Are you excited to see dozens of new TTRPG's get Demiplane character sheets and toolsets? Will this replace D&D Beyond for you? Let us know in the comments!
As a player, I can appreciate the desire, as a DM it isn't exactly smooth sailing. I use to DM in roll20 with my players using the DDB browser addon, and creating custom items in DDB was the bane of my existence. I don't know if Demiplane has solved that issue, but I doubt it. Further, the fact that Roll20 "needs" Demiplane to create good character sheets and a good new player on-boarding experience is rather a condemnation of Roll20.
Much as I'll be sticking with Foundry and Pathbuilder for my personal games, I _love_ seeing more competition out there, even if I do worry about mergers like this overall.
Is this competition though, years ago I moved from Roll20 to Foundry as my VTT to run games in because of all the tragic flaws with Roll20. Roll20 isn't fixing the issues they have with their platform, they are just "hiding" them from the bulk of the user-base. AKA the players.
@@kitnal4143 To be fair, the new Foundry 5e sheet isn't perfect. Incredible but not quite there yet. Particularly in the way it groups (or more prominently doesn't) class/race/background features. You end up with a giant unwieldy list where its hard to know what comes from where. Still far and away better the Roll20 and probably will still be better then this new Roll20 sheet but still...
Ok, brass tacks question. If a player owns a book...say and Alien book...on demiplane, does that make it available on roll20 if they don't own it there?
I loved Demiplane because Adam Bradford was there. Super sad to see him heading out again. Overall though I am excited to see how this makes Roll20 even better.
Guess I am done buying stuff off demiplane then lol. Main reason I purchased stuff off of it was the hope of Foundry support, but with Roll20... doubt it gonna happen XD
I am disappointed. I far prefer other VTTs as Roll20 lags FAR behind functionally and tools available from those other systems. I understand the desire for both companies to merge as an alternative to WotC's upcoming DDB + VTT plans. But I like Demiplane far more than I do Roll20 and I don't plan on returning to Roll20 anytime soon.
This is interesting news, but honestly it doesn't solve the core issues that I have as a DM with Roll20. Roll20 was my first VTT but as the years went on, it was very clearly just becoming an ever increasing buggy, bloated mess. It gets the job done, almost akin to how Microsoft Windows gets the job done. In the worst way possible that somehow manages to stay afloat. Potentially integrating Demiplane character sheets into Roll20 doesn't really fix Roll20, it just sweeps the issues under the proverbial rug so that fewer people notice those rough spots. All I can say is that the DMs that run games on Roll20, come over to Foundry, you won't regret it.
I love how Roll20 has been on top of the remodeling the VTT on their site. I remember using it back in 2016/2017 and the interface was butt. I just wish that they would improve the app on phone to work. That thing works just as well as it did the site before the major updates.
@@kitnal4143 Foundry is amazing, I haven't touched Roll20 since starting to use Foundry, but if I am being honest, there is no way Foundry would have been able to afford Demiplane. Beyond which, Foundry doesn't NEED Demiplane in the same way that Roll20 does.
Yes... Roll20, the VTT that was dominating the market and then did absolutely nothing for 5 years while 1-man projects were supporting more features than them? That one is going to change everything for everyone? Lol. Okay.
The Roll20 work is still not very usable. That they took so long to do a character sheet that is still so bad with WotC should be a clue this team is not yet capable. With Daggerheart now doing so well it seems it is time for a new group to do a "Roll12". I thought that Demiplane might be part of a new batch of platforms and tools, but the power dynamics here are backwards. Old money? Maybe. I don't have the fortitude to dig into it, but this is clear: The designers for Demiplane are already a decade ahead of the Roll20 team. This is a step backwards and i do not see who this serves other than antiquated and proven-to-be untrustworthy incumbent publishers.
I love how at the end of the day we really got no answers lol. Makes sense though... I guess my question as a D&D player is when can I migrate off of this shite platform that Wizards is determined to sink. Also Demiplane Homebrew for the many nexus'?
To be honest, Roll20s "main problem" (in my opinion) is not their Character sheets (even though it could be more intuitive), its the overall usability of the VTT. It took me less then a day messing around with baseline Foundry (no mods) and Owlbear Rodeo to get a better understanding of how to use them, then I got from a week of R20... and it did not get better over the years. To this day, you can not just import a battlemap.jpg (not to mention maps with premade walls from say dungeonfog) into R20 and have it default to its proper size. You have to drag it to the size you want, can't even do "set size 1024x1024"...
Thank you. This is the real talking point that no one seems to be thinking of. Probably shows the difference between, playing in Roll20 and DM'ing in Roll20.
