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Wikipedia

OneBookShelf

February 06, 2023

OneBookShelf is a digital marketplace company for both major and indie games, fiction and comics. OneBookShelf was formed by the merger of RPGNow and DriveThruRPG. The company's e-commerce platforms host content from individual sellers, indie creators and major publishing companies such as Chaosium, Fantasy Flight Games, White Wolf, and Wizards of the Coast. In July 2022, it was announced that Roll20 will merge with OneBookShelf to become a new company.

OneBookShelf
TypeE-commerce platform
IndustryCollectible card games, role-playing games, comics, wargames
Founded2006; 17 years ago (2006)
FoundersJames Mathe, Mike Todd, Chris McDonough and Steve Wieck
Key people
  • Steve Wieck (CEO)
Subsidiaries
  • DriveThruRPG
  • DriveThruComics
  • DriveThruFiction
  • DriveThruCards
  • Dungeon Masters Guild
  • Storytellers Vault
  • Wargame Vault
  • Pathfinder Infinite
Websitehttps://www.onebookshelf.com/

History

RPGNow

RPGNow was established in 2001 by James Mathe.[1][2] Academics Sebastian Deterding and José Zagal wrote that "in the beginning, the bestselling products on RPGNow were nearly always d20 products. Mathe made attempts to reach out to established publishers of other types of games, but many were hesitant about selling digital versions, worried that would increase piracy or cannibalize existing print sales. Nevertheless, RPGNow recorded better than 10% growth in every year of its operation".[3]

DriveThruRPG

DriveThruRPG was established in 2004 by Mike Todd, Chris McDonough and Steve Wieck.[4]

In 2005, DriveThruRPG abandoned selling DRM protected products. The Washington Post reported that "customers hated the hassle of dealing with it, and it didn't offer very good protection against piracy, Wieck said. Now, the site sells unprotected PDFs with a faint 'watermark' with the customer's name on every page. Sales rose 30 percent after the change".[4] Two more DriveThru digital storefronts, DriveThruComics and DriveThruFiction, were also launched in 2005.[2]

In 2007, it was reported that DriveThruRPG did $2 million in business annually.[4]

Wieck said "the business idea of 'first-mover advantage' is more commonly discussed than that of second-mover advantage or being a fast-follower. Despite the many advantages that accrue to first-movers into a new market segment [...], I personally prefer to be a second-mover into many business opportunities. For example, when starting DriveThruRPG, we were a second-mover behind James Mathe, who had already started RPGNow".[5]

Merger to become OneBookShelf

In 2006, RPGNow and DriveThruRPG merged into a new company called OneBookShelf. Originally, OneBookShelf maintained the separate digital storefronts of RPGNow and DriveThruRPG while merging the digital inventory.[6][7] James Mathe said "the focus of the merger is providing the best experience for rpg fans. Combined with DriveThruRPG, we will now offer consumers over 9,000 titles from over 500 different publishers. Many of the titles have never been available in print or are no longer available in print".[8]

In 2008, the company took over Mongoose Publishing’s Wargaming Online digital store and relaunched it as Wargame Vault.[2]

On April 6, 2009, Wizards of the Coast suspended all sales of its products for the Dungeons & Dragons games in PDF format from places such as OneBookShelf and its subsidiaries RPGNow and DriveThruRPG due to concerns of piracy and copyright infringement.[9][10] ICv2 reported that OneBookShelf "took a hit to its volume when Wizards of the Coast abruptly halted sales of PDFs of its products" and that although Sean Patrick Fannon, RPG Marketing, Communications, and Publisher Services Manager for OneBookShelf, "acknowledged that the move was a negative for PDF sales, he said that Wizards of the Coast was 'not even close' to half the company’s sales".[11]

2010 – 2019

In 2010, OneBookShelf launched a print on demand program and then in 2012, the company launched a new digital storefront called DriveThruCards for custom card products.[2][11][12]

In 2013, OneBookShelf was once again allowed to sell Dungeons & Dragons products through a new partnership with Wizards of the Coast.[13][14]

OneBookShelf did not originally have an offensive content policy. In 2015, "DriveThruRPG was involved in a controversy due its decision to sell a title called Tournament of Rapists. DriveThruRPG was initially criticized for its slow reaction to complaints about the offensiveness of the product [...], and the product was eventually removed from the store".[3] This led to the creation of an offensive content policy for all of OneBookShelf's platforms. Wieck said:

So, going forward, our offensive content policy is simply going to be this: Offensive Content: We'll know it when we see it. I will be the final arbiter of what OneBookShelf deems offensive. [...] Any title in which racial violence, rape, torture, or a similar subject is treated as a central feature will naturally be subjected to increased scrutiny. [...] We will continue to be reactive, not proactive, on judging new title releases. Historically, 99.99% of publishers' content has been inoffensive. Being able to activate their own titles for sale with our marketplace tools gives publishers additional control over their release marketing timing and generally gets RPG products to market more quickly. [...] Once the reporting feature is live, we will review titles already on the marketplace that are reported by customers. There will be no "grandfathering in" of past content.[15]

