D&D 5E Online RPG Tools Platform Demiplane Announces '5E Nexus'

Demiplane, the platform which hosts tools suites for a range of tabletop RPGs including Pathfinder, World of Darkness, and Free League's offerings, has announced a new 'nexus' -- the 5E Nexus based off the 5E System Reference Document which WotC recently released into Creative Commons. Demiplane, the home to official digital toolsets for a diverse range of award-winning tabletop roleplaying...

5e NEXUS Screens.png

Demiplane, the platform which hosts tools suites for a range of tabletop RPGs including Pathfinder, World of Darkness, and Free League's offerings, has announced a new 'nexus' -- the 5E Nexus based off the 5E System Reference Document which WotC recently released into Creative Commons.

Demiplane, the home to official digital toolsets for a diverse range of award-winning tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), is proud to announce its next digital toolset, a first-of-its kind for the roleplaying community: 5e NEXUS. Explore more at 5eNEXUS.com.

This innovation recognizes that interest in alternatives to first-party Dungeons & Dragons products has never been higher, with millions of players expanding their horizons into new game systems and new 5e-based worlds. Even before the Wizards of the Coast debacle in January, a large portion of the 5e community used resources from independent publishers to bring their campaigns to life. 5e NEXUS will serve these players by delivering a premium experience for 5e fans to not only prep and play, but also connect with each other through matchmaking, group creation, scheduling, built-in video voice and chat, and professional tools for Game Masters ready to earn some gold by running amazing adventures.

This new digital toolset–referred to as a NEXUS on Demiplane–brings vital capabilities to third party 5e publishers and creators. Instead of a toolset to support one Tarrasque-sized publisher, 5e NEXUS will support game content from multiple independent publishers who use and base their game content off SRD 5.1 content, which was originally created for the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game and is now publicly available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Demiplane’s support for independent 5e publishers and the massive D&D player community who enjoy their books will arrive in three stages:

Stage One: Pre-Launch, available now: 5e group creation and group-finding tools. These are based on proprietary technology that compares a series of preferences to find the best matches between players and Game Masters. This supports any way that players want to play: using Demiplane’s built-in video, voice, chat, and dice rolling service, their favorite VTT, or simply as a means to find, schedule, and manage their in-person tabletop game.

Stage 2: 5e NEXUS Early Access Launch, available 1H 2023: Official NEXUS-enhanced digital tools for game books from multiple independent publishers. These will include Demiplane’s Digital Reader and Rules Compendium tools to make it easy for 5e enthusiasts to discover, learn, and play games from an assortment of their favorite 5e publishers. TheDigital Reader is a technology that presents all of a game book’s content dynamically formatted for mobile, tablet, and desktop use. To reduce the time it takes to learn and prep, Digital Reader books include integrated tooltips, drill-down sidebars, and cross-references that span a player's entire digital library. The Rules Compendium is an invaluable tool to have at the table while you’re playing or when you need to quickly find specific game rules information. It categorizes and sorts the most frequently-needed game elements so players and GMs can find exactly what they need without slowing down the flow of the game.

Stage 3: 5e NEXUS Character Tools, available 2H 2023: 5e games from independent creators and third-party publishers create orders-of-magnitude more options for players, and Character Tools on 5e NEXUS will unleash character creation creativity on a whole new level with a character builder and digital character sheet.

“As the tabletop roleplaying space thrived in recent years, the openness of 5e led to the creation of indispensable expanded content from myriad creators and publishers. Every play group I come across uses third-party content in their games,” said Adam Bradford, Chief Development Officer of Demiplane, “The challenge still remains to make all that content accessible in a unified and seamless way. 5e NEXUS is a major step in that direction, giving fans the high-quality digital tools they crave without having to leave their favorite toys in the toybox.” Demiplane is pleased to stand alongside the community to support a vibrant, diverse range of independent 5e publishers for years to come. In the days and weeks ahead, look for announcements on specific publishers and the titles coming to the Early Access launch of 5e NEXUS. You can stay in the know by:

●signing up for inbox alerts,
●following us on Twitter,
●joining us on FB, and
●tuning into Demiplane’s weekly Dev Update with host, Demiplane Chief Development Officer, and father of D&D Beyond Adam Bradford

If you are an independent 5e publisher interested in learning more about 5e NEXUS, get intouch with us at publishers@demiplane.com
 

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Zaukrie

New Publisher
Well, for example if I was running an adventure from Kobold Press, or even a different game like PF2 but using 5e, and wanted to use monsters from Level Up, which I’ve done, it would be awesome if they were in the same suite of tools.
They don't have any working tools....I wouldn't hold my breath
 

doctorbadwolf

Heretic of The Seventh Circle
Something interesting to me is how Demiplane is capturing all the big name publishers and systems, while Role and Fari are focused on more indie/niche titles and systems. They're all solidly in the digital space, but are very encouraging of games that have healthy, sometimes even innovative (Yazeeba's Bed & Breakfast, as just one example), print products.

