OBS - Monopolies and their TOC. (Split off thread).

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
Was that a sort of rickroll of a different breed? It goes to BGG - Nothing Personal: Scenes of the Crime

And OBS tried to do it before with Astral- I guess better to team up than make their own.
Hah, how odd.

I'll fix it in BB code.
 
This strikes me as a possibly not good development, especially in terms of support for other platforms.

https://pressreleases.triplepointpr...kshelf-joining-forces-gain-5-to-intelligence/

I am a little concerned about it in terms of what it will mean on the publisher side (I don't use roll20, don't make anything with roll20 or other online table tops in mind at all; and I am a little unsure what this means in terms of PDF formatting). Also it feels like another step towards everything being under one big umbrella
 
Modernday business, the net based ones even more so, are all about consolidation.
 
Interesting that they are enabling pdf sharing in Roll20. While I assume the numbers aren't huge, I'm sure there are still authors out there who go into conniptions at the thought of anyone ever looking at their work without having paid for the privelege.
 
Interesting that they are enabling pdf sharing in Roll20. While I assume the numbers aren't huge, I'm sure there are still authors out there who go into conniptions at the thought of anyone ever looking at their work without having paid for the privelege.
I'd assume that would have to be opt in, or it's a breach of already agreed commercial contracts.
 
I'd assume that would have to be opt in, or it's a breach of already agreed commercial contracts.
It sounds to me like they're not vetting the pdfs, just giving users the ability to upload them and share them with VTT participants. That would typically be a feature that would pass unremarked (it's not substantially different from allowing participants to share images), except it's being announced as part of a merger between the VTT developer and a pdf marketplace, with the impliction that the latter supports sharing pdfs within a game group.
 
And that's just playing catch up with Role, which already allows it (but isn't directly tied to a PDF marketplace, of course).
 
I am a little concerned about it in terms of what it will mean on the publisher side (I don't use roll20, don't make anything with roll20 or other online table tops in mind at all; and I am a little unsure what this means in terms of PDF formatting). Also it feels like another step towards everything being under one big umbrella
For the moment, their FAQ says nothing is changing.

Personally, I don't play offline at all anymore. An RPG without some level of VTT support (specifically, Roll20, as it does what I need well enough not to bother with others) is useless to me.
 
Ok let's think about this. Random unorganized thoughts to follow. Roll20 is a VTT without a dedicated house system. D&D is working on a VTT. Roll20 has to worry a large segment of users will disengage to move to D&D VTT. (Price dependant) Integrating with OBS means any 2nd ran companies (outside Paizo) gives Roll20 a leg up against Foundry or Fantasy Grounds for new players.
Both Roll20 and OBS have considerable VTT assets they need to store and load. Both run internal marketplaces. Both have essentially the same customer base. Technically they both need programmers, UI folks and store overlap.
Talent is hard to compete for. Why not take the overlap and merge it so existing people scale better. Roll20 needs full time UI people. OBS occasional. A full time Roll20 UI person/team could help carry OBS UI needs better than outsourcing or hiring a full timer for limited time projects.

OBS seems to get the VTT team it wants. Roll20 gets introductions to all the game buyers.
It seems to make sense to me.
 
And that's just playing catch up with Role, which already allows it (but isn't directly tied to a PDF marketplace, of course).
I don't think that Role is a concern because, as you said, they have no ties to PDF distribution. Also, Role has its own problems which I think unless they address them (the fact that their character sheets are now Form over Function is one of the reasons I don't use it even though I backed the Kickstarter) will bite them and hinder their wider adoption.
 
Interesting that they are enabling pdf sharing in Roll20. While I assume the numbers aren't huge, I'm sure there are still authors out there who go into conniptions at the thought of anyone ever looking at their work without having paid for the privelege.
*Cough*Daniel Fox *Cough**Cough*
 
Interesting that they are enabling pdf sharing in Roll20. While I assume the numbers aren't huge, I'm sure there are still authors out there who go into conniptions at the thought of anyone ever looking at their work without having paid for the privelege.
There are some that don't even give the electronic license with the PDF - The One Ring is one example.
 
I don't think that Role is a concern because, as you said, they have no ties to PDF distribution. Also, Role has its own problems which I think unless they address them (the fact that their character sheets are now Form over Function is one of the reasons I don't use it even though I backed the Kickstarter) will bite them and hinder their wider adoption.
Role character sheets are weird. On one hand, I'm able to actually build character sheets that work for the games I want to play, unlike Roll20 which uses an HTML5 base for character sheets and I don't know shit about coding.

On the other hand, the sheets are looooooooong and unwieldy.

We did a session of Tiny Taverns in there because Roll20 had no Tiny d6 support (at least at the time), but one session of D&D in there was too much, and we quickly went back to Roll20.

(Apparently now you can use D&D Beyond character sheets in Role, which is great, but I have no intention of going back anytime soon.)
 
For the moment, their FAQ says nothing is changing.