Also, in 2015, OnceBookShelf had a credit card breach and hackers "used the OneBookShelf's servers to launch DDOS attack on other sites".[16] ICv2 reported that "one of two load-balanced servers was compromised, the company said, and it had no way of knowing which of the customers that had transactions during that period were processed on which server. [...] It said it had no information to indicate that encrypted credit card numbers of customers that did not make purchases during the period were taken, but could not rule it out".[17]

From February 2016 to March 2016, DriveThruRPG held a bounty program for high quality scans of old hard-to-find Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, modules and boxed sets.[18][19]

In November 2018, it was announced that in February 2019 the RPGNow digital storefront would be shut down and redirected to the DriveThruRPG digital storefront.[20]

On February 12, 2019, OneBookShelf announced that it would no longer work with Zak Smith "after multiple women publicly accused Smith of abuse. [...] The company went on to say that its own portion of any revenue generated by Smith’s existing titles already up for sale on its storefront will be donated to RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization".[21]

In June 2019, co-founder Mathe passed away. Wieck wrote "well before the iPhone, iPad, or the Kindle, James recognized the opportunity for RPG publishers to reach more fans through digital versions of their titles. By 2004, when I and a few others started DriveThruRPG, we were the Johnny-come-lately to the pioneering work James had already done with RPGNow. Nevertheless, it was through the resulting friendly business rivalry between DriveThruRPG and RPGNow that I got to know and soon came to respect James. [...] James was a very smart entrepreneur in a hobby business full of smart people. He embodied the best of the US Midwestern virtues of work ethic, honesty, and fairness. He's gone too soon".[22]

2020 – present

In June 2020, OneBookShelf came "under scrutiny" after a queer themed adventure by ENNie Award nominated designer Oliver Clegg was removed from the DMsGuild platform for "distinctively sexualized" artwork.[23] "After the adventure was pulled and the DMs Guild released its statement, many DMs Guild creators and D&D fans spoke out about the adventure's removal and a wider discussion of artwork used in Dungeons & Dragons material. Laura Hirsbrunner, another prominent DMs Guild creator, compiled a number of art pieces used in official D&D materials and available for use on the DMs Guild showing women and monsters in sexualized outfits or in various states of nudity".[23] The company responded that "the OneBookShelf team stands by our decision to request adjustments to the art in question in this recent scenario [...]. However, we agree we want to be fair in how such standards are applied, which includes examining any internal biases that might have affected past decisions too. We're still very much in the process of listening, both personally and professionally, so we hope the community will afford us some patience and time in adjusting and improving our own processes and guidelines".[24]

In July 2020, Wizards of the Coast added a sensitivity disclaimer to some of their legacy products for sale on DriveThruRPG and DMsGuild.[25][26] Many of these products feature cultures inspired by Asia, Mesoamerica and the Middle East.[26]

In June 2022, OneBookShelf announced a new partnership with Roll20 that would allow content creators on DMsGuild to sell modules and add-ons which are directly integrated with Roll20's virtual tabletop system.[27][28] In July 2022, Roll20 and OneBookShelf announced a merger between the two companies. This merger will combine the content libraries of both companies[29][30] and make "OneBookShelf's PDF libraries accessible within Roll20".[31] Ankit Lai, CEO of Roll20, will become the new company's CEO and Steve Wieck, CEO of OneBookShelf, will become president of the new company and join Roll20's board of directors.[31][29] The combined company's name has not yet been announced.[30][32]

Partnerships

DNDClassics

In 2013, OneBookShelf launched a new digital storefront in partnership with Wizards of the Coast to sell classic Dungeons & Dragons products.[13][14] This site sold Dungeons & Dragons products from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons through the 4th Edition of the game.[33][34]

Community Card Creator

In 2015, OneBookShelf launched a new card creator web application as part of DriveThruCards in partnership with Paizo Publishing for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. The "card creator allows fans of PACG to create their own card, which can be purchased and printed for $0.50 each. You can either keep your build private so that it is unique to your deck, or make it publicly available so that other PACG fans can try it out".[35]

Dungeon Masters Guild

In 2016, OneBookShelf launched a new digital storefront in partnership with Wizards of the Coast called the Dungeon Masters Guild (DMsGuild). The DNDClassics site was replaced by the new DMsGuild storefront. With the 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons open game license, third party publishers are allowed to print and published content based on the 5th Edition System Reference Document (SRD). The DMsGuild took that a step further by allowing individuals and third party publishers to create and sell content based on the Forgotten Realms.[36][37][38]

The Escapist reported "the Dungeon Masters Guild alone is a big deal since it allows anyone to be paid for Forgotten Realms content - something that once required a specific contract with Wizards of the Coast" and that "options for content range from new monsters, to NPCs, to locations, to entire Forgotten Realms adventures and campaigns. The creator can set any price on their content - or give it away for free - with the only caveat being that Wizards of the Coast and OneBookShelf take a 50% cut of the proceeds".[36]

