Tabletop Roleplaying Games (D&D, Pathfinder, CoC, ETC.)

[Ghostse]

I'll need to look up Wonderdraft. Inkarnate was "okay" but not a fan.

Wonderdraft is the same company as Dungeondraft (actually the other way around) I never used DD, but would imagine the controls are very similar.

 

[Mr. Manchester]

So does this mean d20pfsrd is fucked? Should I download it or something?

 

[ZMOT]

So does this mean d20pfsrd is fucked? Should I download it or something?

 

[Snekposter]

Eat an entire 7-course golden corral buffet meal comprised of nothing but unseasoned dicks.
This is "You-made-this-I-Made-this.txt".

So, the same problem as White Wolf's license for WoD fan games. Unsurprisingly, given how selfish the Left is, they're not happy about companies being able to snatch up their work at a whim, and the more self-aware ones know just how dangerous the clauses about reputation are. Not even the tabletop trannies liked that one, and this has the same problems.

View attachment 4249920

So they canceled the statement they were going to make. Not a good look.

I don't think I've seen a corporation ever commit suicide in real time quite like this.

 

[Pentex]

Wizards telegraphed this particular punch on their last investor call:

Wizards of the Coast Says Dungeons and Dragons is 'Under-Monetized'

Wizards of the Coast believes Dungeons and Dragons is 'under-monetized,' and seeks to create a 'recurrent spending environment' with the game.

gamerant.com

Wizards of the Coast Says Dungeons and Dragons is 'Under-Monetized'

archived 26 Dec 2022 14:17:57 UTC

archive.ph

Wizards corpos are mad that, as is true of the entire history of tabletop games, the only person who needs to have books is the DM/GM/ST/etc. so they hired a bitch from Amazon/XBox to try and convert tabletop gamers into the kind of paypigs who buy skins, lootboxes, and DLC in perpetuity.

What she fails to grasp is that grognards are far more spiteful creatures than console cowboys (there are still AD&D players out there) and the barrier to development of dice games than to vidya. And now Wizards is getting just a taste of that spite all because they are convinced that absolute control is more valuable than customer/fan goodwill. Perhaps worse, they are convinced that they can pressgang their own customers to essentially work for free creating 'assets' for them to exploit in official content.

I have no love for Paizo, but the fact that they are raising the flag of rebellion against WOTC is hopefully the sign of a new golden age of tabletop gaming rather than the new dark age that WOTC's OGL 1.1 will create.

 

[AGreatDipAtAFairPrice]

I saw this link from a friend and couldn't believe it but its real. Sorry for being late.

Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron

Explore the world of Eberron in this campaign prototype for the world's greatest roleplaying game.

www.dndbeyond.com

Hasbro of the Digital Microtransaction is trying to monetize a playtest for a Dungeons and Dragons setting that first had officially published material in 2004 and they are charging for everything in bundles and 2 dollars for single aspects, 2 dollars for a feat, a background, a magical item. This is preposterous.

 

[Snekposter]

I saw this link from a friend and couldn't believe it but its real. Sorry for being late.

Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron

Explore the world of Eberron in this campaign prototype for the world's greatest roleplaying game.

www.dndbeyond.com

Hasbro of the Digital Microtransaction is trying to monetize a playtest for a Dungeons and Dragons setting that first had officially published material in 2004 and they are charging for everything in bundles and 2 dollars for single aspects, 2 dollars for a feat, a background, a magical item. This is preposterous.

It appears I spoke too soon about how keen WotC was on slitting their own throats.

This is what a corporation committing suicide in real time looks like. And I'll probably have to issue an updated statement in a day or so at the rate things are going.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

the other aspects is that the whole 1.1 kerfuffle also pissed off the DMs, which are usually lot more versed than the average player, and if they jump ship there's a good chance they take their players with them (since it's much more difficult to replace a DM just to keep running 5e).

This is something that I don't think gets pointed out enough in all this. Everybody wants to doomer and say that "the normies" won't know and won't care so all this is just going to happen because they will keep buying shit.

