D&D 5E D&D Creator Summit--'D&D Beyond And Beyond'

This presentation is by Dan Rawson and Marjory Laymon, moderated by Sara Chaffee.

I see a live view of what I assume is WotC's offices (the caption says 'Game Room'). Muffled voices talking as people wander around.

• Dan Rawson talks about his start in D&D. Introduces the team present: Dan Rawson (SVP of D&D), Marjorie Laymon (VP D&D Beyond), Pat Backmann (Sr. Product Manager), Jared Wasdin (Product Manager), Elliot Spilk (Associate Product Manager), Sarah Chaffee (Community Manager).
• What is D&D Beyond? The official gateway to D&D for content, news, offerings. The WotC D&D site is being deprecated and DDB is taking over.
• As the official home for D&D, DDB wants to be expansive. Content, tools, VTT. It's an amusement park. A whole ecosystem for the community.
• What have they been up to? Integrating with WotC since being acquired last year. Digital content drops, plus stability and performance work. 4.5 million users creates system challenges.
• What's next? Improving play/prep, mobile play, new player onboarding, open to partners, backend tech stuff.
• Partners and publishers--early stages of what that could look like, welcome feedback.
• (Q&A section begins--It's really hard to make out anything anybody is saying).
• Discussion about global communities, content for different people across the world.
• Homebrew and marketplace features. Make homebrew creation and sharing easy.
• Mobile site and app versions of DDB are different--can functionality be added to the app?
• Digital content in other languages and ASL? Is something they are actively trying to figure out.
• Future of D&D in print is very bright. Millions cherish the books and the tabletop and they want to support that. Digital is as well as not instead of.
• WIll DDB marketplace be monetized? That is absolutely the intention. Creators can offer their products for sale. Accessible, open, and available to creators.
• Will existing settings remain open to DMs Guild/DDB marketplace creators with the launch of OneDnD? "The goal is more not less." I think that was the entire answer to the question.
• Equitability of product pricing globally. Not something they've tackled yet, they appreciate the concern, and something they need to approach.
• Older editions in DDB? That's been discussed, but there are no plans right now. Possibility, not a 'no'.
• Does that include problematic elements of old products? They'd use the mechanical rules, not the 'content'.
• Preserving WotC's DnD website resources as it migrates to DDB? Not sure what the actual question or answer were! Can't make it out!
• How VTTs and content will interact? They want content and access to be as broad as possible. They will continue to partner with great VTTs.
• Will there be any mentorship on content creation for the third party marketplace? (There's a situation where somebody in person asks a really long question, the digital attendees can't hear it, then one of the presenters summarises the question [I think], but it's not always clear what the answer is.)
• Will the VTT be on consoles? Other technical requirements? Intent -- early in development -- is to play on PC, console, and mobile. Sequencing won't be everything on Day 1. Goal is to make it available on as many platforms as possible.
• Back to legacy content being on DDB--any content will go thorugh robust review to ensure it is appropriate and inviting to everybody. Means bringing legacy content over is a lot of work, and they won't bring them over without dong that work.
• Gaming store accounts and events--that's a strategy that is underway.
• Continue to lean into D&D in schools. Working on content for children.
• And that's the session over, and my coverage done! The next one will be the afternoon Virtual Tabletop session, covered by Beth Rimmels, in an hour or two.

 

[TwoSix]

Given that Bladesinger and War Wizard are actually more popular on Beyond than the PHB Subclasses...I half expect them to ditch School as Subclass for the PHB entirely.

Exactly. Better than even money on Bladesinger being in the new PHB.

 

[darjr]

It definitely is PR and Marketing and also reaching out and talking.

I’m no WotC fan at the moment and plan zero wizards D&D rpg purchases going forward but I recognize that this is more than just a cynical PR stunt.