VentureBeat reported that content on DMsGuild is "available for D&D video game developers to buy. [...] According to D&D spokesperson Greg Tito, Wizards of the Coast would negotiate with the author to license or purchase their creations".[39]

As of 2019, content can now be based on other Wizards of the Coast intellectual property such as Ravenloft, Eberron, and Ravnica.[40][41][42]

Community Content Programs

After the success of the DMsGuild, OneBookShelf continued to partner with other publishers to allow individuals to create and sell content based on intellectual property on the DriveThruRPG website.[2] The number of programs grew rapidly. As of August 2020, there are nearly 30 programs, including ones with well-known publishers like Chaosium, Mongoose Publishing, Pinnacle Entertainment Group and White Wolf.[43]

Astral Virtual TableTop

In April 2019, it was announced that DriveThruRPG had partnered with Astral Virtual TableTop (Astral) and the virtual tabletop platform received a major update.[44][45] OneBookShelf said that content "purchased through any DriveThru site, including DriveThruRPG and Dungeon Master's Guild" can be imported and shared in Astral.[45]

In October 2021, Astral's founder Tom Lackemann left the project with OneBookShelf "continuing to oversee and maintain Astral’s current services".[46] At the same time, it was announced that Astral would no longer be in active development and its marketplace would shutdown.[46][47] Following the announced merger between OneBookShelf and Roll20 in July 2022, it was announced that Astral is scheduled to shut down in August 2022.[48][49]

Reception

In 2015, Paste reported that "RPGs can be expensive, so while PDFs can be harder to pass around or to look up rules on, they are a much more financially astute option. DriveThruRPG.com is a great place to find PDFs".[50]

In 2018, Deterding and Zagal wrote that "by its own account, DriveThruRPG, run by OneBookShelf, is currently the largest online marketplace for TRPGs. [...] It allows TRPG publishers to offer their current and historic catalogs as PDFs and print-on-demand books. As online digital and print-on-demand distribution maximizes reach and minimizes up-front investment hurdles and risk, it has contributed to the flourishing of 'long tail,' 'indie' RPGs".[3]

Jason Wilson, for VentureBeat, said that "the DM’s Guild is my favorite project from the Dungeons & Dragons team in recent years. [...] The Dungeon Masters Adept program, [...], has resulted in other community writers producing official material on the Guild. We’ve seen how the Guild just expands on the official books. Now, with Eberron, we’re seeing how Wizards can use it to resurrect its past. [...] The DM’s Guild gives Wizards a cost-friendly method of opening up the gates to the past. It can conduct some polling on what the community wants on the Guild, when it comes to books for older settings, and then, commission someone to do so".[40]

In 2019, The Verge included DriveThruRPG on a roundup of websites to purchase from that are not Amazon.[51]

In 2020, Polygon reported that "Wizards runs an organized play series known as the D&D Adventurer’s League. You can find all of its past 5th edition content online, available for a nominal price. It’s among the most polished content on the DMs Guild, with playtesting provided by customers at game stores around the world".[42]

