#onednd wizard

[raeynbowboi]

Fixing the Wizard’s Spell Creation in OneDnD

I will be the first to say that when I read the new system for Wizards to create their own spells, I was in love with the idea. It sounded like so much fun. Until I realized just how broken it could get. Forecage for free? Wall of Force? Darkness that only effects enemies? The wizard’s spell creation as it is right now is in serious jeopardy of wildly unbalancing the game, and is also stealing everything that isn’t nailed down from Metamagic. BUT, I do like the idea of Wizards creating their own spells. I think it’s a fun idea. So, how do we salvage this fun idea while also protecting the game’s balance? We pivot. Rather than breaking existing spells by removing casting components, give us tables of options to effectively sculpt new spells from these tables. So like... say I want to create a new necromancy spell. Step 1: spell school. It's a necromancy spell. Step 2: components? Let's say you need Verbal, Somatic, and Material components. What material?  You need a corpse, pile of bones, or an animated skeleton or zombie that is friendly toward you. Step 3: Range/AoE. This one targets one creature within 90 feet. What does the spell do? You use a dead body, pile of bones, or an animated skeleton or zombie that you control and break them apart to create a lance of bone and flesh. You then hurl that lance toward an enemy, dealing 4d8 Necrotic damage. Then you give it a name, level, and work with your DM to decide who can have access to such a spell. Is it just for Wizards, or can you teach this spell to Warlocks too? This is Goring Lance, a 4th Level Necromancy spell available to Wizards and Warlocks. And that's just off the top of my head. Make creating spells a way for your players to do something new instead of breaking spells that already exist. Have the tables to help without turning every single spell into the same exact thing. Have a way for players to create new non-damaging spells too. Maybe balance it with like a point system so that the more powerful a new spell is, the most costly it is to create, so your party isn't just making 400 new 9th level spells. Giving us a means of building brand new spells not only better fits the idea of the wizard inventing spells, but it also gets the wizard's hand out of the sorcerer metamagic cookie jar.

#onednd #wizards of the coast #wizard #onednd wizard #wizard 5.5e #dungeons and dragons 5.5e #one d&d #one dnd

[leidensygdom]

So, it seems like WOTC hired an AI artist for their latest book (Glory of the Giants). The "artist" (in their social media) openly advertises themself as an AI "artist".

I guess the whole OGL mess and sending the Pinkertons wasn't enough, they had to reach a new low. Fantastic timing, gotta say, all while GenCon (the biggest TTRPG con) is currently ongoing.

#wotc #wizards of the coast #dnd #dungeons and dragons #glory of the giants #ttrpg #hasbro #ai #ai art #no ai #anti ai #artificial intelligence #dnd art #dnd5e #onednd #one dnd

[daarka]

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.

#if youre considering taking an opposing stance to the community just to be contrarian or highIQ just. breathe. #the devil doesnt need as many advocates as he has honestly. #opendnd #stopthesub #dndbegone #dndbeyond #ogl #wotc #wizards of the coast #hasbro #dnd #dnd5e #ttrpg #paizo #pathfinder #onednd #dungeons and dragons #rpg #orc #open rpg license #openrpg #critical role #cr #daarka gekkers

[melancholia-ennui]

OGL Update

OK, now I think we can say "we've won" (this battle, if not the war): irrespective of any further WotC bullshittery, the CC-BY-4.0 license is irrevocable, so whatever happens now, at a bare minimum, the entire 5e SRD 5.1 is forever available to third party creators.

Beyond that... Well, it's good that WotC have said they will not deauthorize the OGL 1.0a for content produced in that framework, though it was always a kinda bad license and as far as I am aware such statements are in no way legally binding, so I would still recommend any third party creators to move to exclusively using the CC content where possible.

I hope Paizo continue with the development of the ORC license, as it would be good to have a proper system neutral alternative which was designed explicitly with the particular needs of the TTRPG hobby in mind. Once that license is released, it will at least provide developers with the option of whether they embrace standard CC licenses or follow the ORC if they want to give their content back to the community.

I also hope that people who were encouraged to try new games from this whole fiasco go ahead with that. The world of TTRPGs is rich and diverse, and while I think 5e does serve a particular niche exceptionally well (far better than some give it credit), there's a lot that can be gained by playing other games, both for the experience of the games themselves and as a learning point for how to improve your experience of your preferred system(s).

