FAQ about Orcpub & DMV

 

Here is a FAQ for those of you that are still trying to figure out what is going on with Orcpub, and Dungeon Master’s Vault.

In a nutshell we don’t know much of what, why, or how come Larry just shut down Orcpub so abruptly.  So is this a FAQ?  Sooorta?

There have been lots of rumors about cost, WoTC, people being sued, and other things, but we wanted to set the record straight.

What, why?

What we do know is that he announced it back in May of 2019 he was going to shut it down, then the site continued to run. Which was weird.

Saturday February 22, 2020 Orcpub2.com was taken offline.

Then suddenly, Saturday February 22, 2020 Orcpub2.com was taken offline.

No warnings, (other than that May post), No banners on the website, no nothing. Just gone.

Then a mysterious posting from the @orcpub Twitter account right before the @orcpub Twitter account was deleted.

So you know what I know. We were taken off guard just as you were. The rest is just that. Rumor.

We at Dungeon Master’s Vault had no control over that. We have asked a couple times to get the database, but that never happened.

We never had access to the Orcpub.com or Orcpub2.com websites.

That was all owned, operated and maintained by Larry. Unfortunately that means no porting of characters.

That is all gone with the shutdown.

Here is what we do know:

  • Orcpub2 was run by the creator Larry.
  • Orcpub2.com has been taken offline.
  • We do not have access or control over Orcpub2.com or any of its private assets.
  • We CANNOT port over any accounts from Orcpub2.com to DMV.

We know this is frustrating, we wish there is something we could do to help, but unfortunately we simply don’t have access.

We recommend recreating what characters you can on DMV and spread the word that anyone who used Orcpub2.com can come here.

So what are we doing…

This is for the community. We love the code, we love the site, we love D&D. There is a place for everyone here.

This is code that Larry wrote that ran Orcpub2.com – he open sourced it.

We created a fork of it, and started this community – Dungeon Master’s Vault.

We’ve fixed a few things along the way, but still have some big hopes and dreams for it.Like a mobile app! A windows version, etc.

We have branded ‘alllll-of-this’ as Dungeon Master’s Vault.

The DMV team runs the community fork of orcpub on our public website:

https://www.dungeonmastersvault.com/

We build and maintain a Docker image of the Dungeon Master’s Vault.

We build and maintain a Windows Server version of Dungeon Master’s Vault.

The good news!

So, even though Larry shutdown Orcpub – it lives on in us – in Dungeon Master’s Vault.

In this community.

In you.

Without you this wouldn’t be happening. So – again – Thank you soo much.

This is a great community effort – to host the site, enjoy D&D, have some fun, and create tools that you guys can use.

I believe in transparency and keeping you guys in the loop, now you know what I know.

Hope to see you guys out there!

-thDM

History

  • May 2017 – Orcpub2.com launches. The original software written by Larry Christensen
  • Apr 2018 – Larry changes direction and opened sources Orcpub2.com on github.com
  • Jan 2019 – Orcpub2.com goes down for over a week, during that time the community launches www.dungeonmastersvault.com and delivers the Docker version of Orcpub2.
  • March 11 2019 – www.dungeonmastersvault.com official launch for the community edition of Orcpub.
  • February 22 2020 – Orcpub2.com shuts down.
  • February 23 2020 – Orcpub2 removes twitter account.