D&D General Dungeons of Drakkenheim & Lairs of Etharis: WotC Adds Third Party Products To D&D Beyond

Products from third party creators include a cosmic-horror campaign and a collection of horror fantasy adventures.

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WotC has just announced that it is adding products from Ghostfire Gaming and Dungeon Dudes to the D&D Beyond platform. The products in question are Ghostfire's Grim Hollow: Lairs of Etharis and Dungeon Dudes' Dungeons of Drakkenheim (produced in conjunction with Ghostfire Gaming) which made over $1M on Kickstarter in 2021.

Ghostfire is often seen on the TTRPG Kickstarter charts and has been involved with multiple 5E million-dollar campaigns.

While material from Critical Role has appeared on DDB, this is the first time that something from a publisher without a visibly established prior relationship has been seen there.


Today Wizards of the Coast announced a partnership with publisher Ghostfire Gaming to bring two exciting new products to its digital toolset on D&D Beyond. Grim Hollow: Lairs of Etharis showcases twenty horror-fantasy adventures with more than 75 new monsters while Dungeons of Drakkenheim presents a full campaign set in a ruined city for players to explore created by the popular Dungeon Dudes YouTube channel. Maps, monsters, and more in these offerings will be available for Dungeon Masters to use across D&D Beyond, including full integration in the Maps feature available to subscribers. With these two additions and more on the horizon, Dungeons & Dragons continues to invest in its talented partners and the inspiring creative community and surrounding the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game.

“It's incredibly important to us to showcase the ingenuity of the D&D community, and we’re excited to share the love of fantasy roleplaying with more fans by bringing the Dungeon Dudes and Ghostfire Gaming to D&D Beyond,” said Marjory Laymon, Vice President of D&D Beyond Product and Tech at Wizards of the Coast. “This is just the first step as we’ve got even more surprises planned for next year as we celebrate the 50th Anniversary of D&D.”

Grim Hollow and Drakkenheim really are passion projects for Ghostfire and the Dungeon Dudes, respectively, with rich worlds meant to be explored and have stories woven within,” said Ben Byrne, Creative Content Director at Ghostfire Gaming. “That so many new D&D fans will be introduced to them through D&D Beyond is incredibly humbling.”

The locations, maps, and monsters within these offerings will be available to all fans who purchase them to use in their campaigns on D&D Beyond. Players can add feats, spells, and magic items to their character sheets, choose a new background for their character, or indulge in crafting items from parts harvested from adventuring. Dungeon Masters can quickly reference more than a hundred new monsters, faction NPCs, and more in the D&D Beyond compendium.

Dungeons of Drakkenheim began like every other D&D campaign; as a labor of love shared amongst a few friends at the game table (and a small audience of passionate viewers!) We started this project as a way to express our love of the game and showcase a world filled with all the aspects of fantasy role-playing games that we enjoy most: a blend of gripping action and cosmic horror where the player’s choices matter,” said Montgomery Martin and Kelly Mclaughlin, the Dungeon Dudes. “The original Drakkenheim characters were built and played on D&D Beyond, and so sharing the adventure we created on the platform is a dream come true. We can’t wait to hear the stories of other players’ adventures through the ruined city.”
 

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Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
Interesting. What I'd really like to see is some DM's Guild products (like Keith Baker 's Eberron stuff) start showing up, since those folks don't really have any other options.
WotC already sells DMs Guild stuff... on DMs Guild. I suspect this is more about bringing other 3PPs into the fold and benefiting from some of those millions of dollars being made on Kickstarter etc. They already get a cut of the DMsG stuff.
 

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Clint_L

Hero
I've heard good things about Lairs of Etharis, and Dungeons of Drakkenheim is excellent, so this is great news for those publishers and for anyone who loves good D&D content.

As a dedicated DDB user, the encounter builder and integrated character sheets are integral to how I run games. So I no longer buy D&D material that is not on that platform. There are millions of DDB users, and that number is only growing. So this gives us access to great material, and a whole new revenue stream for those 3PP. It's a win-win.

I do not understand the criticism of WotC for making their platform more open to 3PP. Of course they will take a cut - running DDB ain't free. But it's not like anyone is being forced, here. And it is not WotC's job to worry about how this will impact other platforms, it is their job to make their own platform as good as it can be. Adding more 3PP makes DDB better.
 


Mannahnin

Scion of Murgen (He/Him)
I came here to post this. Dungeons of Drakkenheim is an excellent adventure, both "content wise" but also how well thought out it is from an organization/ease of use perspective. I'm currently running it with my players at home :)
Yeah, I'm playing in it now and enjoying it. We're on Roll20, though.

This is cool, and I hope to see more of it, but it seems noteworthy that these deals have been with prominent, but smaller, publishers. No Kobold Press, no Monte Cook Games, no Goodman Games (hey, WotC, they've got some OAR books your audience might like) and definitely no Paizo.
OARs would be awesome.
 

WotC already sells DMs Guild stuff... on DMs Guild. I suspect this is more about bringing other 3PPs into the fold and benefiting from some of those millions of dollars being made on Kickstarter etc. They already get a cut of the DMsG stuff.
But there's also the question of accessibility on D&D Beyond. It would be very nice to have, say, @Nixlord 's Monster Manual Expanded books on D&D Beyond just to have them ready to go for games that ik otherwise pulling up things ond D&DB, or on the new Maps feature there.
 

Morrus

Well, that was fun
Staff member
But there's also the question of accessibility on D&D Beyond. It would be very nice to have, say, @Nixlord 's Monster Manual Expanded books on D&D Beyond just to have them ready to go for games that ik otherwise pulling up things ond D&DB, or on the new Maps feature there.
I mean sure. It would be nice to have everything on every platform. From WotC’s pov it’s probably more about having everything in their ecosystem somewhere.
 


Nikosandros

Golden Procrastinator
More surprises coming this year, and linking the surprises to being the 50th Anniversary?

They promised to make Crrative Commons SRDs for prior Editions, wonder if Beyond integration could go along with that. Theybl already sell older edition stuff on Roll20.
Don't get my hopes up, this is just cruel... :D
 


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