique, once run events with unique rewards only one person could achieve.

Imagine a truly "living" campaign world run consistently in a "tournament" style. As an area changes a group of campaign architects take the notes from the DM who ran the adventure in that area and update the world information so that the next DM that runs a game set there - even the same adventure - is giving a different experience based on what the previous groups of PCs through the area had done. They also make sure that no two DMs are running the same adventure at the same time and that the adventures they're providing are short enough to be done within a window of time to make sure that they can keep things synchronized.

What they'd be selling would not be a character per se but rather a ticket to a unique experience, and purchases of characters other folks had leveled up but are selling off could be thought of as them selling their ticket to new unique experiences (only attainable by reaching higher levels and having better equipment).

Now that kind of setup I could see having a market for - whether it's large enough to fund a business to do it I have no idea, but I could at least imagine people wanting to play in that kind of shared world sandbox and being able to pay to do it. It would almost be like a bespoke MMORPG for tabletop. Notably nothing about that business model requires blockchain and in fact could be done entirely via servers owned by the company managing that campaign - even sales of characters could be done with the company taking a percentage of the sale as a processing fee without needing the blockchain to be involved because there's no lack of trust issues to deal with.

 

[Mort]

Residual money could be made on non-validated versions of said adventure. I mean, how many players have played through the Dragonlance modules, yet none of them are the Original Tanis or Caramon? Instead, there is a player who is the owner of the limited amount of Official PCs who completed that module, and he's willing to sell if you have coin.

I think that would be banking WAY to much on people wanting imaginary stars on their belly. Then again people have made more selling the public less!

 

[darjr]

This adventure is totally different! The dwarves have blue beards!