On Roll20 it took me like 1 hour to set up a battlemap. The result was really bad (tokens were far too small when placed into the grid, zooming in further was not possible, grid was missaligned, text under tokens far too large, etc.), but I was done with fiddling around and just ran with it. A few months later I tried Foundry VTT. Setting up the same scene/battlemap literally just took a few seconds. Pixel width and height of image was automatically applied. The grid was perfectly aligned (100 pixel for 10 feet) and with a few clicks I easily changed it to 50 pixel for 5 feet. Exactly what I wanted. Zooming in worked and you could see the tokens art in good quality. I was pretty sure that Roll20 could not be that bad and that I probably missed somthing, so I then went back to Roll20 to apply what I had learned. Created a new 'scene' with the correct pixel width and height. Placed the battle map. Moved it to top left. Streched it until it fit. Then entered 50 pixel in the weird 70 pixel grid calculation field... and voila the grid was perfectly aligned with 5 feet squares. Now zooming in worked much better. I could zoom in much further and token images were large enough and had a good image quality. My takeaway: Roll20 ist really hard to use. They really need to work on the usability.
@@Tutamun74 Indeed. Just to make sure, I just set up the exact same encounter in R20 and in Foundry, a pretty simple Roadeside Ambush, on an "empty server" (only 5e SDR installed beforehand). Took about 2 minutes in Foundry and 10 in R20 (not including making player characters). Of course, I do not have a Subscription for R20, so no walls or dynamic lighting on that map... would have taken even longer ;) While R20 makes it easier to get a group together to play, since they do have a "LFG/LFP" tool built in, I massively prefer DMing (and playing) on Foundry. And they will threaten to ban you from R20, for just mentioning FoundryVTT in your Game description, too.
Honestly, i prefer the UI in Demiplane to DND Beyond so im really excited about this. My question is, are they going to have a Beyond 20 style integration with demiplane to roll on the Roll 20 VTT?
That is 100% the plan, and should actually be up and running very shortly. They mention that this kind of integration was one of the main reasons they wanted this merger
@@TheCharacterSheet DND beyond has ONLY DND so this is objectively a thousand times better. Wizards needs to take this as a sign to improve as a company
@@indigo_tribe Instead they'll likely take it as a sign to piss off and alienate their customers even further because the ones driving the ship are hedge fund managers with ZERO clue who their customers are.
@@sodasaintcommentaries4054 yeah sadly that's why I said they need to. There is no choice. If third party ttrpgs made by popular UA-camrs and twitchies take off like they currently are, DND as a profitable company will inevitably and obviously take a nosedive
@@indigo_tribe There isn't anything that WotC could do to compete with Roll20 on a move like this. Nor is it clear if they should have too. WotC (currently) makes a TTRPG and maybe eventually a single VTT dedicated to that one game. Roll20 is a VTT that serves all TTRPGs. Different services provided.
The potential for this triangle platform is extraordinary. Map creation, VTT, and rules mechanics full integrated in an easy to use and consistent implementation is the dream.
Ya. This is super disappointing. Cutting out other VTTs is not good for the industry as a whole. Roll20 users will get a big win but everyone else will be left high and dry. And Foundry is a much better VTT overall.
@@GMToolbox Foundry has a powerful kit, but it doesn't have the accessibility and the infrastructure that Roll20 does. And at the end of the day, that's why Demiplane went this route.
@@sodasaintcommentaries4054 DnDBeyond has Beyond 20 which can be used on Roll20 and Foundry. Letting users user their character sheets on either platform with a simple chrome extension. If Demiplane is going exclusive to Roll20 I am unsure if the API would be open for someone to interface with Foundry at all. I understand their business decision but if it cuts out devs from using the software more broadly it kind of sucks.
Well, there already is a FoundryVTT/Pathfinder connetion via a free module that looks at the "archives of nethys" for like 99% of Pathfinder stuff.... Wanna bet Roll20 will park its connection with Demiplane behind its subscription model? LIke they do with drawing Walls...
@@sodasaintcommentaries4054 "accessibility and the infrastructure" What does this even mean? That Roll20 has existing publishing relationships? Those relationships are part of the problem.
Will this lead to WotC pulling 5e content from Roll20? If they're going to become D&D Beyond's top competitor, will WotC aid in that by allowing Roll20 to continue use of their content?
Roll20 has not always been the best of actors in this industry and space. While Demiplane has been more customer driven and supportive. How will these two completely different cultures come together, and actually create something for the better of the community of users?
Great video, and I am glad that you got the scoop on it. I do have one request: Please, please, please, stop saying "assumably". The word you are looking for is "presumably". Edit: Assumably is an actual word, and I was actually wrong. Carry on.
Weirdly, because I have had this debate with Christian before, Assumably A) is an actual world and B) actually works in the way he uses it. It baffled me too, so I understand lol.
@@EunoiaRPG what this could do for the TTRPG scene is massive! The amount of digital tools and high end character creators we could suddenly see hit the market...and the potential for all that roll20 content to be licensed and a part of it...it's hard to overstate how much that could change the entire TTRPG scene, so we're glad you agree
I want alternatives VTTs out there. WOTC is the one company I know I won't support. I want things made by fans and support companies that deserve my money. Support your customers and I'll support the company.
Uh did anyone catch that the plain language translation to Ankit’s answer to the Q at 4:18 is basically “monopolies are easier to work with for creators?l
While definitely one interpretation of that section, we'd also say that he does talk in depth about this being a one stop shop for TTRPG creators going forward, where you can get Digital Tools, Character Creation, Marketplace access and VTT integration all in one place. We see it more as a wide platform that an Amazon style monopoly, but that is just what our impression from the interview was, and your's could be just as valid!
