It’s not “End your current D&D game!” WotC doesn’t give a shit if you play a thing you’ve already bought… they have your money for that stuff already.
It’s “Stop giving WotC/Hasbro money!” Share, pirate, copy, buy second hand… just don’t give them reason to think you’re okay with the coming changes.
While you don’t HAVE to do anything, paying them tells Hasbro you’re onboard with their plans for D&D
I’m not okay with Chris Cao’s Zynga mobile games approach to monetising the game
I am opposed to them carving up D&D so that more and more things are gated behind microtransactions
It’s not ok for them to kill the VTT’s that kept D&D going during the pandemic and no-one was leaving the house
It’s not cool that they tried to strong-arm creators with a shitty OGL then lie and say it was a draft.
Now they are trying to get us to be cool with a new draft that doesn’t stop them from bringing back the stuff that was in the old one
Competition is good for us, the consumers, it keeps them innovating and encourages them to keep the players happy so they win our cash. If they eliminate the competition we have to put up with whatever they decide to do because they’re the only option. Corporations are not your friend and brand loyalty is a scam. They want to extract as much from us for as little as possible, it’s what they do, but we can leverage buying power to make it so that the “little as possible” is them delivering a quality product in a way that we like. This is the war you are always in when a big business, especially one that doesn’t understand the thing they just bought, tries to shift the course of something you love.
It is great to broaden your RPG horizons, try new games, throw some money to the competition but you don’t have to give up your weekly D&D game.
Just try to keep playing it without giving them money. If Chris Cao has his way they’ll be killing DnDBeyond anyway.
Edit: This isn’t me imploring you to stick with D&D, this is me saying that if thinking you had to give up your weekly game was your reason for not joining the boycott, you don’t.
Today, we're presenting a draft of OGL 1.2, and announcing a Creative Commons license that puts D&D's core mechanics into your hands.
So, WOTC has presented a new (DRAFT) of the OGL, now named OGL 1.2. Called it a “Playtest”, to keep the whole weird idea of friendly language. They have made a lengthy text (Again, brought to you by Kyle Brinks, a person who (according to LinkedIn) has been in the company for 3 months) explaining what is in it, and then, they present you the actual document. (Of course, do not harass individual employees, they are trying to find scapegoats.)
And as expected, the entire thing is full of holes and sneaky workarounds that do not actually fix most of the issues. They insist a whooping total of 4 times this is to prevent “hateful content” in the announcement, which is one of the shields they are using to actually pull some terrible policies. I am someone who deeply cares about avoiding bigotry and such. I am absolutely furious about how “hateful content” is used here as a buzzword to actually pull very awful stuff.
I will address the main problematic points. You can check the OGL document in the link itself, I will be copypasting segments here instead of screenshots to make it easier for screen readers.
Let’s get started.
About the mechanics being now licensed under Creative Commons.
Literally means nothing. Mechanics are something you can’t actually copyright, and this has been true forever. Rolling a d20 is not something you can defend in court as part of your IP. Saying they “are releasing the mechanics under Creative Commons” is like “we are now releasing Breathing Oxygen under Creative Commons”. This is just an attempt to appear friendly, by releasing something they... couldn’t copyright in the past.
(6.f) No Hateful Content or Conduct. You will not include content in Your Licensed Works that is harmful, discriminatory, illegal, obscene, or harassing, or engage in conduct that is harmful, discriminatory, illegal, obscene, or harassing. We have the sole right to decide what conduct or content is hateful, and you covenant that you will not contest any such determination via any suit or other legal action.
They can still put a stop from your content up to their discretion. This paragraph is purposefully ambiguous. None of these words does actually define anything in a tangible manner, and may be used to stop any sort of content they can label in this way. I mentioned in a previous post this case where they gave trouble to a module named “Eat the Rich” from DM’s Guild because it used the word “anti-capitalist”, because it was not considered appropriate for them. Let’s also recall “obscene” is a word that has historically been used against LGBTQ+ works. (I am not saying they may go there, but these words can be twisted heavily.)
