#opend&d

The Foreman stands above a piece of machinery, his fists clenched around a large hammer, arms held high for a strike. He waivers, unsure of his actions. A surge of anger floods through him as memories of greed and deception return to him, causing his to grip to tighten as he brings the raised hammer down. But before the blow connects, more thoughts enter his mind. Memories of satisfied customers and the joy his creations bring them. He relaxes, letting the hammer drop to his side as he gazes upon dozens of other machines, a smile on his lips.

The Foreman returns to his workshop and grabs a dusty catalog from a long forgotten corner of the room. The Foundry only had tooling for producing Coastal Wizard items, but perhaps it was time that changed. He flips though through the booklet, eyes scanning the pages. Golarion. Ironlander. Weyland. Cypher. Countless companies, each offering tooling and licenses for manufacturing, and each less restrictive than his previous supplier. “Well then, looks like I better make a few calls…”

Hello again friends. It’s been over a week since we last spoke and in that time I’ve done a lot of thinking. When I made my last post, I was in a pretty bad place. I was on the verge of tears more than once writing it, and when discussing my decision to cut ties with D&D with my friends. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m an incredibly emotional person and I often have trouble regulating those emotions, especially when things I love are involved. This has gotten me into trouble in the past and will likely do so again in the future, but I’m working on it. I’ve made many poor decisions based on my own fickle feelings and I believe this is no exception. I should have stayed quiet, taken time to think, talk it over with those I trust. Could have, should have, would have, didn’t.

I will say, however, making that decision was oddly freeing. A certain clarity that comes from detachment. Cutting ties with the game allowed me to think clearly as I no longer had any stake in the situation. But I still love the game, nothing will ever change that, and I heard someone say amidst the chaos of it all something that really hit home for me: Don’t let WotC’s greed ruin the game we love. It is clear WotC can’t be trusted so it’s up to us to make sure this wonderful game gets the love and support it deserves while making sure WotC doesn’t get a cent of profit from it. We made this game what it is today and we’ll keep it that way, with or without them.

So, as one can probably guess from my shift in tone, I’m not done with 5e anymore, as a player or content creator. I'm going to continue making content for 5e just as I always have, regardless of how this OGL situation turns out. WotC may be trying to control D&D, but they won't control me. If I ever start selling my content, however, things might change, but for now it will be business as usual. I will, however, be alternating between 5e content and other systems as I explore them. I’ve wanted to play other games and make content for them for a long time and going forward I really want to diversify my content both in terms of what I produce and in what form it's produced. This will be a year of change, growth, and diversity for the Foundry and I couldn't be more excited.

So what can you all expect from me in the future? The homebrew content will continue, but spread across multiple system, namely 5e, Pathfinder 2e, Starfinder, and Ironsworn. They’re currently the systems I either have the most experience with or are the most interested in (mostly the latter). It’s unlikely I’ll make content for games outside of those but anything is possible. I just don’t see it happening anytime soon.

On the topic of other systems, I want to start spotlighting other games that I find interesting. There are thousands of wonderful RPGs out there and I want to share some of them with you and my thoughts on them. I’ll talk about their rules, any fun systems, whatever world they have, that sort of thing. I figure these will be things I can post in between projects.

Speaking of projects, what do I want to work on next? Well sadly, my latest project that I've been working on was a commission and both my client and I decided to scrap it so that project is dead, for now at least. Now free to work on whatever, I would love to release something in honor of the upcoming Dead Space remake, which I could not be more excited for. But on such short notice, I can't do anything too crazy if I want to release in time. After that, I have a big project I want to work on using another game entirely which I'm very excited for.

The past.. week and a half? By now I think? Damn its been fast. ANYWAY

The past week and a half has certainly stirred the pot in terms of drama with the OGL and 5e and things, and that combined with the rules changes of OneD&D and everything else is just. It's not looking good for my career.

So I've decided annoyingly early into the project to put a hiatus on Brewyear 2023.

That said, I am still going to strive to complete at least one, aiming for two or more, creative endeavors each day, to at least satisfy my NYResolution abt the brewyear project. I'll do my best to post a lil update of what I did that day here (both creatively and other endeavorly), and images of what it is if I can figure out how to do it (so homebrew, art I make, etc).

This will also become more of a personal blog for me, too! I may end up making a side-blog for the daily updates in the future, if the need presents itself.

I’m not going anywhere lol but I wanted to take a moment to talk about the drama with WotC and D&D.

We role play here on tumblr and tony think too much about it, but imagine if they suddenly decided that these stories we worked so hard on seemed profitable and decided that they were going to take them as their own to sell as IP.

This is what’s going on with WotC and the Open Game license. Essentially they want to revoke their open license to use D&D terms to create new stories,Critical role and the Taldorei setting as an example. WotC’s new OGL would allow for the use of CR’s IP for free to make money not for Cr but WotC.

Breathing heavily, the Foreman surveys the damage with a scowl, fists clenched and shaking with fury, knuckles bleeding. The room is in shambles. Splintered wood and twisted metal liter the floor of his workshop, countless blueprints shredded and scattered.

With a heavy exhale, the Foreman slumps into his chair, his normally large frame rendered small by exhaustion. For the first time in ages, the Foundry lies quiet, the silence broken only by the Foreman's weary voice. "Why did it have to end this way?"

Hello friends. I'm sure you're all aware by now of the ongoing situation with WotC and the Open Game License. I won't be going into any details as I have nothing useful to add there are people who can offer better explanations than I ever could. Lunch Break Heroes did a wonderful video breaking down the situation, why it's awful for the community, and why you should care.

I want to preface what I am about to say by this. I love D&D. I love the team behind the game and how much they appreciate us as a community and what we have to say. I've been incredibly excited for One D&D and whatever the future holds for the game. Sure, WotC aren't perfect. Even through their many stumbles and missteps, especially recently, I still supported them. But not anymore. What WotC has done to us is unforgivable and no amount of backpedaling or apologies will absolve them of their crimes against this wonderful community.

But let me be perfectly clear. My anger is directed at the ones in charge, the executives, NOT the designers. This was a business decision made by business people out of greed and I encourage all of you to remember that. I am 100% certain that the designers would be protesting alongside us if they could without fear of repercussions. Their workplace is already a hellscape because of their boss's decisions, we shouldn't make it worse.

With all this in mind, I have had to make an incredibly difficult decision, one I never thought I would have to make. Effective immediately, the Foundry will no longer produce content for 5th edition or for One D&D in the future. Existing content will remain available for as long as it legally can, afterward I will be removing all access to it, so get it while you can. I will of course give notice before this happens.

As for the future of the foundry, I honestly don't know. I don't want to shut everything down permanently and I'll always want to continue making things. The obvious thing is to switch to another system, but I don't know where I'd go. I would love to jump to Pathfinder, and that's likely what I'll play from now on, but I don't know if I'll be allowed to make content for it. I do know, however, that I want to play and make content for Ironsworn, a wonderful solo RPG by Shawn Tompkin. We shall see, it's too early to start making plans and I'm honestly exhausted by all of this. I need more time to think before I start making plans.

What about you all, those who have supported me for so long? I know none of this is easy to swallow, I get that. I would hope that you might stick around and see where I go from here, what I do next, but I know you came here for my D&D content. With that source gone, I wouldn't blame you if you stopped supporting me. I understand fully and I support your decision either way.