@@TheCharacterSheet Fair. My POV given the history of capitalism in this country is that we should regard any acquisition or merger with maximum skepticism until proven otherwise.
@@NoahKunin I'm with you, but in this case I think it's about having a strong enough alternative to WOTC/DnDBeyond. Yes they could all still turn evil, but hopefully having a bigger Bad will keep them virtuous, strong, and efficient.
What I heard was a non-answer to how soon there'd be cross functionality between the platforms. Dude, if you haven't figured that part out yet, just say so.
@@erickingsepp I considered that POV but I don’t think it applies to this acquisition unless they have private intel about WoTC’s future plans. Right now, WoTC is all in on DnD. They have no other TTRPGs in scope. Roll20 already has invested a large sunk cost into their new DnD builder / character sheet. So it’s not really clear that acquiring Demiplane really makes them more competitive with regard to DnD Beyond on that front. Instead they’ve acquired their direct competitor on everything that isn’t DnD leaving only FG, which would have to start innovating at an incredible pace to start competing with this new R20 Corp.
I clicked the Like button. While the news is terrible for the community, that @TheCharacterSheet is giving us access to see and hear leadership from both teams (and judge for ourselves) is useful.
If they can create a format that allows creation of a Demiplane Nexus and a PoD PDF that is fairly automated so that a creator can do it more or less on their own, this would be a great thing. But I'm not sure that's going to happen and I worry that we are losing options rather than gaining them. (ie you only get a Nexus/Roll 20 character sheet/etc if you have x-thousand fans already.
Their goal seems to be allowing even smaller TTRPGs and Indie TTRPGs to have access to digital tools, character creation, etc, so we imagine the vast majority of that would largely be input from the creators of the TTRPG into some form of automated template to be tweaked/polished, but that is a fair question!
@@TheCharacterSheet Yeah, from the interview it rather seems that Demiplane has found some pretty good and relatively fast ways to make something like the nexuses, which Roll20 would clearly like to learn from seeing how much it took them to revamp the Pathfinder character builder/sheet as well as now the new D&D sheet. Demiplane is far easier to use, so that would be great if you can do it there and have it integrated into Roll20 including a pdf output.
It is always worrying to me when an accusation like this happens. I really hope that it ends up well though, hopefully making both better instead of worse.
I've been waiting over a year for the 5e Nexus to roll out and you're way behind. How much longer until we see you actually get around to doing dungeons& dragons?
@@NoahKunin They didn't "explicitly" state that Bradford was kicked out to make the merger happen, but the wording of the responses given here suggest that was very much the case.
@@mschmidt2105 I don’t think they will considering that they would be taking a blowtorch to their brand by doing that. Folks will find a way to play 5e without being extorted.
Mr Ankit does not seem to give a damn shit about RPG and roleplaying. I see one passion in him: money money money. This guy will quit as soon as shit hits the fan.
"we all sit around saying there is a path forward... And Adam wants to take a different one"! Why does that sound like Bradford was "fired" to make this merger happen? Almost akin to that "important person that got Demiplane off the ground" didn't want to hand over control, again. To be that guy, I have no problem with seeing Bradford "leave" Demiplane, as pivotal as he was with DDB, he over promised and severely under delivered there (not to mention was the captain of the DDB ship that was sold almost as many times as it had years in operation), and clearly stood in the way of progress here with Demiplane/Roll20 too.
I'm going to set this record straight - you don't have any kind of clue what you're talking about at all. Your idle speculation in this comment is off the mark on every front. I know we live in an age where anyone can type anything any place, but there's no reason to make judgement calls so dogmatically about something you know nothing about based on one (actually intended in kindness) comment from my former executive partner at Demiplane. My goal from the time I started with Demiplane was to build something great and eventually sell it to a larger company in the TTRPG space and ride off into the sunset. That plan came to fruition, and I moved on to a new adventure, just like I planned from the start. I haven't stood in the way of anything at all with Demiplane / Roll20, and I expect to see continued great things from the Demiplane team and wish them the best. As for DDB, I'm not really sure what you specifically mean by over promising and under delivering, given that we made demonstrably rapid progress in my time leading the platform for five years. You also mention it being sold "as many times as" years it operated, but you (again) are making claims without any context, since the various acquisitions that occurred during my time there were entirely outside of my control - I led D&D Beyond, but I certainly didn't have authority to prevent Curse being sold to Amazon / Twitch or Amazon selling Curse to Fandom. All of those decisions were far above my pay grade. I hope you'll keep in mind that sharing baseless information doesn't really help anyone, including you, since it makes you look pretty bad when someone actually reads the comments.