References

  1. ^ "| MY BIO |". James Mathe - Entrepreneur, Designer, Publisher. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  2. ^ a b c d e "A Brief History of OneBookShelf". DriveThruRPG. from the original on 2019-11-20. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  3. ^ a b c Role-playing Game Studies: Transmedia Foundations. Zagal, José Pablo,, Deterding, Sebastian. New York: Routledge. 2018. ISBN 978-1-317-26831-4. OCLC 1032723564.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. ^ a b c SVENSSON, PETER (2007-12-04). "Slow-Starting E-Books Find Niche Markets". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  5. ^ Wieck, Steve (2013-09-25). "OneBlogShelf: The Coming Revolution in Card Game Design". OneBlogShelf. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
  6. ^ "RPGNow & DriveThruRPG Merge". icv2.com. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  7. ^ Appelcline, Shannon (2011). Designers & Dragons. Mongoose Publishing. p. 230. ISBN 978-1-907702-58-7.
  8. ^ "RPGNow and DriveThruRPG Merge". Story Games. October 2006. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  9. ^ "WotC Ends PDF Download Sales". icv2.com. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  10. ^ Grabianowski, Ed (April 7, 2009). . Robot Viking. Archived from the original on 2010-04-10. Retrieved 2019-12-02.
  11. ^ a b "POD Joins PDFs". icv2.com. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  12. ^ "New White Wolf Books". icv2.com. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  13. ^ a b Gilsdorf, Ethan (2013-01-22). "New Digital Archive Resurrects Classic Dungeons & Dragons Adventures". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  14. ^ a b Kozlowski, Michael (2013-01-23). "New Digital Dungeons and Dragons Website Launches Today". Good e-Reader. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  15. ^ Wieck, Steve (2015-09-01). "OneBlogShelf: Offensive Content Policy". OneBlogShelf. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
  16. ^ "Comics A.M. | OneBookShelf experiences credit card breach". CBR. 2015-08-12. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  17. ^ "Credit Card Breach at OneBookShelf". icv2.com. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  18. ^ Shearer, Stew (February 26, 2016). "Have Old D&D Books? Scan Them For Cash". Escapist Magazine. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  19. ^ Kozlowski, Michael (2016-03-07). "DriveThruRPG Suspends D&D Book Scanning Bounty Program". Good e-Reader. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  20. ^ . Tabletop Wire. 28 November 2018. Archived from the original on 3 December 2018.
  21. ^ Hall, Charlie (2019-02-20). "Dungeons & Dragons publisher scrubs contributor from handbook amid abuse allegations". Polygon. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  22. ^ Wieck, Steve (2019-06-12). "OneBlogShelf: Tribute to James Mathe". OneBlogShelf. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
  23. ^ a b Hoffer, Christian (June 30, 2020). "Dungeons & Dragons Marketplace Caught Up in Controversy Over Erotic Adventure Artwork". ComicBook.com. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  24. ^ "A follow-up: [IMAGE]". Twitter. Dungeon Masters Guild. 2020-06-30. Retrieved 2020-06-30.
  25. ^ "Dungeons & Dragons Adds Cultural Sensitivity Warnings to Legacy Titles". CBR. 2020-07-10. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  26. ^ a b Blum, Jeremy (2020-07-11). "'Dungeons & Dragons' Book 'Oriental Adventures' Receives A Sensitivity Disclaimer". HuffPost. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  27. ^ Hall, Charlie (June 28, 2022). "Fan-made D&D content will soon be integrated into Roll20". Polygon. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  28. ^ "Dungeons & Dragons: DMsGuild Announces Partnership With Roll20". ComicBook.com. June 27, 2022. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  29. ^ a b "Roll20 and OneBookShelf are merging into one TTRPG platform". VentureBeat. July 13, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
  30. ^ a b Sheehan, Gavin (2022-07-13). "Roll20 & OneBookShelf Announce Company Unification". Bleeding Cool News And Rumors. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  31. ^ a b "Roll20 and OneBookShelf To Merge". ICv2. July 13, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
  32. ^ "Roll20 Announces Joint Venture With OneBookShelf". ComicBook.com. July 13, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
  33. ^ Lucard, Alex (May 27, 2013). "The Top Ten Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Second Edition Releases I'd Like To See on". Diehard GameFAN. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  34. ^ Hall, Charlie (2015-07-08). "D&D's original Players Handbook finally available as a PDF". Polygon. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  35. ^ Gilpatric, Lory (February 26, 2015). "Create Your Own Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Cards". Purple Pawn. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
  36. ^ a b Lemon, Marshall (January 12, 2016). "Wizards of the Coast Puts Out New Dungeons and Dragons Open License With Forgotten Realms Content | The Escapist". Escapist Magazine. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  37. ^ "D&D's Dungeon Masters Guild Wants Players To Monetise Fan Content". Kotaku Australia. 2016-07-31. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  38. ^ Sims, Chris. "You Can Now Publish Your 'D&D' Adventures Through The DM Guild". ComicsAlliance. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  39. ^ "D&D can buy your Dungeon Masters Guild user-generated content for video games". VentureBeat. 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  40. ^ a b "The D20 Beat: The DM's Guild is a fantastic way for D&D to resurrect old settings". VentureBeat. 2018-07-29. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
  41. ^ "Content and Format Questions". DMs Guild Support Site. Retrieved 2019-11-24.
  42. ^ a b Hall, Charlie (2020-01-13). "Dungeons & Dragons basically has DLC now, and it's excellent". Polygon. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
  43. ^ "Community Content Programs". Retrieved 2020-08-31.
  44. ^ "Free Roll20 alternative Astral TableTop gets a refresh". Geek Native. 2019-04-15. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  45. ^ a b Gerber, Meredith (2019-04-15). "OneBlogShelf: Announcement: DriveThruRPG Partners with Astral Virtual Tabletop". OneBlogShelf. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  46. ^ a b "Important Announcement: Astral is leaving active development". Astral Support Forums. October 19, 2021. from the original on January 15, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
  47. ^ Girdwood, Andrew (2021-10-19). "Astral Tabletop halts development as growth falters and founder retires". Geek Native. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
  48. ^ Girdwood, Andrew (2022-07-13). "Roll20 joins with DriveThruRPG and DMsGuild's OneBookShelf to form a joint venture". Geek Native. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  49. ^ "Roll20 & OneBookShelf Partnership FAQ". OneBookShelf. July 13, 2022. Archived from the original on July 13, 2022. Retrieved July 13, 2022.
  50. ^ Duzan, Bryce (2015-03-10). "10 Tabletop RPGs for Beginners". Paste Magazine. Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  51. ^ Krasnoff, Barbara (2019-07-16). "Where to shop online that isn't Amazon". The Verge. Retrieved 2019-11-23.

