I want to believe that WoTC has learned from its mistakes. The last time you listened to Hasbro's nonsense, and let your men in suits get their dirty claws into D&D, it stopped being the most played RPG in the world (well, it remained indirectly because of Pathfinder, but it stopped having control. about the game).
I'm not a Magic: The Gathering player myself, but I understand that many players are deeply upset with the changes made to further monetize the game. This attempt to kill off the OGL sounds to me like Hasbro's attempt to squeeze more profit out of D&D.
But well, beyond that, I think that if there is no OGL with One D&D two things will happen: - As One D&D will be compatible with 5e, the material for the OGL of 5e will be compatible with One D&D. - If they finally do something to efficiently avoid 3rd party stuff in One D&D, a 5e OGL game will come out that will allow all that stuff and and will beat WoTC (which Paizo did back in the day).
Lots of people use third party stuff to play D&D. This has been the case since its inception in the 1970s as an appendage to Chainmail. They will not be able to end that, and it's counterproductive. How much damage does third-party content do to sales? I would say none. And instead, it brings a lot of life to the game.
Look, I don’t know how clear we need to be, but to kill the OGL or alter it in such a way that it becomes new executive leadership’s plan to combat the “undermonetization” of the brand…it isn’t just going to be not adopting the game, I’ll go out of my way to join boycotts of the brand I once loved alongside every thing Hasbro owns or has touched. Financial vindictiveness and joining awareness campaigns about it will be the goal and the only sensible retribution.
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Fundamentally, my response will be based on what WotC supply for their license come release; but they should not do anything to restrict 3rd party content; and from a certain perspective, restricting 3rd party content would be dumb since people still need the WotC source materials to use 3rd party supplements and homebrews.
and from a certain perspective, restricting 3rd party content would be dumb since people still need the WotC source materials to use 3rd party supplements and homebrews.
That's not true. There are hundreds of games that use the 5e SRD, and for which you don't need any WoTC books.
and from a certain perspective, restricting 3rd party content would be dumb since people still need the WotC source materials to use 3rd party supplements and homebrews.
That's not true. There are hundreds of games that use the 5e SRD, and for which you don't need any WoTC books.
I said source material as opposed to books, that still means using the 5e SRD which is source material.
Look, I don’t know how clear we need to be, but to kill the OGL or alter it in such a way that it becomes new executive leadership’s plan to combat the “undermonetization” of the brand…it isn’t just going to be not adopting the game, I’ll go out of my way to join boycotts of the brand I once loved alongside every thing Hasbro owns or has touched. Financial vindictiveness and joining awareness campaigns about it will be the goal and the only sensible retribution.
I don't know how clear the rest of us need to be. There is no evidence that WotC plans to do anything negative with the OGL for 1DnD, or that they even can, or that their plans to further monetize the brand have anything to do with 3rd party creators. If anyone has a single actual shred of evidence they can point to saying this will happen, please share it. One anonymous letter full of wild speculation is not evidence. It's just pointing at straw men and inciting a mob.
Monetizing a brand does not equal screwing creators.
Connecting the two ideas without legitimate cause, and creating panic, is irresponsible at best. At worst, it looks like a deliberate campaign from someone with a vendetta. We don't need fear mongering. We need facts. There a lot of reasonable people in these threads that have laid out facts concerning the OGL and SRD. Then there are also a bunch of people running around with pitchforks ready to hunt an imagined monster.
YouTube has a bunch of 3rd party creators with popular channels. People who know how the OGL and SRD works. People with stake in the game, who make a living this way. People who were probably invited to speak with WotC directly. If any of them come out and say there is real trouble on the horizon, I'd be more inclined to believe them. But they haven't.
If that day comes, and we find out that WotC really has some dastardly plan to screw creators for nothing but their own amusement, then I'll join in on shaming them for it. And to be clear, it would have to only be for some sick amusement. Because the money that 3rd party creators generate is a drop in the bucket for WotC. But until that unlikely day, I'm not going to join in on generating hysteria.