@@BadEye I didn't share "baseless information", I shared an opinion formed through the words spoken in this interview, the body language presented by those in this interview, and previous experiences had when dealing with corporate culture. Terminations to push a merger through is far from unheard of. As unflattering as it may be to you, I formed an opinion that was (and maybe still is) valid. Which is exactly the type of thing that this "comment" section is designed for. So based on your statement you would have people believe that you founded Demiplane, treated it like any other Silicon Valley tech start-up, in which you sold out to who ever was willing to pay the most so that you can walk away with your Millions of Dollars??? Somehow that characterisation of the process doesn't make me want to like you or believe you, considering that Non-Disclosure Agreements and Non-Disparagement Agreements are often employed against people that leave companies in just these circumstances. Especially if you have walked away with a significant amount of money. In regard to DDB, all I will say is that I was there from near the beginning, and saw your face in a great many Developer Updates videos on youtube. I saw the pages upon pages of features that were announced but never implemented, many of which continued to be unimplemented long after you stopped giving approximate ETA's. That universal basic feature system, much!!! Or whatever you were calling it. Ultimately you're right, you probably weren't entirely (directly) responsible for companies being bought and sold and where DDB ended up each time, but indirectly, there must have been a hell of a lot of chaos going on behind the scenes which prompted the first two sales (of which you were apart of). Alas, while I expressed my opinion, you made your statement, which to whatever degree I must accept till future reporting reveals otherwise. In the meantime, since you are making statements, do you care to comment on what you will be working on at Fantasy Grounds? Surely Fantasy Grounds isn't looking to get their company sold off!
@@schemage2210 I see you're doubling down on the assumptions, inaccuracies, and unfounded speculation. Given the actual content of the announcement messaging and well wishes from both Roll20 and Demiplane to me (and vice versa) give no cause for leaping to controversial conclusions about the news, the fact that I did not found Demiplane (but rather joined as a chief executive after hearing the founders plans for the company that I laid out in the previous reply), the truth that I most certainly did not walk away with millions of dollars (or I would not still be working), and the track record of growth and transforming the industry that happened with D&D Beyond, I will stop here with the responses - anyone that is close enough to the reality of these situations knows how things have gone down. And no, Fantasy Grounds is in an entirely different situation, one I actively sought out for my next adventure. I'm going to continue to push for the industry to be better and better with SmiteWorks and can't wait to get started.
@@BadEye Upon leaving Demiplane, did you sign a non-disclosure agreement and/or a non-disparagement agreement? The answer is surely yes, but if you had, your commentary is to be considered highly biased and suspect, particularly when you wish to question the sanity of another person. Rest assured, since you are now actively working on Fantasy Grounds, I certainly won't be a customer there of and push anyone possible away from that platform.
Are you excited to see dozens of new TTRPG's get Demiplane character sheets and toolsets? Will this replace D&D Beyond for you? Let us know in the comments!
If this helps to get a decent character builder for the Essence20 RPGs by Demiplane then hell yes let’s go!
Roll20's VTT and Demiplane's character sheets?? Yes please!! I'm so eager to see what alternative they can offer to DnDBeyond.
It seems like an amazing combination
As a player, I can appreciate the desire, as a DM it isn't exactly smooth sailing. I use to DM in roll20 with my players using the DDB browser addon, and creating custom items in DDB was the bane of my existence. I don't know if Demiplane has solved that issue, but I doubt it. Further, the fact that Roll20 "needs" Demiplane to create good character sheets and a good new player on-boarding experience is rather a condemnation of Roll20.
Demiplane is so much easier to use...i really hope roll20 is going to USE that and isn't just buying out a competitor. We will see.
Much as I'll be sticking with Foundry and Pathbuilder for my personal games, I _love_ seeing more competition out there, even if I do worry about mergers like this overall.
Exactly this.
Is this competition though, years ago I moved from Roll20 to Foundry as my VTT to run games in because of all the tragic flaws with Roll20. Roll20 isn't fixing the issues they have with their platform, they are just "hiding" them from the bulk of the user-base. AKA the players.
Especially for 5e. Foundy's recent update kinda blew roll20 out of the water... again
@@kitnal4143 To be fair, the new Foundry 5e sheet isn't perfect. Incredible but not quite there yet. Particularly in the way it groups (or more prominently doesn't) class/race/background features. You end up with a giant unwieldy list where its hard to know what comes from where.
Still far and away better the Roll20 and probably will still be better then this new Roll20 sheet but still...
Ok, brass tacks question. If a player owns a book...say and Alien book...on demiplane, does that make it available on roll20 if they don't own it there?
Eventually that seems to be the point. When that gets implemented is a whole other story.
I loved Demiplane because Adam Bradford was there. Super sad to see him heading out again. Overall though I am excited to see how this makes Roll20 even better.
Adam is now with Fantasy Grounds as well, so he landed on his feet with another great TTRPG company!
@@TheCharacterSheet that's really good to hear! Fantasy Grounds is a great platform.
@@TheCharacterSheet good news, so FG might get another step forward too then.
Guess I am done buying stuff off demiplane then lol. Main reason I purchased stuff off of it was the hope of Foundry support, but with Roll20... doubt it gonna happen XD
Now if only roll20 could stay out of my private messages between users.
This is huge. We need solid competition to DnD Beyond.
This is a much needed and welcome development. DND beyond has needed solid competition for a while now.