External links

  • OneBookShelf website

February 06, 2023
onebookshelf, digital, marketplace, company, both, major, indie, games, fiction, comics, formed, merger, rpgnow, drivethrurpg, company, commerce, platforms, host, content, from, individual, sellers, indie, creators, major, publishing, companies, such, chaosium. OneBookShelf is a digital marketplace company for both major and indie games fiction and comics OneBookShelf was formed by the merger of RPGNow and DriveThruRPG The company s e commerce platforms host content from individual sellers indie creators and major publishing companies such as Chaosium Fantasy Flight Games White Wolf and Wizards of the Coast In July 2022 it was announced that Roll20 will merge with OneBookShelf to become a new company OneBookShelfTypeE commerce platformIndustryCollectible card games role playing games comics wargamesFounded2006 17 years ago 2006 FoundersJames Mathe Mike Todd Chris McDonough and Steve WieckKey peopleSteve Wieck CEO SubsidiariesDriveThruRPGDriveThruComicsDriveThruFictionDriveThruCardsDungeon Masters GuildStorytellers VaultWargame VaultPathfinder InfiniteWebsitehttps www onebookshelf com Contents 1 History 1 1 RPGNow 1 2 DriveThruRPG 1 3 Merger to become OneBookShelf 1 4 2010 2019 1 5 2020 present 2 Partnerships 2 1 DNDClassics 2 2 Community Card Creator 2 3 Dungeon Masters Guild 2 4 Community Content Programs 2 5 Astral Virtual TableTop 3 Reception 4 References 5 External linksHistory EditRPGNow Edit RPGNow was established in 2001 by James Mathe 1 2 Academics Sebastian Deterding and Jose Zagal wrote that in the beginning the bestselling products on RPGNow were nearly always d20 products Mathe made attempts to reach out to established publishers of other types of games but many were hesitant about selling digital versions worried that would increase piracy or cannibalize existing print sales Nevertheless RPGNow recorded better than 10 growth in every year of its operation 3 DriveThruRPG Edit DriveThruRPG was established in 2004 by Mike Todd Chris McDonough and Steve Wieck 4 In 2005 DriveThruRPG abandoned selling DRM protected products The Washington Post reported that customers hated the hassle of dealing with it and it didn t offer very good protection against piracy Wieck said Now the site sells unprotected PDFs with a faint watermark with the customer s name on every page Sales rose 30 percent after the change 4 Two more DriveThru digital storefronts DriveThruComics and DriveThruFiction were also launched in 2005 2 In 2007 it was reported that DriveThruRPG did 2 million in business annually 4 Wieck said the business idea of first mover advantage is more commonly discussed than that of second mover advantage or being a fast follower Despite the many advantages that accrue to first movers into a new market segment I personally prefer to be a second mover into many business opportunities For example when starting DriveThruRPG we were a second mover behind James Mathe who had already started RPGNow 5 Merger to become OneBookShelf Edit In 2006 RPGNow and DriveThruRPG merged into a new company called OneBookShelf Originally OneBookShelf maintained the separate digital storefronts of RPGNow and DriveThruRPG while merging the digital inventory 6 7 James Mathe said the focus of the merger is providing the best experience for rpg fans Combined with DriveThruRPG we will now offer consumers over 9 000 titles from over 500 different publishers Many of the titles have never been available in print or are no longer available in print 8 In 2008 the company took over Mongoose Publishing s Wargaming Online digital store and relaunched it as Wargame Vault 2 On April 6 2009 Wizards of the Coast suspended all sales of its products for the Dungeons amp Dragons games in PDF format from places such as OneBookShelf and its subsidiaries RPGNow and DriveThruRPG due to concerns of piracy and copyright infringement 9 10 ICv2 reported that OneBookShelf took a hit to its volume when Wizards of the Coast abruptly halted sales of PDFs of its products and that although Sean Patrick Fannon RPG Marketing Communications and Publisher Services Manager for OneBookShelf acknowledged that the move was a negative for PDF sales he said that Wizards of the Coast was not even close to half the company s sales 11 2010 2019 Edit In 2010 OneBookShelf launched a print on demand program and then in 2012 the company launched a new digital storefront called DriveThruCards for custom card products 2 11 12 In 2013 OneBookShelf was once again allowed to sell Dungeons amp Dragons products through a new partnership with Wizards of the Coast 13 14 OneBookShelf did not originally have an offensive content policy In 2015 DriveThruRPG was involved in a controversy due its decision to sell a title called Tournament of Rapists DriveThruRPG was initially criticized for its slow reaction to complaints about the offensiveness of the product and the product was eventually removed from the store 3 This led to the creation of an offensive content policy for all of OneBookShelf s platforms Wieck said So going forward our offensive content policy is simply going to be this Offensive Content We ll know it when we see it I will be the final arbiter of what OneBookShelf deems offensive Any title in