One point to keep this discussion in the area of beneficial discourse rather than angry lines being drawn is to remember
When people say " removing the OGL or SRD" they usually mean stop updating them. Let's try not to nitpick either side but rather get to the core concepts being presented.
It sounds like Generally we all think that not having an update to account for one dnd as part of a new SRD is not a smart and will make it less appealing.
However, there's little evidence either way if wotc will make a one SRD.
One point to keep this discussion in the area of beneficial discourse rather than angry lines being drawn is to remember
When people say " removing the OGL or SRD" they usually mean stop updating them. Let's try not to nitpick either side but rather get to the core concepts being presented.
It sounds like Generally we all think that not having an update to account for one dnd as part of a new SRD is not a smart and will make it less appealing.
However, there's little evidence either way if wotc will make a one SRD.
I agree, if there was a thread discussing what would be nice to see in a 1DnD SRD, that might be a useful discussion. Unfortunately, this particular thread was made based on a video that created a lot of unfounded fear in people. It was then linked to the Nerd Immersion twitter. Which appears to have brought in a lot of people that never use this forum to further spread that hysteria.
The basic premise of that video and this thread is flawed from the start. It's attracted all kinds of negative attention. People are jumping in to fan the flames without reading anything written. And they just keep repeating the same doomsday scenario that, as far as we know, doesn't really exist. WotC hasn't stated any plans to hamstring creators in any way. And there is no reason to believe the OGL and SRD are going to be part of their plan to monetize the brand.
Since tone is difficult to translate in text, I do want to say that I'm not disagreeing with you. I just quoted you because you make a good point that I'm afraid will be lost in this particular thread. The only reason I've commented in this thread at all is to try to put out some of these fires of panic. Maybe the best thing to do would be to ignore it and hope it goes away. I'm just concerned that the hysteria will feed on itself and grow out of control if becomes an echo chamber.
One point to keep this discussion in the area of beneficial discourse rather than angry lines being drawn is to remember
When people say " removing the OGL or SRD" they usually mean stop updating them. Let's try not to nitpick either side but rather get to the core concepts being presented.
Did you watch the video that spawned this thread? Because the guy in the video and the document that he's reading from both incorrectly state that the OGL has never been updated. So, no, "what most people mean when they say get rid of the OGL" definitely means literally getting rid of the OGL. At least in the case of this thread.
It sounds like Generally we all think that not having an update to account for one dnd as part of a new SRD is not a smart and will make it less appealing.
However, there's little evidence either way if wotc will make a one SRD.
There is no evidence that they won't make one. And, yes, while it might be a shame and a bit of a pain to not have a OneD&D SRD, it would definitely not be the end of the world for 3rd party publishing or necessary for creating self-published OneD&D content.
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One point to keep this discussion in the area of beneficial discourse rather than angry lines being drawn is to remember
When people say " removing the OGL or SRD" they usually mean stop updating them. Let's try not to nitpick either side but rather get to the core concepts being presented.
Did you watch the video that spawned this thread? Because the guy in the video and the document that he's reading from both incorrectly state that the OGL has never been updated. So, no, "what most people mean when they say get rid of the OGL" definitely means literally getting rid of the OGL. At least in the case of this thread.
It sounds like Generally we all think that not having an update to account for one dnd as part of a new SRD is not a smart and will make it less appealing.
However, there's little evidence either way if wotc will make a one SRD.
There is no evidence that they won't make one. And, yes, while it might be a shame and a bit of a pain to not have a OneD&D SRD, it would definitely not be the end of the world for 3rd party publishing or necessary for creating self-published OneD&D content.
It would be a giant pain in the patoot for folks like me who are currently sitting on a product waiting for ‘24 so it can be updated to the next edition and released.
and from a certain perspective, restricting 3rd party content would be dumb since people still need the WotC source materials to use 3rd party supplements and homebrews.
That's not true. There are hundreds of games that use the 5e SRD, and for which you don't need any WoTC books.
I said source material as opposed to books, that still means using the 5e SRD which is source material.
Ah well, yes. SRD is WoTC source material. But it's a bit of a truism, isn't it? Without the existence of the SRD, those games would be plagiarism, or an illegal copy.
