Is Evil Genius Games Doubling Down On NFTs & Blockchain?

Evil Genius Games' Dave Scott presents to a panel of judges at a cryptocurrency convention in May 2024​

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Evil Genius Games--publisher of the d20 Modern inspired Everyday Heroes TTRPG--was considering use of certain controversial Web3 technologies, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchains. In response to that, EGG published a manifesto on February 6th, 2024, which they called their 'Technology Code of Ethics' in which the company pledged not to use blockchain or cryptocurrencies (along with AI, and other pledges). Indeed, Scott himself told me back in February that the company had decided not to use blockchain technology. For a full background on EGG and recent events, you can read more in The Rise And Fall Of Evil Genius Games.

#2: Evil Genius Games will not use Blockchain or Cryptocurrency technologies in the building or operation of its technology platform.

At the end of 2023 and the start of 2024 numerous employees resigned from Evil Genius Games citing--amongst other things--ethical concerns with the technologies that the company was planning to use, something which Dave Scott made public assurances that they would not do. At the time Scott said: “We made the decision not to do AI in October, and then not to do Web3 in December. But apparently, it wasn't enough to allay any concerns. So after the resignations, we brought the team together to discuss. And we felt a public and permanent statement on this issue would be useful. That's why we drafted the code of ethics after the fact.” In fact, back when I spoke to Scott in February of this year, one of the questions I asked him was why the staff who had recently resigned from EGG did not believe him when he repeated that the company did not intend to use those controversial technologies, and he indicated to me that he didn't know why that was the case.

EGG Pitches At Consensus 2024
However, last week, EGG participated in a pitch competition at an event at Consensus 2024, a convention in Texas run by Coindesk. Consensus describes itself as "the world's largest, longest-running and most influential gathering that brings together all sides of the cryptocurrency, blockchain and Web3 community". EGG's owner Dave Scott pitched a future for their TTRPG offerings which leaned heavily on both blockchains and on non-fungible tokens. Scott introduced the company and told the attendees that "we make turn-based RPGs on chain based on famous Blockbuster movie franchises that we all know and love."

Interestingly, Scott also stated that Jeff Grubb (Dragonlance, d20 Modern) works for the company and describes him as "the father of modern day Dungeons and Dragons"; Grubb made it clear earlier this year that he had no current involvement with Evil Genius Games. In my previous delve into EGG, it turned out that Grubb's participation in Everyday Heroes was that he wrote the foreword in 2023.

I'm not the best person on the staff. Meet Jeff Grub. Jeff Grub is the father of modern day Dungeons and Dragons.

So how do NFTs fit into this vision? Dave Scott described it as follows:

Imagine a scenario where you could actually buy NFT utilities that are exclusive to these licenses you could actually pilot Gypsy Danger, you can carry Rambo's M60, all of these that have value that can be bought sold and traded but more importantly in the Roblox fashion we're going to allow other people to actually create their own NFTs which can be thrown onto a marketplace where they can buy, sell and trade those adventures as well.

Scott's pitch can be watched below--in the video the CEO presented an NFT and blockchain powered future for Evil Genius Games' tabletop offerings in front of three judges, who then proceeded to ask him questions about the pitch.

During the Q&A which followed, Scott confirmed that there was no actual NFT technology in place yet, indicating that "we've just started to set up the infrastructure to be able to create the NFT program". He also claimed that the company has made $1.2M in revenue in the last year based on sales of digital products.

When asked about the blockchain components of the setup, Scott described the content creator marketplace.

All the Creator Marketplace components of it, the UGC components of it, the entire utility is on chain. If you've actually played RPGs before there's a character sheet, all the components of the character sheet will have objects on it, all the objects will be NFTs. In addition to that the actual character sheet itself will be minted as an NFT as well so what that means is that if we use your character as an NPC in a future game we'll actually pay you royalties on the character itself. So the whole thing is based off of objects which are have NFT components to it.

He went on to describe some of the more technical aspects of the platform, including the use of a 'wallet-as-a-service' company called Stardust. Stardust's mission statement is to "democratise blockchain technology for developers and players at scale".