I am disappointed. I far prefer other VTTs as Roll20 lags FAR behind functionally and tools available from those other systems. I understand the desire for both companies to merge as an alternative to WotC's upcoming DDB + VTT plans. But I like Demiplane far more than I do Roll20 and I don't plan on returning to Roll20 anytime soon.
This is interesting news, but honestly it doesn't solve the core issues that I have as a DM with Roll20. Roll20 was my first VTT but as the years went on, it was very clearly just becoming an ever increasing buggy, bloated mess. It gets the job done, almost akin to how Microsoft Windows gets the job done. In the worst way possible that somehow manages to stay afloat. Potentially integrating Demiplane character sheets into Roll20 doesn't really fix Roll20, it just sweeps the issues under the proverbial rug so that fewer people notice those rough spots.
All I can say is that the DMs that run games on Roll20, come over to Foundry, you won't regret it.
I love how Roll20 has been on top of the remodeling the VTT on their site. I remember using it back in 2016/2017 and the interface was butt. I just wish that they would improve the app on phone to work. That thing works just as well as it did the site before the major updates.
Roll20 should have spent their money on their app. Too bad Demiplane couldn't pick a better VTT.
Has everything to do with the fact that roll20 has the infrastructure. That's why Demiplane did that.
Agreed
@@sodasaintcommentaries4054Foundry didn't bite?
@@kitnal4143 Foundry is amazing, I haven't touched Roll20 since starting to use Foundry, but if I am being honest, there is no way Foundry would have been able to afford Demiplane. Beyond which, Foundry doesn't NEED Demiplane in the same way that Roll20 does.
wish Roll20 were more accessible with screen readers
Oooo, excellent point, and hopefully they will be soon!
@@TheCharacterSheetmot holding my breath. We've been asking for that for more than a decade
Yes... Roll20, the VTT that was dominating the market and then did absolutely nothing for 5 years while 1-man projects were supporting more features than them? That one is going to change everything for everyone? Lol. Okay.
I'm really worried about this because Roll20 has had a bit of history being a not so good company
me too
I just want one digital VTT that I actually get the PDF file of the Books I buy so I don't have to buy them on multiple sites cause that is just dumb.
Happy that Adam Bradford is the Chief Development Officer at Fantasy Grounds.
I still think I’ll continue to use foundry because roll 20 lacks the customization and adaptability that foundry has
Could of picked a better VTT... just sad news today.
Roll20's the only one that has the infrastructure ready to roll. That's the reality.
The Roll20 work is still not very usable. That they took so long to do a character sheet that is still so bad with WotC should be a clue this team is not yet capable. With Daggerheart now doing so well it seems it is time for a new group to do a "Roll12". I thought that Demiplane might be part of a new batch of platforms and tools, but the power dynamics here are backwards.
Old money? Maybe. I don't have the fortitude to dig into it, but this is clear: The designers for Demiplane are already a decade ahead of the Roll20 team. This is a step backwards and i do not see who this serves other than antiquated and proven-to-be untrustworthy incumbent publishers.
I love how at the end of the day we really got no answers lol. Makes sense though... I guess my question as a D&D player is when can I migrate off of this shite platform that Wizards is determined to sink. Also Demiplane Homebrew for the many nexus'?
All of this iust to for a mere fraction of the power shown by Foundry VTT 😈
To be honest, Roll20s "main problem" (in my opinion) is not their Character sheets (even though it could be more intuitive), its the overall usability of the VTT. It took me less then a day messing around with baseline Foundry (no mods) and Owlbear Rodeo to get a better understanding of how to use them, then I got from a week of R20... and it did not get better over the years.
To this day, you can not just import a battlemap.jpg (not to mention maps with premade walls from say dungeonfog) into R20 and have it default to its proper size. You have to drag it to the size you want, can't even do "set size 1024x1024"...
Thank you. This is the real talking point that no one seems to be thinking of. Probably shows the difference between, playing in Roll20 and DM'ing in Roll20.
On Roll20 it took me like 1 hour to set up a battlemap. The result was really bad (tokens were far too small when placed into the grid, zooming in further was not possible, grid was missaligned, text under tokens far too large, etc.), but I was done with fiddling around and just ran with it.
A few months later I tried Foundry VTT. Setting up the same scene/battlemap literally just took a few seconds. Pixel width and height of image was automatically applied. The grid was perfectly aligned (100 pixel for 10 feet) and with a few clicks I easily changed it to 50 pixel for 5 feet. Exactly what I wanted. Zooming in worked and you could see the tokens art in good quality.
I was pretty sure that Roll20 could not be that bad and that I probably missed somthing, so I then went back to Roll20 to apply what I had learned. Created a new 'scene' with the correct pixel width and height. Placed the battle map. Moved it to top left. Streched it until it fit. Then entered 50 pixel in the weird 70 pixel grid calculation field... and voila the grid was perfectly aligned with 5 feet squares. Now zooming in worked much better. I could zoom in much further and token images were large enough and had a good image quality.
My takeaway: Roll20 ist really hard to use. They really need to work on the usability.
