FANTASY GROUNDS Virtual Tabletop's D&D License!

Officially licensed D&D electronic tools! For real! Fantasy Grounds, one of the leading virtual tabletops, has just released a set of D&D 5th edition licensed data packages. These include the D&D Basic Rules, packs for each of the core classes, and a pile of monster packs. Each states specifically that "This product is licensed from Wizards of the Coast." This appears to be the first officially licensed and branded electronic product. (thanks to Matchstick for the scoop)

Check out their D&D wares here. They mention that "The DMG is still in the works, along with the Hoard of the Dragon Queen, The Rise of Tiamat and Princes of the Apocalypse." and that "The basic 5E ruleset will continue to be provided directly within Fantasy Grounds to all licenses. These purchasable options add a new graphics theme that is officially branded, along with the library module support, and whatever other enhancements we could squeeze in, like tokens or portraits or decals."

Here's the announcement:

We are proud to announce that we are officially licensed to sell D&D source material and content inside of Fantasy Grounds! This is the beginning of a great new partnership between SmiteWorks and Wizards of the Coast that will benefit gamers worldwide.

You can purchase the D&D Complete Core Class Pack with all the class, feats, spells and equipment or you can purchase individual classes only. You can also buy the monsters in packs or as the D&D Complete Core Monster Pack. These products have been converted to work really tightly with Fantasy Grounds to give you the best possible gaming experience - we know you're going to love them. They contain all the great artwork and content from the official products and all the smarts and integration to work with Fantasy Grounds. Not only will you get the same content that can be found in print, but you also get an exciting new Fifth Edition theme, adventures and content customized specifically for ease of play inside of Fantasy Grounds.

For Dungeon Masters and players on a budget, you might pick up a Player Customization Pack and one or two Class Packs of your choice. Dungeon Masters can often get by with just the Adventure of their choice and one or two Monster Packs.

Don't forget that players can gift purchases through Steam for Dungeon Masters who have linked their license on Steam.
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[smiteworks]

You can also look in the 5E forums.

Since launching on Tuesday, there are a flood of new users who have come to Fantasy Grounds and picked up both of the Complete Core modules and the Lost Mine of Phandelver. I'm not sure how long it will take these new users to get comfortable enough to host a game, but I would expect to see a lot more games getting scheduled for 5E. I've also been approached by a number of DM's and a few coordinators about running Adventurers League games online using it. This approach has been popular with the Pathfinder Society Games run on Fantasy Grounds and it ends up with more games getting posted that are open to newer players. I expect a lot of groups form and don't go back looking for new players unless they lose a player.

 

[Nylanfs]

Plus the flood of players from Steam, honestly the only thing that limits me finding a game has been my time schedule.

 

[Greg Benage]

Plus the flood of players from Steam, honestly the only thing that limits me finding a game has been my time schedule.

I gather you've been active on FG awhile, so is that because you already have a network to draw on? Again, just looking at the Guild Hall (I checked the 5e forum as Smiteworks suggested, but the game posts were far more sparse there -- I did find a thread started by a guy who couldn't find a game!), there doesn't seem to be much recruitment activity. I currently count 58 5E campaigns recruiting on Roll20.

Is this a fair way to compare the level of activity? If not, what is? Where do you go to find all the games you don't have time to play?

Alternatively, of course, I can wait until activity picks up. I don't need to be in a hurry. I just wanted to make sure I was looking in the right place(s).

 

[Dire Bare]

You've framed in a lighthearted way, but this is actually a barrier to your product. People should have questions about the functionality sure, but they shouldn't have questions about the distribution or subscription model. That should be so clearly spelled out and accessible that even a complete nonce can get it. I don't want to get down on you or anything because I think its cool there's a product for 5e, but its also frustrating that I had to ask here to make sense of it.

Smiteworks is trying to provide options, and I appreciate that.

However, I agree with transtemporal, FG *might* be better served by a simpler pricing structure, even if it ends up restricting the current pricing options.

I would merge the "standard" and "ultimate" license so that every license allows full access to the software plus hosting games for everybody! I would expect this single license to be less expensive than $150, but more expensive than $40. Maybe $60? And, of course, keeping the free demo license available. However, I would understand if such a pricing structure wouldn't generate enough revenue for FG, although I would hope with the "D&D bump" they could sell licenses at a lower cost and greater volume. Totally armchair quarterbacking here!

I would also love to see a FG "D&D Edition". The FG merged license (as above) plus the complete D&D trilogy (PHB, MM, DMG) for one price.

