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So, we are in the endgame of the Curse of Strahd game we have been playing for about 65+ sessions now from level 3 to level 13. Anyway, we faced off against a group of big bads, and the most notable part was a lone Champion Fighter managing to hug a lich pretty much to death with almost no support from the rest of the party. The rest of the party were busy elsewhere.

Wow, that's exciting that you are approaching the end. If I recall, your group wasted a lot of time. If they hadn't how many sessions do you estimate it would have taken to get this far? Best of luck

Half the time. We spent a lot of time trying to bend the adventure to the win conditions we wanted, instead of the standard win conditions. Way too much time.

I think we are hoping to wrap this up going into the new year.

Good luck wrapping it up I hope it was a fun experience, even with the delays.

Ding Dong Strahd is dead!

However, the campaign isn't over and will manage to get us to 2023 afterall. Two years and 72 sessions to complete..... maybe?

Congrats! How many character levels did that work out to?

We went from 3 to 13. However, the first 40+ some sessions were like 2 levels, and the remaining 8 levels cascaded faster and faster as we went up in session #. Once we got higher up, other milestones became easier to unlock. However, the first two milestones took us forever!

If that makes any sense. I am not sure if I typed it clearly.

I understand what you posted but it seems like an odd progression to have such little progress on milestones until basically the dam collapses and the levels come flooding in. Regardless, I hope it was fun!

It was an odd progression, but mostly because we as players were idiots.

Hi guys, I'm a new 5th Edition DM (new to 5th anyways) whose been painting up miniatures the last few months for my own homebrew. Thought I would share my painting blog.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/807807.page

CoS is now, officially done!

We are now going onto a Legend of the 5 Rings game (3rd edition) as a palette cleanser.

Congrats on finishing!

Is anyone up to date on the OneDnD news and the changes/scrapping of the OGL?

Just curious if anyone has been paying attention and interested in peoples thoughts.

I have paid minor attention, but I have not been following it that close.

The concept of moving D&D to a subscription service I have seen floating around makes me very, very, very, sad.

I really do not like this trend in gaming to make the game AS product, instead of the game IS the product. Game as product seeks to monetize all aspects of the game like subscription access, prop dice, selling the rules piece meal, etc. Meanwhile, companies that sell the Game IS the product sell you a complete game all at once. However, the gaming market needs to be "disrupted" I guess?

Well, I guess to add some context to this from what I have seen, there are really 2 major pieces to this.

The first is that WotC (probably under the direction of Hasbro) wants to make DnD a "lifestyle brand" similar to Harley Davidson (this has been stated directly with HD as an example in leaked internal stuff).

Part of that is Wizards acquisition of DnD Beyond which they have plans to merge with and incorporate DMs Guild into.

Part of THAT includes changes to the digital marketplace and changes to the OGL.

Basically, they want you to play online, and they want you to publish and buy online through their store front.


The second half is the changes to the OGL and what that means for 3rd party support.

Whats been leaked or talked about has been pretty grim. Stuff like by publishing on the DMs Guild you lose all rights to your work. WotC could republish your classes/spells/items/monsters/adventures into a book and you won't see a cent. They own it the moment you published it there. Further, if they decide to discontinue to the OGL at any point you would be required to scrub your content from all places and never sell it again. I have seen talks about certain stipulations that would harm even the podcast live play community. Critical Roll released a book for 5E. Well... now Critical Roll no longer own their own IP.

Those are just a couple of the bullet points.

Basically it's the 4th ed changes to the OGL dialed up to 11. And when this happened with 4th Pathfinder got created.



Over all I think this is a good thing. DnD and wizards own too big a slice of the market pie. There are so many companies producing 3rd party content for 5e. And if this happens and those companies go make their own games the resulting innovations to differentiate themselves from each other should result in better games.

It's bad for DnD. It's the best thing we can hope for for TTRPGs.

Some of the changes make it sound more like the 4e GSL (?) than a truly "O"GL.




