Untitled

Alright Tumblr, listen up! The Dungeons & Dragons community is in grave danger right now and we need your help to defend ourselves!

It's no secret that for a good few years now, we've been living in a new golden age for Dungeons & Dragons. The game is more popular now than it's ever been before. It has a thriving community of homebrewers and content creators, and is even supported by third party publishers outside of Wizards of the Coast. It feels like every day someone in this community is creating something amazing.

And Wizards of the Coast, in a display of corporate greed that would make the Abyss itself blush with envy, is planning to take our awesome community and drive a stake through its heart.

They're doing this by changing (or more accurately eviscerating) the Open Game License, which the community depends on to publish homebrew content. Quick FAQ to bring you guys up to speed:

What is the Open Game License?

The Open Game License (or OGL) is the public license issued by Wizards of the Coast, that lays out the rules for publishing third-party content for D&D.

Basically, it allows us make and even sell our own content for the game without running afoul of copyright law. This is something we normally couldn't do with the copyright system being the way it is, but the OGL is designed to skirt around those thorny issues. In exchange for following the OGL's (very reasonable and permissive) rules, we're protected from any copyright demons the lawyers send our way.

And so the fandom gets to create its homebrew stuff without interference, while the actual publishers of the game itself get to maintain the copyright on it. A win-win... or so it was.

What's happening to the Open Game Licence?

Right now Wizards of the Coast is cooking a new version of the OGL, one that drastically alters the terms of the deal. The terms of the new OGL were leaked yesterday by a journalist from Gizmodo (the article is linked at the top of the post), who was tipped off by someone inside the company. And every change they're planning to make is a terrible one. Some highlights:

-There are much heavier restrictions on the content we're allowed to publish, and it's unknown how those restrictions will be enforced.

-If we want to publish anything under the new OGL, we have to register with Wizards of the Coast, give them personal information, report our income and potentially give them royalties if our income is too high for their liking.

-Wizards of the Coast retains all rights to our creations, and may use them however they see fit without our consent.

-Previous versions of the Open Game License are rendered void, forcing us to use the new predatory version if we want to publish anything new.

-Wizards of the Coast can change the terms of the new OGL at anytime, unilaterally, with only 30 days notice.

Who does this effect?

In short: just about everyone. Homebrewers, publishers, dicemakers, virtual tabletop software developers, actual play podcasters. I can't say for sure because I'm not a copyright lawyer, but if you create something related to this game and make money off of it, chances are high that you're going to be bound by some or all of these terms.

But that's not all. This can also impact games outside of D&D. Many of their competitors (like Pathfinder) use a modified version of the d20 system, which was up to this point protected by all previous versions of the OGL. The terms of the new OGL aren't just designed to exert control over their own community, but also demand royalties from their competitors.

The last time something like this happened (the dark, dark days of 4th Edition), the community survived by jumping ship to Pathfinder. Evidently they're taking steps to stop that from happening this time.

What can we do about it?

And here we reach the all-important question. Learning about the problem is the first and easiest step, but what we can we do stop it? This is where I can finally give you guys some good news: we can stop this from happening, if we band together and act quickly!

The new license hasn't been released yet, and depending on how big of a stink we make over the next few weeks, it may never be released. Wizards of the Coast is walking on shaky ground here... not just ethically, but also legally and financially. And in kicking the hornet's nest like this, they may have overreached.

So first thing's first: Make a big stink about this. Spread this news over social media, and let it be known that you're willing to stop buying Wizards of the Coast products if this goes through. Despite D&D's newfound popularity, tabletop gaming is still relatively niche. They lack the mass market appeal that's necessary to survive a sustained boycott.

If the new license is released, support third-party creators however you can, and don't touch the new license with a ten-foot poll. WotC is trying to revoke the previous OGLs, but there's good reason to believe they can't actually do that; those things were explicity designed to be irrevocable, and there's a really good chance this whole power grab crashes and burns in the courtroom. So stall for time. Avoid publishing anything under the new license for as long as you feasibly can.

It’s part of the reason Elrond tends to get on so well with Glorfindel: because he was raised by the murder siblings.