I'm an old-timer. I was in the trenches back in the 80s and 90s, when the businesspeople first decided to capitalize on D&D. Back then we fought in APAs (collections of print zines) and on Usenet, particularly rec.games.frp.dnd. You'd be surprised at how similar many of the arguments are to what's going on today. And as it happens, you can still read those old threads today via Google Groups.
Millions of posts were made on the subject, and the flame wars were legendary. I was a minor participant. Obviously I can't give even a partial overview of everything that went on, but here's the first big thread I was able to dig up: IMPORTANT: The future of the net
In the light of long experience, I can't say that I'm at all surprised by the new OGL and WOTC's attempted gaslighting of the community. Businesspeople never change. They've always seen us as nothing more than wallets to squeeze, and they always will. Lies and gaslighting are all we'll ever get from them.
By the way, you might find a lot of interest in rec.games.frp.dnd. There are tons of material there, from gamers all over the world over many years. That includes all sorts of game material, too - though not 5e, of course (Usenet still exists, but it's been pretty dead since the web got big). But a lot of that material can easily be converted. And if you're feeling adventurous, there were hundreds of thousands of newsgroups, on every subject imaginable. You can definitely dig for treasure there!
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I'm an old-timer. I was in the trenches back in the 80s and 90s, when the businesspeople first decided to capitalize on D&D. Back then we fought in APAs (collections of print zines) and on Usenet, particularly rec.games.frp.dnd. You'd be surprised at how similar many of the arguments are to what's going on today. And as it happens, you can still read those old threads today via Google Groups.
Millions of posts were made on the subject, and the flame wars were legendary. I was a minor participant. Obviously I can't give even a partial overview of everything that went on, but here's the first big thread I was able to dig up: IMPORTANT: The future of the net
In the light of long experience, I can't say that I'm at all surprised by the new OGL and WOTC's attempted gaslighting of the community. Businesspeople never change. They've always seen us as nothing more than wallets to squeeze, and they always will. Lies and gaslighting are all we'll ever get from them.
By the way, you might find a lot of interest in rec.games.frp.dnd. There are tons of material there, from gamers all over the world over many years. That includes all sorts of game material, too - though not 5e, of course (Usenet still exists, but it's been pretty dead since the web got big). But a lot of that material can easily be converted. And if you're feeling adventurous, there were hundreds of thousands of newsgroups, on every subject imaginable. You can definitely dig for treasure there!