TTRPGS, Blockchains, and NFTs

When Kickstarter announced recently that it would be investing in blockchain-based infrastructure, there was widespread backlash. Blockchain technology is environmentally damaging and is of limited use. Creators such as Possum Creek Games (Wanderhome) announced their intentions to move off Kickstarter, while companies such as Chaosium and Wizards of the Coast continue to express interested in non-fungible tokens, digital items which exist on a blockchain.

While I'm writing this article, I do need to point out that I'm not a great person to do so; my understanding of blockchains, NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and related technologies is very, very limited and my attempts to get a handle on the subject have not been entirely successful. I'm sure more informed people will post in the comments.

What the heck is an NFT (& what does it mean for digital artists)

What is a non-fungible token (NFT)? In this graphic designer's guide to NFTs, we explore how Non-Fungible Tokens work in the context of digital art and how you can start turning your digital creations into sought-after NFTs.

dribbble.com

Kickstarter is not the only tabletop roleplaying game adjacent company delving into such technologies. Call of Cthulhu publisher Chaosium announced in July 2021 that it was working with an NFT company to bring their Mythos content to a digitally collectible market, with specific plans to sell two different models -- the Necromonicon and a bust of Cthulhu -- from the Cthulhu Mythos; and while things went quiet for a while, last week the company tweeted that 'We have more - lots more -- to drop... when the Stars are Right." A Facebook statement from Chaosium's CEO appeared on Twitter talking more about the decision.

D&D producer Wizards of the Coast said in April 2021 that it was considering NFTs for Magic: The Gathering. More recently, an email from WotC's legal representatives to a company planning to use NFT technology in conjunction with M:tG cards, alleging unlawful infringement of its IP, indicated that WotC was "currently evaluating its future plans regarding NFTs and the MAGIC: THE GATHERING cards" but that "no decision has been made at this time."

On Twitter, ErikTheBearik compiled Hasbro/WotC's involvement with NFTs so far.

Gripnr is a '5e based TTRPG NFT protocol' with Stephen Radney-MacFarland (D&D, Star Wars Saga Edition, Pathfinder) as its lead game designer. OK, so that's about as much of that as I understand!

Some company in the TTRPG sphere have taken a stand. DriveThruRPG stated that "In regard to NFTs – We see no use for this technology in our business ever." Itch.io was a bit more emphatic:

A few have asked about our stance on NFTs: NFTs are a scam. If you think they are legitimately useful for anything other than the exploitation of creators, financial scams, and the destruction of the planet the [sic] we ask that [you] please reevaluate your life choices. Peace. [an emoji of a hand making the “Peace” symbol]

Also [expletive deleted] any company that says they support creators and also endorses NFTs in any way. They only care about their own profit and the opportunity for wealth above anyone else. Especially given the now easily available discourse concerning the problems of NFTs.

How can you be so dense?

NFTs -- non-fungible tokens -- and blockchains have been dominating the news recently, and with individuals and companies taking strong stances against them, it's fair to ask why. The environmental impact of the technology has been widely documented - it's inefficient, and the need for blockchains -- a sort of decentralized ledger -- to have multiple users validate and record transactions makes it very energy intensive. In an era when climate change is having more and more devastating effects around the world, use of such technologies attracts considerable backlash.

Other ethical concerns regarding NFTs specifically is that the purchaser of an NFT is not actually purchasing anything, and the value for the digital 'token' they've purchased is speculative. When you buy the NFT of a piece of art (for example) you don't own the art itself; you only own a digital token associated with the art. The whole concept is likened to a 'house of cards' or a 'scam' by its critics.

 

[Dire Bare]

The discussion behind any scam is inherently charged. This is the Golden Means fallacy in action (and a bit of supporting sealioning "this side is being perfectly polite, while this one is freaking out, I guess I know which one to support"). If you don't like what anyone has to say about NFTs because they're inherently negative and dramatic about it . . . that's a bit like complaining about people disliking domestic abuse or something else that's common and harmful because the language behind trying to stop it is inherently negative and "dramatic".

If something is abusive (whether it's a scam or physically abusive), that's going to make people upset. "Why are people so upset" while ignoring all the examples of why they're upset because their language is "charged" is not arguing in good faith and is logically fallacious. If something is a scam, people are going to be upset, while others are going to be claiming that it's a perfectly valid way of making money. That's how the conversation always is. If you don't like how the discussion is being held . . . don't involve yourself in the conversation.

Right now you're just playing a Devil's Advocate for people that do not need you to support them, where you have no reason to support them, in a circumstance where people have fallen for scams because of the subject matter.

Again, if you want to learn about why NFTs, cryptocurrency, and blockchain are bad, watch this video. Yes, it's two hours long, yes, it's inherently biased against NFTs (because they're a scam and they explain exactly why they're a scam), and yes, they are upset, but until you do watch this video . . . you should probably stop arguing about NFTs. People have given you the tools to educate yourself on this matter, and you've dismissed them because of their "divisiveness".

This topic is inherently divisive. If you don't want to participate, fine. However, don't support something that you know next-to-nothing about, and don't dismiss someone's valid criticisms because they're "dramatic".

Yes, the discussion is "charged" . . . but sometimes that's a valid reaction to the subject matter. This is one of those times.

Sorry, but I'm well out of spell slots to take anyone who "just has questions" at face value any more. No time for insincere sea lions.

There are some good posts in this thread outlining the problems with NFTs. I'm convinced the tech is problematic and not-good-for-society overall. I'm not convinced that all involved are either scammers or being scammed.

