D&D One's Effect On Roll20

Hi everyone, I (Probably like everyone here) am a pretty avid Roll20 user and I have a lot of 5e content. With WoTC announcing their own VTT and online functionality I'm wondering if this will have any knock on effect with Roll20? E.g, future content not being released to Roll20 or retroactively pulling WotC licensed materials off the site to funnel traffic to their own VTT. Obviously this may be unlikely but is something I was concerned about from the announcement. Does anyone else share similar concerns or know anything about the impact D&D One will have on Roll20 and other VTT services? 

My Thoughts:     -> 1DD being it's own entity, I doubt WoTC would pull any older material away but would more likely offer "Exclusive" content. that way they     don't need to hurt business relationships while at the same time offering something to entice users to switch.     -> WoTC is too big to need to worry about funnel traffic, build it and they will come. they could sell Sh*t as a sewer monster and people would buy it. (it's me, I'm people)     -> Roll20s advantages are that it's free (for most) and it's simplistic (again for most). So regardless of however big and amazing 1DD and the VTT will be, it will never be free and that price door will be one of the reasons people come to roll20 first. "I'll try roll20 first, if I like d&d I'll move to the D&D version"

I won't touch contracts stuff, but just from a software perspective the main differentiators I see: D&D One will be for D&D.  Roll20 is game agnostic. D&D One is being built in the Unreal Engine (See Minimum Specs ). Roll20 runs in a web browser. WotC has promised this sort of thing before, so I'll believe it when I see it.  Roll20 has been delivering for over a decade. 3-D game environments look really great, but are hard to get right.  There are already several makers of similar software, but it never comes up as a true competitor.  Roll20 tries to be as close to the Table Top experience as possible, adding enhancements where it adds to the experience, not replaces it.

source <a href="https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1310-faq-one-d-d-rules-d-d-digital-and-physical-digital" rel="nofollow">https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1310-faq-one-d-d-rules-d-d-digital-and-physical-digital</a> 1DD is a codename, in the VTT chapter there is a note Everything we’ve shown is pre-alpha. New core rules will be released 2024. So do not expect DDDigital&nbsp; before 202 4 . Which is at least 18 months away. With regards to the shown ' immersive experience ', i agree with The Aaron. Is a 3d table top even helpful when playing online?

Seems like it might be very cool for pre-made content and a huge pain if you want to home rew anything, need a different map, etc. We'll see.

Its all speculation at this point but I would say the one thing that I am pretty confident on is don't purchase content here on Roll20 with the expectation that you'll be able to take it with you should you choose to use WotC's VTT when it arrives. Assuming D&amp;D is still the juggernaut of the industry in 2024 that it is now I imagine a significant number of users will leave Roll20 for the WotC VTT which could affect difficulty finding DMs / players here for those that choose to stay.&nbsp; Its also possible the WotC VTT is delayed or doesn't live up to the hype and fails but with the large investment WotC has made in the project that seems unlikely. -Adam

I honestly think this is a problem for +4 or +5 year old me. I'm sure by then I'll be smart enough to figure it out and ACE it. Yeah. But seriously, I have NOT stopped buying D&amp;D stuff on Roll20 despite a lot of "new" players on the VTT scene, that by the way, aside from Foundry VTT and the venerable-but-still-trucking-hard Fantasy Grounds, are not actually competition for Roll20. Why? Because Roll20 is still free. It's free for players, it's free for DM's, and now with their partnership with DriveThruRPG it's going to have a TON of new people who have content already on that platform that have almost no reason NOT to try it out.&nbsp; Roll20 is almost TOO easy to get into. But that's a good thing I think. Anyone with a web browser can try it. With ALL of the competition even if they have free demo or free player-facing versions or whatever that's still a barrier to a lot of people to have to download, install, and figure out how to get working a game client.&nbsp; Additionally, I believe that despite the extreme popularity of 5e that there's still a better than most other platform chance on Roll20 to get a game that doesn't have dungeons or dragons in it going. I actually ran a pretty successful Starfinder game on here a year or two ago, and have played in quite a few successful "AWE" based games on here as well. It's certainly more work to get a group together for anything other than 5e, but it's at least possible without spending hours trolling RPG web boards or whatever. I think these factors along with the fact that WoTC seems to be willing to "print money" by putting their content here (and that idiots like me are willing to buy it even though I have the content in print already) means we will not need to worry about WoTC pulling out of Roll20 any time in the near future. Maybe 4 or 5 years from now, the scene might be different and that might become something to be concerned with. -virtuadept

