Free League is Demiplane’s Latest Nexus

Following its recent Pathfinder 2E and World of Darkness announcements, new tabletop tools platform Demiplane has revealed that Free League’s array of games will be joining them.

Demiplane’s Adam Bradford (co-founder of D&D Begind) about the new endeavor and shows a trailer.

Pathfinder 2E - Pathfinder Nexus is the Official Toolset for PF2E

Paizo has just announced a partnership with Demiplane to create a D&D Beyond-style digital toolset for Pathfinder 2nd Edition. Demiplane (which is described as "a leading digital platform for tabletop roleplaying fans") was launched last year. Its Chief Development Officer is Adam Bradford...

www.enworld.org

With D&D Beyond’s owner Fandom working hard on its acquisition Cortex Prime, along with various licensed properties for use with tabletop RPGs, such as Tales of Xadia, Demiplane looks to be setting itself up as a competitor by powering everything except D&D.

World of Darkness Nexus from Demiplane!

Demiplane - the company which recently announced the Pathfinder Nexus - is working on a World of Darkness Nexus, covering Vampire: the Masqeurade, Hunter: the Reckoning, and Werewolf: the Apocalypse! Demiplane's lead developer is Adam Bradford, co-founder of D&D Beyond...

www.enworld.org

 

[dirtypool]

Cool, thanks Adam. Really excited to see what you guys are going to unveil next, looking forward to the Pathfinder tools and keeping my fingers crossed for Chronicles of Darkness alongside the World of Darkness tools already announced.

Edited for clarity.

 

[Ethawyn]

Accidental double post.

 

[Ethawyn]

Predictions:

• Monte Cook Games: The Cypher System
• Evil Hat Games: Fate (and maybe Blades in the Dark)

Good predictions. They also liked this tweet, might mean 2d20 is in the works?

 

[dirtypool]

Music, movies, television, video games, ebooks, audiobooks. It's already happened in almost every avenue of media. Heck, it's happened in previous editions of D&D already.
The only thing that needs to happen is expanding some content to "digital only," then you're back to a DDI subscription that can get pulled at any time and when a company goes under or changes direction, you can't use your content anymore.

I can still walk into a store or order CD's, DVD's game disks, print books online. Hell vinyl came back from the dead. The inclusion of new options has not yet decreased what we have available to us.

Yeah 4e did have a digital subscription, but that didn't render the game unplayable if you weren't a subscriber. You could still go to your FLGS, buy a physical book, and play the game. D&D Beyond hasn't prevented play of 5e to date, I've used it for record keeping but my shelf is still full of 5e books.

 

[Retreater]

So what's the alternative you'd prefer? That everybody be denied these tools?

That everybody who purchases the content gets to keep it in perpetuity. That if you buy a book on DND Beyond that you get a PDF of the said book, which you can use even if the service goes under.
It's like if you subscribe to Netflix, have to pay the monthly subscription fee, and then are required to buy individual movies or series to watch piecemeal, then you don't get to watch those movies if Netflix loses the rights, or you stop paying the subscription fee, etc.
4E's lasting impact in the OSR community and current player base is certainly lessened because of the digital tools subscription that we can no longer access. It's largely a dead system because of the reliance on the subscription model.
As I stated before, I have no problem with people using DND Beyond, Demiplane, or other services. I'm sure it's helpful for some.
But I'll tell you I'm worried that when GW decides to be done with Cubicle 7 that I won't be able to play WFRP anymore on Foundry. Or the instant 6E comes out, DND Beyond will be shuttered and you can't look at your digital copies anymore and 5e is pulled from Roll20.
As more and more games transition to online play (especially due to the pandemic), we're quickly giving up the past idea "I can pull this old book from my shelf and play with my friends anytime I want."
I haven't played a physical RPG or rolled an actual die in nearly 2 years. I rely on online games. The hobby could end for me with a single piece of paper being signed in a corporate office.