But yes, it is WoTC source material. You're right about that. There would be no topic otherwise.
One point to keep this discussion in the area of beneficial discourse rather than angry lines being drawn is to remember
When people say " removing the OGL or SRD" they usually mean stop updating them. Let's try not to nitpick either side but rather get to the core concepts being presented.
Did you watch the video that spawned this thread? Because the guy in the video and the document that he's reading from both incorrectly state that the OGL has never been updated. So, no, "what most people mean when they say get rid of the OGL" definitely means literally getting rid of the OGL. At least in the case of this thread.
It sounds like Generally we all think that not having an update to account for one dnd as part of a new SRD is not a smart and will make it less appealing.
However, there's little evidence either way if wotc will make a one SRD.
There is no evidence that they won't make one. And, yes, while it might be a shame and a bit of a pain to not have a OneD&D SRD, it would definitely not be the end of the world for 3rd party publishing or necessary for creating self-published OneD&D content.
It would be a giant pain in the patoot for folks like me who are currently sitting on a product waiting for ‘24 so it can be updated to the next edition and released.
That's something I mentioned in a different thread:
"I get why third party creators, and many players, want answers. If I were them, I certainly wouldn't be planning a Kickstarter for 1DnD content any time soon. And 2024 is a long time to wait in limbo. So I understand the nail-biting."
I think that's a much more productive way to talk about this than that video/letter. It's very fair for creators to want to know what they'll have to work with in the future. A question like "Can we expect a decent SRD for 1DnD?"
A bunch of creators ready to drop a ton of 3rd party material on release day for 1DnD is worth something probably. Having to wait another year + is rough. But even this question might be hard for them to legally answer yet.
The good thing is that 1DnD is so similar to 5e that the current SRD is enough to work with to some degree. And everything can still be released as 5e compatible either way. It will take time for people to adapt to 1DnD. And 1DnD is backwards compatible enough that any 5e content is still going to be useful. Also, a look at the SRD shows that WotC has been pretty reasonable at responding to requests to expand it over time. They've added content to it for creators to use.
I understand a feeling of being stuck on hold before releasing something. That is surely uncomfortable. It's a much more reasonable topic than what's going on here.
Has everyone forgotten about the same. exact. thing. that was worried about when "DND Next" (i.e. 5e) was getting near to publication, and the absolute panic that happened when it wasn't available when 5e was published in 2014, they said the OGL/SRD would come out in 2015? But then it wasn't released until 2016 because they waited until all the main sourcebooks came out? And everybody panicked more before it did?
These YouTube videos of pure speculation that are laughably remotely sold as "inside info" and "rumors", tying in one statement to another when they might not even be related, are creating a situation that doesn't yet exist. Getting up in arms about creators and industry professionals signing NDAs is entirely absurd. These polls are standard questions. NDAs are standard things when a new damn game system is being developed. Hell, playtesters for 5e in 2012-2013 had to sign NDAs.
The poll questions have been asked before. They will be asked again. The NDAs have been signed before. They will be signed again.
Also, asking "do we need to still do X/Y/Z" when you're buying another platform in order to integrate it is a standard thing. Everybody knew that they were going to try and develop a VTT. The homebrew section on here is already chock full of "third party" things that people in their home games use. Merging it with DMs Guild is a natural and expected thing. I 100% expect a "want it listed as "non-core" content (y'know, that little slider we click when making characters?) on DND Beyond? Do the DMs Guild shuffle."
Anyways, we are still over a year out from even the first publication of anything during what will likely be the 50th anniversary bash in 2024. And that's with no delays being anticipated.
They literally said "We will continue to support the thousands of creators making third-party D&D content with the release of One D&D in 2024."
The part of the announcement that everybody is latching onto, the "While it is certain our Open Game License (OGL) will continue to evolve, just as it has since its inception, we're too early in the development of One D&D to give more specifics on the OGL or System Reference Document (SRD) at this time." is a standard, boilerplate statement that they have to say because the damn SRD has been adapted and has "evolved" before.
