5e products post-One?

[ProfDogg]

Will 5e products, both WOTC and 3rd party, be available after One is released?

[LordEntrails]

Yes.
WotC has no control over 3rd party products.
WotC has stated that D&D One is not a new edition of D&D and will be fully compatible with the 5E products published to date. Some products might be superseded and no longer available for sale, but that would only make sense if they replaced it with a new product (i.e. Volos and Tome of Foes being replaced by MoM), and those who have bought a superseded item will always have access and the ability to redownload it from FG (per legal license SmiteWorks has with WotC).

[ProfDogg]

I noticed R20 has "limited time only" on their 5e products... and then FG is having a sale now so I was wondering... With KP also having a sale I was wondering if they were going to pull their own 5e stuff...

[LordEntrails]

FG has something on sale every week, not always WotC items, but often enough. No idea about Roll20.

[ProfDogg]

Oh I know... but the WotC sale followed the normal Monday sale. Then KP had an additional sale on top of that... Just odd timing with the R20 notice... Coincidence does happen though but still worth asking the question... I'd been eyeballing that KP bundle for a bit but was holding out till the next big sale. Thinking maybe KP might not offer it up that late if they're pulling their 5e products.

[Lo Zeno]

I noticed R20 has "limited time only" on their 5e products

That just means that the sale will last for a limited time, not that the product is available for a limited time. E.g. Curse of Strahd is 25% off for a short while, after which it will go back to the regular price.

"For a limited time only" is pretty standard wording on any kind of sales/discount, not just Roll20's. It has no additional meaning.

[Nylanfs]

KP will be transitioning everything to their ORC licensed 5e called "Core Fantasy Roleplaying", it was original code named Black Flag (https://koboldpress.com/project-black-flag/).

Edit: They actually went with Black Flag, evidently it was way more popular than Core Fantasy. So now it's BFRD (https://koboldpress.com/black-flag-reference-document/)

[johnecc]

I was watching a YouTube video yesterday on the DnDBeyondVTT, and an interesting point was raised about it and D&D One. Once their VTT is released, why would they bother to license other competitors to release official One products on their VTT. Seems logical to me.

[Lo Zeno]

I was watching a YouTube video yesterday on the DnDBeyondVTT, and an interesting point was raised about it and D&D One. Once their VTT is released, why would they bother to license other competitors to release official One products on their VTT. Seems logical to me.

For one, their 3D VTT is far from being released, at the peace they are going with their development it will release several months after OneD&D will be out - so in the meantime, WoTC will want to make money out of the other VTTs. Moreover, the 2D VTT that they just released (Maps for D&DBeyond) is still so basic that very few users are using it now, and again it will take them a very long time before they reach a similar level of usability and features as FGU, Roll20, Foundry.
And finally, that's a very simplistic view. The reality is that people who have invested a lot of time and money into FGU or Roll20 or Foundry, buying modules, extensions, mods, plugins, etc will be very reluctant to abandon all the investment made and will likely stay on the platform that they have learnt to use and adapted to their needs. These people will likely not use either the 3D or 2D VTT, and will represent a lost income to WoTC if they stop licensing their product to competitor VTTs. Keep in mind that WoTC's new VTT is entering the VTT market late, after it's already peaked, so it's at a disadvantage compared to the others. WoTC and Hasbro are interested in making money, and the most logical thing is to not stop licensing products until they can be 100% sure that users of the existing VTTs can be easily won over to their VTT.

Let's also not forget that they faced a huge and dangerous backlash when they tried to change the SRD license terms to something more walled and locked it, and felt that they needed to backtrack most of it to avoid losing their market position; a decision to stop licensing content to other VTTs would elicit another similar backlash, and they can't afford another incident like that because you can backtrack and promise to change ONCE, but when it happens twice you lose the trust of your market.

[Neovirtus]

... why would they bother to license other competitors to release official One products on their VTT.

Because they make money off of sales on other platforms. I don't doubt they'd love to force all those purchases through their own VTT, I just don't think it's likely they do it at the drop of a hat. I'm sure there'll be plenty of things only available on their platform to drive sales there, but I think it doesn't make sense for them to tell their customers on FG, Roll20, etc, "we don't want your money, go play a different game."

[vegaserik]

Like all things, that will remain to be seen. Thay have stated they are not going to pull licenses from the other VTT's ... but we all know Wizards isn't always truthful. It also remains to be seen if their VTT actually launches. Their DnD Beyond one may actually be their best vtt idea yet.

[BaneTBC]

The agreement with WotC that SmiteWorks has would not remove any content that you have already purchased, although it would probably not be updated any further outside of break\fixes. Even if Smiteworks stopped functioning as a company, you would still be able to use FG locally, but would need to know how to open ports on your network for someone to join (and how to explain to them how to do so). The launcher and the Lobby end up going through what SW has setup, but it is not necessary for their end to be up and functioning for you to be able to use the software. So even if WotC were to decide not to renew their license contract with SW, you would still retain what you have purchased.

With that said, I want SW to continue to be a healthy and growing company to support my addictions here.

[JohnD]

Plenty of examples of companies making stupid decisions in marketing and interacting with their customers over the last year.

[GunnarGreybeard]

With that said, I want SW to continue to be a healthy and growing company to support my addictions here.
^ ^ This right Here! ^ ^ :)

[ddavison]

As far as we know and have been told, we will continue to be able to sell official D&D 5E products even after the 2024 products release. We have been told that they intend to continue our relationship and they want customers to have options on where they want to play. That said, things can always change.

Our license does specifically allow us to maintain copies on our server to support customer purchases even if WOTC decided to discontinue our license. This was something I was adamant about when I first signed the contract with them and with all other publishers that we work with.

[BaneTBC]

And it was one of the huge selling points for me with SmiteWorks and FGU, I don't have to worry about my purchases becoming obsolete due to a change in climate.

[anstett]

This 100%.

I moved to FGU after using my previous VTT for 18 years, the last 6 of them as ghost-ware after the company closed down.

The reason I chose Smiteworks for our current VTT is that I know I can continue to use the software for the foreseeable future. Measured in decades.

[Nylanfs]

I moved to FGU after using my previous VTT for 18 years, the last 6 of them as ghost-ware after the company closed down.

OpenRPG?

[anstett]

No we used KloOge for all those years.

Was Java based so system agnostic which is what we needed. Plus XML for data sets made for straightforward data sets for all the various automations.