Nigga. The normies don't buy shit in the first place. Who buys all the books? DMs. Who looks up all the errata and official decisions by Wizards of the Coast? DMs. Who organizes all the games that normies play? DMs. It doesn't matter that normies are idiot consoomers. Tabletop games are run by DMs, who get normies into tabletop, and DMs are the types of autists who a) will know about this shit and b) will actually care about it. Its the DMs that matter, not the normies. The normies look to the DMs to get into games, not the other way around. And its the DMs who will spread word to the normies about this shit.

 

[Ghostse]

here's one of the creators of the OGL going into it (towards the end):

That's very interesting. I'd be curious about the numbers because I know Hasbro plays the usual corporate fuck-fuck of hiding and shifting profits. That could just be where they aren't playing hide-the-salami to justfiy paying for everything,

Or you know, were. Woops.

God imagine if this gets people to actually boycott wizards and stop being MtG paypigs.

 

[Judge Dredd]

Can someone recommend a good digital DnD map creator? My hand-drawing skills have always been ass.

Add another for Dungeon Draft, but I've not used it in a while.

For free browser based options, I used to use dungeon doodle and dungeon scrawl. They're basic, but if you just need a basic map, they do the job.

 

[King Dead]

So WOTC said they will make a recorded video statement om the new OGL today at 3PM EST. Looks like someone leaked the summary.

View attachment 4248747

Man, everything happens on a day I'm not paying attention. Except this because lolcanceled.

Still, assuming this email is legit (and I don't see why it couldn't be), then it sounds like I called it. They were banking on the outrage burning itself out quickly so that nobody would really care by the time 1.1 actually came out, letting them go ahead and fuck over their customers and creators because it would be too late to do anything about it. I don't think they expected the backlash to be anywhere near this severe, and if people truly are canceling their D&D Beyond subscriptions en masse in response, that's sending a pretty strong signal that they fucked up. No wonder they axed the stream, no amount of damage control is going to fix this mess, especially now that other companies are in the process of creating their own competing licenses instead.

So now comes the big question: what do they do next? Put out some boilerplate "we're listening" crap and make a few token changes to 1.1 while keeping as much of the bad shit intact as they can? Grovel and apologize for even thinking it was a good idea in the first place and axe it altogether? Throw the shitty execs off the nearest tower (in Faerun)? Or just shit their pants and do nothing?

I'm guessing the next few weeks will be interesting to say the least.

 

[AGreatDipAtAFairPrice]

They will never apologize to the customers they have total contempt for. Even mass account deletion won't bother them, they are full steam ahead on their VTT computer game dream they had starting with Gleemax with 4E over 10 years ago. 10 dollars a month for vanilla Dungeons and Dragons and milking everybody dry for races, feats, equipment, spells, templates and the ability to play I don't know, a Turtle-Guy Druid for 25 dollars a month or whatever. They brought in people to turn Dungeons and Dragons into a maximally expensive Xbox Live video game and don't care at all if people don't like it. This was always the end game for Hasbro, a subscription plan and DLC and microtransaction video game out of Dungeons and Dragons.

PBS already ran programming smearing OGL and OSR as "problematic." That's going to be the corporate line. They're going to say the same thing about that Paizo ORC plan, too.

 

[Ghostse]

PBS already ran programming smearing OGL and OSR as "problematic." That's going to be the corporate line. They're going to say the same thing about that Paizo ORC plan, too.

They didn't attack the OGL and didn't go as hard on OSR as I thought they might, but that article is a barrel of laughs. ITs got everything: the token nigger queer, the racists of Coyote & Crow, "Hasbro is microtransacting D&D and here's why that 's a good thing", and shitting on talented people because they are white and their excellent works don't funnel enough money into the pockets of corporations so thye need to be year zero'd.

They interview some faggot ivory tower, the annoying critical role negress is "queer" because of course she is, the racist behind Coyote & Crow, Monte "Poz my Neghole" Cook, but no one from OSR, just square quotes around 'keeping modern politics out of gaming' and the ivory tower faggot saying how that means they are pushing the KKK.
Oh and makes sure to take time out of their busy schedule to shit on Gygax and Tolkien.

