The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Added to D&D Beyond

The core rulebook for Free League's The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying, published in 2022, is now available on D&D Beyond. Today, as announced back in August, Wizards of the Coast launched the latest addition to its growing library of third-party material to D&D Beyond with the launch of The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying, a TTRPG rulebook that adapts The One Ring RPG for D&D Fifth Edition. Unlike other third-party 5E material found on D&D Beyond, The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying utilizes Callings and Heroic Cultures instead of classes and species, and also features a more extensive line of Virtues (an equivalent to Feats in D&D.) Also included are rules on exploration and journeys, as well as roleplaying through Councils.

D&D (2024) - WotC Announces 3rd Party Creator Partners

This content will be coming to the D&D Beyond marketplace--the selected publishers are The Griffon's Saddlebag, MCDM, Ghostfire Gaming, Dungeon Dudes, Hit Point Press, Kobold Press, and Free League. Generally, these are creators who have achieved million-dollar Kickstarters with 5E compatible...

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The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying was developed by Free League Publishing after it took over the publication of The One Ring back in 2019 from Cubicle 7. While Cubicle 7 developed their own 5E compatible RPG based on The Lord of the Rings called Adventures in Middle-Earth, Lord of the Rings RPG is a separate 5E system and approaches melding together The Lord of the Rings and 5E very differently. For one, Lord of the Rings Roleplaying utilizes 10 levels as opposed to Adventures in Middle-Earth's 20 level system.

D&D Beyond has added several new third-party supplements to its service over the past two years, including Dungeons of Drakkenheim, MCDM's Flee, Mortals, and several books by Kobold Press.

 

[John Lloyd1]

You probably wouldn't want to try using the LOTR classes in standard D&D. They're 10 levels and are much more geared towards LOTR 5e's mechanics than a typical 5e class.

Unless you were trying to get at some other point by counting the number of DDB classes, which escapes me

It indicates they have improved the flexibility of the beyond platform. Adding classes was previously a big deal, but now they have added a lot in just a month.

 

[Parmandur]

You probably wouldn't want to try using the LOTR classes in standard D&D. They're 10 levels and are much more geared towards LOTR 5e's mechanics than a typical 5e class.

Unless you were trying to get at some other point by counting the number of DDB classes, which escapes me

Just that after years and years, the kinds of options on Beyond seem to be escalating rapidly.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You probably wouldn't want to try using the LOTR classes in standard D&D. They're 10 levels and are much more geared towards LOTR 5e's mechanics than a typical 5e class.

Along those lines, it'd be amazing to see Brancalonia show up on DDB.

 

[GreyLord]

What happens when FL loses the license for LotR? I would imagine that you lose all access to your purchases.

If it's handled like other products that had this happen on other sites (such as Steam or GoG), the more likely scenario is that those who bought it will still have access to the content that they bought. However, it will be delisted and no one else will be allowed to buy or use it from that point on.

 

[Nikosandros]

If it's handled like other products that had this happen on other sites (such as Steam or GoG), the more likely scenario is that those who bought it will still have access to the content that they bought. However, it will be delisted and no one else will be allowed to buy or use it from that point on.

I hope that you are right. But I've seen content disappear on other platforms and it would be good to have some reassurance on that.

 

[EthanSental]

Fantastic!

 

[Queer Venger]

this is yet. more fantastic 3rd party. pub news!!! Keep it up wotC!!!

 

[Distracted DM]

Along those lines, it'd be amazing to see Brancalonia show up on DDB.

On one hand I'm very happy for the folks that get their stuff up on DDB because I can't imagine what kind of numbers they see on there. Maybe someone can catch one of the Matt Colville twitch streams and ask, he's been pretty transparent with numbers in the past.

But on the other hand I see that walled garden go up :') just increasing the field for the "I won't buy it if it isn't on DDB" crowd.

 

[Distracted DM]

If it's handled like other products that had this happen on other sites (such as Steam or GoG), the more likely scenario is that those who bought it will still have access to the content that they bought. However, it will be delisted and no one else will be allowed to buy or use it from that point on.

I hope that you are right. But I've seen content disappear on other platforms and it would be good to have some reassurance on that.

It's definitely been the more likely scenario that folk that have it keep it. But it has occurred that access was lost entirely in a few cases... And the cases that I'm thinking of were when rights of certain aspects of a game expired, like music

 

[SlyFlourish]

Wanting to get a piece of the revenue from the wider market -- while not without its own issues, as @SlyFlourish has pointed out on his show in the past -- is a lot better than trying to kill off that wider market.

I'm still torn on whether this is good for the overall hobby or not.

I think there are two things people can do – one for RPG hobbyists and one for publishers:

1. For hobbyists, make sure you have a downloadable or physical copy of any game or supplement you intend to keep.

2. For publishers, make sure you don't depend on the revenue you get from WOTC.

I just can't think of a scenario where the consolidation of RPG products under the largest publisher of RPG products is overall good for the hobby.