Well apparently WotC had prepared it to be more the prior and the attendees demanded it be more if the latter. Forcing WotC to change direction and in some cases change speakers and extend qna sessions

 

[Parmandur]

Well apparently WotC had prepared it to be more the prior and the attendees demanded it be more if the latter. Forcing WotC to change direction and in some cases change speakers and extend qna sessions

It seems that it was meant to he both, bit the creators wanted more of the latter and WotC accommodated. It will be interesting if theybdo keep these up and get in a rhythm of listening and responding.

 

[bedir than]

It seems that it was meant to he both, bit the creators wanted more of the latter and WotC accommodated. It will be interesting if theybdo keep these up and get in a rhythm of listening and responding.

The next one shouldn't need an airing of grievances though. Much of the reports of hostility and failure regarding this summit revolve around the now-solved OGL debacle

 

[DEFCON 1]

I like the idea of features on weapons, but I don't like what happens all too often. That being, players using only a couple of the most effective weapons and ignoring all the rest. It's why we see a million greatsword users and hardly any greataxe PCs, and that's with a basic system like core 5e. If you start giving a weapon a feature that can be unlocked, I worry the exploits will hit the streets and that's all you'll see from that point on, regardless of intent.

When you have a game that focuses on its mechanics and DMs run their games such that the "combat mini-game" has a more important place in the table's hierarchy than story, narrative, and improvisation... it is exceedingly difficult NOT to see this occur.

But more often than not... if a DM is bored with seeing the same exact mechanics used over and over and over, its because they run their game in such a way that players see that maximizing those mechanics repeatedly gives them exactly what they want out of the game. If a DM wishes to see more Greataxes and less Greatswords... they need to prioritize story over mechanics to the point where the characterization and story of the PC wielding a Greataxe is more important in the game than the minor mechanical benefit rolling 2d6 is over 1d12. But I think not many DMs run their games in that way.

 

[Parmandur]

The next one shouldn't need an airing of grievances though. Much of the reports of hostility and failure regarding this summit revolve around the now-solved OGL debacle

I think it's healthy that they are going through this, and hope that WotC doesn't shrink back.

 

[bedir than]

I think it's healthy that they are going through this, and hope that WotC doesn't shrink back.

I don't think it's healthy for internet personalities and writers to scream at WotC leadership and then brag about storming out to the meetings because WotC leadership hadn't determined a revenue share split on the DnD Beyond Marketplace.

The "We had to stand up to the Man" statements afterword as if the event was a war of an oppressed creator class against an abusive giant is an indicator that there's a group that feel that lie-filled rage clicks are their path to profitability. It saddens me. Several people who I thought were good people think that abusing employees of Wizards is justifiable, as they themselves want protection by Wizards from abuse.

 

[darjr]

It seems that it was meant to he both, bit the creators wanted more of the latter and WotC accommodated. It will be interesting if theybdo keep these up and get in a rhythm of listening and responding.

While I agree with you I must add that the degree of angst and following scramble and slight panic from WotC was notable.

 

[The Glen]

Wizards should have flipped the script. They knew they had a hostile crowd coming in so they shouldn't have done the airing of the grievances before anything else but everybody get it out of their system.

When discussing the virtual tabletop at least have a Tech guy in the room to give them target numbers. People wanna hear the geek stuff. The PR mouthpiece is going to have platitudes and scripted comments. There's a good chance that even if she had Tech specs and similar she wouldn't know what they actually mean it's not her area of expertise When certain people were going to ask tough questions of a technical nature. The answers might be a little too detailed for a lot of people but for some channels that's what they live and die for.

But you also expect a certain degree of decorum from the guests. You don't want everybody talking over each other . You don't want people repeating questions already asked and answered. There does need to be a certain amount of vetting done In the selection process so you will know at least You're dealing with professionals. I would like to know out of my own curiosity How many of the people attending Had actually been to a live press conference before

 

[bedir than]

When discussing the virtual tabletop at least have a Tech guy in the room to give them target numbers. People wanna hear the geek stuff.

They had the head of the VTT team, who rose through the tech ranks as a programmer lead the VTT discussion.