How a new generation of gamers is pushing for inclusivity beyond the table

The rules of Dungeons & Dragons were written by a racial essentialist. As the tabletop gaming community becomes more diverse, players and creators are trying to rewrite them.

www.pbs.org

For decades, players of tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) have used dice, pens and paper to engage in a form of entertainment that combines collective storytelling with strategic puzzle-solving and combat simulation. Once considered a niche hobby, these types of games are experiencing a boost in mainstream visibility thanks to series like Netflix’s “Stranger Things” and the upcoming film “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.”

According to industry estimates, hobby game sales soared during the pandemic, increasing from about $1.6 billion in 2019 to over $2.6 billion in 2021. Tabletop roleplaying games saw a 31 percent increase in overall sales in 2020. In 2022, Dungeons & Dragons alone generated some $100 million to $150 million.

As TTRPGs permeate popular culture through podcasts, live-streamed internet shows and celebrity boosters, the community surrounding them is becoming more diverse. Traditionally seen as a pastime for white male suburbanites, tabletop gaming has more recently become a platform for minorities and marginalized people to tell their own stories.

“People of color and women have always been a part of TTRPG culture,” said Steven Dashiell, a postdoctoral fellow at American University who specializes in studying male-dominated subcultures. But “actual play shows” — the term for a tabletop roleplaying game performed for audiences — give them more visibility, Dashiell added.

“People of color and women have always been a part of TTRPG culture.”
Aabria Iyengar is something of a celebrity game master, or someone who facilitates TTRPG sessions for players at a table. She has appeared on many popular actual play channels, such as Critical Role and Dimension 20, as well as shows directly sponsored by Wizards of the Coast, the company that owns Dungeons & Dragons.

When playing, Iyengar said, she gravitates toward non-human characters — like elves and merfolk.

“Growing up and acculturated as ‘other’ on several axes of identity, my brain automatically defaults to that,” said Iyengar, who is Black and a member of the LGBTQ community. “Even though it is uncomfortable to be othered constantly, it is what I know and it feels right […] There’s not the trauma attached to otherization so it feels like a fun opportunity to play in ‘What if being markedly different came with fun benefits?’”

When Iyengar was new to tabletop gaming, she would often go to a local gaming store to play in community events organized by Wizards of the Coast, but she sometimes felt like an outsider in a space where most players were white men.

“Those [were] uncurated tables where things got very monoculture very quickly,” she said.

Recently, actual plays have been finding port with a new generation of gamers, many of whom come from more diverse backgrounds. Social media allows fans of these shows to form communities and organize meetups where they can play the games they watch.

WATCH: How diversity in media and entertainment affects young people

“This new guard of hobby geeks are highly aware, and if they are not directly BIPOC people, they are allies,” said Aaron Trammell, an assistant professor of informatics at UC Irvine.

But even within these gaming communities, there is some friction. Old School Renaissance, or OSR, is a gaming movement whose players claim they are “against outside politics permeating their game space,” said Dashiell. These players support the use of traditional fantasy tropes in game design, such as the existence of “good” and “evil” races with no nuance. OSR gamers are often seen as the old guard of tabletop gaming and tend to idealize the past, which “defaults to a white, masculine worldview,” Trammell said.

Created in the 1970s, “Dungeons & Dragons is one of the first and most prominent TTRPGs,” Dashiell said. “[And] race has been key in character design.”

When players create their in-game personas, they generally choose different aspects from a menu that culminates in an imaginary character with a history, personality, physical traits and special talents. Characters can be one of many different “races,” such as humans, elves or dwarves. These character types could be considered various species; some resemble real animals, while others are more like dragons or even angels. But the different beings have always been racially coded, according to Dashiell, with humans specifically “[having] always been seen as an analog for white.”

Dungeons & Dragons has a tradition of promoting humans as the best or most versatile characters. Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons, was a self-described biological determinist. He believed that different races of people were biologically distinct and capable of different things in life.