Yes, contrary to popular belief in a YouTube video, it has!
Apparently nobody remembers the initial 5e release from January 2016 was changed in May of 2016 to 5.1. Didn't anybody remember that? It changed from the 3.5e way they did things. It's totally different from the 4e way of things (the GSL), which was just given up on, and not at all what they're talking about when referencing the OGL/SRD. Regardless, that's "continuing to evolve". They don't know, and won't release what will be in the SRD at this time because they don't know "the text of the whole game" in order to "allow users to create new content". FFS it was only announced in August.
Stop with the speculation, the panic, the completely unsourced, unsubstantiated red-threads-on-the-wall linking, and take a few breaths, folks. "All signs" aren't pointing to anything right now.
However... of-f'n-course they think it's "under-monetized" and they want to make it a "lifestyle"... look in the background of all your streamed games: banners, swords, D&D blankets, light-up d20s, custom dice boxes, shelves of toys and WizKids miniatures, cosplaying, etc. You're already living the "lifestyle".
Look at the things they've already released: T-shirt-of-the-month. Messenger bags. D&D Yahtzee. Collectible Dice. Variant covers. Entirely different and authorized limited edition B&G boxed sets. Dice towers made to look like the AD&D PHB idol. Funko pops of freakin' Strahd and WARDUKE of all figures?! Bioworld. Pinfinity. Rockworld. PCS. A Coffee maker. Massive format Tiamat miniature/statue. Plush Tiamat. A DAMN MOVIE that will tie in with action figures, probably LEGO sets, and I wouldn't put it past them to selling "make your own gelatinous cube" slime kits. Of course they want a cut of the Marvel-style pie. Of course they want a D&DCU. They had a damn multimedia tavern with alcohol at COMIC-CON. Of course they want a "lifestyle" of people walking around in t-shirts, sweat pants, Ampersand-emblazoned flip flops, and red dragonscale backpacks with Themberchaud's face on them. You know why they want to do that?
Because we're already doing it. And now they want to consolidate it, streamline it, and make it even more prevalent to people who are already into it, and especially people that aren't yet playing.
How many people that don't play are going to want to after the movie comes out? And when it does, the infrastructure for shoes, clothes, trendy backpacks, digital source materials, lunchboxes with Chris Pine's face on them, and 1/4th scale plush Snowy Owlbears will be right there waiting for them, because it'll become "a lifestyle".
C'mon. So many people are putting the cart, wagon, tavern, town, and party before the horse.
Sheesh.
Oh, and PS: The Chaosium crap in that video is absolutely wrong. There's an unending supply of CoC stuff both inside and outside the Miskatonic Repository.
I would just stop playing D&D entirely and teach my friends how to play other tabletop RPGs if Hasbro tries to monetize D&D like its a videogame.
Half the reason my friends and I got into tabletop RPGs in the first place was because we got sick of how restrictive and expensive video games have gotten, a change like this would just make D&D just as annoying and scummy as the kind of games that are killing that industry as well.
What an awful, awful idea.
If hasbro wants to completely destroy the D&D brand and make the entire community move on to something else, this is the way to do it.
and from a certain perspective, restricting 3rd party content would be dumb since people still need the WotC source materials to use 3rd party supplements and homebrews.
That's not true. There are hundreds of games that use the 5e SRD, and for which you don't need any WoTC books.
I said source material as opposed to books, that still means using the 5e SRD which is source material.
Ah well, yes. SRD is WoTC source material. But it's a bit of a truism, isn't it? Without the existence of the SRD, those games would be plagiarism, or an illegal copy.
But yes, it is WoTC source material. You're right about that. There would be no topic otherwise.
It depends on how those games are written, if those games are just supplementary, then they aren't illegal copies, since they aren't including the material but referring you back to that material, if they are instead copy and pasting text from the SRD then yes it would be plagiarism. For example if a book had 60 spells, 5 species and 8 subclasses, and then a custom setting with other material made for that setting; then that isn't plagiarism; if that book however decided it'd copy the equipment list from the PHB and include that as is, that would be plagiarism. But again, we can't be certain on any of this until we get closer to release as the license is no doubt something WotC are looking at very carefully and is not yet in any final form.
