D&D General NFTs Are Here To Ruin Dungeons & Dragons

[Dannyalcatraz]

Somewhere, a cryptobro's google alert just went off.

 

[humble minion]

Hello everyone,

My name is Stephen, and I am the Lead Game Designer at GRIPNR LLC. I just wanted to poke my head in here and clear up some misconceptions. Don't worry. I'm not here to evangelize NFTs or crypto to you. I know people have strong opinions about technology, much of which I understand. And believe me, when the folks at GRIPNR first approached me, I came in with a healthy dose of skepticism.

For those of you who don't know me and my work, I started working in the TTRPG sphere in 2000 as the editorial assistant for the RPGA in Wizards of the Coast's Organized Play division. From there, I administered the Living Greyhawk, Living Force, and D&D Campaigns organized play programs before joining R&D as a developer for Dungeons & Dragons and Star Wars Saga Edition. In 2011, I joined Paizo, where I was a designer for Pathfinder (first edition) and Starfinder, and then the Senior Designer for Pathfinder Second Edition. I left Paizo in 2019 for a variety of reasons. Over the past few years, I've been working on my own roleplaying game, Delve Roleplaying, and doing freelance work for various companies in the TTRPG (including Paizo--you can find my work in most of the major Pathfinder 2nd Edition releases in the Abomination Vaults adventure path, and I still design most of the Pathfinder Flip-Mats and Flip-Tiles) and computer games industry. I joined GRIPNR in December of last year.

Did crypto bros beguile me? Far from it. I was impressed with the people I encountered who were already on the team. Brent and Patrick had a fantastic clarity of vision, a love for roleplaying games, and some innovative ideas on how GRIPNR could benefit game creators in a way that is sorely lacking in the current TTRPG industry. I've worked full-time at the two major TTRPG for nearly 20 years. And let me tell you, I have seen some naughty word in that span. Some of the things I've seen and dealt with were included in the Paizo employee's decision to unionize this year. In short, TTRPG companies have a terrible habit of not treating their creatives well.

GRIPNR, in my assessment, after working with this beautiful, professional, extremely ethical, and amazingly talented team, has been a breath of fresh air. It's been the best working experience I have had in my 22 years in the business. It lacks the strange fear and loathing rife in other TTRPG companies. So wherever your imagination leads you to believe about the company, let me tell you, you're dead wrong. Here are some points I would like to clear up.

1) Neither I, nor the other designers working on the project (and yes, there are others, and there will be even more in the near future, and the names on that list will surprise you), are being paid in cryptocurrency. The rates at GRIPNR for creative work are some of the best in the gaming industry. And I should know because I worked at those places.

2) We are not stealing anyone's artwork. The artists we have working on the project are some of the best in the business, and I'm constantly impressed by their dedication to their craft, technical know-how, and unique creativity and talent. I am a stickler for all aspects of intellectual property rights, and we have a major IP law firm that reviews our stuff for compliance.

3) We are creating rules and stories using the 5e OGL and SRD. Working with the OGL and SRD, I know what we can and cannot do better than almost anyone else, and I'm confident folks will enjoy what we are putting together. And you know what? You can check it out and even play using some or all of those rules without procuring a single NFT.

4) The NFTs we are creating will be something not seen in the space before. The organized play for the system will be robust, interactive, and a hell of a lot of fun. Their functionality and art will blow people away.

5) Contrary to what you have read in the article, we are very concerned with fraud and are creating protocols to confront and squash it before it starts. Our tech team is one of the best in the business.

6) I am not a bro, nor have I ever been.

Thank you for readin

Ok. I’ll bite.

Is there anything - anything at all - that GRIPNR plans to use NFTs for that could not be done perfectly well with a conventional database and a subscription/membership model with a tiny fraction of the energy usage?

 

[LongTimeLurker]

Somewhere, a cryptobro's google alert just went off.

