The folks over at Trapdoor Technologies told us a couple of weeks ago about the termination of their license with WotC to product electronic tools for D&D 5E. Fan reaction was varied, but held an oddly aggressive tint towards Trapdoor. Trapdoor's Chris Matney explained a little about the split to Mad Adventurer's Society, saying that “The challenge we faced was a fundamental difference in approaches.” [lq]Gaming is ready for a renaissance. The future is very bright.[/lq]
The DungeonScape license was terminated a short while ago, and Trapdoor have been keen to reassure people that they're still alive. The interview with MAS contains a few tidbits of interesting information. The creative difference appears to lie in the way they saw the electornic tools on a fundamental level. WotC wants "an extension of a character roller and a way to sell rules" while Trapdoor wants "to change the way role-playing games are consumed, created, and curated." It sounds a bit like a medley of RPGNow, Hero Lab, and a wiki. WotC still plans on electronic support -- WotC's Chris Perkins said recently "we have every intention of releasing the books in electronic versions, but we don’t have a date at this time." MAS summarizes the vision as this: "Searchable, indexed, linked e-publications with expert systems built over the top to parse the information and allow players and game masters to do useful things. And more importantly, to share their content. With each other and the world."
When I interviewed Trapdoor at Gen Con, one of the functions of the software about which they were keen was their forge-style creation/sharing tool. It seems that this may have been the one of contention. When Matney says "Saying you can write your stories, but not share them, is the wrong way to do it. We wanted Dungeonscape to facilitate the create and sharing of immersive experiences." it does sound a little like WotC doesn't want fans doing that (although I would argue that their general treatment of fan content over 5E has been generally non-invasive). [lq]The independent adventure writer actually doesn’t have many avenues to publish and share their creations. Morningstar could fill that role.[/lq]
The general plan now is to hold a Kickstarter, possibly in December. Trapdoor has been talking to other publishers, and Matney mentions the OGL, so the good money is on Paizo; that said, Hero Lab presents strong competition in that department. A tool which made creating custom content easier might have an advantage there.
The DungeonScape license was terminated a short while ago, and Trapdoor have been keen to reassure people that they're still alive. The interview with MAS contains a few tidbits of interesting information. The creative difference appears to lie in the way they saw the electornic tools on a fundamental level. WotC wants "an extension of a character roller and a way to sell rules" while Trapdoor wants "to change the way role-playing games are consumed, created, and curated." It sounds a bit like a medley of RPGNow, Hero Lab, and a wiki. WotC still plans on electronic support -- WotC's Chris Perkins said recently "we have every intention of releasing the books in electronic versions, but we don’t have a date at this time." MAS summarizes the vision as this: "Searchable, indexed, linked e-publications with expert systems built over the top to parse the information and allow players and game masters to do useful things. And more importantly, to share their content. With each other and the world."
When I interviewed Trapdoor at Gen Con, one of the functions of the software about which they were keen was their forge-style creation/sharing tool. It seems that this may have been the one of contention. When Matney says "Saying you can write your stories, but not share them, is the wrong way to do it. We wanted Dungeonscape to facilitate the create and sharing of immersive experiences." it does sound a little like WotC doesn't want fans doing that (although I would argue that their general treatment of fan content over 5E has been generally non-invasive). [lq]The independent adventure writer actually doesn’t have many avenues to publish and share their creations. Morningstar could fill that role.[/lq]
The general plan now is to hold a Kickstarter, possibly in December. Trapdoor has been talking to other publishers, and Matney mentions the OGL, so the good money is on Paizo; that said, Hero Lab presents strong competition in that department. A tool which made creating custom content easier might have an advantage there.
