Roll20 Purchases Demiplane in an Era of Consolidation
Roll20, the biggest virtual tabletop out there, announced today that it is acquiring Demiplane, a “digital tools platform.”
Surprising news today, as Roll20 announced that they had acquired Demiplane. Demiplane, for those of you who’ve never used it, is a “digital tools platform”. And what that means is complicated.
On the one hand, Demiplane is a rules compendium and tools suite for many of your favorite tabletop RPGs, including D&D 5E, Pathfinder, Blades in the Dark, Avatar Legends, Alien the RPG… the list goes on. It’s got character creation tools and all sorts of interactive tooltips. But it’s also a place where you’re meant to play games, and it offers group finding with voice and video chat.
Now, with Roll20’s acquisition, the two suites of online tools will combine. Doubtless, this means change for both, though how exactly this will all shake out is yet to be seen.
Roll20 Buys Demiplane
The news comes via Comicbook.com, where Roll20’s CEO, Ankit Lal gave more details about what to expect coming out of the deal:
“Our goal was to help connect gamers everywhere and help get them into games so that they can hang out with their friends and family.
And that’s what we’ve been doing under Roll20, with DriveThruRPG, DM’s Guild, Demiplane, Dungeon Scrawl, all kind of under the same roof. Our end goal is to create a seamless user experience where people have one place to purchase their content, they can seamlessly take their characters from in-person to the VTT, they can buy PDFs, print-on-demand books, or digital compendiums…and to make it easier for everyone.
Essentially, Roll20 is looking to make a “D&D Beyond equivalent,” but for other games, which is an interesting comparison to make. Since Demiplane grew with Adam Bradford as its Chief Development Officer. Bradford, it’s worth pointing out, was one of the co-founders of D&D Beyond before it was acquired by Wizards of the Coast.
Now Roll20 has acquired Demiplane, which Bradford helped shape, and will have a D&D Beyond of its own. Bradford, meanwhile, is now at Fantasy Grounds as Chief Development Officer. So look for more changes coming there.
But back to the Roll20/Demiplane deal. This consolidation will integrate a lot of character creation tools with Roll20. You might be wondering, “Well, doesn’t Roll20 have a bunch of character-creation tools already?”
The answer is yes. But they’re all custom-built. Demiplane potentially gives Roll20 a unified tools system, which can help them boost other game systems, especially since the digital tool suite might allow Roll20 to provide increased support for new games.
How this will all shake out is anyone’s guess. But it seems that an era of consolidation is on the way as players like WotC and Roll20 move to consolidate their powerbases. We’ll keep an eye on the story as it develops.
What do you think, Roll20 and Demiplane: chocolate and peanut butter? Or salmon and a microwave?