These YouTube videos of pure speculation that are laughably remotely sold as "inside info" and "rumors", tying in one statement to another when they might not even be related, are creating a situation that doesn't yet exist. Getting up in arms about creators and industry professionals signing NDAs is entirely absurd. These polls are standard questions. NDAs are standard things when a new damn game system is being developed. Hell, playtesters for 5e in 2012-2013 had to sign NDAs.
Thank you so much for inserting some common sense into this thread. To be honest, just participating in these discussions frustrates me deeply, because a large portion of the community has had a collective panic attack over a bunch of untrustworthy rumors. Guys, we already have enough problems in our world without inventing any new ones. If there is a real Adult Red Dragon rampaging around, then I will gladly get a sword and help defeat it. But until then, the scariest Red Dragon is the one that never really existed.
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"I would just stop playing D&D entirely and teach my friends how to play other tabletop RPGs if Hasbro tries to monetize D&D like its a videogame."
Hate to break it to you, but D&D has been collectible/merchandise monetized like this since the 80s, with not just the ttrpg itself, but cartoons, fiction novels, action figures, lunchboxes, VHS boardgames, computer games (the SSI "gold box" and "silver box" games for ex.), variant covers, novelty packaging, etc.
Hasbro isn't "completely destroying" the D&D brand, they won't "completely destroy" the D&D brand, and as I said, ***this has been already going on*** the entire time you've been playing, and the entire 40-odd years I've been playing.
Personally, I trust Hasbro *way more* these days than the gawdawful merchandising and monetization attempts of Dear Leader GG in the 80s and LW in the 90s, and the garbage that was put out during 3/3.5/4, no matter how many scenes Jeremy Irons chews his way through.
Remember... after all those fiascos, they completely reset, and went to the fans and players to help pave the direction and concepts of D&D Next/5e for release during the 40th.
They're doing *the exact same thing* with 5.5/6/OneD&D/whatever the release during the 50th is going to be.
I want to believe that WoTC has learned from its mistakes. The last time you listened to Hasbro's nonsense, and let your men in suits get their dirty claws into D&D, it stopped being the most played RPG in the world (well, it remained indirectly because of Pathfinder, but it stopped having control. about the game).
I'm not a Magic: The Gathering player myself, but I understand that many players are deeply upset with the changes made to further monetize the game. This attempt to kill off the OGL sounds to me like Hasbro's attempt to squeeze more profit out of D&D.
But well, beyond that, I think that if there is no OGL with One D&D two things will happen:
- As One D&D will be compatible with 5e, the material for the OGL of 5e will be compatible with One D&D.
- If they finally do something to efficiently avoid 3rd party stuff in One D&D, a 5e OGL game will come out that will allow all that stuff and and will beat WoTC (which Paizo did back in the day).
Lots of people use third party stuff to play D&D. This has been the case since its inception in the 1970s as an appendage to Chainmail. They will not be able to end that, and it's counterproductive. How much damage does third-party content do to sales? I would say none. And instead, it brings a lot of life to the game.
Look, I don’t know how clear we need to be, but to kill the OGL or alter it in such a way that it becomes new executive leadership’s plan to combat the “undermonetization” of the brand…it isn’t just going to be not adopting the game, I’ll go out of my way to join boycotts of the brand I once loved alongside every thing Hasbro owns or has touched. Financial vindictiveness and joining awareness campaigns about it will be the goal and the only sensible retribution.
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Fundamentally, my response will be based on what WotC supply for their license come release; but they should not do anything to restrict 3rd party content; and from a certain perspective, restricting 3rd party content would be dumb since people still need the WotC source materials to use 3rd party supplements and homebrews.
That's not true. There are hundreds of games that use the 5e SRD, and for which you don't need any WoTC books.
I said source material as opposed to books, that still means using the 5e SRD which is source material.
