D&D (2024) New leak looks real bad

[innerdude]

Here's what $30 a month looks like in terms of content.

• Full digital access to every book released for D&DUno.
• 2 hardcover copies per year of D&DUno books you select.
• A huge selection of prerendered 3d figures inside the VTT.
• Access to a selection of 3d model files to 3d print your own minis at home.
• A massive library (30+) of prerendered adventures in the VTT, including all 3d locations in each scenario. New adventures added quarterly.
• A large library of music and sound effects tracks.
• 50 gb of your own online storage for everything.
• An online web campaign tracker that fully integrates notes into scenes in the VTT.
• Every 2d map they've ever produced in digital format.
• A highly refined homebrew scenario builder, including 3d mapmaker.
• Customized digital dice of every conceivable color and texture.
• Premium discounts to partner conventions (GenCon, Pax, etc.).
• Access to "AI GM" mode.
• Exclusive access to "collector's item" physical minis, merch, etc., that is only available to subscribers.
• Discount vouchers to lots of media (movies, streaming services).

I'll never GM D&D again in my lifetime, but I could maybe see myself paying for something like that for a year if someone else was GM-ing.

The trick to it is they just flood you with potential content, when in reality you'll never consume more than 20 percent of the overall offering, but there's enough there, "there" that it feels like a good deal.

 

[The Stray]

The OGL is minor in comparison to getting rid of physicals books which they already stated they have no intention of doing.

Uh-huh. Hey, Dipper! How much is WotC's word worth right now?

 

[Haplo781]

Here's what $30 a month looks like in terms of content.

• Full digital access to every book released for D&DUno.
• 2 hardcover copies per year of D&DUno books you select.
• A huge selection of prerendered 3d figures inside the VTT.
• Access to a selection of 3d model files to 3d print your own minis at home.
• A massive library (30+) of prerendered adventures in the VTT, including all 3d locations in each scenario. New adventures added quarterly.
• A large library of music and sound effects tracks.
• 50 gb of your own online storage for everything.
• An online web campaign tracker that fully integrates notes into scenes in the VTT.
• Every 2d map they've ever produced in digital format.
• A highly refined homebrew scenario builder, including 3d mapmaker.
• Customized digital dice of every conceivable color and texture.
• Premium discounts to partner conventions (GenCon, Pax, etc.).
• Access to "AI GM" mode.
• Exclusive access to "collector's item" physical minis, merch, etc., that is only available to subscribers.
• Discount vouchers to lots of media (movies, streaming services).

I'll never GM D&D again in my lifetime, but I could maybe see myself paying for something like that for a year if someone else was GM-ing.

The trick to it is they just flood you with potential content, when in reality you'll never consume more than 20 percent of the overall offering, but there's enough there, "there" that it feels like a good deal.

You'll get maybe 5 of those.

 

[innerdude]

You'll get maybe 5 of those.

I think the premium tier will be closer to that than not. Truthfully, once you've got the core VTT up and running, extending its capabilities and adding new content becomes a breeze.

It may not look like that at launch, but it'll be something close to that a year post launch.

Because if it doesn't, it'll fail spectacularly, because the value won't be there.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Uh-huh. Hey, Dipper! How much is WotC's word worth right now?

View attachment 272945

To you.

Them doing the OGL 1.1 was not breaking any promise they made in my opinion. A bunch of you just decided that.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

That's not how I remember it. I am certain that it was talked about during the lead-up to 5e. And I am not sure what you mean by "they started doing this". Do you mean the Dragonlance "bundle"? That is a different thing than buying a book and getting a PDF for free.

No they never said anything about Digital Bundles at the start, they did not even have a digital store when it was first launched.

Dragonlance was just the first bundle being done. And no it's not the same as buying book and PDF free. But you can now buy them together and that was previously not something you could do.

 

[Staffan]

To you.

Them doing the OGL 1.1 was not breaking any promise they made in my opinion. A bunch of you just decided that.

OGL 1.1 is not in itself breaking a promise. Trying to "unauthorize" 1.0(a) is. Regardless of the legal meaning of "perpetual" vs "irrevocable", representatives of the company swore up and down that 1.0(a) was a safe harbor and nothing could ever take that away. They also tried to gaslight us when they said that the OGL was only ever meant for making support material for D&D, when the original license said nothing of the sort, and representatives of the company said it could be used for all sorts of things.

 

[Charlaquin]

To you.

Them doing the OGL 1.1 was not breaking any promise they made in my opinion. A bunch of you just decided that.

Their own FAQ has said for the past two decades that if they change the OGL in a way you don’t like, you can keep using the previous version. The majority of 3rd party publishers would never have started publishing D&D content in the first place if they hadn’t believed that was true.

 

[humble minion]

OGL 1.1 is not in itself breaking a promise. Trying to "unauthorize" 1.0(a) is. Regardless of the legal meaning of "perpetual" vs "irrevocable", representatives of the company swore up and down that 1.0(a) was a safe harbor and nothing could ever take that away. They also tried to gaslight us when they said that the OGL was only ever meant for making support material for D&D, when the original license said nothing of the sort, and representatives of the company said it could be used for all sorts of things.

Yep.

If they'd just left 1.0a and announced that 5.5e was to be released under a new OGL - even one as awful, venal, and exploitative as 1.1 - there would have been much less anger in the past fortnight, and probably a bunch of publishers would have hedged their bets and at the very least started planning for 5.5 just in case it was a huge hit. Hell, even Paizo have caved to market forces and started releasing a trickle of 5e material in the past years, such is the market dominance 5e has.

1.1 was a non-starter for a variety of well-documented reasons, but if it had been just a bit more acceptable, even a quite restrictive 1.0b might have been a goer in the 3pp community if WotC had locked 5.5 to it and not released a 5.5 SRD under 1.0a. Publishers WOULD have moved to it, if the community had. They'd have followed the money, even if unwillingly. 1.0a would have still hung around, but it slowly would have withered on the vine if the current D&D edition wasn't supported.

But they had to try to have their cake and eat it too. They overstepped so far in the drafting of 1.1 that they made moving to 1.1/5.5 literally impossible for 3pps rather than just uninviting, and they alienated the community in the process. And they left no option for the 3pps other than to make as loud a noise as they could, because if 1.0a dies quietly, then so do their businesses. When people's backs are against the wall, they fight like rabid quolls. By trying to strongarm people into OGL 1.1 and D&D 5.5, WotC only succeeded in alienating people from both.

 

[Echohawk]

A reply from Fantasy Grounds Academy to the initial tweet from Hos - Dungeon Scribe seems to indicate that "AI" was supposed to be "AL", meaning "Adventurers League" so that bullet should be read as "Stripped down gameplay for Adventurers League DMs".

I have no idea how or why Fantasy Grounds Academy would know that "AI" was supposed to be "AL". I have no idea if either tweet has any bearing in fact. However, "Adventurers League DMs" seems (to me) to make slightly more contextual sense than "Artificial Intelligence DMs".