D&D 5E D&D Creator Summit--'D&D Beyond And Beyond'

This presentation is by Dan Rawson and Marjory Laymon, moderated by Sara Chaffee.

I see a live view of what I assume is WotC's offices (the caption says 'Game Room'). Muffled voices talking as people wander around.

• Dan Rawson talks about his start in D&D. Introduces the team present: Dan Rawson (SVP of D&D), Marjorie Laymon (VP D&D Beyond), Pat Backmann (Sr. Product Manager), Jared Wasdin (Product Manager), Elliot Spilk (Associate Product Manager), Sarah Chaffee (Community Manager).
• What is D&D Beyond? The official gateway to D&D for content, news, offerings. The WotC D&D site is being deprecated and DDB is taking over.
• As the official home for D&D, DDB wants to be expansive. Content, tools, VTT. It's an amusement park. A whole ecosystem for the community.
• What have they been up to? Integrating with WotC since being acquired last year. Digital content drops, plus stability and performance work. 4.5 million users creates system challenges.
• What's next? Improving play/prep, mobile play, new player onboarding, open to partners, backend tech stuff.
• Partners and publishers--early stages of what that could look like, welcome feedback.
• (Q&A section begins--It's really hard to make out anything anybody is saying).
• Discussion about global communities, content for different people across the world.
• Homebrew and marketplace features. Make homebrew creation and sharing easy.
• Mobile site and app versions of DDB are different--can functionality be added to the app?
• Digital content in other languages and ASL? Is something they are actively trying to figure out.
• Future of D&D in print is very bright. Millions cherish the books and the tabletop and they want to support that. Digital is as well as not instead of.
• WIll DDB marketplace be monetized? That is absolutely the intention. Creators can offer their products for sale. Accessible, open, and available to creators.
• Will existing settings remain open to DMs Guild/DDB marketplace creators with the launch of OneDnD? "The goal is more not less." I think that was the entire answer to the question.
• Equitability of product pricing globally. Not something they've tackled yet, they appreciate the concern, and something they need to approach.
• Older editions in DDB? That's been discussed, but there are no plans right now. Possibility, not a 'no'.
• Does that include problematic elements of old products? They'd use the mechanical rules, not the 'content'.
• Preserving WotC's DnD website resources as it migrates to DDB? Not sure what the actual question or answer were! Can't make it out!
• How VTTs and content will interact? They want content and access to be as broad as possible. They will continue to partner with great VTTs.
• Will there be any mentorship on content creation for the third party marketplace? (There's a situation where somebody in person asks a really long question, the digital attendees can't hear it, then one of the presenters summarises the question [I think], but it's not always clear what the answer is.)
• Will the VTT be on consoles? Other technical requirements? Intent -- early in development -- is to play on PC, console, and mobile. Sequencing won't be everything on Day 1. Goal is to make it available on as many platforms as possible.
• Back to legacy content being on DDB--any content will go thorugh robust review to ensure it is appropriate and inviting to everybody. Means bringing legacy content over is a lot of work, and they won't bring them over without dong that work.
• Gaming store accounts and events--that's a strategy that is underway.
• Continue to lean into D&D in schools. Working on content for children.
• And that's the session over, and my coverage done! The next one will be the afternoon Virtual Tabletop session, covered by Beth Rimmels, in an hour or two.

 

[Parmandur]

I didn't call them liars, so you can relax. Creating a video of a review of D&D material is not a D&D creator. It's a youtube content creator, but not a game creator (really, Youtube or whoever really should have come up with a different title). I'm talking about game content. If you're not actually creating any content for the game, you can't call yourself a game creator. Just like if I never actually writing anything, I shouldn't be calling myself an author.

Content creator is the term for people who make videos and upload them to YouTube. That's what thisnwhole conference is about...? Nobody ever said anything about game creators, though many ate both?

 

[Bolares]

Creating a video of a review of D&D material is not a D&D creator.

It may not be your definition of being a D&D creator, but it absolutelly is for a lot of people, including other publishers...
I think your expectations for what this summit was going to be was a little missguided. It is for content creators (influencers) and it included game designers and publishers that were also content creators/media too.

 

[overgeeked]

I remember suggesting inviting Matt Coleville to GaryCon and there was no end of people barking, some extremely rudely, about “just a YouTuber”.

Well no thanks for that kind of criticism, I think it sucks.

Here's to hoping Bob is talking up DCC RPG at the summit.

 

[darjr]

Here's to hoping Bob is talking up DCC RPG at the summit.

Or asking about OAR

 

[Sacrosanct]

It may not be your definition of being a D&D creator, but it absolutelly is for a lot of people, including other publishers...

They are reviewers, and are different than creators. No one calls people on car youtube review channels engineers. It doesn't make me a chef if I put out a youtube channel talking about my favorite foods and dishes.

I think your expectations for what this summit was going to be was a little missguided. It is for content creators (influencers) and it included game designers and publishers that were also content creators/media too.

This very well seems to be the case.

 

[Morrus]

but not a game creator

But you’re the only person using the term ‘game creator’. They didn’t. Nobody has claimed to be or been referred to as a ‘game creator’.

Content creator means YouTuber. You might not like it, but that’s what the term means.

This is really derailing the thread. Can we just accept you don’t like the popular terminology and move on with the actual thread topic?

 

[Sacrosanct]

But you’re the only person using the term ‘game creator’. They didn’t. Nobody has claimed to be or been referred to as a ‘game creator’.

Content creator means YouTuber. You might not like it, but that’s what the term means.

That may be true, but then their statement doesn't makes sense. If you're going to talk about addressing the concerns of 3PP and the go forward path to support 3PP (that was the point of this summit, was it not, and why Kyle went and did all those interviews), why would you focus on content creators instead of game creators? You know, the people who have the direct concerns in the first place?

 

[Morrus]

Or asking about OAR

What’s OAR?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You keep saying that… what is OAR?

Original Adventures Reincarnated. Goodman Games' line of reprints + 5E adaptations of B/X and AD&D adventures, created under license through WotC for the first five of the seven volumes. (The other two as-yet-unpublished volumes are Janell Jacquays books originally published through Judges Guild, which she apparently had control over and then sold the rights to Goodman.)

 

[John Lloyd1]

They are reviewers, and are different than creators. No one calls people on car youtube review channels engineers. It doesn't make me a chef if I put out a youtube channel talking about my favorite foods and dishes.

This very well seems to be the case.

Isn't 'game designer' a better description of what you do? And publisher of course.