{ *We perhaps should start referring to Hasbro in our protest posts, tweets etc, rather than Wizards. I am pretty sure there are a lot of decent folk at the Wizards division itself who are as ashamed and disappointed by Hasbro's behaviour as we are. Having sold a (non-related) business I started from the ground up, growing it with toil and love and collaboration from a wonderful team, I understand how it is when a smaller firm is taken over by a large mega-corporate. Eventually it becomes impossible to preserve the mission and ethos that led the smaller firm to become an attractive acquisition target in the first place. Let's spare a thought for some of the creative and decent individuals who are 'captive' at WotC that probably feel this heartache as badly if not worse than most of us. }
So I have been staying logged out this week as a mini-protest.... Logging in here only to make this post and then action it.
I had been holding off cancelling my subscription to give Hasbro* a chance to act, addressing (if the leak is legit and it clearly appears to be so now) the fact that their new 1.1 has gone over with their customers like a flaming bag of dog faeces... I thought that was only fair. They have now had some reasonable time in which to do so. Those in the Hasbro C-Suite have however failed to even stick their well-groomed heads over the proverbial parapet and as far as I've heard have made no comments. Just silence. I therefore deduce that the leak is in fact legit and maybe even done by them purposefully to sound out the views....
Well Hasbro you've got your answer. I'm cancelling the Tier 1 sub now that I've had since DDB was launched on Day 1. Sadly I've got several hundred quids worth of books in my DDB library that I'll leave stranded. But I'm finished sending money and monetisable data to Hasbro* as long as their business model is predicated first and foremost on seeking economic rent from the community that has loyally supported their product over the years. For now, for me, I'm afraid it's over and out.
{ *We perhaps should start referring to Hasbro in our protest posts, tweets etc, rather than Wizards. I am pretty sure there are a lot of decent folk at the Wizards division itself who are as ashamed and disappointed by Hasbro's behaviour as we are. Having sold a (non-related) business I started from the ground up, growing it with toil and love and collaboration from a wonderful team, I understand how it is when a smaller firm is taken over by a large mega-corporate. Eventually it becomes impossible to preserve the mission and ethos that led the smaller firm to become an attractive acquisition target in the first place. Let's spare a thought for some of the creative and decent individuals who are 'captive' at WotC that probably feel this heartache as badly if not worse than most of us. }
I think you are generous in your assessment of WoTC and its employees. That is a nice sentiment, and there are many good, decent people at WoTC, but I am not so sure about all of that. I think there might be a few within WotC that are sympathetic to the cause, but probably a just a handful of creative types and not even all of them. This is a business, it always was and always will be, employees of any business are always interested foremost in the success of their enterprise over any other consideration.
I have had my finger hovering over the unsub button more than once. I have been a professional game master on a popular VTT for 3 years and I only recently decided to subscribe for the convenience of a few of my players, but I really don't need this site to continue to do what I do. So, they better listen up to this user base quick, or I am outta here too.
EDITED TO ADD: I did it. Top Tier Subscription, Now Cancelled
As a dungeon master of 44 years' experience (yes I'm old), I've always been loyal to D&D from the Blue Box all the way through 5e (except 4e, it was unplayable garbage). But I'm no fanboy, and hold fanboys in equal contempt as click-baiting alarmists.
I will reserve final judgement until I see the actual OGL 1.1.
That said, IF the new OGL attempts to assert ownership of content that I make for myself, or release under 1.0a, THEN I will take steps forcing WotC/Hasbro to attempt to cease-and-desist me or assert ownership of my work... which I will refuse and ignore... THEN IF they attempt any legal action against me THEN I will seek relief under anti-SLAPP law and attempt to establish precedent on that basis and under anti-competitive trade practice basis. Regardless, I will take steps to ensure they have to spend a lot of money in court, and do so in a manner that will prevent them from recovering legal fees.