This wording is not about stopping bigotry of any kind. This isn’t about stopping racism, ableism, transphobia, homophobia or xenophobia. This is just a well-hidden clause that allows them to stop any project using the OGL from going further. And furthermore, it also makes it impossible for you to sue them over it, because by agreeing to this license, you lose the rights to actually fill a lawsuit. So: Yeah, they can control what gets published.
(3) You acknowledge that we and our licensees, as content creators ourselves, might independently come up with content similar to something you create. If you have a claim that we breached this provision, or that one of our licensees did in connection with content they licensed from us:
(a) Any such claim will be brought only as a lawsuit for breach of contract, and only for money damages. You expressly agree that money damages are an adequate remedy for such a breach, and that you will not seek or be entitled to injunctive relief.
(b) In any such lawsuit, you must show that we knowingly and intentionally copied your Licensed Work. Access and substantial similarity will not be enough to prove a breach of this Section 3.
Under this new OGL, they don’t automatically get to own the content you create. However, they reserve the full right to produce very similar content, and you can only sue if you have specific proof of them “intentionally” doing so. Which means they can copy your entire project, but if you don’t have proof they are actually “intentionally” doing it, you can’t do anything. Furthermore, you can only sue for money damages, not for stuff such as copyright infringement and such. Which pretty much means: Yeah, they still can use whatever content you make under this license, they just have to come up with the copy themselves. (Also, good luck doing a lawsuit against a billion dollar company. Saying this as someone who had their art stolen and sold in the thousands but has no money to actually fill a lawsuit internationally.)
(5) YOU CONTROL YOUR CONTENT. You can make your Content available under any terms you choose but you may not change the terms under which we make Our Licensed Content available.
So, “you own your content” is section 5. There are two sections of the OGL they reserve the right to change: Section 5 and 9. (Section 2 mentions this: “ It also cannot be modified except for the attribution provisions of Section 5 and Section 9(a) regarding notices. “)
Which means the fact you own your content is subject to change. They can potentially change how you can actually use or distribute your work.
The VTT (Virtual Table Top) policy
Okay, this is a massive can of worms. They effectively separated the OGL 1.2 from the VTT policy, which means the policy for VTTs is not subject to the guidelines from the OGL, but they put it in the same document to make it appear like it is. This means, majorly, one massive thing:
The VTT policy is up to change anytime. What they wrote there is not subject to any of the previously stated clauses.
What is permitted under this policy?
Using VTTs to replicate the experience of sitting around the table playing D&D with your friends. [...]
What isn’t permitted are features that don’t replicate your dining room table storytelling. If you replace your imagination with an animation of the Magic Missile streaking across the board to strike your target, or your VTT integrates our content into an NFT, that’s not the tabletop experience. That’s more like a video game.
I skimmed a bit of information in this paragraph, since I want to focus on the last section. The last section is doing two things: The first one is to pull the NFT buzzword again, which is unrelated to this entire situation, just because it’s a good way to divert attention. (Btw, Hasbro is not against NFTs, they have made NFTs themselves. WOTC belongs to Hasbro.) The important part is the “Magic Missile animation”. Now, how do you know how is an animation of a spell specifically about magic missile? It’s a ball of light hurled from point A to point B.
What constitutes the “experience of sitting around the table?” Where do they cut the line? Why is a spell animation not allowed? I can hurl a rubber ball to a player and call it “fireball”. I can put lights at the table. I can use cotton as fog of war. Where do they cut the line?
(These policies are, obviously, an attempt to fight any competition when they release their own VTT).
May I make my VTT Owlbear token look like the one from the Monster Manual?
No. We’ve never licensed visual depictions of our content under the OGL, just the text of the SRD. That hasn’t changed. You can create a creature called an Owlbear with the stat block from the SRD. You cannot copy any of our Owlbear depictions. But if you’ve drawn your own unique Owlbear, or someone else did, you can use it.
This also brings me to this point. This point is incredibly vague. What constitutes an “owlbear depiction”? What is an “unique owlbear”? The drawing of an owlbear you made based on the MM, as it is written here, could not be used on a VTT, according to this rule. Again, this VTT policy is very vague and not really a legal document per se. It’s hard to draw conclusions because it’s some undefined draft at best, but it’s not looking promising.