which racial violence rape torture or a similar subject is treated as a central feature will naturally be subjected to increased scrutiny We will continue to be reactive not proactive on judging new title releases Historically 99 99 of publishers content has been inoffensive Being able to activate their own titles for sale with our marketplace tools gives publishers additional control over their release marketing timing and generally gets RPG products to market more quickly Once the reporting feature is live we will review titles already on the marketplace that are reported by customers There will be no grandfathering in of past content 15 Also in 2015 OnceBookShelf had a credit card breach and hackers used the OneBookShelf s servers to launch DDOS attack on other sites 16 ICv2 reported that one of two load balanced servers was compromised the company said and it had no way of knowing which of the customers that had transactions during that period were processed on which server It said it had no information to indicate that encrypted credit card numbers of customers that did not make purchases during the period were taken but could not rule it out 17 From February 2016 to March 2016 DriveThruRPG held a bounty program for high quality scans of old hard to find Dungeons and Dragons campaigns modules and boxed sets 18 19 In November 2018 it was announced that in February 2019 the RPGNow digital storefront would be shut down and redirected to the DriveThruRPG digital storefront 20 On February 12 2019 OneBookShelf announced that it would no longer work with Zak Smith after multiple women publicly accused Smith of abuse The company went on to say that its own portion of any revenue generated by Smith s existing titles already up for sale on its storefront will be donated to RAINN Rape Abuse amp Incest National Network the nation s largest anti sexual violence organization 21 In June 2019 co founder Mathe passed away Wieck wrote well before the iPhone iPad or the Kindle James recognized the opportunity for RPG publishers to reach more fans through digital versions of their titles By 2004 when I and a few others started DriveThruRPG we were the Johnny come lately to the pioneering work James had already done with RPGNow Nevertheless it was through the resulting friendly business rivalry between DriveThruRPG and RPGNow that I got to know and soon came to respect James James was a very smart entrepreneur in a hobby business full of smart people He embodied the best of the US Midwestern virtues of work ethic honesty and fairness He s gone too soon 22 2020 present Edit In June 2020 OneBookShelf came under scrutiny after a queer themed adventure by ENNie Award nominated designer Oliver Clegg was removed from the DMsGuild platform for distinctively sexualized artwork 23 After the adventure was pulled and the DMs Guild released its statement many DMs Guild creators and D amp D fans spoke out about the adventure s removal and a wider discussion of artwork used in Dungeons amp Dragons material Laura Hirsbrunner another prominent DMs Guild creator compiled a number of art pieces used in official D amp D materials and available for use on the DMs Guild showing women and monsters in sexualized outfits or in various states of nudity 23 The company responded that the OneBookShelf team stands by our decision to request adjustments to the art in question in this recent scenario However we agree we want to be fair in how such standards are applied which includes examining any internal biases that might have affected past decisions too We re still very much in the process of listening both personally and professionally so we hope the community will afford us some patience and time in adjusting and improving our own processes and guidelines 24 In July 2020 Wizards of the Coast added a sensitivity disclaimer to some of their legacy products for sale on DriveThruRPG and DMsGuild 25 26 Many of these products feature cultures inspired by Asia Mesoamerica and the Middle East 26 In June 2022 OneBookShelf announced a new partnership with Roll20 that would allow content creators on DMsGuild to sell modules and add ons which are directly integrated with Roll20 s virtual tabletop system 27 28 In July 2022 Roll20 and OneBookShelf announced a merger between the two companies This merger will combine the content libraries of both companies 29 30 and make OneBookShelf s PDF libraries accessible within Roll20 31 Ankit Lai CEO of Roll20 will become the new company s CEO and Steve Wieck CEO of OneBookShelf will become president of the new company and join Roll20 s board of directors 31 29 The combined company s name has not yet been announced 30 32 Partnerships EditDNDClassics Edit In 2013 OneBookShelf launched a new digital storefront in partnership with Wizards of the Coast to sell classic Dungeons amp Dragons products 13 14 This site sold Dungeons amp Dragons products from Advanced Dungeons amp Dragons through the 4th Edition of the game 33 34 Community Card Creator Edit In 2015 OneBookShelf launched a new card creator web application as part of DriveThruCards in partnership with Paizo Publishing for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game The card creator allows fans of PACG to create their own card which can