The first time Patrick Comer talked about games was in October of 2021. He asked who the best DND character illustrators were and got one reply.
In the same month, a new account was created. The bio says that it is a Web3 company building 5e TTRPG on-chain.
You're not alone if you're confused by this.
A New Orleans-based startup studio is building a company called Gripnr. Patrick Comer is the president and head of product at Gripnr, while a managing director at Revelry is the CEO. The product that nobody outside of the company has seen yet is a digital platform that allows fans of the role-playing game D&D to roleplay using NFTs indicative of Player Characters (NFT-PCs), and then save the details of their game. They call it a play-to-progress system.
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James Introcaso, an award-winning game designer who has worked on official D&D products, says that this isn't adding anything to the experience.
Teos Abadia is a D&D writer and is more critical of the idea.
The project is currently in development, led by Comer, four tech supporters, and one writer.
The company is in the process of preparing its game content, which is mostly written by Stephen Radney-McFarland, who has written for D&D and Paizo. His work will include lore and maps of a fantasy world.
After this is done, Gripnr will create 10,000 random D&D player characters, assign aarity to certain aspects of each, and mint them as non-fungible. The character statistics and randomly-generated portrait of the PC will be included in the NFT. Weapons and equipment will be represented by additional NFTs.
The system for recording game progress will be built by Gripnr. The players will play an adventure under the supervision of a Game Master. After each game session is over, the outcome will be recorded on-chain and put data back onto each NFT, allowing a single NFT to become a long record of the character's progression. OPAL will be distributed to GMs and players. Any loot, weapons, or items gained in the game will be sold on OpenSea.
The owner and any creatives who contributed to the associated portrait will receive a cut of the sale price when the associated NFTs are re-sold. As many as ten people could potentially receive money from each sale, but could not be certain of percentages.
Writing hit points in pencil on a paper character sheet is easier than writing data to a blockchain. Every time a user wants to perform a function on the Polygon blockchain, they have to pay a gas fee, a tiny charge that helps fund the computational resources required to make the change. There will be two gas fees per game that players have to pay. The company says it will keep fees down by operating on the Polygon system.
In order to play on the Gripnr protocol, players will have to purchase a Gripnr NFT-PC and pay for a game session or make purchases of digital goods. The purchases will help the company.
Players will buy a pre-generated D&D character, play with it, level it up, and then sell it. It sounds like a lot of money. You will get paid to play a game.
Unless you live in the real world.
The potential to distribute capital value to everyone at the table and behind the scenes was emphasized in an interview with io9. This is one of its core purposes, according to Comer, but their plan to make Gripnr and its NFT-PCs valuable beyond a limited-edition release is fraught with vulnerabilities.
The biggest problem is that Gripnr is making character sheets and recording the difference between the start and end of a session. The only reason to use the Gripnr protocol is to increase the value of your investment, which means that players won't be playing D&D for fun, they will be playing it to earn real-world money. The system of monetarily-incentivized gameplay that will require both GMs and players to invest both time and coin in NFT-PCs is being created by Gripnr.
Under the Open-Gaming License, Gripnr can build out its scheme. Wizards of the Coast granted the OGL in order to encourage independent game developers to design and sell their own content using the fifth edition rules for D&D. The OGL only allows certain elements and mechanics of the D&D system, not the whole game, and Gripnr has stated that it will provide better options for 5e play. It's not clear what these options are, or what they plan to add to make 5e better.
A Wizards of the Coast spokesman told io9 in an email that they don't allow third parties to misuse their intellectual property.
There isn't much information on what Gripnr is building, but the company does offer a loose, phase-based roadmap on their Discord server, which was also publicly published at the bottom of The Glimmering's information page.
After it mints 10,000 NFTs and releases them this spring in both an exclusive presale and a public reveal, Gripnr will reveal their protocol at the end of 2022. The play platform will not be launched until Phase 6 which means that investors may have to stay for months before they can appreciate the investment.
Individual community investors will be asked to put money into the treasury long before the on-chain game is ready. Without this promised protocol, all you have is a pre-generated D&D character. Or a D&D character's sword. It's not hard to imagine that the community won't see the initial investment.
io9 spoke with a game developer who specializes in analyzing blockchain games and he said that they always want to be user-generated content games. Doucet says that the ability to play D&D on any other platform, including at the kitchen table is what Gripnr is competing against. When there are virtual tabletop services like Roll20 and Astral available for play, players are given a lot of time to get bored with just owning an NFT.
Doucet thinks that many of these games are not worth playing because they are play to earn models instead of earning models. You are playing with the primary goal of getting an item of value, instead of for the pleasure of playing itself, and receiving items as a bonus for your time. He says that they aregging the hole and filling it back in because of the goal of increased payouts. The model is not gaming-first.