@@Tutamun74 Indeed. Just to make sure, I just set up the exact same encounter in R20 and in Foundry, a pretty simple Roadeside Ambush, on an "empty server" (only 5e SDR installed beforehand). Took about 2 minutes in Foundry and 10 in R20 (not including making player characters). Of course, I do not have a Subscription for R20, so no walls or dynamic lighting on that map... would have taken even longer ;)
While R20 makes it easier to get a group together to play, since they do have a "LFG/LFP" tool built in, I massively prefer DMing (and playing) on Foundry.
And they will threaten to ban you from R20, for just mentioning FoundryVTT in your Game description, too.
@@stefanbecker6085 Really, when did they start banning people that mention Foundry in the LFG/LFP??? That is all kinds of draconian.
@@stefanbecker6085 _"And they will threaten to ban you from R20, for just mentioning FoundryVTT in your Game description, too."_
Wait Seriously?
Honestly, i prefer the UI in Demiplane to DND Beyond so im really excited about this. My question is, are they going to have a Beyond 20 style integration with demiplane to roll on the Roll 20 VTT?
That is 100% the plan, and should actually be up and running very shortly. They mention that this kind of integration was one of the main reasons they wanted this merger
@@TheCharacterSheet DND beyond has ONLY DND so this is objectively a thousand times better. Wizards needs to take this as a sign to improve as a company
@@indigo_tribe Instead they'll likely take it as a sign to piss off and alienate their customers even further because the ones driving the ship are hedge fund managers with ZERO clue who their customers are.
@@sodasaintcommentaries4054 yeah sadly that's why I said they need to. There is no choice. If third party ttrpgs made by popular UA-camrs and twitchies take off like they currently are, DND as a profitable company will inevitably and obviously take a nosedive
@@indigo_tribe There isn't anything that WotC could do to compete with Roll20 on a move like this. Nor is it clear if they should have too. WotC (currently) makes a TTRPG and maybe eventually a single VTT dedicated to that one game. Roll20 is a VTT that serves all TTRPGs. Different services provided.
Will they provide a way to get a digital copy of a book you already own?
Roll20 isnt fun to use from the side of a newer gm. It sucks.
The potential for this triangle platform is extraordinary.
Map creation, VTT, and rules mechanics full integrated in an easy to use and consistent implementation is the dream.
Potential yes. Actual implementation is a drastically different story.
will this adversely affect our existing purchases?
Im guessing we wont ever see the API set up for FoundryVTT now.
Ya. This is super disappointing. Cutting out other VTTs is not good for the industry as a whole. Roll20 users will get a big win but everyone else will be left high and dry. And Foundry is a much better VTT overall.
@@GMToolbox Foundry has a powerful kit, but it doesn't have the accessibility and the infrastructure that Roll20 does. And at the end of the day, that's why Demiplane went this route.
@@sodasaintcommentaries4054 DnDBeyond has Beyond 20 which can be used on Roll20 and Foundry. Letting users user their character sheets on either platform with a simple chrome extension. If Demiplane is going exclusive to Roll20 I am unsure if the API would be open for someone to interface with Foundry at all. I understand their business decision but if it cuts out devs from using the software more broadly it kind of sucks.
Well, there already is a FoundryVTT/Pathfinder connetion via a free module that looks at the "archives of nethys" for like 99% of Pathfinder stuff....
Wanna bet Roll20 will park its connection with Demiplane behind its subscription model? LIke they do with drawing Walls...
@@sodasaintcommentaries4054 "accessibility and the infrastructure" What does this even mean? That Roll20 has existing publishing relationships? Those relationships are part of the problem.
Will this lead to WotC pulling 5e content from Roll20? If they're going to become D&D Beyond's top competitor, will WotC aid in that by allowing Roll20 to continue use of their content?
They're more likely to simply not license 6e.
Great story!
Good questions.
How will it pan out?
We shall see...
Love the move the more competition DnD beyond has the better for everyone
🤔🤔hope this works out
Can I link my Roll20 character token & have it open my Demiplane character sheet?
Sounds awesome, really a big fan of demiplanes layout.
This is exactly what I want to see, automated mobile character generation and tracking system for OTHER ttrps outside of D&D - Love it!
Roll20 has not always been the best of actors in this industry and space. While Demiplane has been more customer driven and supportive. How will these two completely different cultures come together, and actually create something for the better of the community of users?
Considering Adam Bradford abandoned ship around the same time as this merger I don't have high hopes they will.
@@AnonAdderlan I hear that.
Sounds really cool and promising
Great video, and I am glad that you got the scoop on it. I do have one request: Please, please, please, stop saying "assumably". The word you are looking for is "presumably". Edit: Assumably is an actual word, and I was actually wrong. Carry on.
Weirdly, because I have had this debate with Christian before, Assumably A) is an actual world and B) actually works in the way he uses it. It baffled me too, so I understand lol.
It's technically a word, just not nearly as common. In most cases, assume and presume are effectively synonyms, so it works here.
@@erickingsepp Well... That is discomposing. Please accept my palliation. :)
@@TheCharacterSheet Fair enough. I do hate to be wrong, but it looks like I made a mistake here.