Lastly, I hope that folks remember this episode - and treat WotC/Hasbro with the suspicion they deserve going forward. They may have realised that they overstepped with this particularly blatant attempted power-grab, but that realisation will not change their fundamental goals and objectives: namely, the monopolisation of the mainstream TTRPG hobby and the increasing monetisation of the D&D brand in particular. As such, the lesson the executives are likely to learn from all this is not that they shouldn't mess with the fans, but that if they do, they need to find subtler ways of doing it.

So stay sharp, remember to take your turn on watch, and above all, remember this: they need us more than we need them.

There will always be other TTRPGs to play.

#dnd #dnd 5e #5e #dungeons and dragons #ttrpg #wotc #hasbro #wizards of the coast #open gaming license #ogl #ogl 1.0a #ogl 1.1 #ogl 1.2 #opendnd #one dnd #onednd

[tsuyoshikentsu]

Holy shit it got worse somehow Delete your subscription.

#dnd #d&d #onednd #oned&d #ogl #open gaming license #dndbegone #d&d beyond #dnd beyond #wotc #wizards #wizards of the coast #homebrew

[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

#onednd #wotc #wizards of the coast #dnd open game license #critical role #opendnd #content creators #dnd content creators #oned&d #opend&d #dungeons and dragons #dungeons & dragons #claris speaks

[hyliandude]

I have no interest in playing, testing, or entertaining the notion of w/e “OneDnD” has planned.

5e is fine and can stay :)

#dungeons and dragons #d&d #ttrpg #rpg #one dnd #onednd #opendnd #ogl #5e #pathfinder #hasbro #wizards of the coast

[goblingrowlart]

Fuck the Thieves Of The Coast

What a fucking shock, Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast is the final boss. Fuck WOTC, #OpenDnD -I was excited to get back into ttrpgs&content creation for a break from gamedev- guess Im moving everything to #Pathfinder2e now. WOTC, heres some content you can have.

#opendnd #open dnd #onednd #one dnd #wizards of the coast #wotc #dungeons and dragons #pixel art #aseprite #dnd art #dnd5e #5e #2e #pathfinder #homebrew #ttrpg

[ashesoriley]

One DND predictions

#wotc #wizards of the coast #dnd #onednd #dungeons and dragons

[ultramaga]

A copy of the leaked contract is attached.

#opendnd #onednd #wotc #Hasbro #ttrpgs #dnd #dnd5e #Youtube #wizards of the coast #dungeons and dragons

[dailyadventureprompts]

Alright, guess it’s time to address the apocalyptic legal elephant in the room:

For those who might not know, WotC plans were leaked to “update” the OGL in what is basically a scorched earth policy with regards to 3rd party material/creators in the hopes of cutting out the competition and forcing people to use their new products. 

As someone who lived through the 4th edition/pathfinder schism, the situation is laughably similar:  D&D is flourishing more than it ever has (thanks primarily to the OGL) but the execs at Hasbro want more of the money spent on the hobby to wind up in their pockets. Oblivious to the fact that the opensource nature of the game is what draws people to it,  they task the design team with creating a proprietary virtual tabletop through which they can sell d&d content without having to worry about books or pdfs being pirated. This rightfully outrages the fandom and burns every scrap of good will they had towards WotC, resulting in a dead edition that’s maligned years afterword as folks hop to the newer, easier game system. 

The thing that’s different this time is that the d&d playerbase has grown exponentially since the days of the first OGL, with 5th edition being the easiest version of the game to run/pick up and so many resources online, there’s almost no barrier to entry besides finding a stable/accommodating group.   Hell, with the explosive popularity of liveplay series you don’t even need to be actively playing in order to be in the fandom.  All of these people are networked together in a fandom hivemind spread across twitter/reddit/youtube and WotC just made an enemy of every single one of them with its shameless and destructive cashgrab.  No streamer or 3rd party publisher wants to give Hasbro 25% of their revenue, to say nothing of having their project “cancelled” if WotC sees it as a threat to any of their current projects ( see the huge number of spelljammer materials published after the company dropped the ball). 