1DD will have a big effect on Roll 20 but I would not start scheduling a funeral. 1DD will not be up and running before 2025 in all likely hood, It will be full of bugs and errors for the first few months, it will cost more (probably a LOT more then nothing), it will only do D&amp;D, and it will be geared to in house modules. Given a two or three year lead time Roll 20 should be fine for a while. Would it help if the site design didn't cause nausea? Would their survival be better if they tested code before inflicting it on us? Will diversifying content towards other games than D&amp;D help? Yes to all of those things.

I think WOTC would be remiss not to dive head into VTT. I would expect it to be eventually awesome - oh, and not colored pink.

Even though D&amp;D makes up the lion's share of Roll20's users, I don't think 1D&amp;D VTC will have a big impact on Roll20 for quite some time. As others have said, Roll20 is extremely easy to get in to and it is free, as long as you don't care about all the bells and whistles that come with a paid account. And even if you do want them, if a group of players all chipped in so that their DM has a paid account, the cost-per-person would be negligible. That said, in my opinion, Roll20 continues to erode their good will with their customer base: Poorly-tested updates rolled out to the live servers with no warning, site design changes that no one asked for and which causes actual physical pain to some people, mediocre (at best) communication with the community... and none of this is new. People largely stay here because it's still the best option for millions of people. But that may not always be the case. At one time, Sears and Roebuck was a mega-giant in the department store and mail-order business. But look where they are now.

Disregarding the potential for a new VTT, I see one upside to 1D&amp;D that ahs not yet been mentioned. It is different enough that a new character sheet would likely need to be designed from the ground up. The current one grew with the site, and thus had no road map and passed through many hands. The code is pretty messy and difficult to change. A new sheet could be designed from scratch, using lessons learned from years of experience, that would be more efficient, internally documented and expandable.

Well, Roll 20 will have to up thier game.&nbsp; Simple as that.&nbsp; I think this is a good thing. They have had it too easy.&nbsp; They are now 2-3 years off a rather large user exodus. Even if its only a small percentage of 5e users.

I think the bigger concern is whether Wizards will continue to license their content to competing VTTs like Roll20 and Foundry.&nbsp; If third party VTTs lose content access, that becomes highly problematic.&nbsp; While Roll20 and most other VTTs are system agnostic, D&amp;D is the bulk of the member base and growth driver.&nbsp; Another key issue will be whether Wizards includes some type of player matching and game finder.&nbsp; Roll20 currently rules hands-down in that category but I suspect any serious competition in that area would be a big negative for Roll20. 3D sounds nice, but building 3D playspaces is very time and 3D asset consuming.&nbsp; I suspect for a long time most of the games played on 1DD will be premade modules purchased from Wizards.&nbsp; While Unreal is surprisingly easily to learn and use it's still going to be a large investment in time to make playspaces for your games.

A 3D VTT seems amazing, and I'm sure it is... for pre-built stuff. I don't care what they say about their content creation tools, it will be a lot more work to run your own thing and you will have a lot less to choose from by way of supplements. D&amp;D, for a lot of us, is a creative endeavor, I don't want to run only the polished official content in the pretty modeled world they have laid out for me. I want to throw in a side-quest, I want to use some Kobold Press dungeons. I want a grab a map from Patreon, or make my own quickly and throw it in there. We'll see what comes, but I get the feeling the world that is available in the new VTT will feel pretty small and restrictive.

Well to survive this, Roll20 needs to focus on the long tail. They have focused on 5e too much. Make Roll20 be the place for playing all the different games out there: CoC, Shadowrun, TORG, Pathfinder, Warhammer Fantasy, Wrath &amp; Glory, Soulbound, Forbidden Lands, Alien RPG, etc.&nbsp; Currently Roll20's support for theses games are abysmal. They simply need to up their game. No offense, but they have been complacent and kind of lazy the last couple of years. Also, maybe work with WotC to get licenses for the older D&amp;D versions. I'm sure WotC wanna focus on 6e only, so let Roll20 provide play support for 4e, 3.5 yeah even 5e. I know it's not a foreign concept for WotC since they have given license for D&amp;D 2e to Fantasy Grounds.