And look: I like animations. I like the idea of animations in VTTs. I have made animated tokens and bosses and battlemaps for Foundry VTT, which this what this policy is aiming for. I have no clue on how this is actually, realistically, affecting me. If I do an animated token I use in a 5e game, am I in trouble? If I sell it, what happens? Right now, said policy does not say anything about it.
This is an animated token I made of a boss fight FoundryVTT. We used it in a session of a DnD 5e game. Apparently, WOTC considers it to be “a videogame” and falling out of the “VTT policy” they want to use. An animated token is not what makes a VTT become a videogame. We need to stay wary of how the wording for this evolves, be aware that (so far) the VTT policy could potentially be subject to changing anytime, as it is not included in the OGL itself. But right now, it’s looking poorly.
The take-away:
The new OGL is not fixing most of the crucial problems, they have just made things more subtle. It is not definitive, so potentially more harmful things could be added once they feel it is safe to do so. They can still stop your content for arbitrary reasons, and your ownership of the content is up to change. The VTT policy is an undefined mess.
So, again: We have to keep pushing. Keep cancelling your DnD Beyond subscriptions. Fill the survey if you have an account. Make noise in social media, reblog this post, reblog anything you may deem necessary, and do not let WOTC convince you they fixed it. They are not listening to the community’s actual concerns, they are just getting subtler about it. There is still a long fight ahead.
WotC wants the corporate speak to placate everyone into forgetting what they’re aiming for. Don’t let the outrage die.
UPDATE: These have been confirmed to be fake. Apologies for putting out fake information, that was not my intention. I’m not deleting this because a) it was my mistake and I don’t want to sweep my mistakes under the rug, and b) I want people to know it’s fake.
For those late to the party who want to know what the hell is going on with #OpenDnD, #StoptheSub, #DnDBegone etc, and why everyone is cancelling DnDBeyond subscriptions, I tried to do a crash course as succinctly as possible. OpenDnD.Games is a great resource for more in-depth details, and if you wish to do so, you can cancel your DnDBeyond subscription through this direct link (as there have been many reporting trouble in locating where to do so).
Edit: Tweaked the very first detail below, as someone reminded me it was not a wholly accurate statement as I had initially written it. Apologies to everyone who already reblogged the first version of this :')
Hasbro acquired Wizards of the Coast (WotC) some time ago, but recently they got new leadership who said in an interview that they see D&D as "under-monetized". Hasbro is on the decline with finances, and WotC is its biggest cash cow. Why milk that cash cow through producing more content when you can instead revoke a legally irrevocable license that makes it impossible for 3rd party content creators to exist?
America loves a good monopoly. The old license that permitted the community to grow to what it is today was OGL1.0a, and without it, D&D would not be what it is right now, nor even close. They tried to shift to OGL1.1, a new license that is, in a word, PREDATORY. Horrific, nasty shit.
OGL1.1 was quietly sent to large creators to sign. It then got leaked. The community erupted. The backlash was loud and unanimous. WotC was radio silent for like two weeks. They finally gave a single-sentence "we'll explain soon" tweet on DnDBeyond's account. Then more silence.
A WotC employee reached out to large creators to blow the whistle on WotC. The source was verified, and they shared that WotC sees the community as an obstacle between them and their money, all they care about is bottom line, and they're delaying in hopes we forget and move on.
And also that they are mainly looking at DnDBeyond subscription cancelations to gauge the financial impact; they don't care about our sentiments, only our money. So everyone erupted into signal boosting for others to unsubscribe as the single and best way to make ourselves heard. Cue the mass unsubscribing.
Today (January 13th 2023), a shitty PR piece was posted on DnDBeyond full of blatant lies and, in my opinion, barely-contained saltiness. Right before that, though, OGL2.0 leaks came out; the tweaks they'd begrudgingly made following the backlash. 2.0 is basically just as bad as 1.1; they just spoke of it as being more changed than it was.
