SmiteWorks Hires D&D Beyond Founder as Chief Development Officer of Fantasy Grounds

SmiteWorks, owner of the Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop, announced today that they hired Adam Bradford as their Chief Development Officer. Bradford was the founder of D&D Beyond, before leaving to join Demiplane, a generic D&D Beyond-style platform aimed at some game systems.

SmiteWorks USA, LLC, the developer behind the leading virtual tabletop software, Fantasy Grounds, is excited to announce the appointment of Adam Bradford as its new Chief Development Officer (CDO). Adam Bradford, a prominent figure in the tabletop gaming industry, brings a wealth of experience and expertise that will be instrumental in driving the company’s growth and innovation.

Adam Bradford is well-known for his pioneering work in the digital gaming space. He founded D&D Beyond, a digital toolset that transformed the way Dungeons & Dragons is played. Under his leadership, D&D Beyond experienced significant growth and was eventually acquired by Hasbro. Following this success, Adam joined Demiplane, another online tabletop roleplaying game company, where he led the development for a digital tools platform for a variety of other games, further cementing his reputation as a visionary in the industry.

In his new role at SmiteWorks, Adam will focus on expanding Fantasy Grounds’ market presence, enhancing user engagement, and user experience. He will oversee strategic initiatives across product development, business development, marketing, community engagement, and user acquisition. Adam’s innovative approach and proven track record make him an ideal fit for SmiteWorks as the company continues to push the boundaries of digital tabletop gaming.

"We are thrilled to welcome Adam Bradford to the SmiteWorks team," said Doug Davison, President of SmiteWorks USA, LLC. "Adam's expertise and vision will be invaluable as we work to grow Fantasy Grounds and provide our users with the best possible tabletop gaming experience. We have a lot of great things in the works for Fantasy Grounds and we believe Adam is the perfect addition to help us achieve our goals."

Adam Bradford expressed his enthusiasm for joining SmiteWorks, stating, "I am incredibly excited to be joining SmiteWorks and to have the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing success of Fantasy Grounds. The virtual tabletop space is evolving rapidly to make playing these games we love more convenient than ever, and I look forward to working with the outstanding team at SmiteWorks to continue driving innovation and growth in the tabletop roleplaying space."[/callout[]

 

[Hussar]

Part of increasing ease of use across the board will mean instructional / tutorial content in both written and video formats - data has shown over the years that there's a split more or less down the middle in which is preferred, so doing just one isn't going to satisfy enough fans or be comprehensive enough.

I'll also call out that a bigger part of the ease of use priority for me is reducing the need for dedicated tutorial content in the first place by smoothing the onboarding ramp in other ways, with all the various tools we'll have at our disposal to do that.

There isn't a magic button we can click to do that overnight, but we'll be working to make it happen.

Oh, absolutely. I have a rough idea of how difficult what I just posted is. And, it's probably a ton more work than I think it is, and I KNOW how much work writing these kinds of books are. It's good to hear that onboarding is a priority. I've got four newbies to Fantasy Grounds right now in my games and it's been an uphill battle to get them sorted.

 

[LordEntrails]

@BadEye Could it be taken into consideration to create tools to help with the creation of modules and extensions?

I am sure I am not the only one who struggles trying to learn the process of creating these.

The recent architectural changes around Reference Manuals/Books and the now native layout tools are pretty good. Not complete yet, but a solid start. Modules are, imo, easy. With the exception of spell check. That's the one big missing feature for module creation.

Ruleset Wizard is a great way to get into extension writing. It's biggest shortcomings are; makes it too easy to completely overwrite code and making extensions and rulesets fragile towards future updates. And two, because of that and a few other issues, it's not recommended by the developers and can't be used for FG Store ruleset development. If RSW had some of this inbuilt and resolved, it would be a great go to tool.

Also another thought, what about possibly partnering with one of the up and coming 3D vtt's like RPG Stories to elevate FG into the 3d world? FG already has the rules systems and automations and RPGS has an amazing world builder.

(please forgive any typos, on mobile)

Not needed. Several years ago FG bought Tabletop Connect and hired the developer (Carl). They already have the talent for 3D, they just need time to work in into their platform.

Ooooh. 2.5d can be fun. Can I preview the tool much these days? It's been at least a decade since I used it, I'd guess.

Or download the demo. You can't host a game on the demo, but you can do everything else including enableing Player Vision Preview on a map and activating camera mode.

I am sure a lot of work went into the 2.5D view but with many other 3D VTTs in the works. It might need re evaluating. 3D is the future and with FGU being built in Unity has much more capability. Just my thoughts, taken with a grain of salt.

It's a process. 2.5D is not the end goal, it's a step on the way. The devs say they are working toward 3D if 3D continues to appear to be viable. There are still obstacles withing FG and in the larger community before 3D becomes commercially viable.

 

[Zaukrie]

I'm in pretty good with rpgs but they lack rule sets and automation. Also they are not a prority. Imo I think it should have been listed as a world builder and not a vtt.

Even with the sale, it's 80 pounds to have the GM version and player seats.....that's just too much for me.

We haven't discussed Talespire at all.....that really seems to have stalled, despite being pretty good.

 

[Nylanfs]

Even with the sale, it's 80 pounds to have the GM version and player seats.....that's just too much for me.

Even with the Steam regional pricing?

 

[Reynard]

I have been impressed with the FG 3D view. I don't actually use it as GM, but a couple of my players like it. And they have been adding some pretty cool 3D tokens to the game. I am waiting for them to incorporate the walls in 3D.

 

[Claug]

Even with the sale, it's 80 pounds to have the GM version and player seats.....that's just too much for me.

We haven't discussed Talespire at all.....that really seems to have stalled, despite being pretty good.

Why do you want both the GM and the player version? You can be a player with the GM version too. Why do you need two licenses if you can do anything with just one?

 

[Staffan]

Part of increasing ease of use across the board will mean instructional / tutorial content in both written and video formats - data has shown over the years that there's a split more or less down the middle in which is preferred, so doing just one isn't going to satisfy enough fans or be comprehensive enough.

For me personally, a video can be fine as a tutorial. But when looking for specifics (e.g. "How do I give a token a light source?"), nothing beats text.

 

[Zaukrie]

Why do you want both the GM and the player version? You can be a player with the GM version too. Why do you need two licenses if you can do anything with just one?

So I can invite players? I didn't need to do that?

 

[Reynard]

So I can invite players? I didn't need to do that?

There is no "player tier" or GM tier. There is a demo license that let's you play in a game hosted by someone with a paid license. There is a standard license that let's you host games for up to 6 people. There is an ultimate license that let's you host games for any number of people. I don't know if you need a standard license to purchase content, but even with a demo license you can access content the GM shares.

NOTE: The GM has to have the game server up for you to do anything in it.

 

[Claug]

So I can invite players? I didn't need to do that?

If you have the ultimate license, the players don't need to buy anything. They download the demo version and connect to your game.