this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2025

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D&D Next - 5e Discussion

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Andy Collins on linkedin - 90% of developers of the project sigil VTT laid off (www.linkedin.com)

submitted 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) by eerongal@ttrpg.network to c/dndnext@ttrpg.network

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I posted a rumor link on this last night, and removed it because I wasn't sure of the source; looks like we have a firm source about it now, though, guess project sigil is effectively dead.

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[–] xyzzy@lemm.ee 11 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I don't mean to be flippant, but did they finally discover that an LLM doesn't actually make a compelling GM?

Or that most groups don't want to log into cyberspace on their computer to play their campaign? Or that many people run potato hardware, if they even have computers at all?

Did they miss that TTRPGs are social activities first and games second?

It was a flawed concept from the outset. It's too bad that these folks were laid off, but I don't think it would have been successful unless the project made a major pivot.

[–] hamsterkill 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

It's not a terrible idea, it's just one that was unlikely to be executed well under WotC and Hasbro.

If they can get Beyond back into as good of shape as it was when they bought it, I'll change my opinion of their management. Until then, they just don't seem to have the vision necessary to keep digital projects like this going.

[–] xyzzy@lemm.ee 2 points 5 days ago

D&D Beyond was always in bad shape. An app like that needs a really solid foundation to build on, and they... don't have that.

But yes, it's gotten worse.

[–] Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 days ago

Hasbro with vision of the future? Unless it's next quarter they don't care.

I expect it to only get worse with time, they'll never dedicate the necessary resources to fix Beyond as it makes them a lot of money already. And when it stops making them a bunch of money they still won't fix it as they'll see it as a lost cause.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I don't think I've even heard of this.

Experience D&D in stunning 3D with Sigil, an immersive 3D virtual tabletop (VTT) for Dungeons & Dragons fans that is integrated with D&D Beyond. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, Sigil provides intuitive world-building and mini-making tools, and a connected 3D gameplay experience for the whole party.

This sounds like a huge waste of time. I need to go make textures and models for every thing i make up? or I'm stuck using preset stuff, crippling imagination?

[–] hamsterkill 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I haven't used it, but I believe the vision was it would provide some assets stock, sell some more, and also allow import of your own. Could allow for random encounter map generation when you need a quick setup as well.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, that still sounds terrible. Something about the game anchoring the players imagination to the easy assets is just upsetting to me in a gut deep level.

My old in-person group, we'd just use coins and stuff. The pennies are zombies and the quarters are necromancers. I feel like any time spent fussing with the platform itself instead of the game is a negative, and Sigil sounds like maximum fussiness.

[–] kichae@wanderingadventure.party 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

@jjjalljs@ttrpg.network Sigil was a project to double-down on ecosystem lock-in and introduce microtransactions into the game at a time where online play was/is ballooning. And it probably had a lot of potential to achieve those things, if not for Hasbro's seemingly constant refocusing and shifting short term goals.

It's good for the hobby that it's DOA, but being so dismissive of it because it's not something you personally see value in just kind of sounds like burying your head in the sand to the very real changes the hobby has been undergoing since lockdowns started five years ago.

Sigil had the potential to not just lock players into the D&D Beyond ecosystem (even more so than Beyond already does), but also to be a poison pill against homebrew in general.

It would have been a Curse of Strahd machine. Something that has full support for official moduals and rulebooks, and functionally no support for anything else. And there was a very, very, very real chance that it would have worked.

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 1 points 4 days ago

Oh, I believe you that it could have worked. Many people seem happy to go with easy even if it's worse in many ways. Sometimes that's fine and the trade-off is worth it. I don't compile all my software from source.

Making DND more like a video game seems really sad to me, and I wouldn't want to take the poison pill. But I guess that's like looking at the Internet and longing for when it was free hobby stuff while most people just want Facebook.

I like to think people would be like "wait, this sucks, we can't go off the rails?" but I think most people's expectations are lower. They'd be happy with DND as board game.

[–] Jeeve65@ttrpg.network 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

But but.... my golden dragon mini!

Just kidding, I did not bother to try out project Sigil, so my golden dragon mini was never claimed. It's hard on the developers that were laid off, but I won't miss the tool, at all.

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 1 points 4 days ago

Sigil that's that Doom WAD right