And yes, I can afford legal representation if need be, and know how to build the "corporate veil" for about 150 bucks... far, far less than I've spent on WotC materials. It will cost me less to make an LLC than I would have spent on 5.5e books. It is cheaper for me to play the corporate-shell game than to support factually anti-competitive behavior. Bring it on, WotC, no matter what you attempt in court, no matter the outcome, you lose money and further drag your own name through a septic tank and I therefore win.
You control corporate B/S by harming their reputation with their own behavior, eviscerating their wallets and getting their own legal staff to bleed them dry (especially a publicly-traded company that has a Board of Directors that will fire executives and fire legal firms whose shortsighted behavior interrupts the flow of precious, precioussss monnnneeyyyy drool). Every time a company sues or takes other legal action, they're paying their own lawyers a LOT and hurting their own bottom line. I guarantee you, whatever "genius" thought of this is a lawyer seeking to line their own pockets at Hasbro's stockholders' expense.
No bottom-feeding otyugh of a tort lawyer can force me to not abandon D&D and all of its products, or force me to be silent about why.
First thing let's do, acknowledge that Shakespeare had it right.
SLAPP suits fall under those suits that offer 1A protection and a fight against IP is not a 1A issue. The US Constitution specifically empowers the US Congress to act to protect intellectual property (Art I, Section 8, IP clause)
Don’t worry, they are not going after anything previously created under the previous OGL. They would lose under the good faith and fair dealing legal doctrine. They know this. This is for future content. If you want to write for profit for anything in the future, well its their IP and good luck taking them on in courts saying you demand use of someone else’s IP.
As a dungeon master of 44 years' experience (yes I'm old), I've always been loyal to D&D from the Blue Box all the way through 5e (except 4e, it was unplayable garbage). But I'm no fanboy, and hold fanboys in equal contempt as click-baiting alarmists.
I will reserve final judgement until I see the actual OGL 1.1.
That said, IF the new OGL attempts to assert ownership of content that I make for myself, or release under 1.0a, THEN I will take steps forcing WotC/Hasbro to attempt to cease-and-desist me or assert ownership of my work... which I will refuse and ignore... THEN IF they attempt any legal action against me THEN I will seek relief under anti-SLAPP law and attempt to establish precedent on that basis and under anti-competitive trade practice basis. Regardless, I will take steps to ensure they have to spend a lot of money in court, and do so in a manner that will prevent them from recovering legal fees.
And yes, I can afford legal representation if need be, and know how to build the "corporate veil" for about 150 bucks... far, far less than I've spent on WotC materials. It will cost me less to make an LLC than I would have spent on 5.5e books. It is cheaper for me to play the corporate-shell game than to support factually anti-competitive behavior. Bring it on, WotC, no matter what you attempt in court, no matter the outcome, you lose money and further drag your own name through a septic tank and I therefore win.
You control corporate B/S by harming their reputation with their own behavior, eviscerating their wallets and getting their own legal staff to bleed them dry (especially a publicly-traded company that has a Board of Directors that will fire executives and fire legal firms whose shortsighted behavior interrupts the flow of precious, precioussss monnnneeyyyy drool). Every time a company sues or takes other legal action, they're paying their own lawyers a LOT and hurting their own bottom line. I guarantee you, whatever "genius" thought of this is a lawyer seeking to line their own pockets at Hasbro's stockholders' expense.
No bottom-feeding otyugh of a tort lawyer can force me to not abandon D&D and all of its products, or force me to be silent about why.
First thing let's do, acknowledge that Shakespeare had it right.
SLAPP suits fall under those suits that offer 1A protection and a fight against IP is not a 1A issue. The US Constitution specifically empowers the US Congress to act to protect intellectual property (Art I, Section 8, IP clause)
Don’t worry, they are not going after anything previously created under the previous OGL. They would lose under the good faith and fair dealing legal doctrine. They know this. This is for future content. If you want to write for profit for anything in the future, well its their IP and good luck taking them on in courts saying you demand use of someone else’s IP.
