#oned&d

[a-wa-c]

Upside to a new edition, WotC has the opportunity to eliminate electrum as a currency.

[abislwise]

Holy shit it got worse somehow Delete your subscription.

[aspencrown]

OneD&D, the OGL 1.1 Leak, and the Grim Future of Dungeons & Dragons

Hey folks, long time no talk. While I know that this account is more or less a place for me to put up pretty pictures or to comment on political issues nowadays, I figured I may as well rant talk about a topic I'm pretty passionate about: D&D and tabletop roleplaying in general. Or to be more precise, the changes looming in the distance.

On the chance that this is the first time you (the reader) have heard about this OGL 1.1 stuff, I'll try to sum up what's been happening in the world of D&D and its Open Game License. In short? It's bad. Very bad.

What's Going On?

Over the past month or so, after a rather unnerving article published by Dicebreaker about D&D execs feeling the hobby was "under-monetized", there's been a lot of tension building about the future of D&D. It eventually came to a head with rumors floating around Twitter and YouTube about OneD&D was going to do something to the existing OGL and that the new license would be hyper-predatory. This prompted WotC to publish a reply, which was rife with the usual corporate soft-speak that made it clear that they weren't being entirely truthful. But it did what it was meant to and calmed some of the concerned fans.

Then on January 5th, the leaked 1.1 OGL was revealed via an article on Gizmodo and was found to be a 9,000 word document with contracts attached (which, for reference, is 10 times that of the current OGL -- which has far more friendly 900 words). Whoever leaked it to Gizmodo apparently did so under breach of NDA (Though there are theories about it being intentionally leaked) and it appears that WotC was initially intending to launch a shock-and-awe scorched earth campaign against all third-party content creators, big and small, by moving to revoke the long-standing OGL 1.0a.

Why is the OGL 1.1 Bad?

The easier question to answer is what's good about it, which are new protections against publishing creations that contain hatespeech, racism, transphobia, and so on -- on top of protecting the property from NFTs and such.

Though to put it very briefly (and bluntly) on what's awful about OGL 1.1, it seeks to make D&D inhospitable (or outright toxic) to any and all third-party content creators; drive out competition in virtual tabletops like Foundry and Alchemy RPG *; doing away with non-official virtual tools (Kobold Fight Club comes to mind); potentially harm streamers and YouTube content creators; claim ownership over creations from both non-commercial and commercial homebrew; demanding exorbitant royalties based not off of profit, but revenue; and expect creators to report their finances and earnings to them like they're the IRS.

If this OGL is made official, not only will it kill the vibrant homebrew community D&D has, but it will also go after other TTRPGs that utilize the OGL 1.0a out of good faith over these past 23 years. This means Pathfinder 1 & 2, Fate, Mutants and Masterminds, and many more are now in WotC/Hasbro's crosshairs.

Solasta: Crown of the Magister, and other video games like it, is also at risk as it uses elements from D&D's OGL.

Big name streamers like Critical Role and Dimension 20 might also be affected by this, but as they have currently not made any official stance on the matter it is unknown if they will stand with fans or broker some sort of agreement with WotC/Hasbro. (Note: This is not meant as a jab, caution over one's IP and livelihood is always important.)

There's a lot more that's scary about it that others listed below have covered, but know that the verbiage in the new OGL as it stands is belligerent and harmful to everyone. *Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds will likely be safe, as they already have contracts with WotC.

What Can You Do About it?

Honestly, be loud. Don't threaten or curse, of course, but make your displeasure known. Go fill out OneD&D's survey (decline to review the Cleric changes) and voice your concern. Cancel your D&D Beyond subscription, if you have one. Go on Twitter and join in on #opendnd. Sign this petition perhaps.

Remain vigilant to whatever may change, because it's only a matter of time until Wizards does their staged apology to deflect.

Aside from it being a typical tactic when adjusting the Overton Window, it even says in the document that they "will receive community pushback and bad PR" and that "[They're] more than open to being convinced that [They] made a wrong decision."

Keep the pressure on, because whatever changes they will so "graciously" give us will surely still be terrible.

Relevant Reading / Viewing

Dungeons & Dragons executives think 'the brand is really under monetized'

OGLs, SRDs, & One D&D (WotC's milquetoast reply to December's circulating rumors)

Dungeons & Dragons’ New License Tightens Its Grip on Competition (This is where the OGL 1.1 was leaked)

Let’s Take A Minute To Talk About D&D’s Open Gaming License (OGL) (An explanation from an IP lawyer with experience in gaming licenses.)

The Rules Lawyer's commentary and explanation (Video)

Roll of Law's commentary (Video)

Scintilla Studio's OGL 1.1 and the Extinction of D&D (Video)

Closing Thoughts

I'm a relative newcomer to the world of D&D and TTRPGs. I've always wanted to try it, but the idea of playing at a table with random people terrified me. It wasn't until the semi-recent (okay, maybe not so recent anymore) advent of virtual tabletops was I given hope. So when a kind pigeon gave me a spot in her game, I was hooked from then on.

I dove into the world of TTRPGs and haven't looked back since. Though over the past year or so, I've been getting a little disenchanted with WotC as their last couple of publishings have been very lackluster and disappointing. The last one I enjoyed was Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, but even then I wished they did more with it. And don't get me started over the recent Mordenkainen's and Spelljammer...

Third-party content, everything from little up-and-comers on the /r/Unearthed Arcana subreddit, to @the-griffons-saddlebag, to big Kickstarters like Heliana's and Steinhardt's were the things that have kept the hobby vibrant for me. I'll always support them over a corporation, especially greedy and vicious ones like WotC-Hasbro. So even if they dial back what has been leaked to something more "tolerable". Hell, even if they leave the OGL 1.0a alone after all, they made their choice with trying to pull the rug out from under us with this.

While my love for D&D will not die, I can certainly promise that WotC will not see another cent from me from here on out.

[clarislam]

I’ve been reading up on all the discussion around OneDnD and the possibility of changes to the DnD open game license (OGL for short). Based on what I know now, it does make me concerned about all the various DnD content creators I’ve watched over the years. Not just big ones like Critical Role for example, but other (smaller) creators as well. 

I’m not a DnD content creator, but I can’t imagine how hard of a time those creators are having with trying to figure out how to pivot from this or how they will manage things from here. Whatever they may decide (even if the new OGL doesn’t end up going through), I encourage you to support them however you can. 

For those that don’t know what’s going on regarding OneDnD and Wizards of the Coast possibly implementing a more restrictive open game license that will cancel out the past versions of DnD, I’ll put links below to a couple articles for more details:

D&D’s stricter licensing rules might impact some beloved RPGs - Polygon

The Dungeons & Dragons' OGL 1.1 Tightens Grip On Competition -Gizmodo

Dungeons & Dragons Community Holds Breath as Wizards of the Coast Prepares New OGL - Comicbook

[true0neutral]

The OGL 1.1 Leaks, What We Know & Some Lawyer Perspective | Nerd Immersion So the OGL 1.1 was leaked in a draft form to news outlet Gizmodo, who posted an article earlier today. As you can imagine, this set the D&D/TTRPG space ablaze. I analyze that article and confirm it's consistent with the leaks that I saw and then also take a look at it from the perspective of a TTRPG Intellectual Property Lawyer (@MyLawyerFriend). ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[stellarynn]

One D&D, why are you making class features into spells? What are you doing here? Why?? Like I get that you wanna neuter multiclassing, but why make class features into spells?

[kalach-cha]

as a d&d player of almost 15 years can i just say that oned&d is the dumbest shit i’ve ever seen