“This can be seen in early D&D with non-humans or demihumans having level caps,” said Trammell. This means that in earlier editions of the rules, non-human characters could never achieve the same degree of growth as human characters.

Additionally, orcs were initially created as a group of bestial humanoids with the sole purpose of being killed by players. This classic “evil” race could not be chosen by players for their character until 1993 with the release of “The Complete Book of Humanoids,” a sourcebook for the second edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. The works of J.R.R Tolkien are credited as an inspiration for Dungeons & Dragons within the game’s own “Appendix N” and Tolkien has described orcs in the xenophobic vernacular of 1950s Britain.

Over the years and through subsequent editions of the game, these racial allusions have generally been minimized. In the summer of 2020, amid a reckoning on race and inclusion throughout many industries, Wizards of the Coast released a statement outlining steps it was taking to help “everyone to feel at home around the game table and to see positive reflections of themselves within our products.”

“But for every two steps forward, they take one step back,” Trammell said, citing a recent publication’s inclusion of a simian race of humanoids reminiscent of old minstrel shows.

Wizards of the Coast also recently presented a new vernacular for the upcoming rule changes to the game replacing instances of “race” with “species.”

“At best I think that this is an earnest appeal to fans that WoTC is taking the representation of race seriously in its games, but at its worst I really think that this may quash some of the important dialogue that is happening around the topic within fan communities,” said Trammell. “The problem never was that race was a concept in fantasy worlds; instead it has been that fantasy worlds are the product of any number of white supremacist tropes that mirror those in our own.”

“Essentialism is baked into the system of D&D — it’s in its DNA.”
“The issue was never really ‘race’ but essentialism,” Dashiell agreed. “And essentialism is baked into the system of D&D — it’s in its DNA. I think many people would consider it a completely different game, as race/species give advantages and disadvantages and there needs to be a checks and balances system for parity, consistency and fun.”

Some game systems outside of D&D are doing away with race as a defining aspect of player characters altogether, while other systems are engaging in stories and worlds with non-white, non-Eurocentric designs.

Monte Cook, owner of Monte Cook Games and a former Dungeons & Dragons designer, developed a setting-agnostic game system, meaning it can be used to tell stories in many different genres. A distinguishing feature is that players can create characters without needing to consider race or species for mechanical perks.

“Race and class are premade buckets that you fill,” he said. “By focusing on who your characters are, it gives players more control.”

While there are no in-game mechanical benefits to choosing a particular race, Monte Cook Games strives to encourage diversity through artwork. The artwork they commission tries to be inclusive by showing women in the Wild West or children of color exploring a haunted house. Sometimes the art depicts people wearing masks so that players can imagine themselves or their characters in those situations.

“We want everyone to feel welcome, to feel seen,” Cook said.

Beyond those who play the games, what is often overlooked is the community of people creating and marketing them. When he started in the business, Cook said, all the designers, artists and editors were of similar backgrounds and ethnicities, but he is seeing the culture change and become more diverse. “We want people of all types in the driver’s seat,” he said.

One example is Coyote & Crow, a new game focused on telling specifically Indigenous stories.

“The more I wanted to create a setting that didn’t have colonialism as part of its structure at all, the more I realized the only way to strip that out of the setting was to create an alternate future where colonization never even happened,” said Connor Alexander, creator of Coyote & Crow, which has a First Nations setting and themes.

Coyote & Crow began as a reaction to seeing games featuring characters of different cultures without having the same representation behind the scenes building the game. The project, which raised over $1 million on Kickstarter, allowed Alexander and a team of Native designers to create a world and craft stories that were distinctly not Anglo-European. For instance, players are encouraged to create characters who are part of expansive multigenerational families, as opposed to the loner trope typically found in Anglo-European fantasy tales.

Alexander sees the growth in popularity of actual plays as the first step to growing diversity within the hobby.

“Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any breakthrough show yet that has displayed the kind of diversity that I want to see,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of good actual plays out there with a lot of great folks, but none of them have broken through in a way that I want to see them break through yet, and part of that is [due to] the dominance of Dungeons & Dragons.”

In a recent investor meeting, Wizards of the Coast CEO Cynthia Williams described Dungeons & Dragons as “under-monetized.” The company’s goal is to increase products targeting players even after they have purchased the source books needed to play. One of the biggest draws for Dungeons & Dragons and TTRPGs is the relatively low cost of investment to start — once players buy a rulebook, they can keep playing indefinitely, limited only by their own imaginations.

That imaginative freedom is what gives minorities and marginalized people the opportunity to build worlds that center their own stories. On a community level, this creativity can be seen in the proliferation of “homebrew” games made by fans who customize the settings, characters and rules of published systems to their liking.

Corporations and collective storytelling may sometimes be at odds, but “a thing does not have to be perfect to be good,” Iyengar said. “As a Black woman, and queer, if I had to throw away every piece of fiction that did any of my identities dirty, I would have nothing to do but sit quietly in a room.”

 

[derpherp2]

Wizards telegraphed this particular punch on their last investor call:
View attachment 4255420
View attachment 4255427

Wizards of the Coast Says Dungeons and Dragons is 'Under-Monetized'

Wizards of the Coast believes Dungeons and Dragons is 'under-monetized,' and seeks to create a 'recurrent spending environment' with the game.

gamerant.com

Wizards of the Coast Says Dungeons and Dragons is 'Under-Monetized'

archived 26 Dec 2022 14:17:57 UTC

archive.ph

Wizards corpos are mad that, as is true of the entire history of tabletop games, the only person who needs to have books is the DM/GM/ST/etc. so they hired a bitch from Amazon/XBox to try and convert tabletop gamers into the kind of paypigs who buy skins, lootboxes, and DLC in perpetuity.

What she fails to grasp is that grognards are far more spiteful creatures than console cowboys (there are still AD&D players out there) and the barrier to development of dice games than to vidya. And now Wizards is getting just a taste of that spite all because they are convinced that absolute control is more valuable than customer/fan goodwill. Perhaps worse, they are convinced that they can pressgang their own customers to essentially work for free creating 'assets' for them to exploit in official content.

I have no love for Paizo, but the fact that they are raising the flag of rebellion against WOTC is hopefully the sign of a new golden age of tabletop gaming rather than the new dark age that WOTC's OGL would inevitably create.

Kind of like they haven't released any modules, built upon the system, and instead decided to REMOVE mechanics and modules.

On a consumer medium that can only be monetized by said shit.
Maybe you should've made something for CRITICAL ROLE to sell before trying to pay them off first?

 

[Local Degenerate]

Honestly, if Hasbro came out and said this wall some kind of gayop to make them look bad, I'd believe them. Not forgive them, but holy shit, Hasbro, how have you managed to piss off everyone in not one, not two, but four fucking fandoms, at the same time!? That's a level of incompetence reserved for suicidal people, and DSP.

 

[Snekposter]

So now comes the big question: what do they do next?

Considering they've already released the "$2 to playtest a feat for us" online purchases... double the fuck down.

 

[Wallace]

So does this mean d20pfsrd is fucked? Should I download it or something?

That's not a bad idea. Is there an easy way to download everything from d20pfsrd, and how big is it?

 

[Mr. Manchester]

That's not a bad idea. Is there an easy way to download everything from d20pfsrd, and how big is it?

It's a big pile of text with a ton of hyperlinks, I'm not sure if that would take up all that much room. I suppose certain archive sites would be able to snag it but those aren't the most reliable things and if WotC is going to be hunting down stuff I'm not sure how effective it'd be. Has to be a way though. I might just end up having to find the splat books I like at a second hand book store if shit hits the fan.