I don't know how clear the rest of us need to be. There is no evidence that WotC plans to do anything negative with the OGL for 1DnD, or that they even can, or that their plans to further monetize the brand have anything to do with 3rd party creators. If anyone has a single actual shred of evidence they can point to saying this will happen, please share it. One anonymous letter full of wild speculation is not evidence. It's just pointing at straw men and inciting a mob.
Monetizing a brand does not equal screwing creators.
Connecting the two ideas without legitimate cause, and creating panic, is irresponsible at best. At worst, it looks like a deliberate campaign from someone with a vendetta. We don't need fear mongering. We need facts. There a lot of reasonable people in these threads that have laid out facts concerning the OGL and SRD. Then there are also a bunch of people running around with pitchforks ready to hunt an imagined monster.
YouTube has a bunch of 3rd party creators with popular channels. People who know how the OGL and SRD works. People with stake in the game, who make a living this way. People who were probably invited to speak with WotC directly. If any of them come out and say there is real trouble on the horizon, I'd be more inclined to believe them. But they haven't.
If that day comes, and we find out that WotC really has some dastardly plan to screw creators for nothing but their own amusement, then I'll join in on shaming them for it. And to be clear, it would have to only be for some sick amusement. Because the money that 3rd party creators generate is a drop in the bucket for WotC. But until that unlikely day, I'm not going to join in on generating hysteria.
One point to keep this discussion in the area of beneficial discourse rather than angry lines being drawn is to remember
When people say " removing the OGL or SRD" they usually mean stop updating them. Let's try not to nitpick either side but rather get to the core concepts being presented.
It sounds like Generally we all think that not having an update to account for one dnd as part of a new SRD is not a smart and will make it less appealing.
However, there's little evidence either way if wotc will make a one SRD.
I agree, if there was a thread discussing what would be nice to see in a 1DnD SRD, that might be a useful discussion. Unfortunately, this particular thread was made based on a video that created a lot of unfounded fear in people. It was then linked to the Nerd Immersion twitter. Which appears to have brought in a lot of people that never use this forum to further spread that hysteria.
The basic premise of that video and this thread is flawed from the start. It's attracted all kinds of negative attention. People are jumping in to fan the flames without reading anything written. And they just keep repeating the same doomsday scenario that, as far as we know, doesn't really exist. WotC hasn't stated any plans to hamstring creators in any way. And there is no reason to believe the OGL and SRD are going to be part of their plan to monetize the brand.
Since tone is difficult to translate in text, I do want to say that I'm not disagreeing with you. I just quoted you because you make a good point that I'm afraid will be lost in this particular thread. The only reason I've commented in this thread at all is to try to put out some of these fires of panic. Maybe the best thing to do would be to ignore it and hope it goes away. I'm just concerned that the hysteria will feed on itself and grow out of control if becomes an echo chamber.
Did you watch the video that spawned this thread? Because the guy in the video and the document that he's reading from both incorrectly state that the OGL has never been updated. So, no, "what most people mean when they say get rid of the OGL" definitely means literally getting rid of the OGL. At least in the case of this thread.
There is no evidence that they won't make one. And, yes, while it might be a shame and a bit of a pain to not have a OneD&D SRD, it would definitely not be the end of the world for 3rd party publishing or necessary for creating self-published OneD&D content.
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It would be a giant pain in the patoot for folks like me who are currently sitting on a product waiting for ‘24 so it can be updated to the next edition and released.
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Ah well, yes. SRD is WoTC source material. But it's a bit of a truism, isn't it? Without the existence of the SRD, those games would be plagiarism, or an illegal copy.
But yes, it is WoTC source material. You're right about that. There would be no topic otherwise.
That's something I mentioned in a different thread:
"I get why third party creators, and many players, want answers. If I were them, I certainly wouldn't be planning a Kickstarter for 1DnD content any time soon. And 2024 is a long time to wait in limbo. So I understand the nail-biting."
I think that's a much more productive way to talk about this than that video/letter. It's very fair for creators to want to know what they'll have to work with in the future. A question like "Can we expect a decent SRD for 1DnD?"