I don't recall to be honest if this was a part of prior gaming licenses but the part where they (WOTC) can simply take your published content whole cloth AND revoke your own personal license to publish it wouldn't encourage me if I were a content creator. You make an awesome class or game module? They can literally order you to stop selling it and destroy all remaining copies within 30 days if this is true and then turn around and sell it themselves without compensating you. Of course that would be monumentally stupid and kill the 3PP cottage industry that has grown up around D&D since 3e (much like the GSL did in 4e) but worse things have happened in gaming so it's possible.

edit: For those that care, the video source is a big time Pathfinder proponent/content creator. I don't think he's letting that sway him too much towards hyperbole but figured I'd mention it regardless. I don't know what Paizo's equivalent to the OGL is either (assuming that they have one even).

I imagine this will bring much moaning and gnashing of teeth online, and that is about it.

It gets worse... I hadn't considered the effect this might have potentially on OGL, Pathfinder, and other spinoffs. I thought the original OGL had a "permanent use it forever" clause but admittedly I'm not a lawyer. Additionally, the "leaked" new version is of course not officially confirmed yet.







Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Easy E wrote:
I imagine this will bring much moaning and gnashing of teeth online, and that is about it.

Most definitely. For companies whose business model depends on the prior OGLs, I suspect more concrete action may be necessary to stay alive assuming the leak is true.

 Lance845 wrote:

Over all I think this is a good thing. DnD and wizards own too big a slice of the market pie. There are so many companies producing 3rd party content for 5e. And if this happens and those companies go make their own games the resulting innovations to differentiate themselves from each other should result in better games.

It's bad for DnD. It's the best thing we can hope for for TTRPGs.

I hope you are right about this one Lance.

 warboss wrote:
It gets worse... I hadn't considered the effect this might have potentially on OGL, Pathfinder, and other spinoffs. I thought the original OGL had a "permanent use it forever" clause but admittedly I'm not a lawyer. Additionally, the "leaked" new version is of course not officially confirmed yet.

It does have that clause, although that doesn't mean WotC won't try to renege on it anyway.

Also, Kickstarter's head of gaming has confirmed the leak is genuine on Twitter.

I can't guarantee its truth, but I have heard that current 5E stuff will be left alone, and that its the new stuff coming out for OneD&D that has all these new rules. I hope that's true. I really don't like the direction that Hasbro seems to be going. To me, D&D is about the experience created around the table by the DM and players. I've tried some of the online D&D gaming and really don't like it. I will happily just keep playing the old 5E stuff. I have enough to last for decades.

I just saw a couple of odd bits on twitter and I don't know enough about it. I came to this thread hoping for a bit more info. From what little I've seen it seems pretty crap. I follow a few "big name" dnd streamers that are fairly vocal on their negativity. I hope that this will give wotc pause for thought.

This system that we live in really sucks eh?

 Syro_ wrote:
I can't guarantee its truth, but I have heard that current 5E stuff will be left alone, and that its the new stuff coming out for OneD&D that has all these new rules. I hope that's true. I really don't like the direction that Hasbro seems to be going. To me, D&D is about the experience created around the table by the DM and players. I've tried some of the online D&D gaming and really don't like it. I will happily just keep playing the old 5E stuff. I have enough to last for decades.

Even the 5e stuff has weird stipulations. Like, you can't make sub class/specializations for non core classes. Thats why nobody produces new sub classes for the artificer. Because it's not "core" so isn't free for tweaking by the community. You cannot reference spells and abilities outside of core stuff in your modules. So no monsters can have abilities from the non core stuff. You can't have a spell book or a new creature with spells from other "non-core" books.

That being said. When they left the 3rd ed OGL alone and did their new deal for 4th it spawned Pathfinder arguably their biggest competition and a major driver for 4th ed falling on it's face. If they learned anything from that they will take steps with 5e to prevent the continued support of the old OGL, probably by not creating a new one for OneDnD but instead by modifying the existing one to kill 5e support.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Easy E wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:

Over all I think this is a good thing. DnD and wizards own too big a slice of the market pie. There are so many companies producing 3rd party content for 5e. And if this happens and those companies go make their own games the resulting innovations to differentiate themselves from each other should result in better games.

