Roll20 Announces Purchase of Demiplane (Exclusive)
The VTT system Roll20 and the character builder Demiplane are now owned by one company.
Roll20, the largest VTT service for online tabletop roleplaying game play, has announced the acquisition of Demiplane, a character management and creation toolset known for its easy character creation tools for multiple game systems. ComicBook can exclusively confirm the purchase, which goes into effect as of today and will provide Roll20 with a powerful suite of character creation tools that can work in tandem with its VTT system and DriveThruRPG, which serves as the primary online marketplace for tabletop RPGs.
In an interview with ComicBook, Roll20 CEO Ankit Lal explained that the purchase of Demiplane allows Roll20 to further its goal of creating a "seamless user experience" where users can purchase RPGs and then play them. "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," Lal said. "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."
Lal noted that Demiplane's toolset filled a need in the tabletop RPG market, which was to create a D&D Beyond equivalent for other game systems. D&D Beyond, which was founded by Demiplane executive Adam Bradford and is now owned entirely by Wizards of the Coast, is credited as a major force behind the resurgence of Dungeons & Dragons over the past decade and onboarding millions of new players. To date, Demiplane has teamed up with a handful of publishers – Paizo, Critical Role's Darrington Press, Free League Publishing, and Paradox Interactive – to create similar toolsets for some of their largest games.
Roll20's purchase of Demiplane potentially provides that same character building toolset for hundreds of new game systems. Lal told ComicBook that one advantage to the purchase was that Roll20 could now potentially support new Kickstarter campaigns with a full suite of digital options, ranging from PDF distribution to VTT modules, to digital character sheets and character builder options.
Roll20's acquisition of Demiplane won't have any immediate impact on users of either platform, but Demiplane CEO Peter Romenesko noted that the merged companies will look to close the difference between their two platforms very quickly. "What you'll see is a very concentrated effort to bring the distance between each of these different solutions that are now under the Roll20 brand, really start to bring them closer," Romenesko told ComicBook. "Both in digital proximity so that all of a sudden you can start to use these things across the whole platform, whether you're playing in person or online....You may not notice [these changes] one by one, but it's something that we're really committed to. In addition, we'll continue to bring out a whole bunch of great games on our platform and find out really unique ways to bring Demiplane into DriveThruRPG and the virtual tabletop."
Neither Lal nor Romensko would say which game systems would be the first to see Demiplane character sheet integration. "I think the reality is that there's certainly going to be a way that we need to figure out to determine which [games] are going to really play out best, and not just best for us, but best for the players, best for the publishers," said Romenesko who also noted that Roll20 could now work with both new games and for aiding in playtests such as what Demiplane currently does with Pathfinder and Daggerheart. "Which games get picked first is always going to be a dynamic and exciting discussion. We have more voices now as we move into Roll20, but we also have a massive library that opens up. And so I'm really excited about it, I'm not afraid of what that means, but I know we've got a lot to choose from and the way that we do that I think will remain dynamic."
Lal also confirmed to ComicBook that the acquisition of Demiplane would not impact Roll20's rollout of a new character creation toolset for Dungeons & Dragons on their platform, which is set to roll out in just a few weeks in early access. Lal said that the new character creation toolset for Dungeons & Dragons on Roll20 would be a "massive upgrade" compared to current character management systems on Roll20. Roll20 also partners with Wizards of the Coast on the DMs Guild, which serves as a marketplace for creators who use official D&D IP on 5E supplements and adventures.
Demiplane's development team is mostly staying intact with the acquisition, although Demiplane executive Adam Bradford will be leaving the company as part of the merger. "Adam has been just a super important person for us, he's been really, really critical on getting Demiplane off the ground," Romenesko said. "Ss we moved into this, this was just a spot where both organizations looked at each other, and said that there's a path here and Adam wants to take a different one. We wish Adam the best and I'm really excited to see where Adam goes next. I think he's going to do some amazing things." On Monday, Bradford announced that he had joined SmiteWorks, the owner of the Fantasy Grounds VTT, as its Chief Development Officer.
When asked how the acquisition will impact the tabletop industry, Lal said that the goal was to reduce barriers for the entire industry. "We want to make it as easy as possible for you to build your first character, to get into your first game, to try out playing TTRPGs," Lal said. "And we think the combination of the Roll20 VTT and the Demiplane character sheet ecosystem is going to do that....What Demiplane has achieved on the character builder side, what Roll20 has achieved on the virtual tabletop side is to really reduce that cost and barrier so that we can serve more publishers, more game systems."
"I think the other thing that happens, is the more folks that get to try something new in the tabletop role-playing game space, the more creative minds you have in it," Romenesko added. "And so for the games that exist today and the way that people play the games today, it's now become easier to explore new ways of playing. And for those folks that come in, there may be something new that we haven't seen yet, and that might be triggered by making the rest of the games easier to get into, easier to play, easier to find, easier to explore, all those things."
[Editor's Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly listed Adam Bradford as a co-founder of Demiplane. He was an executive of the company.]
