D&D (2024) Our book just launched on D&D Beyond - AMA

[Dire Bare]

Firstly, thank you so much for being a Kickstarter backer, that early support really means the world!

Onto your question of why we launched smaller sets on D&D Beyond: We wanted to make something high-quality at a really accessible price. There aren't a ton of options at the $10 or lower on DDB, so we wanted to fill that gap with something that people could get a lot of value out of. Because of the way OSW is split into chapters for different environments, we could split it up in a way that worked well and made a great standalone product. It's also because we know we're not the most well-known publisher in the D&D space. We have a growing community, and people are definitely getting more familiar with us, but we wanted to make it really easy for people who have never heard of us to try out our stuff.

In terms of added value from D&D beyond, having all the stats for monsters, NPCs, magic items and spells linked directly to the rules is a big bonus for GMs. Every adventure also comes with the matching battle map, that connects directly to the D&D Beyond Maps VTT. So, if you don't already own the Map Library (which has all 100 maps that go with the adventures in One-Shot Wonders), this is a great way to get a smaller set of the maps from that.

Having the adventures in the compendium, with easy-click links is nice . . .

But the maps, okay, that puts this (for me) into the realm of "worth it"! I didn't get the digital maps first time around, having them would be nice!

Are there plans to release the rest of the one-shots on DDB?

 

[Clint_L]

Just bought the Coastal Adventures book - it's great! Perfect bite-sized adventures with story hooks that let them drop into any campaign, and that can be developed into more extended adventures if the DM wishes.

My question is: are there plans to release more of these on DDB? Specifically, I would love to see a collection of urban adventures.

 

[Roll & Play Press]

What was the percentage cut between you and WOTC? If you can't say, was it because you're under an NDA not to disclose the amount?

Did you go to them or did they go to you?

Hey Sly! In my old life before starting Roll & Play Press I was a lawyer and spent many hours in court arguing about contracts, and it's left me overcautious (you could probably say paranoid) when it comes to talking about contract details. But what I will say we were happy with the split. I'd also add that they invested a lot in terms of development time - they had a brilliant development team who built the three compendiums.

In terms of how we ended up on D&D Beyond, it came about quite organically. London Comic Con last October was one of the catalysts. D&D had a huge stand for the launch of the new DMG, and our stand happened to be right next to theirs. People from Wizards would just come and chat to us, as you do as stand neighbours at cons. Most of them had already heard of One-Shot Wonders and a few of them owned it personally. I reached out to one of them afterwards to say thank you (because they'd gifted us books and dice at the con), and that person introduced us to more people in the team, and it went from there. As people in the team were already fans of the book, I think we were already on their radar.

 

[Roll & Play Press]

Congrats!

Questions…

1) Do you get invited to all the fancy industry insider parties now!

2) What’s your most successful product to date?

3) Do you see yourselves making a core game one day?

4) What RPGs do you play (other than D&D)?

5) Is there a product somebody has made which you wish you had made?

6) Is Kickstarter getting better or worse?

Thank you!

Answers...

1) I hope not, I don't like parties I'm an introvert.

2) In terms of units sold to date, the biggest success would be Roll & Play: The Game Master's Fantasy Toolkit. We've sold nearly 40,000 copies of those in the last 5 years, and still sell hundreds every month. That's been out for nearly 3 years longer than One-Shot Wonders. We've sold more than 20,000 copies of One-Shot Wonders so far, in an average month we sell well over 1,000 copies direct from our website (plus more in distribution) - and this is 2 years after release. It won't be long before that becomes our bestseller. I think people will be surprised to hear the kinds of volumes we're selling because we've never had a million dollar Kickstarter.

3) I don't think we'll ever make a core RPG. We're quite laser-focused on making stuff that helps people play more of the games they've already got.

4) To be honest with you, so much of my life revolves around RPGs, so for my own sanity I have to avoid playing too much outside of work – ha! That means I mostly play D&D because we have an ongoing campaign in the office. The first system I ever played was FATE, which I loved. If work ever calms down, my go-to would be rules light indie games. We're good friends with a lot of the UK indie creators, and they put out incredible stuff (everything Rowan, Rook and Decard makes is outstanding; I'm desperate to play Punk Is Dead by Critical Kit; Orbital Blues by Soul Muppet is a very high on my list too).

5) Philip Reed (CEO of Steve Jackson Games) is always making this totally off-the-wall creative, innovative stuff that makes me want to experiment more. He just did an RPG printed on a soda can, and before that it was an RPG in the style of a children's board book, and I think he did something on vinyl records a few years ago.