YO WHAT
INDEED
@TheCharacterSheet quite possibly one of the most appropriate youtube videos to include 'THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING' in the title
@@EunoiaRPG what this could do for the TTRPG scene is massive! The amount of digital tools and high end character creators we could suddenly see hit the market...and the potential for all that roll20 content to be licensed and a part of it...it's hard to overstate how much that could change the entire TTRPG scene, so we're glad you agree
@TheCharacterSheet as someone that dreams of one day finishing a TTRPG of my own, this is inspiring
I want alternatives VTTs out there. WOTC is the one company I know I won't support. I want things made by fans and support companies that deserve my money. Support your customers and I'll support the company.
Uh did anyone catch that the plain language translation to Ankit’s answer to the Q at 4:18 is basically “monopolies are easier to work with for creators?l
While definitely one interpretation of that section, we'd also say that he does talk in depth about this being a one stop shop for TTRPG creators going forward, where you can get Digital Tools, Character Creation, Marketplace access and VTT integration all in one place. We see it more as a wide platform that an Amazon style monopoly, but that is just what our impression from the interview was, and your's could be just as valid!
@@TheCharacterSheet Fair. My POV given the history of capitalism in this country is that we should regard any acquisition or merger with maximum skepticism until proven otherwise.
@@NoahKunin I'm with you, but in this case I think it's about having a strong enough alternative to WOTC/DnDBeyond. Yes they could all still turn evil, but hopefully having a bigger Bad will keep them virtuous, strong, and efficient.
What I heard was a non-answer to how soon there'd be cross functionality between the platforms. Dude, if you haven't figured that part out yet, just say so.
@@erickingsepp I considered that POV but I don’t think it applies to this acquisition unless they have private intel about WoTC’s future plans. Right now, WoTC is all in on DnD. They have no other TTRPGs in scope. Roll20 already has invested a large sunk cost into their new DnD builder / character sheet. So it’s not really clear that acquiring Demiplane really makes them more competitive with regard to DnD Beyond on that front. Instead they’ve acquired their direct competitor on everything that isn’t DnD leaving only FG, which would have to start innovating at an incredible pace to start competing with this new R20 Corp.
Well I‘m happy for everybody who likes Roll20. Since I am fully against Roll20 this is the end of using Demiplane for me.
I'm super excited! I'm so tired of the D&D Beyond disappointments. This makes me happy!
I clicked the Dislike button
I clicked the Like button. While the news is terrible for the community, that @TheCharacterSheet is giving us access to see and hear leadership from both teams (and judge for ourselves) is useful.
If they can create a format that allows creation of a Demiplane Nexus and a PoD PDF that is fairly automated so that a creator can do it more or less on their own, this would be a great thing.
But I'm not sure that's going to happen and I worry that we are losing options rather than gaining them.
(ie you only get a Nexus/Roll 20 character sheet/etc if you have x-thousand fans already.
Their goal seems to be allowing even smaller TTRPGs and Indie TTRPGs to have access to digital tools, character creation, etc, so we imagine the vast majority of that would largely be input from the creators of the TTRPG into some form of automated template to be tweaked/polished, but that is a fair question!
@@TheCharacterSheet Yeah, from the interview it rather seems that Demiplane has found some pretty good and relatively fast ways to make something like the nexuses, which Roll20 would clearly like to learn from seeing how much it took them to revamp the Pathfinder character builder/sheet as well as now the new D&D sheet. Demiplane is far easier to use, so that would be great if you can do it there and have it integrated into Roll20 including a pdf output.
No, your goal isn't to make it easier, it is to make harder to go else were.
It is always worrying to me when an accusation like this happens. I really hope that it ends up well though, hopefully making both better instead of worse.
Foundry is all I need.
I've been waiting over a year for the 5e Nexus to roll out and you're way behind. How much longer until we see you actually get around to doing dungeons& dragons?
This is really good and you asking the good questions. I really wish they would add the future stormlight rpg to demiplane
Ohhhhh yeaaaah. 😎
KOOL AID MAN!
Huh. How does this play into the timing of Adam B’s departure to Fantasy Grounds?
Also @ Character Sheet - love your work, but it is very weird to see you heart a source that is basically commenting on its own corporate merger.
This is answered around min 17. They are actually very direct that Adam B’s departure is due to the acquisition. Not surprised at all.
@@NoahKunin They didn't "explicitly" state that Bradford was kicked out to make the merger happen, but the wording of the responses given here suggest that was very much the case.
Hmmm... will Fantasygrounds and WorldAnvil hook up as well?
Watch out for Turn of Fortune's Wheel and Curse of Strahd spoilers
Man now I really regret buying DND book on Beyond :-(
Don't be, because WotC will pull R20 s license once their VTT comes out...
@@mschmidt2105 I don’t think they will considering that they would be taking a blowtorch to their brand by doing that. Folks will find a way to play 5e without being extorted.
Wizard ad 2:50 see Goblin and runs aways :p
I won't use Roll20 ever since they declared they didn't want older, white, male players. This was way back, but I remember it and hold grudges. :)
Roll20 is saturated with bots, though. It's fucking hard to find a legit game.
