D&D 5E MCDMs Flee Mortals now on DnDBeyond

[Shardstone]

That's not nothing news. What happens when FM outsells the MM?

WotC is getting its cut.

 

[mamba]

That's not nothing news. What happens when FM outsells the MM?

Colville is getting rich

 

[SteveC]

I thought this was the way to do the OGL thing without making people mad. I don't know who originally said this to give them credit, but if your idea for the new edition is to integrate it tightly with D&D Beyond and the VTT, then you create this "walled garden" right here.

If you get all of the big publishers into D&D Beyond and they're giving WotC a percentage, WotC wins. And no one is mad at them. Want to use Flee Mortals in the VTT? You can! Want to do SteveC's Scary Book of Mean Monsters? Well, you're out of luck.

 

[Sulicius]

Flee! Mortals! Is a gorgeous book with interesting monster design.

My own experiences using them has been mixed. A lot of the monsters are made “interesting” by overloading them with mechanics. As a DM who likes to keep up story beats during combat, this has been quite taxing on me. The minions are a mixed bag, sometimes hard to use right. The Fire Giant minions were a huge letdown in my game, as these weak giants jammed up the dungeon and had a hard time doing anything worthwhile. In the same dungeon I used the other fire giants, where a support fire giant made the combat last longer by healing away a lot of the damage dealt by the party. It wasn’t exciting or interesting.

Solo monsters are great. You can feel they are tested well against level appropriate characters. You can trust them to challenge the players right.

I also used the Abominations villain party at the Abbey in Curse of Strahd, they fit there quite well. I hated that one of the monsters had a teleporting grenade. That took me and the players out of the fantasy. MCDM seems to prefer mechanics over ease of use and verisimilitude.

The monsters feel a lot more video game-y as they have tons of complex mechanics just to be “units” in a war game.

If you want more powerful monsters because of more mechanics and great art, it is a good buy.

If you prefer elegant design and more fitting monster abilities, you can skip this one.

My personal preference is to use a mix of simple and FM monsters.

 

[overgeeked]

WotC is getting its cut.

And, if we're being honest, that's exactly how they'd prefer to do things. This is the whole reason for the OGL and CC. Outsource the less profitable stuff to 3PP. And the whole reason WotC tried to pull the OGL and/or charge for its use. They wanted their cut. They just invite all the 3PP to publish on DNDBeyond and they still get their cut. Sales through DNDB will likely far, far outstrip any and all other sales channels. WotC gets the credit from the community and a share of the coin.

 

[Reynard]

And, if we're being honest, that's exactly how they'd prefer to do things. This is the whole reason for the OGL and CC. Outsource the less profitable stuff to 3PP. And the whole reason WotC tried to pull the OGL and/or charge for its use. They wanted their cut. They just invite all the 3PP to publish on DNDBeyond and they still get their cut. Sales through DNDB will likely far, far outstrip any and all other sales channels. WotC gets the credit from the community and a share of the coin.

I am still curious who is doing the conversion work. I'd also be curious to see if this cuts deeply into PDF sales of these books.

 

[bedir than]

I am still curious who is doing the conversion work. I'd also be curious to see if this cuts deeply into PDF sales of these books.

Ghostfire talked about this and said it was Beyond that does the conversion

 

[darjr]

Who’s tried it yet?

 

[Morrus]

Wow. I don't want to look like I'll only buy 3PP if they're on DDB, but ...

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Exactly my point! (Though I HAVE bought Level Up!)

I feel like I'm proving @SlyFlourish's point.