You can't copyright game mechanics. That's the funny part of all this. The bulk of what people use the SRD for isn't even copywritable. The OGL was always a bad deal for 3rd party creators. It gave them nothing of value, intrinsically, that they didn't already have.
People accepted the terms of the OGL because it was a declaration of peace. You accept it so you're certain there won't be legal battles. Even if you're guaranteed to win them. People do not want constant legal battles. So they took the OGL for what it was, a bad deal but a peaceful deal.
You can just publish the same rule mechanics all on your own. Tweak the phrasing slightly. The rules in the SRD are not "their IP" at the end of the day. They're acting like they are, and they'll maliciously threaten you like they are. But they're not. They're non-copywrite game mechanics that anyone, anywhere can freely use in their own products. OGL-free.
The only thing that is lost here is the ceasefire. The hasbro declaration of peace has ended. It's unnecessary chaos and instability, and it threatens the livelihoods of 3rd party creators. And its ultimately pointless. They're doing this at the expense of everyone, maybe even themselves. Wild.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
To whichever ancient red dragon thought that doing this would give them more gold in their hoard, I have a message for you:
I despise this absolutely horrid atrocity of an "open" gaming license. You know page 78 of the DMG? Look at the bottom left of that page and encounter the section about intrigue, here's a quote from that. "Rather than dark events or villainous plots, an intrigue adventure typically revolves around the exchange of favors, the rise and fall of certain individuals in power and influence." Now why would I bring this up? Because the text that's italic perfectly describes what you and Wizards are trying to do. You and WoTC know that the people making homebrew have more power and influence than them. You guys know that their game revolves around content creators because homebrew is made with DMs and players in mind while the content made by them is typically player based content. Fun fact, 25% (or 20% if you use Kickstarter) is a lot of money, never would have guessed that you taking $250,000 off the one million someone can make in a year is going to be a lot of money. And you all didn't care to respond to the situation of your obvious greed. Your company will die if this senseless greed isn't thought through for 30 seconds. Also, if you're doing this as a way to make an OGL that's better than this but still bad, nice try! We're already onto you. You fell to corporate America, and I think, maybe D&D itself isn't devil worship (it isn't) but the people making it, that's a different story. This likely got offensive and I recommend that you don't continue with this OGL. Even lie about that being fake, I just want some way to get it out of my head. Rant over.
To any players of the game, support homebrew content creators while you have the chance. But my best advice is to plop a #OpenD&D wherever you can.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Don't let the oppressive dragon grow its hoard even further.
One of the worst possible outcomes for Hasbro here is that people start realizing they don't actually need the OGL to publish most of the material that was covered by the OGL in the first place.
Instead of having the mild positive PR of the original OGL, plus the protections it gave WOTC, there's a real risk content creators will look at 1.1 (if it looks anything like the draft does) and just say no thanks, then go back to doing what they were doing anyways except now Hasbro has lost even more control of the transaction.
Right now the status quo kind of encourages people to stay in a relatively tight orbit, but with the OGL completely gone that creates a serious opportunity for alternative marketplaces to establish themselves outside the dndbeyond/dmsguild ecosystem (which will surely insist upon 1.1 compliance).
Just canceled. If they somehow manage to salvage all this I'll renew in a few months when my current year is up. I wanted to send a message more directly than via a feedback form. Hard to overstate my disgust with their new stance, and my contempt for those that enacted it.
This whole debacle resulted in me buying some of those lovely pocket editions from kobold press. The books they publish are way better than wotc puts out anyway
It's been my experience that most players make their own purchases anyway, and don't rely that much on shared sources. I purchased the content (not as a DM), and also purchased a stand-alone VTT that I can run on my own server. I don't really know what any change in OGL will do, and I discourage anyone from participating in One D&D just because it seems like a money-grab that is unbecoming to a gaming company with such a long history of providing content to gamers and NOT trying to bankrupt hobbyists who enjoys the products. I feel sorry for anyone who is involved in Mobile games who use that tactic of monetizing the game with no sense of integrity or shame. Intelligent people, like most of the people who play D&D, will not tolerate being taken advantage of. If that is attempted by WotC, true gamers will lose faith with them and will simply continue playing games without them. The purpose of gaming is recreation, not wreaking havoc in people's lives and finances so that the producers can squeeze more profit. WotC and its predecessors produced something worthwhile in gaming. That will outlive WotC if need be. My brother and I have been creating our own content ever since White Dwarf started publishing additional content. We will continue to play with or without the support, on our own, at our own expense, no matter what WotC does. I think that is true of most people who love the game.