It took about two years after the announcement of 4th edition for Paizo to come out with pathfinder, and I have no doubt the OGL leak kickstarted every major 3rd party publisher brainstorming some legally distinct version of the 5e ruleset. In the coming months I expect to see a number of these surrogate systems floating around the internet in much the same way that the onednd playtest content, but spurred on with the added “fuck you Hasbro” energy. After that, it’s only a matter of time till one of the big streamers picks up one of these systems and popularizes it, not wanting to pay the 25%tithe to WotC. Personally my money’s on Critical Role: they were one of the major factors in popularizing 5th edition and they’ve got the fandom pull to legitimize any claimant to the throne. 

To step away from playing oracle for a bit, I’d like to finish up this post by dunking on WotC:  

*ahem*

HOW FUCKING DUMB TO YOU HAVE TO BE TO TURN YOUR ENTIRE CUSTOMER BASE AGAINST YOU IN ONE NIGHT? This is some new coke/Reynolds pamphlet/invading Russia in winter levels of shooting yourself in the foot. Wizards was on shaky ground to begin with given that they’re coming off a series of notably disappointing products AND trying to launch a new edition/virtual tabletop/battlepass system, but to follow that up with a retroactive rules change that lets them outright steal from or shut down creators? It’s laughable.  Maybe, MAYBE they could have made this work if they were knocking it out of the park with new releases every year and cultivating a base of diehard WotC loyalists, but the fact of the matter is that aside from the brand name, the hobby has largely passed them by. Everything that Wizards does, from player options to settings to monsters to rules modules, someone else does better because they’re willing to take risks and put in the effort. Aside from the elegant simplicity of 5e’s base system, I can count maybe two pieces of actual game design (piety from Theros, ship combat from Saltmash) that I consider usable at my table, which is SAYING SOMETHING considering we’re nearing the end of the game’s ten year golden age. 

I know we’ll weather this storm, we always have, and regardless of what happens I still know my friends and I will enjoy gathering around the table and slinging dice even though we might not be playing “dungeons and dragons” in a couple years time.  I’ll keep my eye on the horizon, and let you know where I find safe harbour.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #d&d #5e #dm advice #dm tip #dm tips #dm tools #writing advice #one d&d #dapper digresses #ogl #ogl 1.1 #hasbro #critical role #open d&d #opend&d

[essektheylyss]

Comparing the 18th and 20th level OneDND features between wizards and sorcerers like, "Oh, I get a couple of third level spells and can bop around 30 feet at a time, sure, great, but the cosmic nepo babies can have damage resistances, pass their injury off to someone else, and also get FREE WISH? With NO CONSEQUENCES? Tracks."

#you know this is also the wizard internal monologue lmfao #'study all this time for THIS and these fuckin nepo babies are out here just bending reality for kicks with no consequences.' #wizards deserve their hubris actually and we should all bully sorcerers more 😤 #this is FULLY a joke to be clear it's really funny actually #also the new wizard features SLAP actually. give me memorize spell and modify spell RIGHT. FUCKING. NOW. #i did try to nudge my DM into letting me take academic for a spin and was shot down lol #which really doesn't matter cuz I've got advantage where i would use it anyway lol. and theres always portebt. #*portent #also i know you can take a different epic boon but it's about the dichotomy here

[leidensygdom]

(Check the link for the post itself! Here’s a screenshot of the same content available in the page, though)

Wizards of the Coast has finally made an official statement about the new OGL, and as expected, it’s an attempt to douse the fire with sweet corpo speak. So, here’s some key points about it, so we don’t forget what actually happened.

They repeated thorough the letter that this was to avoid bigoted content. About three times. Don’t let them lie to you: This was NEVER about preventing bigoted content. (In fact, please remember that WOTC released the hadozee on 2022, and has a lot of unresolved sexual harassment case allegations)

They also mentioned the NFT thing. Again: This is another buzzword, given how nowadays most people dislike NFTs openly. It was NEVER about preventing NFTs

Most importantly: They are blatantly lying about the leaked OGL being “up to revision” and them having planned “to accept community feedback”. The leaked OGL was sent as it is to implied third parties, alongside with contracts. THEY FULLY PLANNED TO HAVE PEOPLE SIGN IT AS IT WAS.

They have been saying they’ll backpedal on some of the choices. DO NOT BELIEVE THEM until we see an actual readable OGL of whatever changes they are promising. They are trying to, desperately, calm down the storm.

