D&D (2024) What do you think One D&D will do to the VTT industry?

[Malmuria]

Imagine what shareholders would think of the leadership at wizards if they caused their vastly larger new player base to fracture like that, and turn D&D once more into a topic that almost instantly sours any conversation with edition war battle lines.

I would guess that the people at wotc more closely connected to the game understand the dangers of splitting the fanbase, but that the shareholders and more corporate types are the ones pushing for digital integration, exclusivity, microtransactions, and the like.

 

[dave2008]

I would guess that the people at wotc more closely connected to the game understand the dangers of splitting the fanbase, but that the shareholders and more corporate types are the ones pushing for digital integration, exclusivity, microtransactions, and the like.

I doubt most shareholders know much about it really, and they definitely don't much power to push for anything. I have shares in lots of companies, but have 0 ability to affect their business practices.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I think that is something a lot of worriers are missing. 5e has been so successful in no small part because of how inclusive they have been. They have really embraced 3PP and homebrew. It just seems unlikely they will reverse course now when everything they have been saying is that they plan to stay the course!

Absolutely.

I would guess that the people at wotc more closely connected to the game understand the dangers of splitting the fanbase, but that the shareholders and more corporate types are the ones pushing for digital integration, exclusivity, microtransactions, and the like.

Sure. And the ones who own enough to actually push for things and force the company to fire people, those shareholders will turn around and call for resignations and firings if wizards not only starts to tank but also poisons the well.

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

Let me start by saying I don't play D&D anymore, I stopped when 4E came out, so I am probably not totally up to date with all of the latest news. However, from what I understand, with the integration and updates to D&D Beyond One D&D is going to offer a 3D VTT environment. For those of you who play 5E, or even if you don't, what do you think will happen to the existing VTT industry where D&D is generally the most played RPG on most of them? If you are a 5E player, assuming the new VTT works and is any good, do you envision abandoning your current VTT in favor of D&D Beyond?

It seems to me that this will probably hurt the existing VTTs as people migrate to D&D Beyond although I don't believe they will all disappear. Even if WotC still offers support for other systems with everything else One D&D will offer it just makes sense to me that a lot of people will move there. My hope is we end up seeing more support for other systems on existing VTTs but they are such a small slice of the pie compared to D&D that the player base gained won't equal what may be lost.

The WotC VTT will improve the market.

 

[CrashFiend82]

I know this all pure speculation but I also don't buy the idea WOTC wants to pull their licenses. If that was the case their plan makes little to no sense. Why develop a 3D environment that doesn't necessarily compete with 2D. If the goal was market dominance they would have bought a fully functional 2D version and limited it to that instead. They make a direct profit stream with almost no risk immediately. Going 3D they are simply offering another option, an option they likely believe will outsell others but be different to make money from continued licenses. Their product becomes a luxury VTT sold at a higher price point for those that can afford it while the 2D is licensed for everyone else. Think reverse Beadle and Grim model.

 

[CrashFiend82]

I have a feeling this will be specifically targeting a subset of GMs and Players that focus on WOTC adventures. The marketing being "hey you want to play our mega selling APs online without much prep work. Here you go". Maybe bundling the adventure with DnD Beyond for the GM to read. I could easily see a subscription based Season Pass like many video games that add AL games online. Just add the players and go. Which would be great for players that don't have a local option to play at a table.

This is based on my understanding of building in 3D environments which is far more difficult than 2D. If everything, terrain, monsters, etc. Is prebuilt it would entice more casual players and DMs (ecspially, who don't have time to prep).

 

[Jfdlsjfd]

I have a feeling this will be specifically targeting a subset of GMs and Players that focus on WOTC adventures. The marketing being "hey you want to play our mega selling APs online without much prep work. Here you go". Maybe bundling the adventure with DnD Beyond for the GM to read. I could easily see a subscription based Season Pass like many video games that add AL games online. Just add the players and go. Which would be great for players that don't have a local option to play at a table.

This is based on my understanding of building in 3D environments which is far more difficult than 2D. If everything, terrain, monsters, etc. Is prebuilt it would entice more casual players and DMs (ecspially, who don't have time to prep).

I agree, and it might be coherent with the numbers their market research shows.

We know that most players only play in the lower-levels. Given the way adventures and mini-settings (strixhaven, spelljammers) are structured, it is much much easier to start a new party with the published adventure contained inside and let it be after that (there will be another book to play next time... so you won't have to deal with, say, your campaign world being wrecked or ending up in Netheril Empire time, it's just a cool shock effect ending). We also see a large number of players but maybe not regular players. It is possible that "groups meeting weekly to play a homebrew campaign isn't something they feel is common enough in their market to cater to heavily. People who want complex story arcs can be watching other people playing D&D (with that webshow that is apparently tremendously popular in their core (US) market, and maybe most players are just very casual players that alternative "D&D" with many other sort of activities (videogames, drinking beer, tabletop gamings, card games...) so they could be very happy with just paying for a quarterly or semesterly adventure with all the maps already done, "ready-to-play" and let the more invested players continue doing what they were doing (they will be buying book anyways).

 

[Malmuria]

I have a feeling this will be specifically targeting a subset of GMs and Players that focus on WOTC adventures. The marketing being "hey you want to play our mega selling APs online without much prep work. Here you go". Maybe bundling the adventure with DnD Beyond for the GM to read. I could easily see a subscription based Season Pass like many video games that add AL games online. Just add the players and go. Which would be great for players that don't have a local option to play at a table.

This is based on my understanding of building in 3D environments which is far more difficult than 2D. If everything, terrain, monsters, etc. Is prebuilt it would entice more casual players and DMs (ecspially, who don't have time to prep).

That makes sense, especially if people will be able to plug in third party content from the DMs guild. That way the various adventure add ons and fan fixes could be imported into people's games. The ecosystem wouldn't be closed, but it would just make more sense as a third party to make content that could be easily plugged into dnd beyond and this new vtt. I could also see 3d environments and such being stretch goals for various kickstarters. I guess the potential for people to make more money on the DMs guild is good? But, as someone who doesn't even like full color dynamically lit 2d maps, it's a bit much for me.

 

[MNblockhead]

Even if WotC were to stop licensing content to other VTT developers, I think it will have more impact on some than others. I'm guessing Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds would be hit hard. I don't know that it would make much of a difference for Foundry. Foundry doesn't have licensed content for 5e currently. As I stated earlier, if the WotC VTT is good and makes my life as a DM easier, I would definitely use it, at least for WotC adventures. But there are other games I want to run and even for D&D, I use a lot of third-party materials. I could see some of the more expensive, subscription-based VTTs struggling if they they can't offer official WotC content, but there are plenty of VTTs that don't rely on that now.

I would hope that WotC will continue to license content to other VTTs and let their VTT compete on its features and better support for the official rules.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

I would expect that Rol20 and FG would quickly have something that scrapes D&D Beyond or integrates. They will lose the revenue stream of the actual modules but will survive.