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

[Charlaquin]

So, let's review:

Author of article writes about Gripnr, a project somehow involving blockchain/NFT's and 5e. How this will work and what it will do? The author has no idea as the company isn't prepared to release the details of its plans yet. So most of the article is rampant speculation and outright supposition, where the author describes a business model she just makes up out of whole cloth -- because she doesn't actually know a goddamned thing about it.

The author then engages in rampant speculation about the project, makes naughty word up about what it does and doesn't do -- and then some here quote it as gospel. This is why we have laws about commercial libel and why it is highly actionable.

Same author LIBELS the company and LIES about how the company's employees are being paid -- and as that fits into your pre-conceived notion of this all being a grift, many here lap it up.

The Lead Designer, who I've known for many years as an ethical and remarkably outspoken RPG designer, posts here in response. He says No, they are not paying me in NFTs - they are paying me in dollars and very well, too, thank-you-very-much.

He tells you he has been a senior designer at both WotC and Paizo. 3.x, 4e, Star Wars: SAGA, PF1 and PF2? He's had a major hand in every one of the designs of those games (some or all of which we have all played) and he says the company behind Gripnr is legit and treats its employees well and pays them well, too -- and he's not making a grift, he's making a RPG based on the 5e SRD, details to follow.

Some then attack the designer for not disclosing, you know, FACTS about the game which haven't been released yet, nor about the business model and how NFT applies to it. Not that the lack of facts seemed to have disturbed them in the least in the preceding 5 pages of comments.

o_0

If you are a right-thinking person, you should be shaking your head right now by page 6 of this naughty word thread.

Look, do I think NFTs are almost entirely a scam? Yes I do. Do I think crypto is, similarly, almost entirely a misplaced used of technology that should actively be regulated into oblivion? Yes I do. Does that mean Gripnr falls within that same arena. Likely, yes. Not because of the people involved, but in spite of them.

That's the nature of blockchain in the current milieu, but it is not inevitable that must be so. Because of SRM's involvement, I will keep an open mind, for now.

For God's sakes, let them finish the design of the actual product, and let those details roll out before you judge it. All the rest is just vicious sophistry masquerading as informed critique.

It’s NFTs. I don’t care how nice the people at the company are or what their business model is, they’re shilling tech that is nothing but poison. They threw away any hope of goodwill they may have had when they decided to mine tomorrow to sell imaginary tokens that say “dibs” on them.

 

[Remathilis]

I mean, selling NFTs is kind of raping the planet…

Not to defend NFTs here, but so can a lot of other things we take for granted. While the environmental aspect shouldn't be ignored, this kind of rhetoric doesn't really help the cause.

 

[Mort]

Setting the NFT angle aside for a moment -

The model here seems to be:

Buy a character for approx $300.00;
Play the character to a higher level and acquire items etc. to "add value";
Sell the character for profit.

I can't see spending that much on a "new" character regardless, but I would think a "used" character would be worth less not more!

Sure the "used" character is higher level, but that just means there are less adventures they can potentially go on, every extra level is less use you can get out of the character!

I suppose, from a collector's mentality high level characters are worth more because of "rarity" and if you can get someone to pay $300 for a 1st level character, the sky is the limit for a character close to 20?

Another weird concern: for the kind of money they're asking - the adventures would have to be cakewalks! who wants to pay THAT much for a character only to have them get killed off?

Unless of course, they actually find people where that's the alure, the adventures are meatgrinders, people pay gobs of money (or pay other people who have gone through the meatgrinders and survived) to get a high level character as some kind of point of pride. Human nature has seen stranger things.

Can't see this happening, but I guess you don't ask for it you don't get it?

For me, even without the NFT angle, I'm having a pretty hard time with this business model - as seen so far.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I mean, selling NFTs is kind of raping the planet…

Raping the planet is certainly not a good thing. However, that is figure of speech, not an actual act of sexual violence, unlike those involved with #MeToo. I find it seriously disturbing that I've had to point out essentially this same distinction multiple times in this thread.

 

[Charlaquin]

I'm not on board with all the hostility here. I mean, I think it's a silly idea. But lots of people think BC and NFTs are the coolest things ever, absent malice, so I don't find it surprising...again, just misguided...that somebody is trying to combine them with D&D. It doesn't mean they are evil.

If they’re not evil, they’re fools who have been duped by evil people, which in practical terms isn’t meaningfully different.

 

[CleverNickName]

This isn't a new idea. We can buy pregen characters for D&D 5E right now.

Wizards of the Coast is selling pregen characters for D&D 5E on DM's Guild. They are packaged as a single character concept (such as a wood elf ranger) at 1st thru 10th level. In other words, one 1st level wood elf ranger, that same ranger at 2nd level, then 3rd, etc. The asking price is $0.00. One character at ten different levels, for free.

They are only slightly more expensive if you are asking for pregen characters that are ready for import into VTT systems. A FantasyGrounds-compatible download of a dragonborn sorcerer, which contains 10 .XML files for the same character at 10 different levels of experience is available for $0.00, with the option to "pay what you want" and a suggested price of $1.00. Ten characters in a proprietary digital format, also for free...but with a tiny amount of social pressure to make a $1 donation.

I don't see this idea catching on. At all.

 

[CleverNickName]

Could we stop with the r#pe and MeToo rhetoric, please? There are better ways to make your point.

 

[Charlaquin]

Not to defend NFTs here, but so can a lot of other things we take for granted. While the environmental aspect shouldn't be ignored, this kind of rhetoric doesn't really help the cause.

The difference here is that NFTs do it harder and for no utility.

 

[darjr]

This has gone from a horrible game idea to a laughing stock. And still a grift.

 

[Charlaquin]

Re: “What if the character you paid money for dies?”

You get someone to cast Raise Dead on them. Obviously. It’s still a terrible business model, but I don’t think this particular critique is as incisive as people are making it out to be.