KEEP pushing, in fact. Keep unsuscribing from DnD Beyond. Do not buy their products, don’t watch the movie, etc. If this PR stunt makes people suddenly calm down, they’ll try to get away with the OGL as it is.

Also, here’s some segments I want to highlight, just to show how thoroughly filled with horseshit they are:

And third, we wanted to ensure that the OGL is for the content creator, the homebrewer, the aspiring designer, our players, and the community—not major corporations to use for their own commercial and promotional purpose.

This one is probably a jab at Paizo, but they certainly didn’t care about all the third parties affected by this. The “aspiring designer”, the “homebrewer”, the “content creator” are all people who probably have a foot in the industry and are working with smaller TTRPG companies, or third parties. Most third parties have a very limited number of employees (or quite literally consist of just one person), and hire freelancers as needed. These were quite literally the most hurt by this new OGL. Let’s not forget they were content trying to put an end to that.

It also will not include the license back provision that some people were afraid was a means for us to steal work. That thought never crossed our minds. Under any new OGL, you will own the content you create. We won’t. Any language we put down will be crystal clear and unequivocal on that point. The license back language was intended to protect us and our partners from creators who incorrectly allege that we steal their work simply because of coincidental similarities.

They made a section in the OGL that allowed them to steal content. Of course, they are claiming that is not true now, as it would give them a bad image. And yet, they have the nerve to claim they are just defending themselves when they release copied content.

Finally, we’d appreciate the chance to make this right. We love D&D’s devoted players and the creators who take them on so many incredible adventures. We won’t let you down.

This is obviously that sweet corpo speak that ties everything together. They never wanted to make this right: Again, the leaked full OGL was never a draft. They were ready to fuck the entire community over (and still are, most probably) over a greedy cash grab. Do noT forget, and do not relent now: The fight is not over.

We don’t need a “compromise” over the new OGL. I wouldn’t care if they applied this new OGL exclusively to OneDnD, but there is still a lot of people who have built a living operating under 5e’s OGL, and they should NOT be taking that from people. 

(As always, reblog for awareness!)

#onednd #dndbeyond #dnd #dungeons and dragons #ogl #open game license #wotc #wizards of the coast #opendnd #open dnd #ttrpg #5e #long post

[melancholia-ennui]

So one thing that seems to get overlooked in a lot of the discussions around the current state state of D&D, the OGL changes, etc., is why it's D&D 5e that accrued such an mass following - not Pathfinder 2e, not previous versions of D&D, not any other OGL game.

Part of it is, of course, brand recognition. Part of it is "right place, right time" for the nostalgia cycle. But imo there's more to it than that.

At least to me, 5e seems to hit a surprisingly good sweet-spot between a bunch of conflicting trends in TTRPGs.

It's crunchy enough that you can optimise and build around cool combos and synergies if you want to, but also,

It's rules-light enough that it's very easy to pick up and learn for new players and GMs.

The balancing is robust enough that it mostly feels fair and yet flexible enough that it's easy to mod with homebrew content without breaking anything (as long as you understand the basics of bounded accuracy and action economy).

It's got enough of a default setting that you can just pick up and play without needing to build a whole world of your own, but also,

It's setting-agnostic and genre-agnostic enough that you can easily world build your own settings, as long as you're happy for it to be high magic and use the D&D-style magic system.

For all the "just try another system" posts I've seen - and for all the other RPGs I've played - I'm yet to find another system that works so damn well as both an entry point to the hobby and as a fairly robust "default", in the sense that while in many cases there will be some RPG that's better suited for a particular game, it's very rarely the case that there's any kind of game you simply cannot play in 5e without a little tinkering under the hood.

I adored playing Pathfinder 2e, but the simple truth is that I played in two campaigns for the better part of 2 years and I still don't feel like I have a strong grasp on all of the rules and tags and nuances of the system, and it's so thoroughly balanced that I never felt confident doing any homebrew for it because I was worried I would accidentally break something. (I also have more fundamental issues with the play feel of the game - I dislike action economies that punish movement, and I also dislike the way that a lot of the feats and magic items seem to amount to minor "number get bigger" rather than being able to do something new - but these are more personal judgment issues and there are also many points that I feel Pathfinder 2e gets more right than 5e, and you can actually see a lot of those in the bits that WotC is shamelessly stealing for OneD&D.) I would absolutely recommend PF2e to experienced players looking to try something different, but I would never put it in front of a new player who'd never touched TTRPGs before.

