DnD Now Available on the Foundry Virtual Tabletop
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Wizards of the Coast officially partners with popular VTT to include Dungeons & Dragons content
In a surprise move from Wizards of the Coast – who has often been notoriously standoffish with third-party companies – it was recently announced that DnD 5e content would now be available on the Foundry Virtual Tabletop. The new agreement (which rolled out on February 1st, 2024) will allow Foundry users to access officially published DnD rules, adventures, maps, character sheets and other related game materials.
So just what does this mean for DnD players and Foundry users? Below we break out all the details.
What DnD 5e materials will appear on Foundry?
According to a press release from Foundry the new agreement will essentially bring the DnD 5e rules set to the platform, allowing them to integrate with character sheets, monsters, magic items, spells and maps, among other existing assets.
Foundry users will also be able to purchase Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk (available for $29.99 USD), which includes new player creation options and in-game elements that have been created specifically for use in Foundry. Other official game supplements and adventures will be available in the near future, which Foundry will make note of in their official roadmap.
What’s most interesting, however, is that this new partnership will includes both past and future DnD 5e rules, including the upcoming 2024 Core Books consisting of new versions of The Player’s Handbook, Dungeon Master’s Guide and Monster Manual. Foundry has also indicated that they are currently looking at integrating with other 5e third-party content on DMsGuild.
What is Foundry Virtual Tabletop?
Foundry is a virtual tabletop (VTT) platform designed that allows users to play tabletop role-playing games in an online environment. Originally released in 2018, it’s since become one of the most popular VTTs on the market. Unlike other competitors, however, which use a subscription-based model and host games on their own internal servers, Foundry uses a one-time purchase model, letting player’s download the software and setting it up on their own server.
Foundry also offers a range of customization options and has a robust community of developers who often contribute new modules, rules updates and modifications. Notably, Foundry’s main competitor, Roll20, has already signed an agreement with Wizards of the Coast to utilize official DnD 5e materials, so Foundry having similar access has levelled the playing field somewhat in terms of VTTs.
Why should Dungeons & Dragons players care?
The news of Wizards of the Coast adding DnD 5e is surprising for two main reasons: First, Foundry is in many ways a direct competitor to the Wizards of the Coast’s recently released D&D Beyond Maps VTT and the future 3D DnD virtual tabletop that’s currently in development. While it’s a great move for DnD players and fans, the fact is that adding official content to other platforms could actually impact WotC’s bottom line.
The other surprising element of this news is that Foundry will indeed include the updated DnD 5e rules. In the wake of the OGL scandal, many users were suspicious that Wizards of the Coast would not make the updated rules part of their SRD (Systems Reference Documents) and would exclude third-party publishers and VTTs from accessing it. That doesn’t seem to be the case and this news is a positive indication of what’s to come once the new rules are released.
Final Thoughts
This is actually big news for longtime RPG industry watchers and is a smart move on the part of Wizards of the Coast in that it actually may earn back some of the good faith they was lost among fans in the wake of the OGL scandal and recent employee layoffs.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story as it develops and will update this page as we learn more. In the meantime, below is a video from Foundry that offers more details on what’s included with the new DnD partnership.
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