be purchased and printed for 0 50 each You can either keep your build private so that it is unique to your deck or make it publicly available so that other PACG fans can try it out 35 Dungeon Masters Guild Edit In 2016 OneBookShelf launched a new digital storefront in partnership with Wizards of the Coast called the Dungeon Masters Guild DMsGuild The DNDClassics site was replaced by the new DMsGuild storefront With the 5th Edition Dungeons amp Dragons open game license third party publishers are allowed to print and published content based on the 5th Edition System Reference Document SRD The DMsGuild took that a step further by allowing individuals and third party publishers to create and sell content based on the Forgotten Realms 36 37 38 The Escapist reported the Dungeon Masters Guild alone is a big deal since it allows anyone to be paid for Forgotten Realms content something that once required a specific contract with Wizards of the Coast and that options for content range from new monsters to NPCs to locations to entire Forgotten Realms adventures and campaigns The creator can set any price on their content or give it away for free with the only caveat being that Wizards of the Coast and OneBookShelf take a 50 cut of the proceeds 36 VentureBeat reported that content on DMsGuild is available for D amp D video game developers to buy According to D amp D spokesperson Greg Tito Wizards of the Coast would negotiate with the author to license or purchase their creations 39 As of 2019 content can now be based on other Wizards of the Coast intellectual property such as Ravenloft Eberron and Ravnica 40 41 42 Community Content Programs Edit After the success of the DMsGuild OneBookShelf continued to partner with other publishers to allow individuals to create and sell content based on intellectual property on the DriveThruRPG website 2 The number of programs grew rapidly As of August 2020 there are nearly 30 programs including ones with well known publishers like Chaosium Mongoose Publishing Pinnacle Entertainment Group and White Wolf 43 Astral Virtual TableTop Edit In April 2019 it was announced that DriveThruRPG had partnered with Astral Virtual TableTop Astral and the virtual tabletop platform received a major update 44 45 OneBookShelf said that content purchased through any DriveThru site including DriveThruRPG and Dungeon Master s Guild can be imported and shared in Astral 45 In October 2021 Astral s founder Tom Lackemann left the project with OneBookShelf continuing to oversee and maintain Astral s current services 46 At the same time it was announced that Astral would no longer be in active development and its marketplace would shutdown 46 47 Following the announced merger between OneBookShelf and Roll20 in July 2022 it was announced that Astral is scheduled to shut down in August 2022 48 49 Reception EditIn 2015 Paste reported that RPGs can be expensive so while PDFs can be harder to pass around or to look up rules on they are a much more financially astute option DriveThruRPG com is a great place to find PDFs 50 In 2018 Deterding and Zagal wrote that by its own account DriveThruRPG run by OneBookShelf is currently the largest online marketplace for TRPGs It allows TRPG publishers to offer their current and historic catalogs as PDFs and print on demand books As online digital and print on demand distribution maximizes reach and minimizes up front investment hurdles and risk it has contributed to the flourishing of long tail indie RPGs 3 Jason Wilson for VentureBeat said that the DM s Guild is my favorite project from the Dungeons amp Dragons team in recent years The Dungeon Masters Adept program has resulted in other community writers producing official material on the Guild We ve seen how the Guild just expands on the official books Now with Eberron we re seeing how Wizards can use it to resurrect its past The DM s Guild gives Wizards a cost friendly method of opening up the gates to the past It can conduct some polling on what the community wants on the Guild when it comes to books for older settings and then commission someone to do so 40 In 2019 The Verge included DriveThruRPG on a roundup of websites to purchase from that are not Amazon 51 In 2020 Polygon reported that Wizards runs an organized play series known as the D amp D Adventurer s League You can find all of its past 5th edition content online available for a nominal price It s among the most polished content on the DMs Guild with playtesting provided by customers at game stores around the world 42 References Edit MY BIO James Mathe Entrepreneur Designer Publisher Retrieved 2019 11 23 a b c d e A Brief History of OneBookShelf DriveThruRPG Archived from the original on 2019 11 20 Retrieved 2019 11 23 a b c Role playing Game Studies Transmedia Foundations Zagal Jose Pablo Deterding Sebastian New York Routledge 2018 ISBN 978 1 317 26831 4 OCLC 1032723564 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint others link a b c SVENSSON PETER 2007 12 04 Slow Starting E Books Find Niche Markets The Washington Post ISSN 0190 8286 Retrieved 2019 11 23 Wieck Steve 2013 09 25 OneBlogShelf The Coming Revolution in Card Game Design OneBlogShelf Retrieved 2019 11 24 RPGNow amp DriveThruRPG Merge icv2 com Retrieved 2019 11 23 