D&D (2024) New leak looks real bad

[raniE]

Also, Beyond has 8 million subscribers now. Though they are not paying these rates or possibly any

I think it's actually up to 14 million isn't it?

Pretty sure those numbers are for total users, not subscribers. I had an account, but no subscription.

 

[Greg Benage]

Can’t get get those for free. If I want to watch Game of ThronesI have to sub HBO.

Somewhere at the Wizards of the Coast severance facility, a worker just moved your icon into the "will only pay a sub for D&D if forced to" bucket.

 

[Remathilis]

D&D Beyond releases this update alongside the OGL 1.1/2/2.5/One OGL/Etc. Whether you sign up for DDB or not, OGL 1.0 gets de-authorized by Wizards.

So what does that have to do with D&D Beyond? Everything else is (assumedly) Beyond related. 1.0a is OGL 1.x related. It doesn't seem to connect to the rest of the list except to add another "WotC bad" bullet point and confuse the issue.

I can walk and chew gum. I can argue about the OGL and beyond's pricing model separately.

 

[Steampunkette]

So what does that have to do with D&D Beyond? Everything else is (assumedly) Beyond related. 1.0a is OGL 1.x related. It doesn't seem to connect to the rest of the list except to add another "WotC bad" bullet point and confuse the issue.

I can walk and chew gum. I can argue about the OGL and beyond's pricing model separately.

Because they're probably going to include language that any Homebrew you add to your DDB becomes part of a "Homebrew Library" that everyone can access and you get no cash from. Turning your labor (Both in creating Homebrew and integrating it into the DDB system) into free value for Wizards.

Oh, they'll never use the "Irrevocable, World Wide, Non-Exclusive, Royalty Free" line in the new OGL. But any Homebrew you add to the library will be part of it, forever, and an incentive for other people to sign up to the higher tiers so they can use your homebrew and make Wizards more money.

Honestly. That's probably part of -why- the royalty free licensing stuff was in 1.1 in the first place.

 

[Ibrandul]

I'm still confused how "deauthorize 1.0a" figures into this leak about D&D Beyond.

Steampunkette has the right of it, but I think there's even more to it. (Edit to add: They don't need to revoke 1.0a in order to do what Steampunkette suggests, because they will control the terms for content on their own VTT regardless of what the OGL says.)

I've been arguing since early last week that deauthorizing 1.0a is all about making sure "One D&D" really is one D&D.

A lot of groups are going to want to stick with 5e rather than adopt the 1D&D ruleset.

Despite the purported backwards compatibility, that creates a jumping-off point of sorts for new WotC products that WotC wants to discourage people from taking. Shutting down creators' incentive to sell new 3rd-party content for 5e is a key part of their strategy for blocking this off-ramp.

I'm also convinced that once the current "custom agreements" between WotC and existing VTTs expire, they will not be renewed (assuming WotC's VTT is active at that point). At that point those platforms could continue to provide SRD-based 5e automation, allowing groups to continue with their preferred edition of the game on those platforms rather than switch to WotC's VTT.

WotC has likely concluded that they must stop this by destroying 1.0a, thus meaning that while you can still play 5e on those platforms, the platforms won't be able to provide you with preloaded spells, monsters, classes, etc. This is why I predict they will never back down on deauthorizing 1.0a: they believe 1.0a is an existential threat to the transformed business model they envision for the brand.

 

[Velderan]

Because they're probably going to include language that any Homebrew you add to your DDB becomes part of a "Homebrew Library" that everyone can access and you get no cash from. Turning your labor (Both in creating Homebrew and integrating it into the DDB system) into free value for Wizards.

Oh, they'll never use the "Irrevocable, World Wide, Non-Exclusive, Royalty Free" line in the new OGL. But any Homebrew you add to the library will be part of it, forever, and an incentive for other people to sign up to the higher tiers so they can use your homebrew and make Wizards more money.

Honestly. That's probably part of -why- the royalty free licensing stuff was in 1.1 in the first place.

We know this for sure? Because currently I can create homebrew content and then decide to either make it private or publish it for anyone to use. You're saying 100% there won't be an option to keep your homebrew content set to private?

 

[Remathilis]

Because they're probably going to include language that any Homebrew you add to your DDB becomes part of a "Homebrew Library" that everyone can access and you get no cash from.

You mean like now. That's how "now" works. You make something on D&D Beyond, you can share it with the whole community. For free. And if you have a subscription, you can use any homebrew that the community has shared. At worst, the new tier will remove the custom homebrew you make yourself from the free tier.

 

[Mistwell]

Heck no.

Point 2 is what I was paying $60/year for with a Master sub, except my players didn't need a paid account. So if we consider the total cost to me and four players, that's $600/year -- a $540 increase.

Point 1 is not worth anywhere near $540/year to me.

I mean it's expected people will be willing to pay something for a VTT the believe to be meaningfully superior to anything else out there.

 

[Reynard]

All of this is why these sorts of vague, partial, unverified leaks are bad: people just spin out their own theories and narratives with nothing but hunches and feelings to go on. It is counterproductive.

 

[Horwath]

Dang, you manage to get a Twilight Imperium game in every other week? You must have a very dedicated group.

DND group is 6 players + DM, then when we cannot get all together, we try to do TI.
And it helps that you can play TI with 3 players(not recommended) if that is all you can find available.