A bunch of creators ready to drop a ton of 3rd party material on release day for 1DnD is worth something probably. Having to wait another year + is rough. But even this question might be hard for them to legally answer yet.
The good thing is that 1DnD is so similar to 5e that the current SRD is enough to work with to some degree. And everything can still be released as 5e compatible either way. It will take time for people to adapt to 1DnD. And 1DnD is backwards compatible enough that any 5e content is still going to be useful. Also, a look at the SRD shows that WotC has been pretty reasonable at responding to requests to expand it over time. They've added content to it for creators to use.
I understand a feeling of being stuck on hold before releasing something. That is surely uncomfortable. It's a much more reasonable topic than what's going on here.
That is a cop-out non-answer cookie cutter response...
.
Has everyone forgotten about the same. exact. thing. that was worried about when "DND Next" (i.e. 5e) was getting near to publication, and the absolute panic that happened when it wasn't available when 5e was published in 2014, they said the OGL/SRD would come out in 2015? But then it wasn't released until 2016 because they waited until all the main sourcebooks came out? And everybody panicked more before it did?
These YouTube videos of pure speculation that are laughably remotely sold as "inside info" and "rumors", tying in one statement to another when they might not even be related, are creating a situation that doesn't yet exist. Getting up in arms about creators and industry professionals signing NDAs is entirely absurd. These polls are standard questions. NDAs are standard things when a new damn game system is being developed. Hell, playtesters for 5e in 2012-2013 had to sign NDAs.
The poll questions have been asked before. They will be asked again. The NDAs have been signed before. They will be signed again.
Also, asking "do we need to still do X/Y/Z" when you're buying another platform in order to integrate it is a standard thing. Everybody knew that they were going to try and develop a VTT. The homebrew section on here is already chock full of "third party" things that people in their home games use. Merging it with DMs Guild is a natural and expected thing. I 100% expect a "want it listed as "non-core" content (y'know, that little slider we click when making characters?) on DND Beyond? Do the DMs Guild shuffle."
Anyways, we are still over a year out from even the first publication of anything during what will likely be the 50th anniversary bash in 2024. And that's with no delays being anticipated.
They literally said "We will continue to support the thousands of creators making third-party D&D content with the release of One D&D in 2024."
The part of the announcement that everybody is latching onto, the "While it is certain our Open Game License (OGL) will continue to evolve, just as it has since its inception, we're too early in the development of One D&D to give more specifics on the OGL or System Reference Document (SRD) at this time." is a standard, boilerplate statement that they have to say because the damn SRD has been adapted and has "evolved" before.
Yes, contrary to popular belief in a YouTube video, it has!
Apparently nobody remembers the initial 5e release from January 2016 was changed in May of 2016 to 5.1. Didn't anybody remember that? It changed from the 3.5e way they did things. It's totally different from the 4e way of things (the GSL), which was just given up on, and not at all what they're talking about when referencing the OGL/SRD. Regardless, that's "continuing to evolve". They don't know, and won't release what will be in the SRD at this time because they don't know "the text of the whole game" in order to "allow users to create new content". FFS it was only announced in August.
Stop with the speculation, the panic, the completely unsourced, unsubstantiated red-threads-on-the-wall linking, and take a few breaths, folks. "All signs" aren't pointing to anything right now.
However... of-f'n-course they think it's "under-monetized" and they want to make it a "lifestyle"... look in the background of all your streamed games: banners, swords, D&D blankets, light-up d20s, custom dice boxes, shelves of toys and WizKids miniatures, cosplaying, etc. You're already living the "lifestyle".
Look at the things they've already released: T-shirt-of-the-month. Messenger bags. D&D Yahtzee. Collectible Dice. Variant covers. Entirely different and authorized limited edition B&G boxed sets. Dice towers made to look like the AD&D PHB idol. Funko pops of freakin' Strahd and WARDUKE of all figures?! Bioworld. Pinfinity. Rockworld. PCS. A Coffee maker. Massive format Tiamat miniature/statue. Plush Tiamat. A DAMN MOVIE that will tie in with action figures, probably LEGO sets, and I wouldn't put it past them to selling "make your own gelatinous cube" slime kits. Of course they want a cut of the Marvel-style pie. Of course they want a D&DCU. They had a damn multimedia tavern with alcohol at COMIC-CON. Of course they want a "lifestyle" of people walking around in t-shirts, sweat pants, Ampersand-emblazoned flip flops, and red dragonscale backpacks with Themberchaud's face on them. You know why they want to do that?
