I assume the system developers have heard the news about WotC acquiring DnD Beyond. They will almost certainly make their own VTT at some point. This will be interesting, and quite possibly have an impact on the Level Up system on Foundry.
There are probably about three main ways DnD Beyond access could be affected. I'll list them in order of what I consider best to worst case, rather than likelihood.
1) WotC provides authorized ways of accessing your DnD Beyond content in all supported VTTs (and starts supporting Foundry), with no additional cost for those who have already purchased the content (or a subscription lets you import all of your currently owned content into another VTT, and it remains if you unsubscribe). They would insist unofficial modules cease of course, but at that point it wouldn't be a problem for those who just want their material transferred into another VTT, and don't care about integrating with Beyond while playing.
2) WotC changes nothing, so importer modules can still be created, and need to be in order to access that functionality.
3) WotC stops allowing 5e content outside of their own VTT entirely, so all the other VTTs will be catering solely to other RPGs or people who are willing and able to manually enter all the 5e material in.
I expect something like #1, but I'm concerned that they might set it up so that you need an ongoing DnD Beyond subscription to use your material in other VTTs (and if they end up requiring that for their own VTT, they will certainly do so for access outside of it). That would really be frustrating for me. I just want to get my $800ish of content into my VTT of choice so I can drag and drop monsters, items, spells, class features, etc. without spending like literally a year trying to recreate it by hand.
#3 is probably the second most likely, but it would hit other VTTs hard, so the likelihood of it happening is based on how much of a jerk whoever is making the decisions decides they want to be.
What we were previously hoping would keep going (#2) is the least likely outcome in my estimation. That being said, they might not do much until they come out with the new core books in 2024, so there is likely at least a few months (and possibly over a year) of breathing room until we know what's going to happen.
As new as the announcement is, I'm sure you guys haven't had a lot of time to decide what you plan to do moving forward, but I'll be interested to hear what you come up with. For my own self-interest, I'd very much like it if, as soon as the Foundy system is developed far enough for it to work well, you were to create a content importer to grab all my stuff from DnD Beyond so I will be able to have access to it in Foundry going forward regardless of what WotC decides to do. You could probably get MrPrimate to share code with you so you can adapt what he did rather than starting from scratch if it shaves months off the development time.
First of all, you should absolutely expect to be able to play using a hybrid ruleset in the system. My goal is to provide sheet-level settings to change parts of the interface to better accommodate different rulesets as well as world-level settings for various mechanics. The ultimate aim would be to support 5e better than the 5e system does, and I think it's an achievable goal.
This will be great. Making a better 5e system is absolutely doable, and I'm a little surprised no one has done it yet. It's a great opportunity, and if successful, it will also be marketing for Level Up, since people that don't know about or aren't even planning on playing Level Up could adopt it because they want a better 5e system, and then be exposed to the options for all of this Level Up stuff, prompting some of them to get interested in Level Up. And for those of us using a customized hybrid, it will be exactly what we need.
Regarding module compatibility more generally, I think a safe assumption would be that no 5e specific modules are going to work in Level Up. Again, in my reply to Ondath above, I mentioned that many of these modules simply won't be necessary.
To give a specific example, there are three or four competing roll modules for the 5e system right now, and almost nobody is using the default 5e roller. These are not the only modules for this purpose that have ever existed either, as several more have been abandoned. Very recently, the Better Rolls module was left without a maintainer, and this would have been a major blow for my existing 5e setup had somebody else not stepped in to take over the project. I don't think this is a desirable situation, which is why the Level Up roadmap includes some quite detailed roll configuration options to allow people to tailor the roll experience to be whatever they want. It'll never stop being supported, and it should provide enough flexibility to meet most use cases.
This also will be a boon to 5e in general (whether O5e or A5e). Having an alternative 5e system that is more like the other leading systems, rather than the idiosyncratically bare bones one that is currently the only option, will be great for everyone. Module developers that spend a lot of time trying to get the stock 5e system working in Foundry how most people would like it to work can put their effort to other things, and everyone gets a smoother experience free from the bugs that get introduced when you have dozens of modules running.