Appelcline Shannon 2011 Designers amp Dragons Mongoose Publishing p 230 ISBN 978 1 907702 58 7 RPGNow and DriveThruRPG Merge Story Games October 2006 Retrieved 2019 12 02 WotC Ends PDF Download Sales icv2 com Retrieved 2019 11 23 Grabianowski Ed April 7 2009 Wizards of the Coast Ignites the Great PDF Controversy of 09 Robot Viking Archived from the original on 2010 04 10 Retrieved 2019 12 02 a b POD Joins PDFs icv2 com Retrieved 2019 11 23 New White Wolf Books icv2 com Retrieved 2019 11 23 a b Gilsdorf Ethan 2013 01 22 New Digital Archive Resurrects Classic Dungeons amp Dragons Adventures Wired ISSN 1059 1028 Retrieved 2019 11 23 a b Kozlowski Michael 2013 01 23 New Digital Dungeons and Dragons Website Launches Today Good e Reader Retrieved 2019 11 23 Wieck Steve 2015 09 01 OneBlogShelf Offensive Content Policy OneBlogShelf Retrieved 2019 11 24 Comics A M OneBookShelf experiences credit card breach CBR 2015 08 12 Retrieved 2019 11 23 Credit Card Breach at OneBookShelf icv2 com Retrieved 2019 11 23 Shearer Stew February 26 2016 Have Old D amp D Books Scan Them For Cash Escapist Magazine Retrieved 2019 11 23 Kozlowski Michael 2016 03 07 DriveThruRPG Suspends D amp D Book Scanning Bounty Program Good e Reader Retrieved 2019 11 23 OneBookShelf to Shut Down RPGNow Tabletop Wire 28 November 2018 Archived from the original on 3 December 2018 Hall Charlie 2019 02 20 Dungeons amp Dragons publisher scrubs contributor from handbook amid abuse allegations Polygon Retrieved 2019 11 23 Wieck Steve 2019 06 12 OneBlogShelf Tribute to James Mathe OneBlogShelf Retrieved 2019 11 24 a b Hoffer Christian June 30 2020 Dungeons amp Dragons Marketplace Caught Up in Controversy Over Erotic Adventure Artwork ComicBook com Retrieved 2020 06 30 A follow up IMAGE Twitter Dungeon Masters Guild 2020 06 30 Retrieved 2020 06 30 Dungeons amp Dragons Adds Cultural Sensitivity Warnings to Legacy Titles CBR 2020 07 10 Retrieved 2020 07 25 a b Blum Jeremy 2020 07 11 Dungeons amp Dragons Book Oriental Adventures Receives A Sensitivity Disclaimer HuffPost Retrieved 2020 07 25 Hall Charlie June 28 2022 Fan made D amp D content will soon be integrated into Roll20 Polygon Retrieved June 28 2022 Dungeons amp Dragons DMsGuild Announces Partnership With Roll20 ComicBook com June 27 2022 Retrieved June 28 2022 a b Roll20 and OneBookShelf are merging into one TTRPG platform VentureBeat July 13 2022 Retrieved July 13 2022 a b Sheehan Gavin 2022 07 13 Roll20 amp OneBookShelf Announce Company Unification Bleeding Cool News And Rumors Retrieved 2022 07 13 a b Roll20 and OneBookShelf To Merge ICv2 July 13 2022 Retrieved July 13 2022 Roll20 Announces Joint Venture With OneBookShelf ComicBook com July 13 2022 Retrieved July 13 2022 Lucard Alex May 27 2013 The Top Ten Advanced Dungeons amp Dragons Second Edition Releases I d Like To See on Diehard GameFAN Retrieved 2019 11 23 Hall Charlie 2015 07 08 D amp D s original Players Handbook finally available as a PDF Polygon Retrieved 2019 11 23 Gilpatric Lory February 26 2015 Create Your Own Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Cards Purple Pawn Retrieved 2019 11 24 a b Lemon Marshall January 12 2016 Wizards of the Coast Puts Out New Dungeons and Dragons Open License With Forgotten Realms Content The Escapist Escapist Magazine Retrieved 2019 11 23 D amp D s Dungeon Masters Guild Wants Players To Monetise Fan Content Kotaku Australia 2016 07 31 Retrieved 2019 11 23 Sims Chris You Can Now Publish Your D amp D Adventures Through The DM Guild ComicsAlliance Retrieved 2019 11 23 D amp D can buy your Dungeon Masters Guild user generated content for video games VentureBeat 2016 01 13 Retrieved 2019 11 23 a b The D20 Beat The DM s Guild is a fantastic way for D amp D to resurrect old settings VentureBeat 2018 07 29 Retrieved 2019 11 24 Content and Format Questions DMs Guild Support Site Retrieved 2019 11 24 a b Hall Charlie 2020 01 13 Dungeons amp Dragons basically has DLC now and it s excellent Polygon Retrieved 2020 01 16 Community Content Programs Retrieved 2020 08 31 Free Roll20 alternative Astral TableTop gets a refresh Geek Native 2019 04 15 Retrieved 2019 11 23 a b Gerber Meredith 2019 04 15 OneBlogShelf Announcement DriveThruRPG Partners with Astral Virtual Tabletop OneBlogShelf Retrieved 2019 11 23 a b Important Announcement Astral is leaving active development Astral Support Forums October 19 2021 Archived from the original on January 15 2022 Retrieved July 13 2022 Girdwood Andrew 2021 10 19 Astral Tabletop halts development as growth falters and founder retires Geek Native Retrieved 2022 07 14 Girdwood Andrew 2022 07 13 Roll20 joins with DriveThruRPG and DMsGuild s OneBookShelf to form a joint venture Geek Native Retrieved 2022 07 13 Roll20 amp OneBookShelf Partnership FAQ OneBookShelf July 13 2022 Archived from the original on July 13 2022 Retrieved July 13 2022 Duzan Bryce 2015 03 10 10 Tabletop RPGs for Beginners Paste Magazine Retrieved 2019 11 23 Krasnoff Barbara 2019 07 16 Where to shop online that isn t Amazon The Verge Retrieved 2019 11 23 External links EditOneBookShelf website Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title OneBookShelf amp oldid 1104381643, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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