There’s a lot of discourse these days (mid-January 2023) around Wizards of the Coast’s leaked Open Game License (OGL) v1.1 “draft” update, and even more controversy around the new payment tiers that have been leaked, but remain unconfirmed by the company.
The Background
The OGL 1.0a, released in 2000, offers
4. Grant and Consideration: In consideration for agreeing to use this License, the Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content.
The Open Game Content referenced above is defined as “game mechanic and includes the methods, procedures, processes and routines to the extent such content does not embody the Product Identity” - and goes on to define the Product Identity as, basically, “stuff that looks like Dungeons & Dragons.”
But, Earthling, you just said we can’t use stuff that looks like Dungeons & Dragons - this whole license is useless?
No! But I see where you get that. There’s a major difference between the mechanics of a game, which can’t be copyrighted, and the substance of a game, which can. The mechanics of the game are like physics: you can’t say “nobody can use gravity, that’s mine” - that’s stupid, you can’t copyright a basic fact of the universe. You can, however, copyright the application of gravity, which lets you make an airplane or an Event Horizon Telescope or a desk chair. So the stuff that’s free to use are ideas like “Druids (class) have these spells,” “ancient dragons have legendary actions,” and basic rules like “attack rolls that meet the defensive stat hit.” If you’re interested, take a look at the 5.0 SRD under OGL 1.0a for more details - there’s a lot in there. Things that are not free to use are settings, like Eberron, characters like Strahd, or - come on, really? - the phrase “Dungeon Master.” lol ok. I prefer God of Gods anyway.
Countless game developers have used the OGL to build their own games: from homebrewers like me, to Paizo, the creators of Pathfinder. Each person puts their own spin on it, sometimes to the point of making a whole new game - but the underpinnings remain more or less the same.
So, that’s where we’ve been from 2000 til now, 2023 - Dungeons and Dragons approximate mechanics free to use, free to modify, free to sell your modified/original material based on the OGL - a wonderfully supportive and welcoming atmosphere for game developers building their first custom item, to professional publishers.
Importantly, there’s also this clause:
9. Updating the License: Wizards or its designated Agents may publish updated versions of this License. You may use any authorized version of this License to copy, modify and distribute any Open Game Content originally distributed under any version of this License.
which says Wizards (of the Coast, or WotC) can issue an update to this OGL, but you can use whichever OGL you like, provided the content you use was licensed under that particular OGL. You can’t put Larry Bird on your 2023 Celitcs roster, because he’s not playing anymore; likewise, you can’t put Lebron James on your 1986 Celtics roster, because he was two. But you can put Larry Bird or Michael Jordan on your 1986 roster, because they were both playing then. (This is the most I’ve thought about basketball, possibly ever.) In this example, the player is the content, and the roster is the OGL; both the player (content) and roster (license) have to be active at the same time to be valid. So you can use the material licensed under 1.0a - the System Reference Documents (SRD) for D&D 3, 3.5, and 5e - as long as you abide by the other terms of 1.0a.
The Controversy, Part 1: WotC picks a fight with rules lawyers, is surprised when they read the rules and argue.
In late December 2022, a new license document - 1.1 - was leaked. This version of the document did several, highly problematic things. First, it sneakily “unauthorized” the OGL 1.0a. Then, it required content creators to register and “license back” their materials - basically, send to WotC for approval before publishing. Third, it required creators with income over $50k to report their income to WotC, and instituted an automatic 25% royalty on any income over $750k. Additionally, it limits third-party content to print and pdf forms of TTRPG content only. Finally, there’s a provision that this agreement can be modified at any time with only 30 days notice given.
Jeez, that’s a lot to unpack. I didn’t really come here to write about this part, though, so you can get a detailed read at Gizmodo about the broad impacts of these udpates. I’m just going to give you a high-level read on them, below.
Unauthorizing the 1.0a: means we no longer have the option of using previously open-source materials to publish homebrew and additional content.
Registration of materials before publishing: WotC gets to say “yes you can” or “no you can’t” where they never could before - and that’s going to take T I M E. Have you seen the amount of D&D content that’s online? It’s massive. They say it’s to prohibit racist, sexist, and otherwise unsavory content, but all it’s going to do is gum up the works, and has a smell of “let me look at your paper before you hand it in” to it.
Reporting income and automatic royalties: Now, the numbers given are high - reporting required at $50k/year - do people really make a living from publishing D&D content? Well. I mean, I’d like to, actually, that’s sort of why I’m here, so… But the really sneaky part of this is that they’re looking at income, not profit - so if you’re operating in the $750k+/year range, they’re only looking at how much money you brought in and taking their cut. If you bring in $1,000,000/year, you owe WotC $1,000,000 - $750,000 = $250,000 x .25 = $62,500. Boy, that… that number looks a lot like a salary, doesn’t it? And remember, they’re only looking at how much money flows into your account - there’s no accounting for costs associated with things like wages, benefits, office space, actual printing costs - so that $62,500 really could be someone’s salary that you now have to lay off because of WotC’s slice of the pie.