I was actually thinking about that and what DnD can actually day they own. I think Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance are. I'm not sure what in their books are. Subclasses for sure, as they are. But what terminology is theirs vs. what is free to use as it's basically public domain/based off stuff that is public domain?
I’ve heard Kobold Press basically said they’re pushing forward their own ttrpg, “black flag” because of the ogl change. They didn’t even wait for wotc or dnd beyond to respond. So I just think the rumors are true. But I believe the new ogl wasn’t going to be public to a vast majority of content creators or partners, just a threat to those over 750k in revenue.
I won’t be canceling and I can only hope they revert their revised ogl.
I’m casual or newer to dnd, everyone I play with is similar and the ogl change is really only affecting the original or more committed fanbases. I’ve never touched anything outside of dnd beyond and so do most of the people I play with. I can only assume wotc will make this change and a good portion of players who only use wotc won’t care about it or even know it’s happening.
So either they ignore the outcries and go forward with it or reverse their decision, but still take a massive L, but a stain nonetheless.
The main talking point of the video, is Ryan Dancey. He's the mastermind behind the OGL 1.0, and was in charge of D&D in 1999-2001. They guy is a legend in the gaming industry.
I would also like to share another point of view, at least as I see it from my side (DM) of the gaming table and as my experience of the game has been so far in quite a many years. As the WOTC has noted in their monetizing statement most of the purchases are done by DMs. This has always been my experience. As editions came and went I always bought what I needed (skipped the 4E). This would include the basic books needed to run the games and the supplements, rarely adventures as I mostly homebrewed, but a lot of 3rd party content. Players never bought anything, except beer and pretzels for the DM. At session zero they would say what kind of PC they would like to play or try, and I would copy that page for them. From then on it was just pencil and paper. That was basically it. Great fun.
Fast forward to digital toolsets - one group I play with now had no prior experience with TTRPGs but wanted to try. I explained the rules, we would look things over and they would choose what kind of PC, they wanted to play and from then on DnD Beyond helped immensely in creating their character, but do they use it every time we play? No, they don't it really doesn't matter that much to them, they forget passwords or iPads and I print sheets for them, and somehow, they just stayed on sheets, as they say its easier for them and also have no intention of spending money for DnDBeyond, OneDnD or printed books. Great fun.
The other group is a mixed bag of a DM, experienced players and newcomers. And its a bit different, they mostly use DnDBeyond. IN the second group, the player DM has a books (like me), one of the players has also bought a few digital books, but the rest of them... don't care, because they can access the books from my subscription if they need, which is great. Great Fun.
But here is my point, from my experience as a DM and what kind of "power" does that position hold. The first group, the newcomers to the game, as we started I could bring any TTRPG to the table and they would play it just the same, as the game is more important to them than the rules, but granted, they don't have any reference for other playing systems. Rules for them (and me) are just a skin that dresses the gaming experience. All the "endless" options for subclasses are also far below the necessary requirement for enjoyment. And this has always been my experience.
So I could say that the DMs are the ones that buy and in a sense decide the gaming ruleset, but together with players we decide the GAME, the experience that in my opinion has less to do with the ruleset. Granted some TTRPGs are more geared toward dungeons delving and others are more geared toward great overarching heroic stories. But that is beside the point. The point is that alienating the DMs is the worst kind of business decision. Tying us down to a specific way of running the games over a digital toolset that is behind a paywall or most assuredly microtransaction incoming with the never edition is an error IMHO. Or as it seems, trying to disable 3rd party publishers that a lot of DMs relay on, me included.