On the other end, there are plenty of systems that could work as good introductions to the hobby, even ones with a lot of brand recognition - your Call of Cthulhu, your Vampire: The Masquerade, etc. - but most of these are so thoroughly embedded in their setting and/or genre that they just do not have that capacity to work as a robust default, as a system you can pick up if you're not sure which system would be best for your game and you're feeling too lazy to check (or too broke to buy new books!). They're also fairly limited to being played by people who enjoy the particular genre they are designed for, and that can also just reduce their general mass appeal.

So it's not as simple as "try another game" - while it's very true that there are players and GMs who suffer unnecessarily trying to cram their game into D&D rules when another system would work better, and it's very true that you'll get more out of the hobby in the long run if your do diversify your systems, it's equally true that 5e serves a very particular niche which no other system has managed to satisfy to the same degree.

Which brings us back to the OGL

and one thing that I think a lot of people seem to be missing in the #OpenD&D campaign: any victory we get here is only a temporary concession.

Hasbro is a big international company deeply embedded in neoliberal capitalism. It wants da money. It's primary prerogative is constant growth - a constant increase in profit. D&D - TTRPGs generally - are not good profit making machines. It is entirely possible with D&D for one person to buy three books and then run weekly sessions with a group of six people for four years without ever giving another penny to Hasbro.

From a corporate perspective, this is a Bad Thing™. From a player perspective, it is a Good Thing™.

We already knew before the OGL 1.1 announcement and leak that Hasbro were worrying about D&D being "under-monetized". The move to make D&D more "monetized" would partially mean expanding into new media forms - more books, more toys, more TV shows and movies - but it also means finding more ways to wring money out of the player base.

Given the company's clear focus on D&D Beyond, it seems likely to me that the main direction for this will be a move towards increasing amounts of subscription-only content, which everyone who wants to use the content will need to individually pay for (as they also see DMs being the main people who pay for content as a "problem" to be "solved"), likely associated with attempts to suppress alternatives - e.g. one of the OneD&D announcements seems to be an attempt to push their own VTT, which in part explains why VTTs are specifically targetted in the proposed OGL 1.1.

All that said, it seems very likely that OneD&D is being set up to be much more player-hostile than 5e was.

Through this lens, it's pretty clear that part of the point of the OGL 1.1 changes is to try and force a captive audience. The one thing which would absolutely sink WotC/Hasbro's plans for an increasingly hostile but increasingly profitable D&D space would be someone doing a Pathfinder to 5e - that is, creating an alternative system that has all of the merits of 5e, potentially with a number of improvements, but is provided without the constant profiteering and hostile environment created by WotC/Hasbro's monetization policies. The changes to the OGL are an attempt to pre-emptively prevent any such alternative.

As such,

even if we get the OGL 1.1 decision reversed in the short term, we should expect WotC/Hasbro to try and pull the exact same BS down the line.

It could be months - a revised OGL 1.1 that claims it fixes the complaints people had but doesn't. It could be a year. It could be several years. But they will try and pull this again, for one very simple reason: the popular backlash to this decision may prove that people hate it, but it also proves that for a lot of people, they don't have anywhere else to go.

If people felt like there was a viable alternative to 5e, they would've just jumped ship on mass the moment the OGL 1.1 was leaked - and sure, a lot of people did that, but a lot more people didn't. So while the player base are showing an excellent display of solidarity in face of WotC/Hasbro, they're also half-acknowledging that they do have us just a little bit cornered. We're stuck in this room together.

So what can we do?

Well, signing the #OpenDND open letter and making a fuss about the OGL 1.1 changes is a good start.

However, even if we win the fight over the OGL 1.1, this is only a temporary victory - and we need to start looking to build a serious alternative structure to take power back from WotC/Hasbro.

The smallest way to do this is to avoid using the OGL if you can - get proper legal advice on this, but from what I can tell, a lot more of the 5e system would fall under noncopyrightable material than the OGL/SRD lets on. One lawyer even went as far as to say the original OGL actually gives up rights to material you could've potentially used. If you're making third party content and it only uses noncopyrightable material from 5e, simply release it without the OGL, and then WotC will be unable to pull the rug out from under you.