What we're really excited about is the idea that we can use blockchain to be able to control the value and to create value around the objects which make up your character, that's going to be a really important component of it so if you actually create for example an adventure on our system that'll be something that you own as the creator from here on out but the experience we're going after is a Web2 experience which means that we don't want to expose the wallet, we're going to be using a company called Stardust be able to create custodial wallets for that reason.

​

This was part of a competition, which--as it happens--Evil Genius Games won!

To Pledge Or Not To Pledge?
Whether or not one supports the idea of blockchains and NFTs, Evil Genius Games did make a very public pledge not to use blockchains--and reiterated to staff, to me, and on forums that they did not plan to go ahead with that course. This presentation appears to indicate otherwise, with CEO Dave Scott declaring his intentions towards both blockchains and NFTs in a very public venue.

EGG's technology Code of Ethics, published in February 2024
​

 

[MNblockhead]

Have never bought anything from EGG, never played d20 modern, and have no interest TTRPG NFTs. But I'm trying to strongman their business plan to figure out why they feel it is worth alienating so much of their existing and potential fan base and customers.

If you don't have a VTT, the only use case I can think of is for organized play. For the very short time that I played Adventurers League, I remember that there were special items you could get. At one convention I went to they had an event called Fai Chen's Fantastical Faire where you could trade permanent magic item certificates and buy consumable magic item certificates. Real money wasn't traded (other than Convention admission). I remember at the time thinking how it was probably only a matter of time before someone would try to take this organized play concept and try to monetize it.

NFTs could actually be used for this purpose. Could this be what EGG may be thinking? As others have said, there are other solutions than NFTs. I mean you just need a system that ties a unique ID to a user account. But that's not going to attract any cryptobro funding.

Again, I'm not trying to defend the company, I'm just trying to understand the potential business case beyond out-of-date ideas of NFT collecting. I just don't see that attracting gamers. But I could see a certain segment of players who might be attracted to a monetised version of organized play.

 

[vecna00]

I'm so involved in both the TTRPG and Video Game spaces that every time I see the name "Jeff Grubb," I have to take a moment to figure out if they mean the game designer or the guy who works at Giant Bomb.

Also, why is this company holding on to NFTs and blockchain for dear life? Can they just...not? I think I want a refund of what I gave them for their Kickstarter.

 

[cbwjm]

The way they function. NFTs are rife with plagiarism, counterfeiting, money laundering, and fraud. Whenever tokens reach any real monetary value, they are quickly copied and faked, causing their value to plummet. People using them have very little protection on their investment from bad actors--and it's very easy to act badly.

This is actually one of the funniest things about them. People shelling out ridiculous amounts of money for them, making them their twitter handle, then getting trolled by people who right-click, save, and set it as their own profile pic. It's essentially the only thing about NFTs so far that I like because the rage from the NFT buyer is hilarious.

 

[doctorhook]

I see this as part of the hobby's move to virtual table tops. Want your character to have a particular item in a particular (presumably officially licensed) VTT? You have to own the NFT of that item.

I see the utility of this technology, in some dark dystopian version of this hobby.

Obviously it won't affect actual real life games, but those might be dying out.

0% chance of that. It’ll change, but in-person will always be the cheapest and simplest way to play. It will never die off.

 

[El_Spiko]

Have never bought anything from EGG, never played d20 modern, and have no interest TTRPG NFTs. But I'm trying to strongman their business plan to figure out why they feel it is worth alienating so much of their existing and potential fan base and customers.

If you don't have a VTT, the only use case I can think of is for organized play. For the very short time that I played Adventurers League, I remember that there were special items you could get. At one convention I went to they had an event called Fai Chen's Fantastical Faire where you could trade permanent magic item certificates and buy consumable magic item certificates. Real money wasn't traded (other than Convention admission). I remember at the time thinking how it was probably only a matter of time before someone would try to take this organized play concept and try to monetize it.

NFTs could actually be used for this purpose. Could this be what EGG may be thinking? As others have said, there are other solutions than NFTs. I mean you just need a system that ties a unique ID to a user account. But that's not going to attract any cryptobro funding.