How to prevent fraud is one of the major issues that Gripnr is facing. In a scenario where a D&D character's successes increase its real-world monetary value, there is incentive for players and game masters to abuse the game.
Comer apologized for the issue. He doesn't know how to prevent fraud yet, but he has a lot of ideas that are being tested.
Despite using a trustless blockchain to record events and make payouts, this all relies on both inputs and outputs from human, according to an IT systems analyst and an award-winning tabletop game designer.
This is the case for Gripnr, which will rely on character sheet inputs from the GM, without any automation or virtual tabletop software to confirm basic data points like dice rolls. One solution proposed by Gripnr is to establish a system of checks and balances, at the center of which are Gripnr-certified GMs, who will record their games using a third-party system. The system is still being developed.
One way it could be used to prevent fraud is to have every game have GM offer one of their own NFTs as security until a positive review of the game occurs. If the GM is found to have cheated, the staked token will be taken out of circulation.
The speculative nature of the NFT marketplace will still have to be dealt with even if all the cheating is over. The company claims that NFTs help artists make real money for their work. Most artists have made money by running their own minting process, not using a third-party company, and certainly not when that company stitched together random pieces of art to create 10,000 pieces of art.
Teos Abadia doesn't see this minting as a solution. The companies that trade NFTs always claim to be for fair payment, but my artist friends are all suffering because their artwork is being stolen. If we want character or magic item art, we can commission an artist and the money will go directly to the artist, without a middleman taking a cut. Artists can be hired to create custom art for gaming groups.
The value of Gripnr's token is completely speculative, like most claims about income within the NFT market. The 10,000 NFTs will be worthless unless they are bought and sold by people who think they are an investment that will appreciate over time.
The people may not exist. As of Wednesday, April 6, the company's social media accounts have less than 500 followers and half that. Who is buying with a massive drop of NFTs planned? Where will new buyers come from?
There are likely to be many people who buy Gripnr NFTs because they are collectors, rather than players, and promises there will be a ratio to balance out these different buyers. If Gripnr is focused on building a community, anonymous rarity snipers are not going to make people feel like they are part of a group. If the core players are not happy, they won't have anyone to play on their protocol, and there will be no way for NFT-PC to earn value.
One user said that the community is capital.
It is meant to decentralize power, but it is also meant to centralize. It needs to have players on its platform in order to create value. The value of the NFT-PCs will only exist because of its technology. The mission of the Web3 technology it seeks to bring to the TTRPG space is undermined by centralization.
D&D is supposed to be about saving the world. Increased carbon dioxide pollution and electronic waste have been linked to increases in energy-intensive blockchain server usage.
Alex de Vries, an economist and writer, did an investigation into the energy usage of Polygon and found that it used 99.5% less energy than others. The average American home emits 48 tons of emissions a year. In de Vries, words, this cannot simply be ignored.
The project is called Gripnr. Data is put back on the chain by all adventure and game outcomes. The company plans to double or triple the number of NFT-PCs over the next few years.
At a time when we should be focused on reducing emissions, NFTs are deeply problematic, says Abadia, who works by day as an environmental health and safety consultant. We don't need to harm the planet.
Patrick Comer is the president and head of product at Gripnr. He was pleasant, generous with his time, and happy to answer questions in a call with io9. He is not a scam artist, he is not looking to make a quick buck, and he loves the game of D&D. He is a puppy with millions in his bank account and no game design experience.
Comer is a defender of Gripnr. Comer isn't very active in any online role-playing game community. He's a lifelong D&D player, but he's only played in private games. He has no game credits, has not appeared as Patrick Comer on any public game plays, and has never commented on any of the games.
Excluding its lead game designer, the other members of Gripnr's corporate leadership have no public ties to the TT. According to Comer, Mortensen and Rosales are not video game players.
All of this does not instill confidence in the community that Gripnr is the right group to design a protocol.
Jay Dragon of Possum Creek Games has spent the last four years developing games and establishing a massive following in the independent gaming scene. Dragon told io9 that Possum Creek was recently identified as one of the ten most innovative companies in gaming.
Dragon said it was so openly the result of someone trying to combine every single nerdy thing they can think of with their new shiny Web3 scam toy in an attempt to find some way to make money.
The team at Gripnr appear to be carpetbaggers, trying to make money by introducing a scheme that will make just a few people money, including themselves. He said that everyone working for the company will get a Gripnr NFT, like Oprah. You get an NFT!
The way their games will work has not been released. All funds will be used to continue to build the company, the protocol and the world, and 100% of mint revenue will be placed in the Gripnr treasury.
One of the goals of the current plan is to provide a way for underserved creators to find success with the technology. The company's current leadership reflects poorly on a desire to commit to diversity. New Orleans is a city with a high percentage of people of color.