Of course, the ideal would be for someone to do a Pathfinder and release an alternative to 5e - something which is largely compatible with 5e and third party 5e materiesl, which captures the main merits of 5e (as outlined above), but which is released under a Creative Commons or similar open license, something which irrevocably guarantees the rights of third party content creators far more robustly than the OGL ever did.

This would require walking a fine line - Pathfinder, after all, is an OGL system, so if you were hoping to circumvent the OGL entirely you'd have to work a lot harder to make sure your system only overlapped with 5e/OneD&D in its noncopyrightable material. And that's in addition to the actual difficulty of, y'know, building an entire new TTRPG system from the ground up (or at least from a little above the ground).

But in the long run, creating a really open alternative to D&D - one which was a genuinely community collaborative effort, and which was guaranteed for third party creators under a robust and reliable license... well, it would be an absolute game-changer. (Especially if you could get the content creators and third party authors who've really driven the 5e boom on board, though that in itself is a whole other issue!)

I am aware that Kobold Press are already talking about creating a new system which they describe as "available, open, and subscription-free" (see here), and that could be one direction to keep an eye on in this regard. That said, while I will be keeping my fungal feelers pointed at that project, I would warn that any D&D alternative developed by a corporation and not released under a sufficiently robust open license could easily run into the exact same problems a decade down the line - or worse, be bought out by WotC/Hasbro and folded into the same hellscape that D&D is becoming.

All told, the response of the wider D&D and TTRPG community to these proposed OGL 1.1 changes has been very encouraging, but I feel like our sights are still too narrow - and if we want to avoid this becoming a perpetual war of attrition between WotC/Hasbro and the fans, we really need to be willing to think bigger, and consider more drastic measures to guarantee the future of our favourite game.

#opendnd #open dnd #onednd #one dnd #dnd #ttrpg #tabletop role-playing #ogl #ogl 1.1 #ogl 1.0a #.txt #thoughts and musings #wotc #wizards of the coast

[tsuyoshikentsu]

There's been a major leak from inside WotC.

According to it, the only thing management is looking at regarding the OGL debacle is impact on D&D Beyond subscriptions. If you want to fight back, cancel yours. https://twitter.com/DnD_Shorts/status/1613576298114449409

#dnd #d&d #onednd #oned&d #ogl #ogl 1.1 #wizards #wotc #wizards of the coast

[isagrimorie]

The OGL 1.0 was developed and refined in the leadup to D&D’s 3rd edition. It is part of the legal framework by which creators have been allowed to profit from work derived from Wizards’ intellectual property. In December, Wizards said it would be updating the OGL with increased specificity — that it would only apply to written content and static digital files (like PDFs), and that creators would be required to report related earnings back to Wizards on an annual basis. Furthermore, creators making more than $750,000 annually from these projects would eventually be required to pay a royalty back to Wizards.

What will happen to the original OGL?

The original OGL granted “perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive license” to the Open Game Content (commonly called the System Resource Document) and directed that licensees “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.” But the updated OGL says that “this agreement is…an update to the previously available OGL 1.0(a), which is no longer an authorized license agreement.”

The new document clarifies further in the “Warranties” section that “this agreement governs Your use of the Licensed Content and, unless otherwise stated in this agreement, any prior agreements between Us and You are no longer in force.”

According to attorneys consulted for this article, the new language may indicate that Wizards of the Coast is rendering any future use of the original OGL void, and asserting that if anyone wants to continue to use Open Game Content of any kind, they will need to abide by the terms of the updated OGL, which is a far more restrictive agreement than the original OGL.

The part of me that's curious about processes has been watching WOTC's playtesting OneDnD and honestly, it doesn't seem to be going well, and then the OGL (Open Gaming License) might impact the bigger D&D streaming groups.

How will this affect groups like Critical Role and Dimension 20? CritRole has a working relationship with the WoTC so it's possible they might get some leeway, but the Critical Role group is also very protective of their creations so they might move away?

Dimension 20 isn't free, there's a paywall towards their content so they might also be affected a lot too.

I don't know law, much less contract law, I'm just waiting to see how this all shakes out.

#d&d #dnd #critical role #dimension 20 #news #wotc