D&D General Adam Bradford, Lauren Urban, Todd Kenrick Leave D&D Beyond

They join lead writer James Haeck, who left a couple of weeks ago. Adam Bradford is the D&D Beyond co-founder, and VP of Tabletop Gaming at its owner, Fandom. Lauren Urban is DDB's Community Manager. Todd Kenrick is the company's Creative Manager.

D&D Beyond, launched in 2017, is currently owned by Fandom (previously known as Wikia), after it acquired the company in 2018 from previous owner Curse, a Twitch subsidiary.

According to Cam Banks, creator of DDB owner Fandom's Cortex, all three received offers elsewhere which they could not turn down.

 

[Aldarc]

I... this almost laughable.
It’s pile of gold bricks compared to a pocket of steel pennies.

even if it’s 80-90 percent it’s still 10-20 percent of a pile of gold bricks compared to a few steel pennies.
And I respect Cortex. Even kind of like it.

To be fair, considering the various things that Fandom has under their umbrella (e.g., Screen Junkies, Curse, online wiki advertising, etc.), D&D Beyond itself may be but a few steel pennies in Fandom's revenue stream.

 

[Michael Linke]

TBH i don't even know how DDB is monetized. Is there a subscription fee? I see you can buy rules, but Fandom probably only sees a very small percentage of that. If you look at Fandom's portfolio before D&D Beyond, i think it's unlikely they wanted to "own" D&D Beyond, and more likely they wanted to own the source code that made it possible.

As a fan of cortex, i would love my theory to be true. I think the system has a lot of potential for spreading the RPG hobby, especially to people who don't automatically equate cool stories with killing monsters (weird, but there are a lot of people out there like that). It would be great for that system if some company was going to throw money into VTT resources for it.

 

[Backcountry164]

You're asking me to speculate? We're seeing things that could be symptoms. That doesn't mean we can pull an exact diagnosis out of thin air.

??Ummm??? Suddenly speculation is an issue for you?? That's pretty much all you've been doing here...

 

[Backcountry164]

double

 

[darjr]

Instead of dire theories spend some energy on lifting some folks up.

 

[Morrus]

TBH i don't even know how DDB is monetized. Is there a subscription fee? I see you can buy rules, but Fandom probably only sees a very small percentage of that.

If it's the same as most other tabletop game licensing agreements, that's not how things usually work.

 

[SehanineMoonbow]

The DNDBeyond forums aren't the friendliest place, but I don't think that has much bearing on the company itself. I saw Todd's farewell video on YouTube a few days ago. It's probably an internal (within the company) thing. There have been a lot of upheavals in the gaming community lately.

 

[darjr]

The DNDBeyond forums aren't the friendliest place, but I don't think that has much bearing on the company itself. I saw Todd's farewell video on YouTube a few days ago. It's probably an internal (within the company) thing. There have been a lot of upheavals in the gaming community lately.

Really? That’s too bad.

I will admit I haven’t been there much. Only for questions about DDB.

 

[Waller]

The DNDBeyond forums aren't the friendliest place,

There's something to be said for the iron hand we have around here. Strong moderation FTW!

 

[SehanineMoonbow]

Really? That’s too bad.

I will admit I haven’t been there much. Only for questions about DDB.

I only go on sporadically, myself, but in my experience, the community isn't the nicest.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

WotC has flat out said that they will only do books.

A) Citation needed because that sounds made up.
B) If so, they've made liars of themselves already, because they have not one, but two AAA video game studios. Yes. WotC. Not Hasbro. WotC. They have one they purchased and upstaffed, and one they started from scratch.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

Game designers are a niche within a niche. You can't make money selling to them.

In the tabletop RPG market, there is "Dungeons & Dragons," and there is "not Dungeons & Dragons." The second category--all of it put together--almost certainly sells less than the first. That includes Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun, every TRPG in existence other than the 800-pound gorilla.

@darjr is right. D&D Beyond is the golden goose, no matter how hefty the licensing fees. Cortex Prime is a copper pigeon.

Everybody who GMs a rpg is a game designer. If you homebrew you're a designer. If you create even just new monsters you have designed for the game you choose to play.

Just look at drivethrurpg and See just how many new games get designed. Look at all the creater support programs that now exist in the rpg industry.

Game design isn't about making money in and of itself. It's about following your Creative passion and seeing what develops. It's our Imagination at work. (Or, in the case of WotC, corporate politics... But that's them and not the majority of gamers.)

Most rpg books made are aimed at the GM. There are very few books beyond the core book aimed at just the player. It's the GMs that keep this industry afloat. Even in just D&D it's the DMs that run it that keep it going, because they buy the majority of the non-core books.

 

[Michael Linke]

Everybody who GMs a rpg is a game designer. If you homebrew you're a designer. If you create even just new monsters you have designed for the game you choose to play.

Just look at drivethrurpg and See just how many new games get designed. Look at all the creater support programs that now exist in the rpg industry.

Game design isn't about making money in and of itself. It's about following your Creative passion and seeing what develops. It's our Imagination at work. (Or, in the case of WotC, corporate politics... But that's them and not the majority of gamers.)

Most rpg books made are aimed at the GM. There are very few books beyond the core book aimed at just the player. It's the GMs that keep this industry afloat. Even in just D&D it's the DMs that run it that keep it going, because they buy the majority of the non-core books.

Agree. "Game design" tools are basically just GM tools. Targeting game designers is really the same thing as targeting GMs. While GMs are a niche-within-a-niche compared to gamers, you can't really push a platform that works for players but not for GMs, as there's nothing to play without the GM.

 

[darjr]

Todd’s first video is live! And it’s part of an interview with Joe!!!

 

[darjr]

And Todd announced his full time gig!

 

[dave2008]

And Todd announced his full time gig!

Interesting, the appears to still be D&D related or at least adjacent as there is an: "Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms."

 

[Dire Bare]

And Todd announced his full time gig!

I'm glad Todd has found a position like this, but . . .

Ugh, I can't stand Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. I just don't get this style of video game. But I realize that a LOT of folks love these types of games, and that Idle Champions has been doing rather well.

 

[darjr]

I tried it too and bounced off of it.

 

[Azzy]

I tried it too and bounced off of it.

I like your new avatar. Who's the pupper?

 

[darjr]

I like your new avatar. Who's the pupper?

That’s Stella Rey, my wife’s