Limiting content creation to only TTRPG print and PDF materials: This doesn’t seem so bad until you remember that with the release of OneD&D, WotC will also be releasing their proprietary Virtual Table Top (VTT). Also, since it’s limited to TTRPG print and PDF materials, that means no more videos, no more novelizations, no more character sheet apps.
Modification with 30 days’ notice: Standard contract language! But insidious. Let’s come back to this, because the fans had a lot to say about these changes - and WotC “listened.”
On Friday the 13th, January 2023, DnDBeyond released a statement (on behalf of WotC) walking back the majority of these terrible, stupid, no-good positions. Notably, they did not un-de-authorize 1.0a - they said “Content already released under 1.0a will also remain unaffected.” Which does not mean “you can keep using 1.0a,” it just means your stuff already created won’t fall under these new rules. And the modification with 30 days’ notice clause went unmentioned. Which means they can say whatever they want to get 1.1 through the system, and then all they have to do is update 1.1 to 1.1.2 or whatever to walk back any of the changes that we, the players and creators, demanded, in order to go along with 1.1 - and because agreeing to 1.1 means we agree that 1.0a is unauthorized, we can’t just go back to publishing as we have been. By allowing the deauthorization of 1.0a, we hamstring ourselves and sign a devil’s bargain.
Well wait a second, Earthling, up there you said that the 30 days’ notice update was standard contract language - why are you still calling this a deal with the devil?
The Gizmodo article linked above includes this little tidbit about timing and dates:
The document reads, “if you want to publish SRD-based content on or after January 13, 2023 and commercialize it, your only option is to agree to the OGL: Commercial.” io9's source indicated that the final version of the document was originally intended for release on January 4, which would have given companies and creators seven business days to agree and comply.
Seven days to comply or shutter your whole project? Doesn’t sound like a kind and benevolent overlord to me….
The Controversy, Part 2: “D&D is under monetized”
WotC CEO Cynthia Williams dropped this astounding tidbit in early December, 2022, suggesting that the company’s goal will be to “unlock the type of recurrent spending you see in digital games.” Hurk.
Worse than that, this yet-unconfirmed info was released on Twitter, and suddenly all of those updates to the OGL make a lot more sense:
For context, my current Master-tier subscription is $5.99/month. This allows all of my players to access all of the content I have purchased - all of the species, classes, feats, spells, etc. - as well as all of the homebrew content I have created, and add them to their character sheets on DnDBeyond.
By deauthorizing the OGL and making it harder for third-party creators to create, they consolidate users around the brand. By restricting homebrew content at the base tier, they force users to pay more to access the features that make D&D a mutually created adventure.
The thing that makes me really sick, though, is the possibility of AI Dungeon Masters. That takes all of the magic out of this stupendously magical experience. And I’m not talking spells and arcana - I’m talking about the magic that happens when you and your friends get together, step into other roles, embody new ideas, say things you wouldn’t say but your character would, and say it not with your fear and discomfort but with their confidence and assuredness. Dungeons and Dragons is a transformative experience that happens in the company and with the support of others.
An AI-controlled dungeon cannot. Cannot. Be part of that. Best case scenario, it gives you a fine open-world video game with some uncanny-valley experiences. Worst case scenario it gives you a single-player, uncanny-valley “open” “world” where dialogue makes zero actual sense and there’s no continuity between events.
My whole position on this Substack has been to make clever use of resources, and to use those resources to drive engagement in the game, and creativity from players. This… application of resources is an abomination. If you want a computer to guide your game, go play a video game, I don’t even understand? Why would you take Dungeons and Dragons, the world’s best-known tabletop roleplaying game - turn it into an online game - and remove even the possibility of mutual creation?
Oh yeah - profit. Captialism. Sarumon the White, tempted by Sauron to turn his once-beautiful land into a desolate landscape, corrupted and perverted into assembley lines belching toxic smoke that pollutes the air and its inhabitants. This whole debacle is a money grab, engineered by executives to take our money and put it in their pockets.
Luckily, the D&D community has rallied against this, in one of the fastest, most effective community responses I’ve ever seen. More recent news from WotC seems to be moving in the right direction. They seem to be playing the “oopsie!” card, which is insulting, but they’ve removed the royalty structure, the license-back feature, distributing the core mechanics under a Creative Commons license, and the OGL 1.2 (which will allow the use of the SRD) will, importantly, include the word “irrevocable” - so we won’t end up in this situation again five years down the line.
So what’s the moral of this story? Honestly, I think the moral is that when a community pays attention, organizes, and cares about each other’s wellbeing first (instead of as an afterthought, or “after I get mine”), change can come swiftly. It does seem to be to our benefit that the people on the other side of the negotiating table are also game nerds, just tainted, C-suite nerds, who remembered their origins just in the nick of time.
This ended up being a lot more than I expected! So it goes. Check in next time for more crafts - my art room was blocked off for the last several weeks because we hid things in there before Christmas and then it was overwhelming, but we’ve cleaned it out and I can now get back to my desk! Hooray! Will it be swords or coins or something else? Not sure! You’ll just have to read it ;)
Always a bad idea to pick on nerds in community
I loved the takeaway at the end -- direct action gets the goods ❤️❤️❤️