I don’t want to start any rumors nor do I want to do some wild speculation but I can’t help thinking that something is up.
First, we had the very quiet announcement that Matt Finch was heading out on his own with Swords & Wizardry. There were only small announcements. Nothing at from Frog God games. And nothing in what I would consider the usual venues. At best, there were responses to questions and nothing more.
Then last week, Dan Proctor announces the shut down of the Goblinoid Games website and social media presence. There’s something in the works but it’s kind of mystery.
These two things are probably not connected in any way. But I can’t help but wonder. Deep down I wonder if the rising tide lifting all ships isn’t quite working out as well as many had hoped. WOTC pretty owns the RPG market. One Bookshelf and Roll20 are forming a joint venture. Getting anything even noticed outside the 5E sphere of influence is going to be an uphill battle.
I don’t know. I just have the feeling deep down in my gut that things are get to interesting in the coming months and probably not in a good way.
They Might Be Gazebos! 
Hurm… Interesting point.
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“One Bookshelf and Roll20 are forming a joint venture. Getting anything even noticed outside the 5E sphere of influence is going to be an uphill battle.”
I’m not sure that X necessarily leads to Y in this case. I viewed the merger as giving a GM the option of using any system on Bookshelf. Maybe I don’t understand the subtle nuances of the merger that would favor 5e over indie OSR systems?
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Small creators are less likely to have the technical capability to import their rules sets into Roll20. I’m betting also there will be special bundles and promotion as well.
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It might just be coincidence. Dan Proctor’s been quiet for a while. I’ve been wondering about that. OSE seems to be taking over the B/X space.
The Swords & Wizardry thing is curious. The box set KS went well as far as I am able to discern. Matt did a Tome of Adventure creation KS as Mythmere games and I listened to a podcast interview he did for that. It sounds like he intends to do a new printing but not there yet.
5E is going to be the powerhouse even without Roll20 and OneBookshelf. I think that benefits OBS and Roll20 more than it does WotC. WotC is likely to create their own VTT. They have the money to develop it.
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I guess we’ll know better when Goblinoid Games puts out some more info on what’s going on. Still quite a puzzler, that one. What they have said sounded pretty ominous but maybe they’re just restructuring their lines or something rather than shutting down.
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