Now, due to recent developments I immediately said I am going to cancel my subscription, but the decided I need to talk to my players first. So I talked to both groups about the current issue and told them I will be cancelling my subscription as I can not in good faith support this. The first group didn't bat an eye and just wanted the game to start. However they were less enthusiastic, when I told them we might in the future switch the gaming system, as they just got comfortable using 5e. Since they play analog... it doesn't matter much. This way I can run 5E indefinitely. Great fun!
I did the same with the second group and we had quite a lengthy discussion, where the experienced players were thinking along the same lines as I did. Furthermore they were willing to try other TTRPGs, if for nothing else just to try, as they were already following or reading about some of them for some time. On the other hand some of them were not overly eager to lose DnDBeyond via my subscription, but ultimately it was not a requirement for them to play. To make the final decision, to test it out, we decided to print the PC sheets for the session and there was - of course - no difference in the gaming session. Great fun.
In the end, with the second group, we also decided to make a special weekly session, to try some other systems and see how we liked them, first in line is OSE and then everyone wanted to try Skate Wizards (Bob the worldbuilder just posted a video on YouTube about) and then Starfinder. Ultimately I find this new OGL conundrum, good for us, as it has incentivized me as a DM and players to try new things and expand our gaming experience. With the recent announcement from different publishers about TTRPGS they are gonna be making, due to proposed changes in the OGL, I actually look forward to this year of gaming experiences! Great fun!
Edit: sorry for TLTR... sheesh I didn't know I talked so much ;)
I was actually thinking about that and what DnD can actually day they own. I think Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance are. I'm not sure what in their books are. Subclasses for sure, as they are. But what terminology is theirs vs. what is free to use as it's basically public domain/based off stuff that is public domain?
EFF has a great article on this. The answer is probably "less than a lot of people think they do, but more than just the branded setting / product identity stuff." Ultimately, how much they truly own will need to be tested in court.
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing) You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
Over and Out, Hasbro*
{ *We perhaps should start referring to Hasbro in our protest posts, tweets etc, rather than Wizards. I am pretty sure there are a lot of decent folk at the Wizards division itself who are as ashamed and disappointed by Hasbro's behaviour as we are. Having sold a (non-related) business I started from the ground up, growing it with toil and love and collaboration from a wonderful team, I understand how it is when a smaller firm is taken over by a large mega-corporate. Eventually it becomes impossible to preserve the mission and ethos that led the smaller firm to become an attractive acquisition target in the first place. Let's spare a thought for some of the creative and decent individuals who are 'captive' at WotC that probably feel this heartache as badly if not worse than most of us. }
So I have been staying logged out this week as a mini-protest.... Logging in here only to make this post and then action it.
I had been holding off cancelling my subscription to give Hasbro* a chance to act, addressing (if the leak is legit and it clearly appears to be so now) the fact that their new 1.1 has gone over with their customers like a flaming bag of dog faeces... I thought that was only fair. They have now had some reasonable time in which to do so. Those in the Hasbro C-Suite have however failed to even stick their well-groomed heads over the proverbial parapet and as far as I've heard have made no comments. Just silence. I therefore deduce that the leak is in fact legit and maybe even done by them purposefully to sound out the views....
Well Hasbro you've got your answer. I'm cancelling the Tier 1 sub now that I've had since DDB was launched on Day 1. Sadly I've got several hundred quids worth of books in my DDB library that I'll leave stranded. But I'm finished sending money and monetisable data to Hasbro* as long as their business model is predicated first and foremost on seeking economic rent from the community that has loyally supported their product over the years. For now, for me, I'm afraid it's over and out.
---
Don't be Lawful Evil
I think you are generous in your assessment of WoTC and its employees. That is a nice sentiment, and there are many good, decent people at WoTC, but I am not so sure about all of that. I think there might be a few within WotC that are sympathetic to the cause, but probably a just a handful of creative types and not even all of them. This is a business, it always was and always will be, employees of any business are always interested foremost in the success of their enterprise over any other consideration.