It's bad for DnD. It's the best thing we can hope for for TTRPGs.

I hope you are right about this one Lance.

I mean, the last time this kind of thing happened there was only really Pazio as a major 3rd party publisher and they hit the ground running with Pathfinder.

Now there are WAY more companies doing the 3rd party thing. And I have seen talk that many of them are already turning attention towards what developing their own game would look like. They are hoping for the best but planning for the worst seeing what is coming.

Again. Good.

I don't anticipate that all their games will sell well or be good. I doubt we will get 9 more Pathfinder level games out there. But I hope we get 3? 4? If each one starts to push away from DnD and Pathfinders cores and branch out into better more innovative designs... Great. Now all those DnD players who never tried another game will have easier bridges into trying more of whats out there.

Again, I think it's great for the industry even if it means going through some growing pains.

Especially if that means making their OWN games. Less D20 system based. Pathfinder was good for the community. But it wasn't different enough and didn't do as much good as it could have.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Olthannon wrote:
I just saw a couple of odd bits on twitter and I don't know enough about it. I came to this thread hoping for a bit more info. From what little I've seen it seems pretty crap. I follow a few "big name" dnd streamers that are fairly vocal on their negativity. I hope that this will give wotc pause for thought.

This system that we live in really sucks eh?

The fact that WotC has this much control of the market is the root of the problem. It's not a monopoly but it has a lot of the bench marks of the issues with one. Spreading the market out in WotC gaking of their own bed is a win.

Everyone (not just in this thread but the people on the youtubes and stream and podcasts) should be looking to the health of the industry instead of the health of DnD. TTRPGs can survive without DnD.

D&D is like the GW gateway into wargaming. It is often the "first" experience people have with TTRPGs, and they are reluctant to move away from it for a lot of reasons.

 Lance845 wrote:

 Syro_ wrote:
I can't guarantee its truth, but I have heard that current 5E stuff will be left alone, and that its the new stuff coming out for OneD&D that has all these new rules. I hope that's true. I really don't like the direction that Hasbro seems to be going. To me, D&D is about the experience created around the table by the DM and players. I've tried some of the online D&D gaming and really don't like it. I will happily just keep playing the old 5E stuff. I have enough to last for decades.

Even the 5e stuff has weird stipulations. Like, you can't make sub class/specializations for non core classes. Thats why nobody produces new sub classes for the artificer. Because it's not "core" so isn't free for tweaking by the community. You cannot reference spells and abilities outside of core stuff in your modules. So no monsters can have abilities from the non core stuff. You can't have a spell book or a new creature with spells from other "non-core" books.

That being said. When they left the 3rd ed OGL alone and did their new deal for 4th it spawned Pathfinder arguably their biggest competition and a major driver for 4th ed falling on it's face. If they learned anything from that they will take steps with 5e to prevent the continued support of the old OGL, probably by not creating a new one for OneDnD but instead by modifying the existing one to kill 5e support.

Ah, I didn't know about those things. That sucks about messing with 5e too. I appreciate the info, thanks. I have also heard that part of with 4th edition did so poorly was that WotC designed it, planning to use it mostly with a digital tabletop that they didn't complete in time. Do you know the validity of that?


Unrelated, but how many of you have heard about that new "Dungeon 23" trend of a bunch of people trying to making a room a day over the course of a year for their own mega dungeon? It seems like a fun idea to try.

 Syro_ wrote:


Ah, I didn't know about those things. That sucks about messing with 5e too. I appreciate the info, thanks. I have also heard that part of with 4th edition did so poorly was that WotC designed it, planning to use it mostly with a digital tabletop that they didn't complete in time. Do you know the validity of that?