 

[schneeland]

With D&D Beyond I agree that not having PDFs of the books is a big minus. However, if I get that right, with Demiplane - at least for the Paizo stuff - it's something that comes on top and you also get a discount if you have previously bought the PDFs from Paizo.

 

[dirtypool]

Those are two diametrically opposed arguments you're making. Should digital services honor purchases you make in perpetuity? Of course. Are digital materials replacing physical media? No they aren't.

4e wasn't ONLY its digital tools subscription, and it isn't a dead system because of the subscription model. It's mostly a dead system because it was polarizing and divisive. If a bunch of OSR players want to start playing 4e they can gain access to 4e physical materials relatively cheaply.

The fear that services like Foundry will turn off support for vtt content of out of print editions is valid I guess, but the number of out of print editions that still get supported would tend to indicate otherwise.

The pandemic is not removing the EXISTENCE of physical RPG books and dice, while you rely on online games - those games still exist in physical forms. Your experience of not using a physical book or physical dice is not a universal experience, it's yours. For every group playing with digital tools on foundry, there's another playing on Zoom with books and dice.

 

[Staffan]

The fear that services like Foundry will turn off support for vtt content of out of print editions is valid I guess, but the number of out of print editions that still get supported would tend to indicate otherwise.

I very much doubt they'd remove access to stuff they've directly licensed. For instance, I don't see support for Pathfinder 1st ed going away from any of the VTTs any time soon. The problem could be when you're dealing with second-degree licensing. For example, Cubicle 7 is producing Warhammer 4e under license from GW. That license has an expiration date. Once Cubicle 7 loses the Warhammer license, so does Roll20, Foundry, and whatever other VTTs that have licensed it from them.

For Fria Ligan, that would be highly relevant for Aliens, and for the upcoming Blade Runner and The One Ring as well. I'm not sure what their licensing relationship with Simon Stålenhag (the artist whose art inspired Tales from the Loop) is, so it could be an issue there too, and maybe for Mutant Year Zero (I believe they were originally licensing it from Paradox, but they might have bought it outright now).

 

[Retreater]

4e wasn't ONLY its digital tools subscription

Correct. But there is a lot of official content you can't get anymore that was only available on the subscription. The system itself was designed to be "unwieldy" if not partnered with the digital tools.

If a bunch of OSR players want to start playing 4e they can gain access to 4e physical materials relatively cheaply.

Maybe (though the cost has been going up significantly). But they can't play it. Not effectively, anyway. It's not supported on any VTT. All of the tools have been shut down. Even the website was created with Silverlight, which can't be used on computers anymore.

The fear that services like Foundry will turn off support for vtt content of out of print editions is valid I guess, but the number of out of print editions that still get supported would tend to indicate otherwise.

I guess there could be a fan module of "something like" WFRP created in that event. But GW could take down all the modules I've purchased, and my campaign would cease to exist. The only thing that would remain would be a blank page that would allow me to use a dice bot.

If I have PDFs, they last as long as I have my computer. If the PDFs are ever pulled I cannot re-download them. That's been known to happen. But it's still more reliable than a subscription service where you have to sign into a paid account to read the game books you have purchased.
Maybe it will be here in a year, maybe not. Maybe you have to purchase everything again because your group is moving to a different service. Maybe your subscription to DND Beyond won't be needed because you've started playing PF2, but you lose access to your 5e collection.
It's not a good future ahead of us. It's something I've been very involved with in my day job as a librarian for a decade now.

 

[dirtypool]

I very much doubt they'd remove access to stuff they've directly licensed. For instance, I don't see support for Pathfinder 1st ed going away from any of the VTTs any time soon. The problem could be when you're dealing with second-degree licensing. For example, Cubicle 7 is producing Warhammer 4e under license from GW. That license has an expiration date. Once Cubicle 7 loses the Warhammer license, so does Roll20, Foundry, and whatever other VTTs that have licensed it from them.

It doesn't seem likely that they would turn off support for the existing product that was purchased through the service. Yes, they won't sell new content, but the virtual tool assets created while Cubicle 7 has the license are likely to remain available for customers who have already purchased them.