I have had my finger hovering over the unsub button more than once. I have been a professional game master on a popular VTT for 3 years and I only recently decided to subscribe for the convenience of a few of my players, but I really don't need this site to continue to do what I do.
So, they better listen up to this user base quick, or I am outta here too.
EDITED TO ADD: I did it. Top Tier Subscription, Now Cancelled
I'm finishing my campaign than we are switching system. I do not feel like spending on hasbro.
Don't know what yet, we have so many systems!
SLAPP suits fall under those suits that offer 1A protection and a fight against IP is not a 1A issue. The US Constitution specifically empowers the US Congress to act to protect intellectual property (Art I, Section 8, IP clause)
Don’t worry, they are not going after anything previously created under the previous OGL. They would lose under the good faith and fair dealing legal doctrine. They know this. This is for future content. If you want to write for profit for anything in the future, well its their IP and good luck taking them on in courts saying you demand use of someone else’s IP.
I think our group is just going to stick to our own Homebrew campaigns instead of purchasing new materials and just continue to use 5e.
You can't copyright game mechanics. That's the funny part of all this. The bulk of what people use the SRD for isn't even copywritable. The OGL was always a bad deal for 3rd party creators. It gave them nothing of value, intrinsically, that they didn't already have.
People accepted the terms of the OGL because it was a declaration of peace. You accept it so you're certain there won't be legal battles. Even if you're guaranteed to win them. People do not want constant legal battles. So they took the OGL for what it was, a bad deal but a peaceful deal.
You can just publish the same rule mechanics all on your own. Tweak the phrasing slightly. The rules in the SRD are not "their IP" at the end of the day. They're acting like they are, and they'll maliciously threaten you like they are. But they're not. They're non-copywrite game mechanics that anyone, anywhere can freely use in their own products. OGL-free.
The only thing that is lost here is the ceasefire. The hasbro declaration of peace has ended. It's unnecessary chaos and instability, and it threatens the livelihoods of 3rd party creators. And its ultimately pointless. They're doing this at the expense of everyone, maybe even themselves. Wild.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
To whichever ancient red dragon thought that doing this would give them more gold in their hoard, I have a message for you:
I despise this absolutely horrid atrocity of an "open" gaming license. You know page 78 of the DMG? Look at the bottom left of that page and encounter the section about intrigue, here's a quote from that. "Rather than dark events or villainous plots, an intrigue adventure typically revolves around the exchange of favors, the rise and fall of certain individuals in power and influence." Now why would I bring this up? Because the text that's italic perfectly describes what you and Wizards are trying to do. You and WoTC know that the people making homebrew have more power and influence than them. You guys know that their game revolves around content creators because homebrew is made with DMs and players in mind while the content made by them is typically player based content. Fun fact, 25% (or 20% if you use Kickstarter) is a lot of money, never would have guessed that you taking $250,000 off the one million someone can make in a year is going to be a lot of money. And you all didn't care to respond to the situation of your obvious greed. Your company will die if this senseless greed isn't thought through for 30 seconds. Also, if you're doing this as a way to make an OGL that's better than this but still bad, nice try! We're already onto you. You fell to corporate America, and I think, maybe D&D itself isn't devil worship (it isn't) but the people making it, that's a different story. This likely got offensive and I recommend that you don't continue with this OGL. Even lie about that being fake, I just want some way to get it out of my head. Rant over.
To any players of the game, support homebrew content creators while you have the chance. But my best advice is to plop a #OpenD&D wherever you can.
Don't let the oppressive dragon grow its hoard even further.
#OpenD&D
Ravnodaus has a great point.
One of the worst possible outcomes for Hasbro here is that people start realizing they don't actually need the OGL to publish most of the material that was covered by the OGL in the first place.