I can confirm that. I was a yearly gencon attendee at the time and they were very optimistic about the online component when talking about it one year and I even got a rubber stress ball brain of it as a promo item. It was called Gleemax. I'm not kidding... someone in marketing decided on that name and the rest of the people apparently just nodded.

Thanks! And wow, that name....

 Easy E wrote:
D&D is like the GW gateway into wargaming. It is often the "first" experience people have with TTRPGs, and they are reluctant to move away from it for a lot of reasons.

This is true. But t's also the problem. There are WAY better wargames than anything GW produces. GWs market share is nuts and a collapse could/should spread things out. The difference being scale. Wargaming is way more niche than TTRPGs. Especially over the last like... 6 years? with the podcast/liveplay/pop culture boom.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
https://www.cbr.com/dnd-ogl-changes-restricts-original-content/

Although the OGL 1.0 agreement saw many updates and tweaks since its publication, WotC revealed it would create a version 1.1 when it announced One D&D last year. Notably, it emphasizes that the new OGl cancels out previous agreements made under the original and requires content makers to sign an agreement on the new one if they wish to publish "on or after January 13, 2023." Because this is a leaked draft that WotC initially intended to publish on Jan. 4, it's unclear if that date still stands.

According to the new OGL, it "only allows for creation of roleplaying games and supplements in printed media and static electronic file formats. It does not allow for anything else, including but not limited to things like videos, virtual tabletops or VTT campaigns, computer games, novels, apps, graphics novels, music, songs, dances, and pantomimes." WotC also notes that creators can still engage with these activities, but only to the extent that the company's Fan Content Policy allows or through a separate agreement between the maker and Wizards.

By WotC's definition, fan content includes "fan art, videos, podcasts, blogs, websites, streaming content, tattoos, altars to your cleric's deity, etc." It's unclear how this might impact popular lets plays like Critical Role or Dimension 20. WotC's new OGl also explicitly prohibits content that contains anything bigoted, racist, homophobic, transphobic or discriminatory.

Those who profit from content for Dungeons & Dragons fall into three revenue tier sets that determine whether the publisher has to pay royalties to WotC. Most creators don't have to worry about that possibility, as WotC estimates that only around 20 unofficial content publishers fall into this category. The Initiate Tier includes anyone with at least one licensed product that earned $50,000 or less, while the Intermediate Tier ranges from above that to $750,000. Those making more fall into the Expert Tier and must pay 20% or 25% in royalties for anything above that $750,000.

Members of the Expert Tier that use Kickstarter pay 20% in royalties above that $750k threshold, while those using other crowdfunding sites must pay 25% in royalties. Publishers who don't make a profit or even lose money on their crowdfunding attempt that exceeds $750K still owe WotC royalties.

So yeah. Critical Roll, DnD is for Nerds, Dungeons and Daddies, Roll for Initiative...

I suspect these podcasts may be moving to new game systems.

But further, depending on if big daddy Hasbro wants to take Pazio to court, even Pathfinder could need to make a 3rd edition abandoning it's dnd trappings.

Now some of this is just flat out unenforceable. You cannot stop people making fan art of the most generic fantasy things ever. But you COULD stop something like DnD is for Nerds or Critical Roll from producing TV series, tee shirts and merch, and other such stuff. In order for them to maintain their business while avoiding a court case they may need to find another game.

I think that much like GW and Warhammer+ Hasbro is after the online/stream market. They probably don't care about Tim selling handmade pictures of characters to people at SomewhereCon, but if Tim and Co manage to fund a succesful KS for online art, or manage to get a beefy stream of money through donations on Twitch then Wizards willl want their share of the pie.

M.

Picked this up at Christmas there and I have to say I’m really enjoying it.

Me and the kids are playing all sorts of exciting games in outer space. It’s dead quick to just throw the book open and toss some minis and objectives on and just go for it.

Loke Battle Mats make dungeon themed ones, castles and catacombs, steam-punk… lots to chose from in various sizes too. Highly recommended.