 

[Mistwell]

It may be a barrier to some, but it's due to providing more options. Sales people will tell you to limit the options to two or three things...Short of removing options, I don't see how we can make it clearer.

You have an entire huge thread of smart people who are your likely customers who are confused by your pricing model. Even if you really want to maintain more options than salespeople recommend, isn't it possible there is a better way to present that pricing model? I don't know, as I am not professional marketing consultant.

 

[Mistwell]

I would also love to see a FG "D&D Edition". The FG merged license (as above) plus the complete D&D trilogy (PHB, MM, DMG) for one price.

Absolutely.

As an analogy, car companies have vans. The van can be sold with 3-4 rows of seats behind the driver/passenger row, for carpooling or large families. They can be sold with two rows back there and a good sized storage space. Or they can be sold with no rows back there and all cargo space. But when the dealership is talking to a delivery company, they don't talk about all those options - they say here is the price for a cargo van, and they market it as a cargo van. It doesn't matter that it can be configured other ways - their audience obviously mostly cares about one way to configure it.

This is a D&D audience, and you just launched a big deal flagship D&D-oriented product. Why the heck is it not being marketed to that audience with a single D&D price? Just tell me what it costs for a group (through a DM) to buy the game engine, the core books, and the ability for all their players to load all the classes and create any character and play with that DM, with a good amount of D&D tokens.

Don't make me add up the price for the game engine, or a different price for that engine but with unlimited players, and then the price to add the PHB rules, and then the price for the MM rules, and another price for the DMG rules, and then then price for the Basic classes, and the price for all the classes, and the price for a D&D token set, etc.. I am going to add it all up anyway, but by the time I've gotten there myself my enthusiasm is deadened substantially and I start to worry about how you're going to nickle and dime me going forward as new products are released - a thought that was not previously going through my head when I was just excited and wanted to hit a BUY button for the whole thing.

I strongly suspect a heck of a lot of gaming groups out there just want one price phrased two ways - up front for lifetime, or monthly, and have it be for the full D&D package. They do not want to buy a hamburger, and then pay separate for the pickles, and separate for the onions, and separate for the lettuce, and separate for the ketchup. Just sell me a friggen hamburger and tell me what it costs, and give me a BUY button to push.

 

[transtemporal]

It may be a barrier to some, but it's due to providing more options. Sales people will tell you to limit the options to two or three things. If you look on our store page, we've framed it as Option #1 Subscriptions or Option #2 Lifetime License and then Show the small # of options underneath each of those two choices. We have a link to an FAQ about subscriptions in that area and a link underneath the whole section to a chart that compares license types - much like you see with other software packages.

Short of removing options, I don't see how we can make it clearer.

The options aren't necessarily the issue. Its how you package, explain and present the options. For example, the usability of that page is not great. The packages need more space, and they need a big clear thing that says "Which option is right for my group?" because by the time I get to this page, I'm thinking "Features look good, now I just have to figure out price and which option to go with, so... what are the options that best fit my groups gaming requirements?" It should'nt be an anonymous link under one of the options (I didn't even notice the link until you mentioned it).

 

[transtemporal]

I strongly suspect a heck of a lot of gaming groups out there just want one price phrased two ways - up front for lifetime, or monthly, and have it be for the full D&D package. They do not want to buy a hamburger, and then pay separate for the pickles, and separate for the onions, and separate for the lettuce, and separate for the ketchup. Just sell me a friggen hamburger and tell me what it costs, and give me a BUY button to push.

Exactly! Its nice to have the option to buy seperately because that caters to people who want to buy that way... but wheres my option to buy everything in one go?

Also, I just want to play 5e. I imagine the instances where someone downloads the software without knowing what game system they want to play are very rare, so making me download FATE, 3.5, 4.0 etc just clutters up my interface and makes me download additional stuff I don't want or care about. To continue Mistwell's analogy above, you buy the van and it comes with several sets of extra seatbelts of varying colours and fabrics. Sure its nice to have extra seatbelts, I guess... but realistically, they're just going to gather dust in a box in the garage.

 

[transtemporal]

I would merge the "standard" and "ultimate" license so that every license allows full access to the software plus hosting games for everybody! I would expect this single license to be less expensive than $150, but more expensive than $40. Maybe $60?

Yep, totally agree. The pricing could probably do with some simplification. It's cumbersome and probably too expensive but for me it was mainly the explanation of the options.

 

[VenomousFiligree]

If you're looking for games, as well as the FG forums there are now official online Adventurers League groups on both Facebook and Google+.