D&D 5E The Dungeon Dudes Notch Up Another Million Dollar Kickstarter

The latest entry to the Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarter Club is Monsters of Drakkenheim from the Dungeon Dudes. The 5E monster book with D&D Beyond support passed the million dollar mark with just a day to go.

This is the Dungeon Dude's third entry in the chart, the others being Sebastian Crowe's Guide to Drakkenheim in September 2022, and Dungeons of Drakkenheim in August 2021. The Dungeon Dudes work closely with Ghostfire Gaming, who have been involved in several million dollar Kickstarters as primary creators or as partners.

Monsters of Drakkenheim is the first ever Kickstarter to include D&D Beyond support from Wizards of the Coast. The book includes 150+ eldritch-horror themed monsters, with plenty of miniatures, dice, accessories, pins, and other add-ons.

The campaign ends today (Thursday 25th April).

 

[mamba]

I’ve been saying it ever since they “backed down”. Everybody was basking in victory without realising they’d been outmanoeuvred.

I am not sure I call it outmaneuvered, they could always have done that and kill the original OGL, the two are not mutually exclusive.

To me this was always just a matter of time, and I am surprised it took them this long.

 

[Morrus]

I am not sure I call it outmaneuvered, they could always have done that and kill the original OGL, the two are not mutually exclusive.

No, they couldn't have killed the original OGL. Which they eventually realised. The OGL is not rescindible. Nothing changed; they just realised it didn't matter, as they could make it valueless.

 

[mamba]

No, they couldn't have killed the original OGL. Which they eventually realised. The OGL is not rescindible.

I agree with that, I meant it more in a 'do not release a CC SRD and cast enough doubt so that the OGL SRD is toxic' kind of way.

 

[DrJawaPhD]

Is there a list of these?

I have Hamund's Harvesting Handbook.
Creature Harvest Index
Ultimate guide to Foraging and Harvesting

Those are the ones I found.

The other big ones you are missing are Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting (which overlaps with some other books like Ryoko's), and ThievesGuild.cc website (which overlaps with the Hammund's books).

I also drew inspiration from Kibble's Compendium of Craft and Creation, as well as Tome of Alchemy for how I generally classify harvested materials into "lesser/greater/superior essence of x/y/z" categories.

 

[Zardnaar]

The dudes deserve it imho.

Might have to source a copy.

Beyond drama. Beyond is their house their rules. Not planning on using it.

 

[AK81]

I’ve been saying it ever since they “backed down”. Everybody was basking in victory without realising they’d been outmanoeuvred. WotC didn’t lose that battle: they simply rewrote the battlefield. The OGL isn’t technically cancelled, but it’s now valueless and the thing that has value is access to DDB—which, unlike the OGL, WotC controls.

3PPs didn’t really win anything. WotC is positioned to control the 3PP market in ways it never could before.

As I said, well played. Drop the stick, switch to the carrot. Same end result. Right in the open, too.

Not everyone uses DnD Beyond.

I think Sly Flourish had a poll where he found out that less than 40% of the people he polled actually used it. Which is a large minority, but still not the majority of players.

I'm not sure how accurate that poll is to the larger DnD community of course.

I know that I don't use it anymore, even if I started my ttrpg "career" on it, for mostly three reasons:
1. I don't like renting my content. I want to own it.
2. I don't want to be stuck and limited by their ecosystem. And only be able to play what they think I should play, or what they give me access to.
3. I don't want my players to rely on it so much that they will be unwilling to try anything else that's not on it.

But I'm not a publisher, so I have no idea how much this hinders 3rd party publishers.

Oh, and to be a bit more relevant to the article as well. I backed it, or rather one of my players backed the kickstarter, and did not choose DnD Beyond, but Foundry Vtt.

 

[Morrus]

Not everyone uses DnD Beyond.

Give it 5 years and the number who don’t will be much smaller.

 

[Ancalagon]

I've sung high praise of the Dungeon of Drakkenheim adventure , but I should note that elements of the 2nd books are also remarkable. They created a new class (the apothecary) which is sort of their take on an artificer.

It's a short-rest int based "warlock style" spell caster, with a few slots that renew on a short rest. They also have esoteric theories (a lot like infusions or invocations). They don't have potent cantrips like the warlock, but they do have a little bit more spellslots.

The most remarkable bit is that each subclass plays very differently from each other. I'm playing a mutagenist, which is basically a D&D hulk and it's a ton of fun to play.

 

[Clint_L]

I’ve been saying it ever since they “backed down”. Everybody was basking in victory without realising they’d been outmanoeuvred. WotC didn’t lose that battle: they simply rewrote the battlefield. The OGL isn’t technically cancelled, but it’s now valueless and the thing that has value is access to DDB—which, unlike the OGL, WotC controls.

3PPs didn’t really win anything. WotC is positioned to control the 3PP market in ways it never could before.

As I said, well played. Drop the stick, switch to the carrot. Same end result. Right in the open, too.

I posted this thread on Jan 19, 2023. I'm feeling a little sheepish about it now:

D&D General - Hasbro Should Open DnDBeyond to 3PP

If Hasbro wants a win-win situation moving out of this, I suggest they do the following: 1. Commit to maintaining the terms of the OGL 1.0a going forward, forever, including for OneD&D. Sure, add a clause about hate speech, as adjudicated by an arbitration panel with representatives from OGL...

www.enworld.org

Edit: At least I had the sense to finish with the statement: "I feel like I probably missed a bunch of obvious problems."

Yeah. Understatement.

 

[evildmguy]

The other big ones you are missing are Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting (which overlaps with some other books like Ryoko's), and ThievesGuild.cc website (which overlaps with the Hammund's books).

I also drew inspiration from Kibble's Compendium of Craft and Creation, as well as Tome of Alchemy for how I generally classify harvested materials into "lesser/greater/superior essence of x/y/z" categories.

Awesome! Thanks for those!

I also have Tome of Alchemy, forgot to mention it. There is also the Ultimate Guide to Alchemy which has some ideas as well.

Back to the article, the apothecary sounds interesting. Thanks, @Ancalagon!

How did WotC make the OGL useless? I'm not sure I'm following what Morrus is saying but I'm not a publisher or creator of content.