Notwithstanding a harm-limiting apology (opens in new tab) from Wizards of the Coast after the disastrous reception to their scheduled update of the Open Gaming License (opens in new tab), the conversation is far from over. The company hasn’t really backed down from its plans for the OGL, but is moving forward with a 1.2 version that will be “playtested” with the community (opens in new tab)as part of a more transparent process open to feedback.
That’s certainly a less reprehensible situation than what we looked at earlier. The original plan seemed to be to simply impose new restrictions and royalties without discussion, and the new design (opens in new tab) drops many of the most controversial elements of the leaked OGL 1.1 we originally saw. But essentially it’s not a return to the original OGL – in fact it’s still retroactively revoking that license, still putting more powers in the hands of WOTC.
The D&D OGL drama in a nutshell
- Since 2000, the Open Gaming license has allowed other companies to create D&D-based products without royalties or supervision.
- A license update – OGL 1.1 – has been leaked. It has withdrawn the original version – OGL 1.0 – and imposed new restrictions, as well as possible royalty payments.
- Universal outcry from the community led WOTC to apologize and announce that a new version was being worked on: OGL 1.2.
- OGL 1.2 removes many, but not all, of the controversial elements of 1.1, and still repeals OGL 1.0.
- WOTC has promised to release key D&D rules under a Creative Commons license – it claims that material published before the new OGL will be covered.
- The vast majority of the community still wants OGL 1.0 to remain.
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Fundamentally, what people want is the freedoms they already enjoyed – to create content for D&D without the specter of corporate superiority. To get any closer to that will require a serious fight between the community and Wizards of the Coast. More than likely, that fight is simply unwinnable. Increasingly, I don’t think it’s a fight worth having.
As it stands, Dungeons & Dragons has a near monopoly on the tabletop RPG hobby. Wizards of the Coast makes an order of magnitude more money than any other company in the space. Thanks to the OGL 1.0, the game itself is ubiquitous: most of those other companies, if they make money at all, make it from D&D compatible products. In the wider culture, D&D is synonymous with role-playing as a concept – the terms are used interchangeably to the point that you’re likely to find friends or relatives unaware of the existence of TTRPGs other than D&D.
Skyrim is popular, but imagine if almost all PC gaming was just Skyrim or Skyrim mods. Imagine if the majority of people had never played or maybe even heard of other PC games, and the mainstream media viewed Skyrim as the entire industry. That’s essentially where the TTRPG hobby has been on and off since its inception.
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A lot of great content has emerged from the existing D&D ecosystem and continues to do so every day, but it’s a suffocating status quo. Companies and individuals making other games are forced to the margins, or have to create D&D content to make a living. Licensed settings such as Dark souls (opens in new tab) and Doctor who (opens in new tab) being twisted into completely inappropriate 5e-compatible forms to find an audience. An entire hobby is chained to a game of rules and assumptions that are still closely tied to decisions made 50 years ago – some just plain clumsy, others increasingly problematic.
Is that a situation worth fighting to protect?
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What if we instead accept that WOTC is determined to alienate large segments of its audience and see that as an opportunity rather than a problem? What if we put our energy into supporting efforts like Paizo’s new rival license, ORC (opens in new tab)which is now supported more than 1,500 companies (opens in new tab), including Roll20, Pelgrane Press and Chaosium? Or working to provide clearer gateways for frustrated D&D players to alternative games they might love?
A lot of people like D&D, and I’m not here to argue with that. I played a large part of the campaigns myself. But surely a healthier table hobby, which we should strive for, is one that allows for more sincere variety and creativity? The fewer companies are attracted to work alongside WOTC, the more opportunities there are for rivals to flourish. We’ve seen glimpses of it before – during the 4th era, when WOTC used the restrictive Game System license instead of the OGL, it created space for Paizo and others to rise to prominence.
Of course, Paizo itself wouldn’t exist without the original OGL – and that’s the other part of our equation. If that OGL is revoked, it theoretically puts many existing companies and their back catalogs at risk, whatever reassurances WOTC may provide. But the question is, is that even a legally enforceable move?
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The OGL 1.0 states in plain language that it cannot be revoked (a point that Paizo has stated it is willing to take to court), but even beyond that, using D&D rules and concepts isn’t a clear case about copyright. There’s a credible argument that could be made that TTRPG rules aren’t copyrighted, just the specific expression of them – many games that use the OGL essentially do so more as a professional courtesy than a legal obligation. And many of the game’s iconic features aren’t copyrighted at all – WOTC doesn’t own the idea of a dragon breathing fire, or a wizard casting spells, or even a monster disguising itself as a treasure chest (opens in new tab), only certain specific names, terms or incarnations of it. WOTC has promised to release its core rules under the very permissive Creative Commons, but even if that eventually comes with a catch, it might not matter. The genie is, I guess, already out of the bottle.
Somehow we are at a turning point for the hobby. We live in a time where D&D’s cultural influence is so great that a believable, big-budget movie adaptation is on the way, but the future of the game feels more at stake than ever. I don’t see the value in uniting us as a community behind the idea of making that future the same as now or worse. We can try something better – something WOTC can’t wrap its grasping fingers around.