It looks like there is going to be some update for publishers in the coming weeks about legal stuff following the merger, but they say it isn't supposed to impact anything.


Personally, I don't play offline at all anymore. An RPG without some level of VTT support (specifically, Roll20, as it does what I need well enough not to bother with others) is useless to me.


That is fair. I play online exclusively as well (I became a recluse a full year or two before covid :smile:). But VTT just never was something that works for my brain, so I just do theater of the mind on Skype or Discord. I don't mind VTT as much in some of the savage worlds games I've been in (I don't know why that system makes a difference for me with that). I never really liked using miniatures though so that might be part of it.
 
It looks like there is going to be some update for publishers in the coming weeks about legal stuff following the merger, but they say it isn't supposed to impact anything.





That is fair. I play online exclusively as well (I became a recluse a full year or two before covid :smile:). But VTT just never was something that works for my brain, so I just do theater of the mind on Skype or Discord. I don't mind VTT as much in some of the savage worlds games I've been in (I don't know why that system makes a difference for me with that). I never really liked using miniatures though so that might be part of it.
Speaking as someone who has ran a bunch of Savage Worlds online...all the little fidgety bits get a lot harder to manage online without SOMETHING helping you out: bennies, the action deck, the adventure deck if you use it...so I could see it making a difference.

But I get ya. We went online a few years before Covid just due to distance and kept it up for both health reasons and practicality. And I could never wrap my brain around it until my players moved out of state...then I HAD to figure something out to keep playing with them.
 
I'd assume that would have to be opt in, or it's a breach of already agreed commercial contracts.
The only way it can work is that is about what the individual who created the game owns. I buy Devin Night Tokens on DriveThru I have to upload them to Roll20. I buy them on Roll20, they appear as part of my search function. Now it won't matter where I buy them. Roll20 doesn't deal with PDFs so not sure how that going to work. But if we are talking something like Roll20 purchases then it will have to be a distinct product format the publishers has to setup just like if the Publisher wants to allow people to download ebook versions.

Right now if you purchase a ruleset on Roll20 you get this.

1657850028724.png

If you buy an adventure you get this. (Dungeon of the Mad Archmage for 5e)

1657850136702.png

and this

1657850172225.png

From a logistical standpoint, the best feasible path forward is not to make PDFs magically appear in Roll20. But to make rulesets, and adventures appear as an option along side PDFs and Print in DriveThru. That you can buy anything on both sites store fronts. That the FAQ that OBS maintain will get new sections on how to correctly format your stuff for these new options.

To be honest, this would is a good thing because the folks who Roll20 marketplace were always elitist snobbish pricks to deal with. Preferring stuff that is flashy and full color. To be specific, I approached them about putting up some of my b/w style maps a couple of years ago and they said I wasn't a good fit. The same with several of my friends who had old school drawing or mapping styles.
 
There are some that don't even give the electronic license with the PDF - The One Ring is one example.
This may be a licensing issue rather than an authorial choice issue, remember (Star Wars probably being the biggest example, but there was a time when Arion Games only had a license to publish physical books rather than digital, as another).
 
To be honest, this would is a good thing because the folks who Roll20 marketplace were always elitist snobbish pricks to deal with. Preferring stuff that is flashy and full color. To be specific, I approached them about putting up some of my b/w style maps a couple of years ago and they said I wasn't a good fit. The same with several of my friends who had old school drawing or mapping styles.
Interesting. I went for the colors, bells and whistles with my last foray into Roll20. I think it was ultimately distracting and not worth the time I put into it. This time around I plan to use an understated classic B&W map aesthetic for VTT paired with B&W portraits for the character and NPC "pogs".
 
So folks know I am wrong about the integration of PDFs. However it is not a replication of content but rather a way to view a PDF or your DriveThru RPG library PDFs within Roll20. They could allow sharing but not download via the Roll20 interface but the video not clear whether that will be enabled or will it be just for the host.

See this
 
So folks know I am wrong about the integration of PDFs. However it is not a replication of content but rather a way to view a PDF or your DriveThru RPG library PDFs within Roll20. They could allow sharing but not download via the Roll20 interface but the video not clear whether that will be enabled or will it be just for the host.

See this

Yeah, I think that's the one I linked earlier. And that was my thought- if it's not just for the host, then it seems they'd run into problems.
 
Yeah only now I have to check DTRPG, humble bundle, itch.io, BoH (very rarely but sometimes not in dtrpg), paizo and SJG.
Pelgrane is starting to irk me. They switched to a new system, and keep saying the purchase records are coming, but it's been over 6 months. If I contact them, they say they'll get me whatever I need, but what I need is to see my bookshelf to make sure if I have things.
 
Yeah only now I have to check DTRPG, humble bundle, itch.io, BoH (very rarely but sometimes not in dtrpg), paizo and SJG.
Yup. I especially feel your pain with Humble Bundle, because of it not linking with DriveThru at all.
 
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