Corporate Re-“Tool”-ing of Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is likely to re-tool its Open Gaming License.  This should not be surprising or unusual.  The original OGL (and the resultant game SRD) is over 20 years old.  The RPG space has gone through many changes in recent years – digital tools, online games, actual plays on streaming services - so some revision to the OGL would be understandable.  However, the people rewriting OGL 1.1 don’t know what they are doing and are using a warhammer to fix a nuanced and subtle machine.  Assuming that OGL 1.1 is implemented, Hasbro/WotC is screwing up badly - forcing many many 3^rd party artists and developers to make drastic changes to the way they develop unique products from a contract with the OGL 1.0a. In the name of monetizing, they're destroying partnerships and industry-wide communities - forcing them to rebuild apart from D&D.

Corporate tools.  Am I right!?

Let me just say here that I love D&D.  I enjoy a lot of other RPGs as well.  Many other RPGs do a better job expressing stories in wonderful settings - using rulesets that are often more elegant or nuanced.  Still, the worlds and stories I’ve helped to create with D&D around a table (and online) have been wonderful!

I got back to D&D in recent years in part because D&D was being designed by, DMed by, and managed by people who love the game, love their craft, and love the community that’s growing around them.  It was the passion of Shelley Mazzanoble and Greg Tito, the DMing skill and writing of Chris Perkins, the passion and game structure skills of Jeremy Crawford - as well as the teams they built to create the current edition of D&D.  Chris Perkins with Acquisitions Incorporated, Wil Wheaton’s Valkana series (not D&D, but still), and Matt Mercer’s Force Gray and Critical Role series have been inspirations on streaming settings.  All of these inspired me to get together with old friends and new to create some wonderful adventures and campaigns.

What Hasbro is doing to the OGL is truly sad and misguided.  The open game rules have become a language all their own since 2000 - a living document that has inspired many developers to take it in directions that the original developers didn’t foresee.  Paizo’s Pathfinder is a wonderful alternative to D&D.  Their world of Golarion is different than anything D&D developed.  Kobold Press’s Midgard, Frog God’s Lost Lands, are wonderful and unique worlds created for use by players and DMs of D&D.

Corporations create blunt (nay bludgeoning) tools.  The only aim of corporate tools is to identify and draw revenue from all possible products - while shutting off everything the tools deem superfluous.  The aim of protecting IP by locking down the OGL and drawing revenue is misdirected at best.  The WotC / D&D IP, that are most valuable are adventures, settings, spells, and devices that are unique to the Forgotten Realms, Spelljammer, Ravenloft, and others published by D&D.  The OGL and SRD don’t include the unique experience that these generate around the game table.  I feel that the OLG / SRD is no longer part of their IP.  Hasbro would be better off protecting actual intellectual properties (Waterdeep, Tiamat, Drizzt, Yawning Portal, etc) and maintaining and encouraging the community to go with them.

I don't think that the changes they are making will add to revenue - it will create (has created) animosity in the community and shut off more revenue than it will solidify new revenue streams. Switching from Open Source framework to 90s Microsoft model is not the way to go - as far as I can see. #NotAnEconomist.

Games Workshop and Disney are examples of companies that protect their intellectual property tenaciously.  Yet GW doesn’t seem to focus on game mechanics as much as cultures, settings, place names, characters, and art - all of which are strongly protected.

There are publishers who make wonderful products for use with the D&D rules that have been open for decades.  I’m not planning on following D&D into their new ventures - especially when it comes to digital tool sets that require subscription.  I like the D&D products I own and I will continue to play.  I will also use some of the adventures and setting material from Frog God Games, Kobold Press, Goodman games and others.  I will think twice about using D&D 5e rules for game settings I develop for my players and for possible publication.

Good luck to those of you who rely on the OGL for part of your livelihood.