"Oh no," He thinks, "A forum doesn't thin positively of crypto! That could affect the worth of my link to an image of a procedurally generated woman labeled as my girlfriend! (yes, really) I must go forth the educate them on how selling procedurally generated images and taking advantage of impoverished people with play-to-earn games is good actually!"

He is on his way right now.

Go home sir. Go home to your ape and your frosty; your cryptopunk and your gigachad, and your weird island with a casino in a country that prohibits gambling that your DAO couldn't actually buy and your rapping econ major who stole billions of dollars and somehow felt a $500 Walmart card was a priority to buy and not something other than a baggie marked 'burner phone' to hide her burner phone in.

if i could give you 1000 hearts I would. Literally the very next post you are vindicated.

 

[LongTimeLurker]

Hello everyone,

My name is Stephen...

Thank you for reading this.

Where's the value add? why would i possibly purchase this? what can "crypto" do for me that i can't get from a virtual table top or just playing live with people i know? someone's backstory? what happens to the value of the NFTs when your company goes bankrupt and there's no longer a "robust", "interactive" or "functional" organized play system?

edit: Because that's where the "value" for the NFTs comes from, right? the organized play system? cause anyone can just roll up a, say, 5th level cleric and equip them with anything they want and then go and play d&d with their group.

what happens the the value of my NFT-PC with the "rare" ancestry if it dies on one of the adventures i purchased using my OPAL cryptocurrency?

I lived the the dot.com bubble bust of 2008ish and bro, you sound exactly like all those evangelists who insisted that they were the next big thing. and then, like Keyser Soze, poof they were gone...

 

[BRayne]

Somewhere, a cryptobro's google alert just went off.

"Oh no," He thinks, "A forum doesn't thin positively of crypto! That could affect the worth of my link to an image of a procedurally generated woman labeled as my girlfriend! (yes, really) I must go forth the educate them on how selling procedurally generated images and taking advantage of impoverished people with play-to-earn games is good actually!"

He is on his way right now.

Go home sir. Go home to your ape and your frosty; your cryptopunk and your gigachad, and your weird island with a casino in a country that prohibits gambling that your DAO couldn't actually buy and your rapping econ major who stole billions of dollars and somehow felt a $500 Walmart card was a priority to buy and not something other than a baggie marked 'burner phone' to hide her burner phone in.

 

[Mort]

Where's the value add? why would i possibly purchase this? what can "crypto" do for me that i can't get from a virtual table top or just playing live with people i know? someone's backstory? what happens to the value of the NFTs when your company goes bankrupt and there's no longer a "robust", "interactive" or "functional" organized play system?

edit: Because that's where the "value" for the NFTs comes from, right? the organized play system? cause anyone can just roll up a, say, 5th level cleric and equip them with anything they want and then go and play d&d with their group.

what happens the the value of my NFT-PC with the "rare" ancestry if it dies on one of the adventures i purchased using my OPAL cryptocurrency?

I lived the the dot.com bubble bust of 2008ish and bro, you sound exactly like all those evangelists who insisted that they were the next big thing. and then, like Keyser Soze, poof they were gone...

To be fair, the poster is a creative who is saying the company has been good to work for (as opposed to Paizo for ex.).

He's not really commenting on the NFT angle. From his perspective, if they're offering him good money and a good work environment to be creative and to produce creative content then that's a win. And it speaks well of a company if/when they treat their employees well!

Notice, he's not really commenting on the business model, which I still can't see any upside (from a customer perspective).

 

[darjr]

Deflect and distract.

 

[giant.robot]

Notice, he's not really commenting on the business model, which I still can't see any upside (from a customer perspective).

If you work for a company that shoots kittens out of canons it doesn't matter how nice they are to work with. At the end of the day their business model is shooting kittens out of canons.

NFTs are a rent seeking cancer.

 

[Delve SRM]

Strangely, I have never worked for a company that shoots kittens out of canons. But thank you for your feedback.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Soooo, never worked for Outpost.com, then.