D&D General Is DnD being mothballed?

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

When I make statem I'm always assuming its just an opinion. Unless it's objectively true and easily referenced eg yes the Rebels blew upbthe death stars in ANH and RotJ.

Watch this and then tell me you still believe the "official" story about what happened to the Death Star. Wake up, people! Open your eyes!

 

[Hussar]

they wouldn’t have 300+ people working on it if a copy of Roll20 were the goal.

As you said, 15 or so people are creating a 3d VTT already (Talespire), WotC threw 20 times as many people at it. Unless they are laughably incompetent (they aren’t), whatever they end up with must be a whole new generation of VTT, anything less does not justify the investment

Well, there are a few other things to consider:

1. Talespire does not have a huge supply of 3d models for D&D monsters. So, right off the bat, that's going to need a lot more work.

2. Talespire is not integrated with 5e to the degree that it could be. I don't use Talespire to be honest, but, there are all sorts of effects and elements of D&D that are not accounted for in Talespire.

3. Talespire is not heavily animated. There are animations, to be fair, but, there's a long way it could go.

4. Talespire is PC only. Simply making the WotC VTT cross platform could explain a lot of why they need so many people.

In any case, I don't think we're disagreeing all that much. One would assume that whatever WotC eventually bangs out, it's likely going to be pretty far ahead of the pack. One would hope anyway. Or, WotC could totally drop the ball here. It certainly wouldn't be the first time. But, hope springs eternal.

 

[Autumnal]

But to be honest, I'm pre-emptively a little worried this line of questioning is going to devolve into amorphous allusions to a silent majority that by definition, isn't speaking, with any that do speak, clearly too invested to be counted.

well, darn, I wanted to be vague and useless, you killjoy. Instead, I’ll note that these forums have several recent threads going over 5e sales reported on Bookscan. (That means they set a floor, while the ceiling could be much higher, as discussed in the thread.) the upshot is that 5e official stuff keeps selling and selling, with a lot less decline over time than is usual for this biz. (I would maim (mean) people for curves like those on anything I wrote or developed.) The picture is qualitatively better than I’d have guessed, and Bookscan data are extremely reliable.

 

[mamba]

Well, there are a few other things to consider:

1. Talespire does not have a huge supply of 3d models for D&D monsters. So, right off the bat, that's going to need a lot more work.

2. Talespire is not integrated with 5e to the degree that it could be. I don't use Talespire to be honest, but, there are all sorts of effects and elements of D&D that are not accounted for in Talespire.

3. Talespire is not heavily animated. There are animations, to be fair, but, there's a long way it could go.

all reasons why Tailspire can create a 3d VTT with 15 people and WotC cannot, at least not if their focus is D&D and great graphics / animation / vfx support.

4. Talespire is PC only. Simply making the WotC VTT cross platform could explain a lot of why they need so many people.

WotC chose a 3d engine that is multi-platform, there are a lot of other libraries that support that too, I would not expect too much overhead from this. We are talking maybe 10-20%, not 5 times as many because they support 7 platforms or whatever.

Do we even know what platforms they support?

In any case, I don't think we're disagreeing all that much. One would assume that whatever WotC eventually bangs out, it's likely going to be pretty far ahead of the pack. One would hope anyway. Or, WotC could totally drop the ball here. It certainly wouldn't be the first time. But, hope springs eternal.

if this is not 5 years ahead of the closest competitor, I have no idea what they were doing with all these developers and time… and given how small the others are, it probably should be 10 years. They are not really in the same league, and the result has to reflect that

Larian could probably take the BG3 engine and add mod support and better tools to create battlemaps in a year or so, to make a VTT out of it (not saying they are doing that). That is the bare minimum level that WotC must meet, if they want to discourage competition from CRPG developers. And if they do not manage that, then they simultaneously invested too little (to accomplish that) and too much (to just get ahead of the current pack).

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

300 people does seem like a lot for making a VTT, even if it's a super fancy 3D one. The only way it makes sense to me is if most of them are 3d modelers and animators, and the VTT will launch with a huge amount of high-quality monsters and environments.

 

[Azzy]

300 people does seem like a lot for making a VTT, even if it's a super fancy 3D one. The only way it makes sense to me is if most of them are 3d modelers and animators, and the VTT will launch with a huge amount of high-quality monsters and environments.

I could see maybe a relatively limited number of environments, but I fully expect the entire Monster Manual worth of monsters. And that's before we talk about what APs they'll have available at launch.

 

[mamba]

300 people does seem like a lot for making a VTT, even if it's a super fancy 3D one. The only way it makes sense to me is if most of them are 3d modelers and animators, and the VTT will launch with a huge amount of high-quality monsters and environments.

most will be, there is no way you need that many actual programmers. You need all monsters from the MM (2024…) and more, at least the more important MotM, FToD and BGoG ones, plus ones from the various APs you support (which I expect to be all of them, given the number of people…). And then you add all the environments for those too, but you would want most of those to be available for homebrewing anyway, the APs mostly help with breadth of each I guess

I wonder what that means for the headcount once this thing is released however… downsize to a core 50 to churn out features and assets?

 

[Oofta]

300 people does seem like a lot for making a VTT, even if it's a super fancy 3D one. The only way it makes sense to me is if most of them are 3d modelers and animators, and the VTT will launch with a huge amount of high-quality monsters and environments.

We don't know how many people they have dedicated specifically to the VTT unless someone has info I don't know about.

 

[CommodoreKong]

On the VTT topic. IF they could just use the BG3 engine and advertise it that way. Maybe even import d&d bwyond stuff there, that could be a key to getting new people.

Wizards has been building their VTT in Unreal Engine for years. If they switch over to Larian's custom engine used in BG3 it would likely delay the VTT launch by years.

Edit: They would also then have 2 choices: Recreate the functionality of the current 3D VTT in Larian's engine (and if that's the case why even bother switching engines) or make it more game like/like Baldur's Gate 3, which would require way more time and money.

 

[The-Magic-Sword]

well, darn, I wanted to be vague and useless, you killjoy. Instead, I’ll note that these forums have several recent threads going over 5e sales reported on Bookscan. (That means they set a floor, while the ceiling could be much higher, as discussed in the thread.) the upshot is that 5e official stuff keeps selling and selling, with a lot less decline over time than is usual for this biz. (I would maim (mean) people for curves like those on anything I wrote or developed.) The picture is qualitatively better than I’d have guessed, and Bookscan data are extremely reliable.

That much I don't doubt, TTRPGs are hot right now and Dnd is the only household name TTRPG. My comment was more concerning playstyle preferences and unmet desire, as opposed to system selection.