 

[SamTheEagle]

An Update on the Open Game License (OGL)

Although we are not yet able to release the OGL at this time, we would like to update you on how things are developing, and the goals we have in mind fo...

www.dndbeyond.com

https://web.archive.org/web/20230113162049/https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1423-an-update-on-the-open-game-license-ogl

When we initially conceived of revising the OGL, it was with three major goals in mind. First, we wanted the ability to prevent the use of D&D content from being included in hateful and discriminatory products. Second, we wanted to address those attempting to use D&D in web3, blockchain games, and NFTs by making clear that OGL content is limited to tabletop roleplaying content like campaigns, modules, and supplements. And third, we wanted to ensure that the OGL is for the content creator, the homebrewer, the aspiring designer, our players, and the community—not major corporations to use for their own commercial and promotional purpose.

Driving these goals were two simple principles: (1) Our job is to be good stewards of the game, and (2) the OGL exists for the benefit of the fans. Nothing about those principles has wavered for a second.

That was why our early drafts of the new OGL included the provisions they did. That draft language was provided to content creators and publishers so their feedback could be considered before anything was finalized. In addition to language allowing us to address discriminatory and hateful conduct and clarifying what types of products the OGL covers, our drafts included royalty language designed to apply to large corporations attempting to use OGL content. It was never our intent to impact the vast majority of the community.

However, it’s clear from the reaction that we rolled a 1. It has become clear that it is no longer possible to fully achieve all three goals while still staying true to our principles. So, here is what we are doing.

The next OGL will contain the provisions that allow us to protect and cultivate the inclusive environment we are trying to build and specify that it covers only content for TTRPGs. That means that other expressions, such as educational and charitable campaigns, livestreams, cosplay, VTT-uses, etc., will remain unaffected by any OGL update. Content already released under 1.0a will also remain unaffected.

What it will not contain is any royalty structure. It also will not include the license back provision that some people were afraid was a means for us to steal work. That thought never crossed our minds. Under any new OGL, you will own the content you create. We won’t. Any language we put down will be crystal clear and unequivocal on that point. The license back language was intended to protect us and our partners from creators who incorrectly allege that we steal their work simply because of coincidental similarities. As we continue to invest in the game that we love and move forward with partnerships in film, television, and digital games, that risk is simply too great to ignore. The new OGL will contain provisions to address that risk, but we will do it without a license back and without suggesting we have rights to the content you create. Your ideas and imagination are what makes this game special, and that belongs to you.

A couple of last thoughts. First, we won’t be able to release the new OGL today, because we need to make sure we get it right, but it is coming. Second, you’re going to hear people say that they won, and we lost because making your voices heard forced us to change our plans. Those people will only be half right. They won—and so did we.

Our plan was always to solicit the input of our community before any update to the OGL; the drafts you’ve seen were attempting to do just that. We want to always delight fans and create experiences together that everyone loves. We realize we did not do that this time and we are sorry for that. Our goal was to get exactly the type of feedback on which provisions worked and which did not–which we ultimately got from you. Any change this major could only have been done well if we were willing to take that feedback, no matter how it was provided–so we are. Thank you for caring enough to let us know what works and what doesn’t, what you need and what scares you. Without knowing that, we can’t do our part to make the new OGL match our principles. Finally, we’d appreciate the chance to make this right. We love D&D’s devoted players and the creators who take them on so many incredible adventures. We won’t let you down.

"Everybody wins!!!"

 

[AGreatDipAtAFairPrice]

They are only saying this after they got busted. If they wanted player input, a proposed new agreement could have been shown to players before it was shown to potential business partners or simultaneously.

The very second sentence says what the first priority is:

First, we wanted the ability to prevent the use of D&D content from being included in hateful and discriminatory products.

Any competitor can be deemed to be that easily, have its license pulled and be thrown off kickstarter, indiegogo, drivethrurpg, etc. All they keep doing is talking about how inclusive something called One D&D is going to be.

The denial about clauses never being intended to be means to steal people's work is hysterical, that's all the permanent, irrevocable, any way we want to use it forever and ever amen we own your friggin' soul if you make anything under this license language was ever supposed to be.

They didn't say anything about the revocation for any reason to include no reason at all provided 30 day's notice of revocation is given, either. So I presume that stays, lol.