D&D General Kobold Press Going Down a Dark Road

[mamba]

Kobold Press does seem to be pushing a weird "OneD&D isn't backwards compatible, while we are" narrative, which...seems to require not having read either set of playtests to conclude.

To me it is more a '5e is going away, so if you are switching anyway, why not go Black Flag rather than 1DD'

 

[Umbran]

Oh, marketing. You're so full of innuendo that sounds like an issue but isn't.

And by the way, the 5.1 SRD is out under Creative Commons, so if there's a demand for those out-of-print books, you can get the bulk of that content for free in PDF form, and someone can go ahead and put them in print if they want...

 

[Burnside]

Kobold Press does seem to be pushing a weird "OneD&D isn't backwards compatible, while we are" narrative, which...seems to require not having read either set of playtests to conclude.

I think they're in a tough spot. When WotC put the 5E SRD into Creative Commons, the truth is that for a lot of folks Black Flag went from "must have, D&D replacement urgently needed" to "nice to have, another 5E variant". The weeks of OGLGate led, one would assume, to some of Kobold Press's biggest sales numbers ever.

But Black Flag now feels...defanged by the Creative Commons move. And frankly, the ORC even more so. Like, if things can just go into Creative Commons, do we need the ORC? I understand KP's instinct to try to keep what was a real movement alive but...WotC not only capitulated but went even further than everyone was expecting. It's hard to keep being the scrappy rebel when the thing you were rebelling against just abruptly stopped fighting you.

 

[Burnside]

Oh, marketing. You're so full of innuendo that sounds like an issue but isn't.

And by the way, the 5.1 SRD is out under Creative Commons, so if there's a demand for those out-of-print books, someone can go ahead and print them...

The...5E core rulebooks are not covered by the SRD.

 

[Parmandur]

To me it is more a '5e is going away, so if you are switching anyway, why not go Black Flag rather than 1DD'

But that's the thing, neither is really a "switch" at all. OneD&D is just 5E with some revisions, and Black Flag looks to be usable with older material as well. If anything, the recent decisions like "everyone gets a Talent AND and ASI" shift the math around to make Black Flag much more of a change in practice.

 

[Parmandur]

I think they're in a tough spot. When WotC put the 5E into Creatice Commons, the truth is that for a lot of folks Black Flag went from "must have, D&D replacement urgently needed" to "nice to have, another 5E variant". The weeks of OGLGate led one would assume to some of Kobold Press's biggest sales numbers ever.

But Black Flag now feels...defanged by the Creative Commons move. And frankly, the ORC even more so. Like, if things can just go into Creative Commons, do we need the ORC? I understand KP's instinct to try to keep what was a real movement alive but...WotC not only capitulated but went even further than everyone was expecting. It's hard to keep being the scrappy rebel when the thing you were rebelling against just abruptly stopped fighting you.

More than just the Creative C9mmons move, as OneD&D tests roll out it has become clear that Black Flag cannot be the Pathfinder of 5E...because there isn't rook to tack more compatible and conservative, short of what M. T. Black did with his handbook.

 

[Alzrius]

And by the way, the 5.1 SRD is out under Creative Commons, so if there's a demand for those out-of-print books, you can get the bulk of that content for free in PDF form, and someone can go ahead and put them in print if they want...

The 5.1 SRD can hardly be called "the bulk" of the D&D 5E Core Rules.

 

[Burnside]

More than just the Creative C9mmons move, as OneD&D tests roll out it has become clear that Black Flag cannot be the Pathfinder of 5E...because there isn't rook to tack more compatible and conservative, short of what M. T. Black did with his handbook.

I think the Pathfinder of OneD&D is just gonna be 5E itself, with people using the SRD to put stuff on DriveThruRPG & elsewhere.

Which tbh I think was one of the main reasons WotC wanted to kill the 5E SRD. OneD&D's biggest competition is going to be 5E - and thanks to OGL-gate, people who just want to keep playing 5E will be robustly supported in terms of 3rd party adventures and supplements.

 

[Umbran]

The...5E core rulebooks are not overed by the SRD.

Not every word is present, but the bulk of the game material is there.

 

[Shardstone]

This is in the running for the most overdramatic thread title on this forum.