Mr Ankit does not seem to give a damn shit about RPG and roleplaying. I see one passion in him: money money money. This guy will quit as soon as shit hits the fan.
I have watched this video, and at no point is it explained what Demiplane is. What is it?
It's a character builder for many different roles playing games.
It's basically DnDBeyond for many different gaming systems.
@@pheralanpathfinder4897 Thanks. The video did not make that clear.
New people isn't always a good thing... but yeah, this will become a powerhouse of a company in time in the industry...
"we all sit around saying there is a path forward... And Adam wants to take a different one"!
Why does that sound like Bradford was "fired" to make this merger happen? Almost akin to that "important person that got Demiplane off the ground" didn't want to hand over control, again. To be that guy, I have no problem with seeing Bradford "leave" Demiplane, as pivotal as he was with DDB, he over promised and severely under delivered there (not to mention was the captain of the DDB ship that was sold almost as many times as it had years in operation), and clearly stood in the way of progress here with Demiplane/Roll20 too.
I'm going to set this record straight - you don't have any kind of clue what you're talking about at all. Your idle speculation in this comment is off the mark on every front.
I know we live in an age where anyone can type anything any place, but there's no reason to make judgement calls so dogmatically about something you know nothing about based on one (actually intended in kindness) comment from my former executive partner at Demiplane. My goal from the time I started with Demiplane was to build something great and eventually sell it to a larger company in the TTRPG space and ride off into the sunset. That plan came to fruition, and I moved on to a new adventure, just like I planned from the start. I haven't stood in the way of anything at all with Demiplane / Roll20, and I expect to see continued great things from the Demiplane team and wish them the best.
As for DDB, I'm not really sure what you specifically mean by over promising and under delivering, given that we made demonstrably rapid progress in my time leading the platform for five years. You also mention it being sold "as many times as" years it operated, but you (again) are making claims without any context, since the various acquisitions that occurred during my time there were entirely outside of my control - I led D&D Beyond, but I certainly didn't have authority to prevent Curse being sold to Amazon / Twitch or Amazon selling Curse to Fandom. All of those decisions were far above my pay grade.
I hope you'll keep in mind that sharing baseless information doesn't really help anyone, including you, since it makes you look pretty bad when someone actually reads the comments.
@@BadEye I didn't share "baseless information", I shared an opinion formed through the words spoken in this interview, the body language presented by those in this interview, and previous experiences had when dealing with corporate culture. Terminations to push a merger through is far from unheard of. As unflattering as it may be to you, I formed an opinion that was (and maybe still is) valid. Which is exactly the type of thing that this "comment" section is designed for.
So based on your statement you would have people believe that you founded Demiplane, treated it like any other Silicon Valley tech start-up, in which you sold out to who ever was willing to pay the most so that you can walk away with your Millions of Dollars??? Somehow that characterisation of the process doesn't make me want to like you or believe you, considering that Non-Disclosure Agreements and Non-Disparagement Agreements are often employed against people that leave companies in just these circumstances. Especially if you have walked away with a significant amount of money.
In regard to DDB, all I will say is that I was there from near the beginning, and saw your face in a great many Developer Updates videos on youtube. I saw the pages upon pages of features that were announced but never implemented, many of which continued to be unimplemented long after you stopped giving approximate ETA's. That universal basic feature system, much!!! Or whatever you were calling it. Ultimately you're right, you probably weren't entirely (directly) responsible for companies being bought and sold and where DDB ended up each time, but indirectly, there must have been a hell of a lot of chaos going on behind the scenes which prompted the first two sales (of which you were apart of).
Alas, while I expressed my opinion, you made your statement, which to whatever degree I must accept till future reporting reveals otherwise. In the meantime, since you are making statements, do you care to comment on what you will be working on at Fantasy Grounds? Surely Fantasy Grounds isn't looking to get their company sold off!
@@schemage2210 I see you're doubling down on the assumptions, inaccuracies, and unfounded speculation. Given the actual content of the announcement messaging and well wishes from both Roll20 and Demiplane to me (and vice versa) give no cause for leaping to controversial conclusions about the news, the fact that I did not found Demiplane (but rather joined as a chief executive after hearing the founders plans for the company that I laid out in the previous reply), the truth that I most certainly did not walk away with millions of dollars (or I would not still be working), and the track record of growth and transforming the industry that happened with D&D Beyond, I will stop here with the responses - anyone that is close enough to the reality of these situations knows how things have gone down.
And no, Fantasy Grounds is in an entirely different situation, one I actively sought out for my next adventure. I'm going to continue to push for the industry to be better and better with SmiteWorks and can't wait to get started.
@@BadEye Upon leaving Demiplane, did you sign a non-disclosure agreement and/or a non-disparagement agreement? The answer is surely yes, but if you had, your commentary is to be considered highly biased and suspect, particularly when you wish to question the sanity of another person.
Rest assured, since you are now actively working on Fantasy Grounds, I certainly won't be a customer there of and push anyone possible away from that platform.