Jd Smith1
Hero
I'm on my third year-long campaign online using non-D&D systems, and Roll20 has been great.
How VTT Automation Exacerbates D&D Market Control
Okay. Congratualtions. I am legitimately happy that you have enjoyed that. But I am not sure if your anecdote says anything about the larger trend.
Jd Smith1
Hero
From the public games and forums discussions on both Roll20 and Reddit, Roll20 has a lot of smaller-press games being played. 5e does constitute the majority, of course, but I believe that online gaming will strengthen those small-press games and settings which adapt to the VTT scene.
I believe that the F2F scene is going to become increasingly dominated by 5e, in the long run, which is a shame, but numbers tell.
The problem with such observations is that they are conversation stoppers, it is a bit like the observation that it is raining. One agrees or not and moves on.
I do wonder if it is a new axis or merely an extension of an existing one. Probably a bit of both. As, I suspect that a percentage of, "I will not play Pathfinder because there is insufficient automation", is not materially different from I will not play "Not D&D".
May be or may be not. A lot depends on how DM friendly that VTT is going to be. I expect it to be really good for DM's and groups that run and play official adventures and adventure paths. I will be pleasantly surprised if it is friendly to DM's that homebrew or houserule extensively.
This will force the third party VTT vendors to step up or get better at supporting Not D&D. I think that the third party VTT market will go the VTT that best supports homebrewing and system agnostic automation.
In my specific case, there is a difference. The player in question is fine with playing Pathfinder, if we can find a VTT that has the same degree of automation in both building and using the character in play that 5E enjoys. For this player, it isn't about wanting to exclusively play D&D, but wanting the same technical experience.
This is kind of interesting. I run and play D&D on FG and enjoy the experience and the level of automation, I have gotten somewhat competent in creating my own automation for stuff that FG does not support out of the box. But I am perfectly willing to play D&D on Roll20. Now, admittedly with D&Dbeyond doing a lot of the automation and Beyond20 supplying it to the VTT. But it is not as good at FGU's automation out of the box.
I wonder would they still be willing to play PF face to face with pen paper and arithmetic?
This person absolutely will not play any RPG in person anymore. One of the many post-Covid shut-ins.
Oh! Wow! I get it. I think that being a shut in has health risks of its own but I am not about to argue with your friend or with you on the topic, but it does beg the question, will the rise of VTT play result in people refusing the face to face experience if the face to face game does not provide similar automation tooling as VTT play?
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