I have no doubt D&D will retain its top spot for a long time yet, but I think the margins between them and the next biggest games will be much, much smaller going forward.
Yeah I think DnD will probably always be the biggest ship in the harbor, tbh, but they've definitely ceded ground in the last couple months, and it doesn't look like they're really doing anything that will regain that ground, in the near future.
Current DDB can't even let people make sidekick characters from Tasha's, which came out 18 months ago. (Remember: WotC insists that sidekick characters are great PCs, although I just want the builder to work for them as NPCs, which I make a lot of.)

I'm not sure WotC knows what they want to do with it, independent of Demiplane.
Yeah, I really wonder if they are even still working on the general features system that was discussed in the pre-purchase dev update streams, or if they made the team start over from scratch or something. It seems like if they didn't, it'd be pretty odd to have no updates to the system at all in this much time.
Agreed. They can't even update their website. Let alone build tools.
They don't have any working tools....I wouldn't hold my breath
This is the danger of putting out the pre-alpha skeleton of a product to gather broader feedback and build hype while you build out the service, but considering how much DDB progressed and how quickly before being purchased by fandom, much less by wotc, I'm not too worried about this.
 

Zaukrie

New Publisher
Yeah I think DnD will probably always be the biggest ship in the harbor, tbh, but they've definitely ceded ground in the last couple months, and it doesn't look like they're really doing anything that will regain that ground, in the near future.

Yeah, I really wonder if they are even still working on the general features system that was discussed in the pre-purchase dev update streams, or if they made the team start over from scratch or something. It seems like if they didn't, it'd be pretty odd to have no updates to the system at all in this much time.


This is the danger of putting out the pre-alpha skeleton of a product to gather broader feedback and build hype while you build out the service, but considering how much DDB progressed and how quickly before being purchased by fandom, much less by wotc, I'm not too worried about this.
It's not been months, it's been quite a while. Their website is woefully out of date. Why would I trust their tools?
 


BadEye

Chief Development Officer at Demiplane
It's not been months, it's been quite a while. Their website is woefully out of date. Why would I trust their tools?
I'm not sure what you mean by this...there is a main menu item on Demiplane.com called "What's New" that details multiple updates in the last several months.


And in Early Access, the Digital Reader and Game Compendium (listings / primers) work pretty well in their incomplete state. The character tools are in Closed Alpha for Pathfinder right now, but once we get to Open Beta with that the first half of this year, more games will be supported much more quickly since the platform will then be in place. Building something out of nothing is always hardest. Once something is built, adding things to it is easier.
 

Zaukrie

New Publisher
I'm not sure what you mean by this...there is a main menu item on Demiplane.com called "What's New" that details multiple updates in the last several months.


And in Early Access, the Digital Reader and Game Compendium (listings / primers) work pretty well in their incomplete state. The character tools are in Closed Alpha for Pathfinder right now, but once we get to Open Beta with that the first half of this year, more games will be supported much more quickly since the platform will then be in place. Building something out of nothing is always hardest. Once something is built, adding things to it is easier.
If the what's new is updated, that's new. When I checked last week, it hadn't been updated in over a year. I told them that, and that I couldn't understand how that was good for an IT company. ...
 

BadEye

Chief Development Officer at Demiplane
If the what's new is updated, that's new. When I checked last week, it hadn't been updated in over a year. I told them that, and that I couldn't understand how that was good for an IT company. ...
Well, we're not an IT company, but I agree we're at a point where the site should be updated more frequently - which is why I asked the team to get it up-to-date now. We've been more focused on getting the actual toolset development done than updating the website while we're in Early Access. That will change as we ramp up for the full launch.
 

DMZ2112

Chaotic Looseleaf
Good.

Not gonna pay them a subscription for the right to use products I've paid full price for either, but hey, a little competition can't be bad.
 


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