Because we're already doing it. And now they want to consolidate it, streamline it, and make it even more prevalent to people who are already into it, and especially people that aren't yet playing.
How many people that don't play are going to want to after the movie comes out? And when it does, the infrastructure for shoes, clothes, trendy backpacks, digital source materials, lunchboxes with Chris Pine's face on them, and 1/4th scale plush Snowy Owlbears will be right there waiting for them, because it'll become "a lifestyle".
C'mon. So many people are putting the cart, wagon, tavern, town, and party before the horse.
Sheesh.
Oh, and PS: The Chaosium crap in that video is absolutely wrong. There's an unending supply of CoC stuff both inside and outside the Miskatonic Repository.
No matter where you go, there you are.
Trevor Valle - Paleontologist - DM
I would just stop playing D&D entirely and teach my friends how to play other tabletop RPGs if Hasbro tries to monetize D&D like its a videogame.
Half the reason my friends and I got into tabletop RPGs in the first place was because we got sick of how restrictive and expensive video games have gotten, a change like this would just make D&D just as annoying and scummy as the kind of games that are killing that industry as well.
What an awful, awful idea.
If hasbro wants to completely destroy the D&D brand and make the entire community move on to something else, this is the way to do it.
It depends on how those games are written, if those games are just supplementary, then they aren't illegal copies, since they aren't including the material but referring you back to that material, if they are instead copy and pasting text from the SRD then yes it would be plagiarism. For example if a book had 60 spells, 5 species and 8 subclasses, and then a custom setting with other material made for that setting; then that isn't plagiarism; if that book however decided it'd copy the equipment list from the PHB and include that as is, that would be plagiarism. But again, we can't be certain on any of this until we get closer to release as the license is no doubt something WotC are looking at very carefully and is not yet in any final form.
Leave it, we are not understanding each other.
Thank you so much for inserting some common sense into this thread. To be honest, just participating in these discussions frustrates me deeply, because a large portion of the community has had a collective panic attack over a bunch of untrustworthy rumors. Guys, we already have enough problems in our world without inventing any new ones. If there is a real Adult Red Dragon rampaging around, then I will gladly get a sword and help defeat it. But until then, the scariest Red Dragon is the one that never really existed.
BoringBard's long and tedious posts somehow manage to enrapture audiences. How? Because he used Charm Person, the #1 bard spell!
He/him pronouns. Call me Bard. PROUD NERD!
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HERE."I would just stop playing D&D entirely and teach my friends how to play other tabletop RPGs if Hasbro tries to monetize D&D like its a videogame."
Hate to break it to you, but D&D has been collectible/merchandise monetized like this since the 80s, with not just the ttrpg itself, but cartoons, fiction novels, action figures, lunchboxes, VHS boardgames, computer games (the SSI "gold box" and "silver box" games for ex.), variant covers, novelty packaging, etc.
Hasbro isn't "completely destroying" the D&D brand, they won't "completely destroy" the D&D brand, and as I said, ***this has been already going on*** the entire time you've been playing, and the entire 40-odd years I've been playing.
Personally, I trust Hasbro *way more* these days than the gawdawful merchandising and monetization attempts of Dear Leader GG in the 80s and LW in the 90s, and the garbage that was put out during 3/3.5/4, no matter how many scenes Jeremy Irons chews his way through.
Remember... after all those fiascos, they completely reset, and went to the fans and players to help pave the direction and concepts of D&D Next/5e for release during the 40th.
They're doing *the exact same thing* with 5.5/6/OneD&D/whatever the release during the 50th is going to be.
No matter where you go, there you are.
Trevor Valle - Paleontologist - DM