Dungeons & Dragons player creations will soon be sold on Roll20 thanks to a new partnership
You wouldn’t download a tarrasque.
Roll20, the biggest and most popular virtual tabletop RPG website, has announced a partnership with Dungeon Masters Guild that will allow players and DMs to buy and integrate user created Dungeons & Dragons 5E content into their online campaigns.
The deal, announced on June 27th, will add the option for creators to list their monsters, dungeons, magic items and other works within Roll20, where players will be able to purchase them and add them to new and existing campaigns with what seems to be relative ease. Prior to this, material listed on DMs Guild, which is officially supported by D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast, had to be manually added to Roll20-hosted games or otherwise referenced on a different screen or device.
Creators will soon have the option of including VTT-compatible modules or add-ons when listing their content on DMs Guild. Whenever a user purchases that work, be it a battle map, new class options or suite of foes, Roll20 says it will do all the set-up work so that it is easily accessible the next time they log in to the platform.
At Roll20 we have seen passionate support for DMsGuild content – from both our community and our Creators – and we are thrilled to create a more seamless way to play that amazing catalog of content online while expanding the possibilities for DMsGuild players and Creators,” Roll20 said in a press release.
The virtual tabletop remained ubiquitous with online tabletop RPGs since its crowdfunding creation in 2012, especially among Dungeons & Dragons and other D20 system players. It now hosts tools and options for an ever increasing number of systems, including Call of Cthulhu, Mothership, Blades in the Dark and Pathfinder. The COVID-19 pandemic, for all its death and misery and disruption, boosted Roll20’s user numbers to over 10 million - more than double its metrics before 2020.
Dungeon Masters Guild has similarly been growing thanks to the ever-increasing popularity of Dungeons & Dragons. The digital storefront, powered by the same OneBook Shelf behind DriveThruRPG, is the preeminent destination for individuals to sell D&D 5E-compatible works and keep the money, as long as it plays nice with the specific licence protecting Wizards of the Coast’s most profitable entity.
This relationship continues to erode the hassles that keep virtual tabletop play from mirroring the fun and excitement of in-person gaming. It’s also an interesting relationship because Wizards of the Coast has made several recent moves to consolidate its digital holdings and bring them in-house. Parent company Hasbro purchased D&D Beyond earlier this year, saying at the time it had plans for increased digital presence. Carving out a chunk of a name that, for many, is synonymous with VTT would certainly further that agenda.