In other words, they keep bold-faced lying to a community of rules-lawyers who recreationally read fine print :)
Meanwhile, Paizo (creators of Pathfinder) has come to the rescue, vowing to release a truly open license that will allow everyone to continue pursuing the livelihoods they're passionate about; this is the Open RPG Creative License, or "ORC".
Canceling subscriptions immediately sends a potent message, even if you may have to resubscribe later for functionality in your games. You'll still have the remainder of your billing cycle to enjoy paid perks.
Everything's a little on fire, but I think we'll be okay ♥️
OGL1.0a was never meant to be revocable, as loudly stated in the past couple days by the very people who authored it. It is very likely that WotC is actually just bluffing and bullying, and is actually powerless to revoke it--something many lawyers more knowledgeable than myself seem to be suggesting. In which case, it is my greatest hope in all of this that 3rd party creators are able to continue doing what they love, with no further interruptions.
Remember: the majority of WotC and DnDBeyond employees feel the exact same way we do, but they don't have a choice. Hasbro is the enemy here. Be kind to each other, and know where blame should and should not be placed. If you want to stay up to speed, the account of @.DnD_Shorts seems to be a very active and informed voice, largely responsible for sharing the first leak. If Twitter makes you want to puke, I completely understand; DnD_Shorts also has a YouTube channel with frequent updates on the situation posted in video format.
It's cathartic to me to try to signal boost this stuff, and provide summaries that might help others stay informed. It helps me feel like I'm somehow able to affect these nasty things that are otherwise just inflicted onto lil guys in the community like myself.
However, this has been beyond exhausting and stressful. I'm going to start untangling myself and stepping back from posting about this issue so I can hopefully restore some of my own sanity.
It's been really crazy--in a good way--to see the power this community has when rallied together under a common threat. It makes me proud to be in that community.
At the end of the day, all TTRPGs are really just exercises in creativity and fun. The golden rule has always been and should always be that there is no right or wrong way to play, other than what suits you and those you play with. Likewise, no one should ever feel guilty or judged by others for playing one system over another. It's okay to like D&D5e despite all this. No matter how much they've tried, Wizards of the Coast cannot claim jurisdiction over the invaluable memories you've made, and what has become a creative outlet for countless people. Myself included.
Boycotting is a great way to be heard, since they only care about money. But continuing to use the content you have to play D&D5e is your prerogative, and hurts no one. Furthermore, it's also okay if you can't cancel your DnDBeyond subscription because you rely on it too heavily for your games. That doesn't make you a traitor. That doesn't estrange you from the community. DnDBeyond, at its core, is a great tool that is popular for a reason; it's the new leadership that is forcing it to become something it wasn't meant to be. One day, I hope to be able to resubscribe in good conscious, and I hope that day is soon.
To reiterate, if anyone's even read down this far... be kind to one another. Keep in mind that big enemies win when the party is divided. You can love or hate anything you want in the TTRPG sphere, but how you feel about it does not invalidate someone else feeling the opposite.
Be kind. Be patient. Be empathetic. We're already coming out on top.
What the Critical Role team said in their statement: “Despite our current legal agreements we support and stand by our peers, 3rd party creators, and the TTRPG community”
What some of y’all heard, apparently: “daddy Hasbro give us more money”
I beg of you all, please get better reading comprehension.
Since the start of the year, I’ve been developing a simple story telling TTRPG about a human being abruptly abducted by extraterrestials.
The game mechanism revolves around drawing cards from a standard deck of playing cards and resorting to tables with prompts depending on what you pulled.
Play throughs could have you facing off against hostile or inquisitive extraterrestials, discovering flora or fauna that’s stored on their ship, and even coming across weapons or alien artifacts on board.
Whether you wish to cooperate with the aliens or plot an escape is completely up to you.
I’ve included rules for co-op play that encourages 1 player acting as the human, and 1 player acting as the extraterrestials.
I’ve commissioned a pixel artist to render the game cover, and I couldn’t be more please with their results 👾
(WIP pics below)
I can’t wait to share with you all the final product :)
I’m planning to upload it to itch.io for free, so stay tuned!
