Foundry VTT official content?

[Mothokiko]

Are there any plans for official content for Foundry VTT, one of the most popular (and rapidly gaining popularity) virtual tabletops? I am thinking about official, premium content similar to what Crucible 7 makes for WFRP. There is official PF2e content for other VTTs like Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds, but I haven't been able to find any conclusive information regarding official content for Foundry.

[CrystalSeas]

Mothokiko wrote:

Are there any plans for official content for Foundry VTT, one of the most popular (and rapidly gaining popularity) virtual tabletops? I am thinking about official, premium content similar to what Crucible 7 makes for WFRP. There is official PF2e content for other VTTs like Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds, but I haven't been able to find any conclusive information regarding official content for Foundry.

You have to ask the folks at Foundry.

Paizo licenses its materials to the other sites, and it's up to Foundry to work out a licensing agreement with Paizo.

[Mothokiko]

Thank you for replying!

My understanding was, since Crucible 7 (the official publisher of WFRP 4th edition) makes their official content for Foundry and other VTTs, the decision (and initiative) to make official Pathfinder content for Foundry would be on Paizo's side.

I was under the impression that the developers at Foundry focus on back-end development of their VTT's functionality and most of the gaming content is maintained by the community, with a few exeptions (mainly Crucible 7 systems, Free League systems and Ulisses Germany).

[Malk_Content]

I think it would be a lot of effort for Paizo to do, which costs them resources, for very little gain as the PF2 community for Foundry pretty much does all that work for them for free.

[CrystalSeas]

Mothokiko wrote:

I was under the impression that the developers at Foundry focus on back-end development of their VTT's functionality and most of the gaming content is maintained by the community, with a few exeptions (mainly Crucible 7 systems, Free League systems and Ulisses Germany).

Paizo only allows licensed partners to develop and publish material that uses Paizo's IP (intellectual property). So while there is a lot of 3rd party publisher material, there isn't any "gaming content maintained by the community" that is actual playable modules. You won't find fan-written Golarion modules anywhere on the web.

To get "official" content for Foundry, 'someone' (ie a business partner of Paizo) would need to develop it for that particular site. Paizo has a clear boundary around what its own staff time will be spent creating: new official content for Paizo.

The other sites (like Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds) are official licensed business partners of Paizo, and they adapt the Paizo material themselves under that licensing agreement.

So Paizo's business model is somewhat different from other gaming companies.

[Grankless]

Some day, hopefully. The PDF to Foundry module allowing for importing of purchased PDFs is helpful, but the convenience of a full adventure would be sooooo nice.

[Elfteiroh]

Yeah... Foundry's case is special... Basically, They would need a special third party that would develop these for them, or Foundry would need to build up a team that would do it. Paizo is sadly not big enough to manage to dedicate a team to do it while keeping their release schedule up. Foundry is clearly comfortable with its current setting. And... a third party would probably see the revenues from any sales of official content split in three, and they will certainly not get the biggest share... so no real monetary incentive.

I do know that some time ago we heard about some talks between the two companies. No idea what will/have come out of it.

[Ediwir]

Elfteiroh wrote:

Yeah... Foundry's case is special... Basically, They would need a special third party that would develop these for them, or Foundry would need to build up a team that would do it. Paizo is sadly not big enough to manage to dedicate a team to do it while keeping their release schedule up. Foundry is clearly comfortable with its current setting. And... a third party would probably see the revenues from any sales of official content split in three, and they will certainly not get the biggest share... so no real monetary incentive.

I do know that some time ago we heard about some talks between the two companies. No idea what will/have come out of it.

Mostly, third party creators would have to compete with the fanbase. PDF2Foundry is not perfect, but it's a free that allows to get free implementation from paizo purchases. Having to pay twice is a common Beyond/Roll20 complaint, having to do so when partial implementation is already included would likely be worse.

[Slamy Mcbiteo]

So other companies (3 that I have seen so far) have reached out to the development teams that built the "free content" and worked out a deal. I believe they even pay some of them to manage and keep the content up to date. Maybe Paizo can reach out to Hooking and work out deal?

Then the company worked out a license deal to provide premium content on the platform... :)

[profounddark]

Slamy Mcbiteo wrote:

So other companies (3 that I have seen so far) have reached out to the development teams that built the "free content" and worked out a deal. I believe they even pay some of them to manage and keep the content up to date. Maybe Paizo can reach out to Hooking and work out deal?

Then the company worked out a license deal to provide premium content on the platform... :)

The issue there is that while there is a primary maintainer of the repository, there are several major contributors at this point (and any number of minor contributors). So, there's the problem of "who do they contract with?" And that's not to mention that PDF to Foundry does a significant chunk of what they might be selling as a digital package. It gets a bit convoluted.

I remember seeing a lot of folks that ask for tokens and art. It probably wouldn't be bad if they could get somebody to do token packs that integrated with the PF2 Compendium. :shrug:

[Mothokiko]

In the darkness something stirs...

Paizo Inc. Foundry VTT

https://paizo.com/store/gaming/accessories/virtualTableTop/foundryVirtualTa bletop

[Ezekieru]

Mothokiko wrote:

In the darkness something stirs...

https://paizo.com/store/gaming/accessories/virtualTableTop/foundryVirtualTa bletop

OOOOH! This is promising! Thanks for sharing~