D&D 5E The Glimmering - NFT Heroes in a Blockchain Campaign?

[Retreater]

This 5e campaign is being promoted heavily at GaryCon. Maybe I just don't understand this, but it's paying artists to create and design you an NFT character, tracking their online play through Blockchain. No prices are clear, it's like you pay in fake money (that doesn't have an exact exchange rate).
This seems like the ultimate corruption of our hobby. Some big designers are on board, and I don't want to think of them as scammers. Can anybody help me understand this?

The Glimmering | The Adventure Starts Now

The Glimmering is a new 5e campaign designed to preserve the magic of classic tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) while innovating the player experience. The adventure expands beyond the traditional gaming world and onto the blockchain.

www.theglimmering.com

 

[bedir than]

This 5e campaign is being promoted heavily at GaryCon. Maybe I just don't understand this, but it's paying artists to create and design you an NFT character, tracking their online play through Blockchain. No prices are clear, it's like you pay in fake money (that doesn't have an exact exchange rate).
This seems like the ultimate corruption of our hobby. Some big designers are on board, and I don't want to think of them as scammers. Can anybody help me understand this?

The Glimmering | The Adventure Starts Now

The Glimmering is a new 5e campaign designed to preserve the magic of classic tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) while innovating the player experience. The adventure expands beyond the traditional gaming world and onto the blockchain.

www.theglimmering.com

This was part of why WotC wanted to change the OGL.

It is unfortunately completely legal to prey on people through this grift

 

[Bacon Bits]

Given that it involves NFTs and uses blockchain as a buzzword, it's a grifter scam. I don't really see a benefit in thinking about it any deeper. It's like multi-level marketing, but with dice instead of cosmetics or plastic food containers.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

It has the worst web site design I have seen since the nineties, and from a Gizmodo article, It is type of "living campaign" but you pay to have your character updated to the blockchain and an associated NFT and can only accept a pregen. Looks like they nickel and dime you on the character updates and hold out the promise that the character NFT(s) will be worth something at some point.
Looks like they want to turn D&D in to a job and to be honest if that is what you want to do Twitch is a better route and more likely to make you money.
I think there was a thread about this here before, or possibly the Gizmodo article.
Yup there was.

 

[Clint_L]

Seems like pyramid scheme using NFTs and block-chain. Join, recruit others, get a cut.

 

[payn]

 

[Tonguez]

Not that much different to MTG though is it? Your buying a rare character card and tracking its performance, trading it as an option

 

[bedir than]

Not that much different to MTG though is it? Your buying a rare character card and tracking its performance, trading it as an option

Well, with Magic you own a real thing, not a receipt

 

[Dausuul]

Normally I am one of the first to assume that the words "NFT" and "blockchain" signal "scam incoming," and I still think that's the most likely explanation... but I can see a real, useful, non-criminal application for blockchain technology here, which is somewhat mind-boggling. I didn't think those existed.

The use of a blockchain for a "living world" setup provides a way to track the history of everything on a character sheet -- not only can you verify that the PC got a given item, you can see when and how they got it. And because it's decentralized, you don't rely on one company managing a server for the living world, which might vanish if the company goes out of business or just decides to pull the plug one day.

They also make an interesting point about being able to track usage. You'd be able to actually verify how many people played a given adventure or used a supplement.

Of course, the fact that there is a way it could be legit does not mean it is legit. I'm certainly not buying any.

 

[robus]

 

[robus]

Blockchains are a just massively inefficient databases and the record they keep is not worth the cost. Heck even shipping companies have given up on using them despite what would seem to be the perfect use case.

IBM and Maersk Abandon Ship on TradeLens Logistics Blockchain

 

[Tonguez]

Well, with Magic you own a real thing, not a receipt

I’ve also got a charactersheet on D&D Beyond and some PDFs from DrivethruRPG, all digital. Not that I’m going to get in to the Glimmering but if others want to, more power to them…

 

[bedir than]

I’ve also got a charactersheet on D&D Beyond and some PDFs from DrivethruRPG, all digital. Not that I’m going to get in to the Glimmering but if others want to, more power to them…

Right.
You don't get those things with an NFT. You get an id code or receipt. That's it. Nothing about the NFT is the character sheet.

 

[Scribe]

Can someone ask one of the chat AI's to explain it to me like I am 5?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Normally I am one of the first to assume that the words "NFT" and "blockchain" signal "scam incoming," and I still think that's the most likely explanation... but I can see a real, useful, non-criminal application for blockchain technology here, which is somewhat mind-boggling. I didn't think those existed.

The use of a blockchain for a "living world" setup provides a way to track the history of everything on a character sheet -- not only can you verify that the PC got a given item, you can see when and how they got it. And because it's decentralized, you don't rely on one company managing a server for the living world, which might vanish if the company goes out of business or just decides to pull the plug one day.

They also make an interesting point about being able to track usage. You'd be able to actually verify how many people played a given adventure or used a supplement.

Of course, the fact that there is a way it could be legit does not mean it is legit. I'm certainly not buying any.

Using the huge environmental impact of the blockchain to track D&D characters is like saying there's a use case for nuclear weapons when you need to get rid of a hornets nest under your porch.

Save the blockchain for stuff like tracking medical data.

 

[mamba]

Normally I am one of the first to assume that the words "NFT" and "blockchain" signal "scam incoming," and I still think that's the most likely explanation... but I can see a real, useful, non-criminal application for blockchain technology here, which is somewhat mind-boggling. I didn't think those existed.

Oh, they definitely exist, but I do not consider this one of them. It's not really doing anything an MMO is not already doing without NFTs

"As your hero levels up and gains XP, treasure, and gold, those outcomes are recorded on-chain by our GMs. That means all of your progress will be carried over to your next adventure, for eternity."

The use of a blockchain for a "living world" setup provides a way to track the history of everything on a character sheet -- not only can you verify that the PC got a given item, you can see when and how they got it. And because it's decentralized, you don't rely on one company managing a server for the living world, which might vanish if the company goes out of business or just decides to pull the plug one day.

Whether the how is recorded depends on implementation details, no way to say either way from what I have seen.

It still vanishes when the company goes out of business, because I am not aware of any other game that could make use of the char. While you still 'own' the char, it is then obsolete.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Oh, they definitely e4xist, but I do not consider this one of them. It's not really doing anything an MMO is not already doing without NFTs

Well, it's not providing an always-on server where one can join a game any time, day or night, as part of a flat monthly fee.

At best, this is the Adventurers League with a layer of "give me a bunch of money" sprinkled all over it.

It's worth noting that the NFT market collapsed six months ago. This is grifters trying to scam a new population that hasn't heard the news yet.

 

[mamba]

ell, it's not providing an always-on server where one can join a game any time, day or night, as part of a flat monthly fee.

I didn't say it does everything an MMO does, I said it does nothing an MMO does not already do without NFTs

 

[MoonSong]

Save the blockchain for stuff like tracking medical data.

If ever. Making everybody's medical history public is the stuff of nightmares. There is no actual use for a blockchain that you wouldn't do better with a newer distributed ledger technology, like Tangle or HAshgraph (sadly currently under patent)

 

[Lanefan]

To the OP: if these guys have an actual booth with real people the best reaction I can think of is to pointedly walk away if-when they speak to you. (were it me, there might be a few low-voice off-colour words and subtle gestures included in that process...)

Everybody complains about gatekeepers these days but this is one gate that IMO needs to be kept closed and constantly guarded. We don't need those scams in or around this hobby.