D&D General Hasbro Should Open DnDBeyond to 3PP

[Matt Thomason]

This idea kinda reminds me of the huge company Valve have become on account of owning and controlling the storefront, rather than from producing a dozen AAA games a year.

 

[Burnside]

This idea kinda reminds me of the huge company Valve have become on account of owning and controlling the storefront, rather than from producing a dozen AAA games a year.

Yes, exactly. DNDBeyond should be Steam for D&D.

 

[aco175]

To pull it off, they would need more robots on the AI side and they would also need to figure out if everyone that stated "Never equals never- no mater what" really meant it when they dropped their subscription.

 

[LordEntrails]

I agree when it comes to really complicated new mechanics. But things like magic items, monsters, and adventures should be straightforward. ...

Depends on what's being done. ...

That's what I was trying to get at. Adventure, maps, and things that follow current mechanics are not a problem. But add a new ability to an NPC or spell or magic item that doesn't use core mechanics (stat drain? unusual duration? Unique targeting or effect or condition) and it just becomes near useless. And ime, many of the 3PP stuff does that type of stuff. Especially for classes and races, but even for NPCs, spells, and magic items (just not as much).

So yes, some 3PP could easily be incorporated, but some of it wouldn't and that would cause a support nightmare as well as complaints.

 

[Oofta]

That's what I was trying to get at. Adventure, maps, and things that follow current mechanics are not a problem. But add a new ability to an NPC or spell or magic item that doesn't use core mechanics (stat drain? unusual duration? Unique targeting or effect or condition) and it just becomes near useless. And ime, many of the 3PP stuff does that type of stuff. Especially for classes and races, but even for NPCs, spells, and magic items (just not as much).

So yes, some 3PP could easily be incorporated, but some of it wouldn't and that would cause a support nightmare as well as complaints.

I would hope they are modifying their software to allow easier modification, but I have no idea what they are prioritizing. Maybe finally getting the encounter generator out of beta.

 

[Stormonu]

I definitely agree with allowing 3rd party material to be licensed to be purchased in DnDBeyond. There’s several products I’ve purchased I’d love to be able to access therein.

‘The issue might be though, whose responsible for getting it into the right format - WotC, the 3PP publisher or some other service/3rd party? If it isn’t done right and quality assured, it may damage the reputation of either (or both) entity.

 

[Oofta]

I definitely agree with allowing 3rd party material to be licensed to be purchased in DnDBeyond. There’s several products I’ve purchased I’d love to be able to access therein.

‘The issue might be though, whose responsible for getting it into the right format - WotC, the 3PP publisher or some other service/3rd party? If it isn’t done right and quality assured, it may damage the reputation of either (or both) entity.

The 3PP with review from WOTC and/or an option to report badly formatted content. I could see WOTC retaining the option to be a bit more strict on content as well than the OGL 1.2 since it's being sold on their storefront.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

My suggestion is a "free demo", a couple of pages introducing the settings, only lore/background. Then you have got the option to buy the pack, and Hasbro is paid the royalty.

Other point is the crunch when this is published in the 3PP section of the SRD. What about several 3PPs with their own version of the same idea? For example the shaman class, or assasin, or summoner. Or the same version of a PC specie, for example, the little gray aliens, or monsters as werevernims or monsters based in (now public domain) Lovecraftian myths.

But what if the company is closed, but the titles are yet in Drivethrugh or in this D&DB shop for 3PPs? Hasbro could buy the licence, and here maybe they are saving the IP to not fall into the oblivion.