Comer's brainchild is called Gripnr. He is taking lead on the project. He may not be able to see the flaws of the project because he is so close. When io9 raised some of the issues that he had discussed with him, he listened but seemed to take the critique less as a list of fundamental problems and more as puzzles to be solved. With enough meetings and fixes, he hopes that everything will work out.
One of the most basic problems with Gripnr is that it is bad game design. The rules of the game are being fundamentally changed by the development of a protocol to prioritize real-world capital gains. It's not just D&D with a blockchain layer.
The construction of new software to emulate character sheets which can be made on paper, in word processing software, or in any number of digital toolboxes is demanded by Gripnr. For many different games, across many different systems, and old-fashioned print-and-play gaming, the product is attempting to create already exists in multiple forms. The problems that Gripnr is trying to solve are fundamental opportunities that can be used by players. These aren't issues that players want to see fixed.
Abadia doesn't agree that these are problems players are looking to solve. These are schemes designed to play with financial valuation for the purposes of Gripnr's self-enrichment, rather than an actual desire to create a sound offering that contributes to the game. It's not worth my time to play with anyone who wouldn't trust me.
There is no actual certification of achievement, either from Wizards of the Coast or any other authority. The fact that they are relying on trust-based human inputs, human review, and human understandings of the game makes it fallible.
The second opportunity is problematic because the experience is more important than the things. Players value their favorite character because of the story of how they got the sword, and how they will use it in the future. D&D is supposed to be fun.
The way we form memories, and the stories build upon themselves in our heads, are what makes some of the best game nights. I don't want a record of every turn, I want the memories to be carried by me and my table mates. It doesn't matter if the memories are accurate or detail-filled. It is about the emotions and personal connections in the moment.
The structures meant to protect the community from bad actors or people fixing a game is one of the most troubling parts of the game design. In order to make sure that nobody is playing to the system to make money, Gripnr will have GMs monitor games, despite the fact that gaming the system to earn money is exactly the goal that they have set up within their protocols. D&D games will exist for the sake of making money, and when players are actively working towards creating a product, you remove core D&D gameplay incentives from the table.
What is the capital value of having your character break down in fear and panic instead of attacking a monster? What will happen when a GM gives out an item to a rogue that will be used for fun? They could give it to a paladin, hoping to create narrative tension within a group of chaotic players. Going off the rails? Are you going to the moon? Going to meet a god? When a GM wants to have fun with it, what happens?
One of the fundamental tenets of the game is the ability to throw away the rulebook and just do what you want. By incentivizing railroading, Gripnr is incentivizing outcomes and character gain. Fun is allowed in The Glimmering, but only on the terms of the system.
GM can adapt the story to the characters, but there will be limits to the loot people will get in any game. The GM can't make sure the game serves the players first because of this limitation.
The review process will force GMs to railroad their games for fear of being kicked out of a community they have invested real money in. Video game narrators who invite people to act out their interactions but still force them into outcomes will be better than these GMs.
D&D is built on the idea of collaboration. It was designed to encourage players to work together. Conflict of interest within the game itself can be created by adding capital value to their interactions. If another character makes the killing blow, will that make their character worth more on OpenSea? Will my character be more valuable than my neighbor's if I find something first? The conflict in the game is limited to the characters and not the players. The gold in D&D is not real.
When the most optimal action to increase the character's value is one that impacts other people's experience of the game, but consideration over whether it would be harmful to the other players.
There is an issue of personal investment. If a D&D player feels like they aren't being treated fairly, they don't have to return to the game and lose time. The sunk cost is low. If a Gripnr player feels like they are not being treated fairly, they will lose more. Some might feel like they have no choice but to continue playing D&D even if they aren't having fun because they need to get their money or their character up to a certain amount. The design of the game is undermined by the blurring of the boundary between real-world and fiction harm.
The assumption is that people who play D&D will want to purchase a pre-minted character to play in the game. How many players use pre-made characters in their games after the first few learning sessions? Most D&D games have people making changes to their character for an end point that makes sense within their narrative.
They are hoping to exploit the play culture. The problem is that their larger goal is to provide an entry for on-chain gaming for the TTRPG community, ignoring the backlash that other communities have already issued against the projects.
The project is a pet project that is attempting to exploit a hobby by creating a centralized protocol of diminishing returns on investments that will only appreciate with non-sustainable, continual buy-in from new investors. People play games to have fun and exchange capital. The structure of Gripnr is similar to a pyramid scheme in D&D clothing.
When he spoke about teaching his children to play a board game, he got the most excited and joyful. When his oldest had a milestone birthday, she threw a D&D party and ran an adventure for her friends. How cute is that?
He said that he loved the ability to get creative with D&D. It's possible to put anything out there and play with your friends.
I don't think he sees the irony.
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