I disagree with many of the posters here. Doesn't mean I'm ignoring them, dismissing/minimizing them, "apologizing" for anyone or anything, or "sealioning". And that's my point. Someone disagrees, they're attacked as sealions. Emotionally charged over-reactions.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Keep waiting.

You're upset, so are a few posters here. Likely elsewhere as well. But . . . "a huge PR problem"? Okay.

I would suggest taking a look at r/rpg and their recent social media pages these last few days before you dismiss it like that. But if you don't care, that's fine, some of us do.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Proof of work crypto is a scam because the computational effort to prove the next addition to the block chain trends toward infinity. So at some point the value of the computational effort in energy consumed and in the value returned in using that computational power in some other activity ( like serving cat videos) will exceed the value of the crypto mined. It is a find a bigger fool scam, because ultimately to realise long term gains one has to cash out into a real currency, one has to cash out at a value greater then you buy in.
It does, not matter how you buy in, either from direct purchase or by mining.
I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to imagine the problem that arise from buy in/bid to vote on the content of the next block committed.

 

[tenkar]

NFTs were discussed last night on the Iron Rations Livestream. Rob Conley (Bat in the Attic, Blackmarsh) attempted to explain it to three other gamers (Matt Jackson, JoetheLawyer, and myself).
Rob is good, but I STILL don't understand it all

 

[UngainlyTitan]

NFTs were discussed last night on the Iron Rations Livestream. Rob Conley (Bat in the Attic, Blackmarsh) attempted to explain it to three other gamers (Matt Jackson, JoetheLawyer, and myself).
Rob is good, but I STILL don't understand it all

The Folding Ideas Video, linked on the first page of the thread is very good and @Abstruse has a pretty good summary, better than mine.

 

[overgeeked]

While I'm writing this article, I do need to point out that I'm not a great person to do so; my understanding of blockchains, NFTs, cryptocurrencies, and related technologies is very, very limited and my attempts to get a handle on the subject have not been entirely successful. I'm sure more informed people will post in the comments.

As long as you know it's all a scam and an environmental disaster, you know everything there is to know about them.

Kickstarter is not the only tabletop roleplaying game adjacent company delving into such technologies. Call of Cthulhu publisher Chaosium announced in July 2021 that it was working with an NFT company to bring their Mythos content to a digitally collectible market, with specific plans to sell two different models -- the Necromonicon and a bust of Cthulhu -- from the Cthulhu Mythos; and while things went quiet for a while, last week the company tweeted that 'We have more - lots more -- to drop... when the Stars are Right." A Facebook statement from Chaosium's CEO appeared on Twitter talking more about the decision.

There's a small but growing pushback against Chaosium for this move. Various groups on the socials talking about finding other, adjacent games to play and support instead of CoC & Chaosium. With this and their terrible "open" license and their handling of the Free Cthulhu, Cthulhu Reborn, or whatever it's called now, I think I'm all but done with them anyway. Which is really too bad as they're putting out some great stuff.

 

[Abstruse]

And it was a good post, with excellent (and hilarious) examples. Honestly, best post in the thread so far.

It convinced me that the tech is wild and unregulated, and a perfect playground for scammers. But it did not convince me that the tech is, by it's nature, a scam. That all NFTs are scams.

Because there is no legitimate use for them. NFTs have been around for around five years now and there's not a single use for them that's had any sort of legitimate use. There hasn't even been proposed use that isn't a scam, and the vast majority are "new innovations" that companies have been doing for decades already in far more safe, secure, and efficient ways.

The most obvious of these are NFTs in video games. The claim is that you can "prove" ownership of an item in a video game like a magic sword or a special gun or a costume. You would then be able to sell that item to other players of the video game.

Except not only do I already do that right now in Star Wars: The Old Republic, I was doing it over 20 years ago in Ultima Online.

"You can take your NFT game items from one game and take them to a different game!" No, you can't. Because the games use entirely different numerical systems and game engines. What, do you think if you buy an NFT of the USS Enterprise you can just click a button and start flying it over Azeroth launching photon torpedos at Alliance while shouting "It is a good day to die for the horde!"? No. Hell, look at the modding community for Fallout for an example. There are items in Fallout 3 that took modders months if not years to figure out how to port into Fallout: New Vegas and those are games that use the exact same version of the exact same game engine. So unless you make every single video game made by every single company look and play exactly the same, that's not going to happen. And even if you do, it's still not going to happen.

The only thing that NFTs can do that can't already be done with pre-existing technology is scam people. That is why all NFTs are a scam.

 

[eyeheartawk]

There's a small but growing pushback against Chaosium for this move. Various groups on the socials talking about finding other, adjacent games to play and support instead of CoC & Chaosium. With this and their terrible "open" license and their handling of the Free Cthulhu, Cthulhu Reborn, or whatever it's called now, I think I'm all but done with them anyway. Which is really too bad as they're putting out some great stuff.

Yeah that SRD is hot trash. What's this handling of these other games you're referencing?

I do agree it's a shame, since everything Nu-Chaosium has put out has been top quality.

 

[overgeeked]

Yeah that SRD is hot trash. What's this handling of these other games you're referencing?

I do agree it's a shame, since everything Nu-Chaosium has put out has been top quality.

Someone used the older SRD of BRP and made a free Cthulhu game. Looking it up, it was called Open Cthulhu, now called Cthulhu Reborn, apparently. Chaosium went after them like rabid dogs and got several forums to block their content. It was entirely ugly.

 

[eyeheartawk]

Someone used the older SRD of BRP and made a free Cthulhu game. Looking it up, it was called Open Cthulhu, now called Cthulhu Reborn, apparently. Chaosium went after them like rabid dogs and got several forums to block their content. It was entirely ugly.

BOOOO-UURRRNNSSS