Instead of having the mild positive PR of the original OGL, plus the protections it gave WOTC, there's a real risk content creators will look at 1.1 (if it looks anything like the draft does) and just say no thanks, then go back to doing what they were doing anyways except now Hasbro has lost even more control of the transaction.
Right now the status quo kind of encourages people to stay in a relatively tight orbit, but with the OGL completely gone that creates a serious opportunity for alternative marketplaces to establish themselves outside the dndbeyond/dmsguild ecosystem (which will surely insist upon 1.1 compliance).
Just canceled. If they somehow manage to salvage all this I'll renew in a few months when my current year is up. I wanted to send a message more directly than via a feedback form. Hard to overstate my disgust with their new stance, and my contempt for those that enacted it.
This whole debacle resulted in me buying some of those lovely pocket editions from kobold press. The books they publish are way better than wotc puts out anyway
we don't need the ogl: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RTCpgeIKxSo
the biggest screwup since the screw was invented
It's been my experience that most players make their own purchases anyway, and don't rely that much on shared sources. I purchased the content (not as a DM), and also purchased a stand-alone VTT that I can run on my own server. I don't really know what any change in OGL will do, and I discourage anyone from participating in One D&D just because it seems like a money-grab that is unbecoming to a gaming company with such a long history of providing content to gamers and NOT trying to bankrupt hobbyists who enjoys the products. I feel sorry for anyone who is involved in Mobile games who use that tactic of monetizing the game with no sense of integrity or shame. Intelligent people, like most of the people who play D&D, will not tolerate being taken advantage of. If that is attempted by WotC, true gamers will lose faith with them and will simply continue playing games without them. The purpose of gaming is recreation, not wreaking havoc in people's lives and finances so that the producers can squeeze more profit. WotC and its predecessors produced something worthwhile in gaming. That will outlive WotC if need be. My brother and I have been creating our own content ever since White Dwarf started publishing additional content. We will continue to play with or without the support, on our own, at our own expense, no matter what WotC does. I think that is true of most people who love the game.
I was actually thinking about that and what DnD can actually day they own. I think Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance are. I'm not sure what in their books are. Subclasses for sure, as they are. But what terminology is theirs vs. what is free to use as it's basically public domain/based off stuff that is public domain?
I’ve heard Kobold Press basically said they’re pushing forward their own ttrpg, “black flag” because of the ogl change. They didn’t even wait for wotc or dnd beyond to respond. So I just think the rumors are true. But I believe the new ogl wasn’t going to be public to a vast majority of content creators or partners, just a threat to those over 750k in revenue.
I won’t be canceling and I can only hope they revert their revised ogl.
I’m casual or newer to dnd, everyone I play with is similar and the ogl change is really only affecting the original or more committed fanbases. I’ve never touched anything outside of dnd beyond and so do most of the people I play with. I can only assume wotc will make this change and a good portion of players who only use wotc won’t care about it or even know it’s happening.
So either they ignore the outcries and go forward with it or reverse their decision, but still take a massive L, but a stain nonetheless.
Interesting Video on this subject;
https://youtu.be/2Vz9ogq7JTg
The main talking point of the video, is Ryan Dancey. He's the mastermind behind the OGL 1.0, and was in charge of D&D in 1999-2001. They guy is a legend in the gaming industry.
I would also like to share another point of view, at least as I see it from my side (DM) of the gaming table and as my experience of the game has been so far in quite a many years. As the WOTC has noted in their monetizing statement most of the purchases are done by DMs. This has always been my experience. As editions came and went I always bought what I needed (skipped the 4E). This would include the basic books needed to run the games and the supplements, rarely adventures as I mostly homebrewed, but a lot of 3rd party content. Players never bought anything, except beer and pretzels for the DM. At session zero they would say what kind of PC they would like to play or try, and I would copy that page for them. From then on it was just pencil and paper. That was basically it. Great fun.
