Roll20 Purchases Demiplane

Following on from the news that Demiplane's Adam Bradford had been hired by Fantasy Grounds, it turns out that Demiplane itself has been purchased by Roll20! Demiplane is an online TTRPG tools suite and character builder which seeks to do for some game systems what D&D Beyond does for Dungeons & Dragons.

Roll20 is the most popular of the many virtual tabletops (VTTs), and merged with DriveThruRPG last year.

Ankit Lal, Roll20's CEO spoke to ComicBook.com about the deal, describing how the goal was to make a use experience where people both purchase games and then play them--mich like WotC's goals with D&D Beyond. Notably, Adam Bradford was also one of the founders of D&D Beyond, and left when it was purchased by Wizards of the Coast. Building tabletop gaming platforms and then selling them seems to be a lucrative business! Of course, Fantasy Grounds is a major competitor to Roll20.

Roll20, along with DTRPG and now Demiplane will have a marketplace, a virtual tabletop, and an online rules/tools suite for some games. Demiplane's Peter Romensko particularly called out Pathfinder and Daggerheart.

You can read more of what Ankit Lal said at ComicBook.com.

 

[MNblockhead]

That isn't quite right. There is an effort cost in trying to comprehend a new platform/program at the same time as trying to understand a new ruleset.

An example is Pathfinder 2E. I really wanted to learn to run it, and although I knew it was generally considered better implemented on Foundry than FG, I chose to buy it on FG because at least I knew how the program worked.

Fair enough. The fact that Cubicle7 had a well developed WFRP4e game system for Foundry was a major factor in my decision to run this system when I was looking for a change of pace from 5e.

 

[Reynard]

Fair enough. The fact that Cubicle7 had a well developed WFRP4e game system for Foundry was a major factor in my decision to run this system when I was looking for a change of pace from 5e.

And you had to learn Foundry at the same time?

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

If R20 had a better 5e character sheet/builder, that would be epic. I wonder if DemiPlane can deliver on that?

I use the Beyond20 extension, and it syncs up everything between D&D Beyond and Roll20 with all the features to roll on your character sheet and have it sent to the tabletop, including being able to send spell statblocks. Also easily rolls with advantage and disadvantage.

Just a suggestion. I know DDB isn't for everyone.

 

[MNblockhead]

And you had to learn Foundry at the same time?

No. And that was a plus in my decision making. I had been running D&D in Foundry for about 5 years.

I was originally planning on running DCC Dying Earth, but there are no VTTs that have a DCC system with the new Dying Earth rules and tables. I hate having to look up roll-tables on paper, especially when we are not all sitting around a table in person and I didn't want to spend a bunch of time doing data entry and coding to probably only have the system half-baked in Foundry.

I was about to just run D&D again using only D&D Beyond with the new Maps feature, but then I looked at Warhammer Fantasy 4e and got hit with nostalgia (I ran WFRP games back in the late 80s). Then I saw that Cubicle7 had a game system plus most of their content available for Foundry. I bought the game system and core rule book for Foundry and was very impressed. I was burned out on wrangling with Foundry to run D&D in it and was just tired of testing mods and constantly tweaking and never having thing work how I wanted. Having an officially supported game system that actually worked very well, that had a lot of thought put into it, with lots of helpful features was a breath of fresh air and made me enjoy Foundry again when I was ready to put it on ice.

When approaching a game I want to run, I don't start with the VTT. I start with the game I want to run. I'll use the VTT that has the best support for that game. It will likely be one or two years before I run D&D again. If I like the 2024 rules and if the WotC VTT is out and works the way I want it, I'll happily put Foundry on ice and use the WotC VTT. If I don't like the WotC VTT, I'll compare Fantasy Grounds, Roll20, and Foundry. I have more faith in the Fantasy Ground team to get the automations right than Foundry. With all the recent Roll20 news, I'll be keeping my eye on it as well. I've just never enjoy running crunchier games in Roll20, though I really like it as a player. But I'm picky. If the implementation is clunky in all the VTTs, I'll just run my game in DDB with its Maps feature.

 

[MNblockhead]

I use the Beyond20 extension, and it syncs up everything between D&D Beyond and Roll20 with all the features to roll on your character sheet and have it sent to the tabletop, including being able to send spell statblocks. Also easily rolls with advantage and disadvantage.

Just a suggestion. I know DDB isn't for everyone.

Foundry (and IIRC Fantasy Grounds) have similar mods/features for synchronizing DDB content. For me, what VTT I use if/when I run D&D again will be mostly based on how well the software supports the rule mechanics.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I use the Beyond20 extension, and it syncs up everything between D&D Beyond and Roll20 with all the features to roll on your character sheet and have it sent to the tabletop, including being able to send spell statblocks. Also easily rolls with advantage and disadvantage.

Just a suggestion. I know DDB isn't for everyone.

Oh, that's like a Chrome extension?
One of my players does use it, and I think he likes it - it's pretty seamless

 

[Nine Hands]

So, wait a minute. Has anyone thought about what happens with D&D material you bought for Roll20? Could that lead to D&D material being ported to Demiplane?

I cannot see WotC being down with that.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Oh also, there's this I just saw come over the wire (earlier today apparently)

Roll20's New D&D Character Sheet Enters Alpha in June - Roll20 Blog

Get early access to Roll20's new D&D character sheet and builder.

blog.roll20.net

 

[UngainlyTitan]

So, wait a minute. Has anyone thought about what happens with D&D material you bought for Roll20? Could that lead to D&D material being ported to Demiplane?

Probably

I cannot see WotC being down with that.

Why would they not be down with it. What does it matter to them where the sale is made, a sale is a sale as long as they get their cut.

 

[Nebulous]

If R20 had a better 5e character sheet/builder, that would be epic. I wonder if DemiPlane can deliver on that?

They're currently about to roll out the Alpha I think for their revised 5e sheet. It's going to be compatible for DnD 2024.