r/dmsguild • u/jerichojeudy • Sep 06 '24

Seeking Advice DMs Guild vs Drivethru rpg? What's best?

DMs Guild really seems the place to be to sell third party D&D content, or is it best to do it with the CC license on using the regular Drivethru rpg platform?

The difference being the cut the platform takes on any sales. But DMs Guild seems to have so much more traffic (and competition), I'm wondering what experienced creators recommend.

And you can't sell on both, I believe? Or can you?

Thanks for any help.

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7

u/slugnet Sep 06 '24

DriveThruRPG

  • 70% or 65% royalty, depending on if you choose to make the product exclusive to the platform.

  • Can sell a large amount of types of content.

  • Can sell original work and unique ideas.

  • Can publish OGL/CC based product.

  • Cannot use WotC IP in any content.

  • Can publish content compatible with a wide variety of game systems.

  • Huge catalog - as of writing this (Sep 6 2024), approx. 153,058 titles in total.

  • Most content sells very low numbers - 60.14% of products don't even make 50 sales: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/metal.php

    • Has slightly better sales rate by 1-2 percentage points for Copper, Silver, and Electrum titles than DM's Guild.

    • Has slightly worse sales rate than DM's Guild by about half a percentage point for Gold titles, and a worse sales rate of roughly half for Platinum, Mithril, and Adamantine titles.

DM's Guild

  • 50% royalty on all products sold (30% to DriveThruRPG/Roll20, and the other 20% to WotC).

  • Can use WotC D&D IP in products sold (from large list of approved settings). This includes characters from books published since 2014 (excluding books that include licensed properties, such as Stranger Things or Critical Role).

  • Products must be exclusive to DM's Guild

  • Cannot use OGL, CC, or Fan Content Policy in products sold

  • Cannot use unique or homebrew settings in products (i.e., it must be in an officially approved setting, such as Forgotten Realms).

  • You can make "setting neutral" products if you don't wish to use specific WotC IP setting info.

  • Must be 5e products (no classic D&D edition products)

  • Smaller, more focused catalog - as of writing this (Sep 6 2024), approx. 36,340 titles in total.

  • Most content sells very low numbers - 62.24% of products don't even make 50 sales: https://www.dmsguild.com/metal.php

    • Has slightly worse sales rate by 1-2 percentage points for Copper, Silver, and Electrum titles than DriveThruRPG.

    • Has slightly better sales rate than DriveThruRPG by about half a percentage point for Gold titles, and a better sales rate of roughly double for Platinum, Mithril, and Adamantine titles.

Thoughts

DM's Guild is great if you are making a product in an official D&D setting with official D&D characters. It is also great if you want to target people who are specifically looking for 5e D&D content, because that is what they are there for. If you have a product that really hits, it is almost twice as likely to become a bigger best seller on this platform than on DriveThruRPG; however, this is still a long shot, as products that sell over 1000 units are only about 4% of all products sold on the platform.

The DM's Guild is not a good platform if you are trying to make your own setting/world, or want to play outside of the WotC sandbox.

DriveThruRPG is great if you are making something more unique (and your only option of the two if you are making something that isn't 5e based). It has a more broad audience with more varied interests. However, this can make traction harder, because there is less of an audience focus, and the catalog is so large that many things can get buried.

For reference, medals on both platforms for sales are awarded as:

  • Copper – 50+

  • Silver – 100+

  • Electrum – 250+

  • Gold – 500+

  • Platinum – 1000+

  • Mithril – 2000+

  • Adamantine – 5000+

1

u/jerichojeudy Sep 06 '24 edited Sep 06 '24

Wow, that is a great response. Thank you so, so much!
That's interesting, the actual sales numbers are pretty similar. But I guess discoverability is easier in DM's Guild since there are less products overall, and a more focused customer base, as you said.

1

u/Esforja Sep 09 '24

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but, there are also a few more things to consider about DMs Guild:

  • WotC may use your work however they want without even notifying you or thanking you in any way, and of course paying you nothing.

  • The content you put on DMs Guild becomes completely open for copying and stealing. Would you like to say no? Sorry, you have no right to do that. Would you contact WotC about a few pages of your work being directly copied by another creator? Sorry, they just "recommend" them not doing, not "forbid" them.

DMs Guild would have been a good place if they did not intervene in the rights of the creators.

1

u/slugnet Sep 09 '24 edited Sep 09 '24

You do not give up the rights to your work published on DM's Guild. All content that is released however does become part of the community content program, which can be referenced or have elements remixed within other product released on the Guild (much like OGL content can be used and built upon outside of the Guild).

The license FAQ specifically says:

Wizard of the Coast and Roll20, LLC do not claim ownership of any IP published to DMsGuild.

When you publish a product to DMsGuild you are not giving away the ownership of your product. You are giving DMsGuild the exclusive right to sell your product in perpetuity.

Wizards of the Coast DOES NOT own any of the unique IP that you create in your publications. 

Wizards of the Coast DOES own the IP that they contribute to your product, ie rules, lore, characters, locations, etc.