In order to survive One D&amp;D, Roll20 is going to have to concentrate on their exclusive features. The Jukebox could use more support. There have to be more websites with free sounds.

Greetings all, Like some had said already this is nearly all in the air regarding 1DD as its just pre-alpha showboating. From what we've seen its going to focus Dungeons and Dragons new edition/system "One" self platforming with 3D VTT. My players quick thoughts have been mostly positive with the underlining idea of WoTC will have a dedicated VTT implanting this system and 3D is Cool . With groans/eye rolls of micro-transaction and alienating users from other VTTs. My thoughts have followed a darker path though. I'll buffer with this is my opinion. New players and a host of those who have been already integrated into D&amp;D Behond &amp; VTT D&amp;D 5E Modules plug ins will see this and hop on over. WoTC will push this hard with marketing. This will chew away at player bases from other VTT like Roll20, Tale Spire, and Fantasy Grounds to name a few. This business shift will change the D&amp;D culture drastically. If we think how players interacted with D&amp;D from 1970s till today even after Covid shifted lots to VTTs. It will become a whole different monster than we have now though. It will be only a matter of time before digital D&amp;D content will be largely accessible only through WoTC new system. I'm not saying they will pull 5E or whatever else, but going forward with his new marketing idea. There is no hiding it and it is to be expected in this current gaming setting. Don't think for a second micro transactions wont be the at the core, not just Modules, Core Books, ect. We are talking a BIG heavy hitting ones from 3d miniatures; monster packs, player characters, weapons, voice lines, music, 3D tile sets; plus the same tiles just a different environment theme, the list will go on. There will be no doubt of this. Now we can say, but we have that already? This is true in a way, but there is so many communities that come together and create free content for us to use. Here is the kicker... WoTC will not allow this in their new system. We might hope 3rd party creators can put their content on their market at the price of WoTC hands in their sales. My point is I fear they will not allow 3rd party assets into their system. Thus why Roll20 and the like will remain alive and healthy, as they allow this key feature plus other games of course. WoTC will create a 1DD ecosystem island pulling users into it while they will be less likely to shift away. This is do to the investment that this system will chain them in with. This is not going to be the end, just a new chapter. As I sit currently I say NO to 1DD, and support Roll20 and other VTTs. Cheers

A hopeful ramble :D I'll be on the lookout for their technical features and the 1dnd marketplace proposal. I am a creator on Roll20 marketplace and I've tried to keep an eye out for angles and opportunities to expand my own market to the foundry and fantasy grounds platforms. They are not writing back :(. They each have their own quirks or tech advantages worth noting that can set them apart in game play. For creators, I think it is worth theorizing what might slot into the platforms with player preferences in utilities. Some creators, as seen on roll20s market, remain the mainstay in products across all platforms (the guys with hundreds of top down character tokens). With 1dnd, if they build an open marketplace for independent 3d assets, the marketplace will flood with a mix of garbage and genuine treasures. From the unity asset store to turbo squid there are 3d models with unrestrained polygon budgets and copyright infringements, but given time and a standard of quality we may hope for leading products that push the platform forward in the gaming space. A 3d focused dnd marketplace with highly custom campaigns and assets. Some room for UI. Smaller margin for 2d art. There were tech videos featuring for example, the advantages foundry has in 2d animated token scripts. The video featured what I assume was a json compilation of animations linked to player/DM actions on a single character. You attack, an animation plays. You idle, the character reverts to an idle cycle. One high quality top down token as a complete product. Much harder to produce and vet for the marketplace but the asset pushes the platform forward technologically and visually versus competitor platforms. If 1dnd has the infrastructure to vet 3d indie developed marketplace products, I'd be amazed. A lot more work goes into animating one 3D model with a variation of cycles and there are technical guidelines to adhere to. Products will cost a lot more to make. But there are so many products ready to be shipped and at a 30% commission rate they would be crazy not to try it. For simplicity or familiarity, I think we are fine on Roll20. I think the classic utility of this platform will hold up and we have dependable developers on the marketplace to keep content flooding in.