D&D (2024) WotC Announces 3rd Party Creator Partners

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This content will be coming to the D&D Beyond marketplace--the selected publishers are The Griffon's Saddlebag, MCDM, Ghostfire Gaming, Dungeon Dudes, Hit Point Press, Kobold Press, and Free League. Generally, these are creators who have achieved million-dollar Kickstarters with 5E compatible products.

Notably, this also includes the official Lord of the Rings roleplaying game from Free League, who also produce The One Ring, the non-D&D version of the game. WotC will be selling the official D&D compatible Lord of the Rings TTRPG on its primary platform. Back in 1992, TSR (the then-owners of D&D) nearly acquired the rights to JRR Tolkien's work, and then passed on it, then-CEO Lorraine Williams saying it was "not worth our while".

 

[Micah Sweet]

Can you rephrase the question?

I have Tome of Beasts 1 both hardbound and in DnD Beyond. I've noticed no difference between the two.

Just the usual concern with subscription services offering rented content forever subject to change by the real owners without notice or input. At least pdfs are owned by the person spending money for them.

 

[darjr]

Mines of Moria on DnDBeyond?!

 

[Parmandur]

Mines of Moria on DnDBeyond?!

That would be pretty next level nuts.

 

[Nathaniel Lee]

I'm super stoked to see Loot Tavern and Griffon's Saddlebag here. I've been pulling in Griff's stuff as homebrew for years now, and I've started doing the same for some of the stuff that Loot Tavern does. Not having to do that anymore will be helpful.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Yeah, I really wonder how DDB will implement that. The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying (and Adventures in Middle-earth before that) are quite a ways from D&D in the 5e space, with significant differences in terminology and certain areas of the rules. Alternative rulesets like Tales of the Valiant are closer to D&D, so this potentially opens up the possibilities of what could eventually appear in DDB.

I would be laughing very hard if Tales of the Valiant will end up on D&D beyond.

So much for a Rebellion againt WotC. It was good back then to show their willingness to not bend to everything but in the end the best outcome is cooperation and friendly competition. Not war.

 

[Cergorach]

So much for a Rebellion againt WotC. It was good back then to show their willingness to not bend to everything but in the end the best outcome is cooperation and friendly competition. Not war.

Weird, companies (and the people running them) actually prefer bigger profits, it's not just WotC/Hasbro...

And that's also why the whole 'OGL revolution' stunk to high heaven. It was just companies (and the people running them) riding public opinion to make a quick profit. Them getting back to where all the money was (D&D), was a given... We've seen this before, we'll see it again.

 

[Superchunk77]

I would be laughing very hard if Tales of the Valiant will end up on D&D beyond.

So much for a Rebellion againt WotC. It was good back then to show their willingness to not bend to everything but in the end the best outcome is cooperation and friendly competition. Not war.

The war that WotC started you mean? This is just WotC/Hasbro throwing money at 3rd party publishers in an effort to attract more subs to their DDB portal.

 

[Cergorach]

The war that WotC started you mean? This is just WotC/Hasbro throwing money at 3rd party publishers in an effort to attract more subs to their DDB portal.

Not just for sub money, but I'm pretty sure that they also take a piece of the cake of the product being sold on DDB. Looking at Industry standards, 30% sounds like the industry 'standard'... And publishers might have to pay for their product conversion to DDB...

WotC/Hasbro is just utilizing popular D&D product makers, to make them more money with very little investment and/or risk. In the same way that Valve became a digital store proprietor with Steam, instead of mainly a computer game developer. The still have their games (and they are still quite popular), but the big money is made with the Steam store.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

And that's also why the whole 'OGL revolution' stunk to high heaven. It was just companies (and the people running them) riding public opinion to make a quick profit. Them getting back to where all the money was (D&D), was a given... We've seen this before, we'll see it again.

This is a wild accusation to make against hundreds of designers, many of whom -- including Morrus -- explained just how revoking the OGL could potentially put lots of RPG companies (not just ones doing D&D-related stuff) out of business.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The war that WotC started you mean? This is just WotC/Hasbro throwing money at 3rd party publishers in an effort to attract more subs to their DDB portal.

Understandable of course, but the whole 3pp on DDB thing does feel a little "Kneel before Zod!" to me (as I mentioned in a different thread).