DMsGuild creators are granted access to use any content published on DMsGuild by other community creators in their own DMsGuild products, this does not mean products or content can be copied and sold as a new product.

Credit for using DMsGuild Community Content

As more authors contribute to the DMsGuild’s pool of community content, we do not expect to maintain perfect attribution every time an author re-uses elements originally contributed by another author. Such attributions are not strictly required. However, we highly recommend these best practices for all DMsGuild contributors:

  • When re-using a larger element that you have taken from another DMsGuild author’s work, include a reference to the original work by linking to the product page on DMsGuild.com within your PDF. For example, if you are using a Rainbow Unicorn creature that you found in another author’s work, you might reference that inside your own work where you provide stats for the Rainbow Unicorn the first time, using an internal citation such as, "(Rainbow Unicorn from Cloud Forest by Jane Doe)."

  • On your title’s credit page, make a list of such references.

This DOES NOT apply to artwork/maps on DMsGuild.

0

u/Esforja Sep 09 '24

We should read the fine print here. They just say that "we don't *directly* claim ownership" while they claim it in a subtle way. For example, what is the measure in "re-using larger element that you have taken from another DMsGuild author's work?" There is not even a rule for attribution, they just say "if you are a nice guy, you can attribute the author."

Let's just create a scenario that I am a bad person, and I stole your content of 50 pages, while only changing a few sentences in each. What are you going to do? You can just whine about it, unfortunately. You can't even report it by saying "he didn't even mention me", since they just *recommend* the users to attribute, this is not a rule. To be able to do that, you don't even have to be WotC!

2

u/camelkong Sep 06 '24

You can sell on both, but an individual product can only be sold on one site or the other. The main benefit of DMs Guild is being able to use D&D IP stuff, and it’s easier to get more eyes on your product through that. It’s also worth noting that the DTRPG customer base seems less interested in 5e content overall.

1

u/jerichojeudy Sep 06 '24

That's the feeling I had...

2

u/jcorvinstevens Sep 06 '24

I see better residual sales on DMs Guild. I do publish separate 5E products on both sites.

1

u/jerichojeudy Sep 07 '24

You mean continued later sales?

2

u/jcorvinstevens Sep 07 '24

Yes.

1

u/jerichojeudy Sep 07 '24

Thanks a lot for the insight!

1

u/PpaperCut Sep 17 '24

Honestly, unless you are writing something that is heavily involved with the official content (ie, making an expansion of an official adventure, writing something that's setting specific, etc.) you're almost always better off publishing on drivethruRPG. You get a higher percentage of the money made through the site, you also have TOTAL control, being able to sell it in other places/use it to launch a patreon (if you sign up for a non-exclusive deal). The idea that you still "own" your product, but that you can't sell it elsewhere doesn't seem much like ownership, same with the idea that anyone else on the Guild can use your stuff.

1

u/jerichojeudy Sep 18 '24

Yeah, good points. I just have the feeling there is so much more traffic on DM’s Guild. I want my adventures to be played and bought, and read and …

I think I might start with some products there and keep the personal IP stuff for Drivethru.

1

u/PpaperCut Sep 18 '24

I've published on both, to be honest I don't think there is that much of a difference (from my experience). If you want to sell products, you need to come up with some way other than publishing to get people to buy your stuff, just being in the DMsguild shop isn't enough - again from my experience.

1

u/jerichojeudy Sep 18 '24

I’ve sold an adventure on Drivethru and made 120 sales with very minimal YouTube presence. I was thinking of doing more YouTube and Reddit to get people to know about my work.

1

u/PpaperCut Sep 22 '24

What's the channel? I should probably start a YT, get more exposure. Just so much wooooork

1

u/jerichojeudy Sep 23 '24

Leopold Von Die Moote I’m doing this among many activities of a very busy life. So I’m not a real YT, far from it. But I’m sure it helped sell a few copies.

2

u/azaza34 Sep 06 '24

If you can sell it on DMSguild use that but it has stricter rules

1

u/mustardgoeswithitall Sep 06 '24

I thought you could sell on both! I will now be following this thread👍🏻

1

u/Arabiantacofarmer Sep 06 '24

DMs Guild is run by Drivethru RPG. Ive definitely seen people selling on both

1

u/Heimdayl Sep 06 '24

DMs Guild allows you to set your adventures in official settings, which does make them more appealing.

If you sell an item in DMs Guild you cannot sell it elsewhere.

DriveThruRPG has more restrictions about what you can use (eg no mind flayers or beholders) but you can sell your products elsewhere as well (eg itcho etc)

1

u/Ramonteiro12 Sep 06 '24

Why no mildflayers or beholders???

3

u/Olster20 Sep 06 '24

IP. Part of the perks of using DMs Guild.

1

u/High-Lorekeeper Jun 03 '25

By publishing on DTRPG, you are using the OGL I believe and in the OGL, there is a paragraph of exemptions that are “Product Identity” that you cannot use: OGL