Fast forward to digital toolsets - one group I play with now had no prior experience with TTRPGs but wanted to try. I explained the rules, we would look things over and they would choose what kind of PC, they wanted to play and from then on DnD Beyond helped immensely in creating their character, but do they use it every time we play? No, they don't it really doesn't matter that much to them, they forget passwords or iPads and I print sheets for them, and somehow, they just stayed on sheets, as they say its easier for them and also have no intention of spending money for DnDBeyond, OneDnD or printed books. Great fun.
The other group is a mixed bag of a DM, experienced players and newcomers. And its a bit different, they mostly use DnDBeyond. IN the second group, the player DM has a books (like me), one of the players has also bought a few digital books, but the rest of them... don't care, because they can access the books from my subscription if they need, which is great. Great Fun.
But here is my point, from my experience as a DM and what kind of "power" does that position hold. The first group, the newcomers to the game, as we started I could bring any TTRPG to the table and they would play it just the same, as the game is more important to them than the rules, but granted, they don't have any reference for other playing systems. Rules for them (and me) are just a skin that dresses the gaming experience. All the "endless" options for subclasses are also far below the necessary requirement for enjoyment. And this has always been my experience.
So I could say that the DMs are the ones that buy and in a sense decide the gaming ruleset, but together with players we decide the GAME, the experience that in my opinion has less to do with the ruleset. Granted some TTRPGs are more geared toward dungeons delving and others are more geared toward great overarching heroic stories. But that is beside the point. The point is that alienating the DMs is the worst kind of business decision. Tying us down to a specific way of running the games over a digital toolset that is behind a paywall or most assuredly microtransaction incoming with the never edition is an error IMHO. Or as it seems, trying to disable 3rd party publishers that a lot of DMs relay on, me included.
Now, due to recent developments I immediately said I am going to cancel my subscription, but the decided I need to talk to my players first. So I talked to both groups about the current issue and told them I will be cancelling my subscription as I can not in good faith support this. The first group didn't bat an eye and just wanted the game to start. However they were less enthusiastic, when I told them we might in the future switch the gaming system, as they just got comfortable using 5e. Since they play analog... it doesn't matter much. This way I can run 5E indefinitely. Great fun!
I did the same with the second group and we had quite a lengthy discussion, where the experienced players were thinking along the same lines as I did. Furthermore they were willing to try other TTRPGs, if for nothing else just to try, as they were already following or reading about some of them for some time. On the other hand some of them were not overly eager to lose DnDBeyond via my subscription, but ultimately it was not a requirement for them to play. To make the final decision, to test it out, we decided to print the PC sheets for the session and there was - of course - no difference in the gaming session. Great fun.
In the end, with the second group, we also decided to make a special weekly session, to try some other systems and see how we liked them, first in line is OSE and then everyone wanted to try Skate Wizards (Bob the worldbuilder just posted a video on YouTube about) and then Starfinder. Ultimately I find this new OGL conundrum, good for us, as it has incentivized me as a DM and players to try new things and expand our gaming experience. With the recent announcement from different publishers about TTRPGS they are gonna be making, due to proposed changes in the OGL, I actually look forward to this year of gaming experiences! Great fun!
Edit: sorry for TLTR... sheesh I didn't know I talked so much ;)
That slippery slope they just cast Grease on? Turns out it is flammable after all!
EFF has a great article on this. The answer is probably "less than a lot of people think they do, but more than just the branded setting / product identity stuff." Ultimately, how much they truly own will need to be tested in court.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/01/beware-gifts-dragons-how-dds-open-gaming-license-may-have-become-trap-creators
EDIT: Typo
Looks like WotC is releasing a video at 3pm EST today to address CGL 1.1. Roll for Combat YouTube channel is going to cover it.
https://twitter.com/RollForCombat/status/1613566977490001928
"Orcs are savage raiders and pillagers with stooped postures, low foreheads, and piggish faces with prominent lower canines that resemble tusks." MM p245 (original printing)
You don't OWN your books on DDB: WotC can change them any time. What do you think will happen when OneD&D comes out?
Watch this together? Yes, let's do!