Again, I'm not trying to defend the company, I'm just trying to understand the potential business case beyond out-of-date ideas of NFT collecting. I just don't see that attracting gamers. But I could see a certain segment of players who might be attracted to a monetised version of organized play.

This is basically GRIPNRs model, they run a custom organized play campaign using their own version of 5E. From what I can see Dave Scott seemed more focused on creating a walled off Every Day Heroes digital marketplace a la DTRPG except everything would be an NFT from gear to feats to adventures, with the intended purpose being to inflate the prices on everything. Very similar to what NFT projects try to do with all their transformations and burns and other BS, and inevitably all these attempts at creating an enclosed marketplace where everyone is just selling to and ripping off each other and expecting there to be infinite, continuous growth fail, because of course they do what they are trying to achieve is not possible or rational.

 

[irrg]

I can see the marketing campaign now.

 

[TreChriron]

Why does any of this need NFTs? The MMO creator is making the cool unique components and tracking their existence in a database or similar structure. Why is there a need for the additional overhead of crypto verification (or what ever they call the process of adding a new block to the chain)?

There are advantages to using blockchain technology. On the network I work with, transactions are fast and cheap. So, there's very little overhead for verification or querying. Minting is not as fast, but for most people, it would be considered fast (if you know what I mean.

Most of the vitriol here seems to be based on bad actors doing bad things. The hype didn't stack up. I get that. The technology has applications, and using NFTs as "things" rather than "cool pics" is solid. There's more to blockchain than charlatans and hype.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

One thing which drives me utterly nuts however is how the folks who oppose this insanity end up jumping the shark and becoming full on luddites. Because there are uses for a secure high trust uneditable ledger.

This, 100% agree

 

[Eyes of Nine]

This is intended as a serious question: aren't Blockchain and NFT's already not a thing anymore? Is there any actual interest for this?

It depends on what you mean by "not a thing" anymore. Tech bros are 1000% moving over to AI scams.

That said, there are several interesting use cases for putting things on a blockchain. One I have heard of is trying to verify carbon credits that actually have a material impact on climate change, as opposed to ones that don't. (see: Cerulean Ventures Portfolio, but be warned - here there be lots of VC technobabble style talk)

EGG's use case doesn't sound very interesting, except for the part where if someone's character stat block was used, the owner of said character stat block would get paid out some sort of licensing fee. What's unclear to me is exactly how EGG is going to facilitate anyone using the stat block for any reason whatsoever so that people actually get paid for the use.

The people who like/invest/participate in NFT games are looking for the greater fool; and are more like Magic players rather than RPG players.

 

[Von Ether]

This is basically GRIPNRs model, they run a custom organized play campaign using their own version of 5E. From what I can see Dave Scott seemed more focused on creating a walled off Every Day Heroes digital marketplace a la DTRPG except everything would be an NFT from gear to feats to adventures, with the intended purpose being to inflate the prices on everything. Very similar to what NFT projects try to do with all their transformations and burns and other BS, and inevitably all these attempts at creating an enclosed marketplace where everyone is just selling to and ripping off each other and expecting there to be infinite, continuous growth fail, because of course they do what they are trying to achieve is not possible or rational.

Okay, so now that someone mentioned organized play, it makes (a little) more sense to me.

They are vaguely explaining to tech bros who were too cool to do ttrpgs how reward certificates worked in old school organized play, You finish a adventure and the GM would sign and hand over a paper certificate with a magic item or special reward. When you went to the next organized play event, you could show your GM your cert and be allowed to use that item. It was the original "unlocking" an item or power.

They are just replacing paper certs with an NFT/Blockchain app on your phone. And after seeing a KS where a $100+ pledge give you a cert to let you play special PCs in organized play (along with all the PDF stretch goals for a game), I can see how some tech bros smell blood in the water.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1418216834/arcanis-5e-rpg/rewards#reward-UmV3YXJkLVVtVjNZWEprTFRVNE1EVXdNVGM9

They also see how some gamers collect True Dungeon tokens and think, "Yeah, we can NFT that to their cell phones"

To me that feel like a lot of upfront infrastructure that investors are going to want an unrealistic return on vs just still using paper and tokens.

People paying $100 for a cert is the exception, not the average buyer.