6) Kickstarter is a totally different ball game to what it used to be around 2020 - probably because everyone was sat at home in lockdown with the pandemic back then. For our first project, we did no marketing at all in the first 10 days and got to around £20K, then we started running very simple ads, and it rapidly got to £250k with more than 7,000 backers. That was with having no track record on the platform. Something like that just couldn't happen for us now. But, as our Kickstarter success came pretty out of the blue, we were cautious from the beginning that it might not last forever, so we went all-in on building our website and nailing our ecommerce fulfilment process. We're at a stage now where we don't have to rely completely on income from Kickstarter or even distribution.

 

[Morrus]

Morrus was the first person to ever interview us

I remember that interview... I didn't realise I was the first though!

 

[SlyFlourish]

Hey Sly! In my old life before starting Roll & Play Press I was a lawyer and spent many hours in court arguing about contracts, and it's left me overcautious (you could probably say paranoid) when it comes to talking about contract details. But what I will say we were happy with the split. I'd also add that they invested a lot in terms of development time - they had a brilliant development team who built the three compendiums.

In terms of how we ended up on D&D Beyond, it came about quite organically. London Comic Con last October was one of the catalysts. D&D had a huge stand for the launch of the new DMG, and our stand happened to be right next to theirs. People from Wizards would just come and chat to us, as you do as stand neighbours at cons. Most of them had already heard of One-Shot Wonders and a few of them owned it personally. I reached out to one of them afterwards to say thank you (because they'd gifted us books and dice at the con), and that person introduced us to more people in the team, and it went from there. As people in the team were already fans of the book, I think we were already on their radar.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[Roll & Play Press]

Having the adventures in the compendium, with easy-click links is nice . . .

But the maps, okay, that puts this (for me) into the realm of "worth it"! I didn't get the digital maps first time around, having them would be nice!

Are there plans to release the rest of the one-shots on DDB?

The Maps are definitely a big selling point.

No immediate plans for getting the rest on DDB, but hopefully these three go down well!

 

[Roll & Play Press]

Just bought the Coastal Adventures book - it's great! Perfect bite-sized adventures with story hooks that let them drop into any campaign, and that can be developed into more extended adventures if the DM wishes.

My question is: are there plans to release more of these on DDB? Specifically, I would love to see a collection of urban adventures.

Appreciate you picking up a copy! No immediate plans to release more on DDB. The full One-Shot Wonders book does have a chapter of urban adventures (plus underground, hilltop and arctic) and there are maps for all of those in the Map Library too.

 

[Clint_L]

Appreciate you picking up a copy! No immediate plans to release more on DDB. The full One-Shot Wonders book does have a chapter of urban adventures (plus underground, hilltop and arctic) and there are maps for all of those in the Map Library too.

Alas, it's the DDB combination that really works for me - I use it along with maps for my D&D Club at school as it's so convenient when few of the players have any game materials. I have tons of miniatures and modular terrain for my home games, so I don't need physical battle maps, even ones as beautiful as yours.

But I read through the Coastal Adventures and they are perfect for the bite-sized games I do. The stories are self-contained but can easily be linked together, and the maps are stunning. So I promptly bought the other two books as well, and anything else you release on DDB will be an immediate "buy" for me. I'll be sharing that feedback with DDB, also.

Five star product - really perfect to slot into any campaign, and exceptional for beginner campaigns. I highly recommend.

Edit: Oops, this is an AMA and I didn't include a question. Ummm...your maps are extremely well done; is that a single designer? What's the process?

 

[Upper_Krust]

6) Kickstarter is a totally different ball game to what it used to be around 2020 - probably because everyone was sat at home in lockdown with the pandemic back then. For our first project, we did no marketing at all in the first 10 days and got to around £20K, then we started running very simple ads, and it rapidly got to £250k with more than 7,000 backers. That was with having no track record on the platform. Something like that just couldn't happen for us now. But, as our Kickstarter success came pretty out of the blue, we were cautious from the beginning that it might not last forever, so we went all-in on building our website and nailing our ecommerce fulfilment process. We're at a stage now where we don't have to rely completely on income from Kickstarter or even distribution.

Hi there,

I am at the Pre-Launch Page stage with my first Kickstarter for an RPG book about 5E Immortals rules (God Rules: Players Guide) just under 6 weeks out. I am planning to run 60 days of Facebook ads (30 days before the Kickstarter and the 30 days during the Kickstarter).

Can I ask where you ran your ads? Was it on multiple platforms? Thanks for your time.