More Information:
https://youtu.be/WXTdoUW8nxo
https://youtu.be/lGbcHyQ2v3c
What is the Open Gaming License?
The Open Gaming License (OGL) is a legal framework that allows creators to use the rules and ideas of roleplaying games in their own works. Initially released in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast, it has become a pillar of the tabletop gaming industry, fueling the popularity and accessibility of games such as Pathfinder, 13th Age, and Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition.
The OGL has done more to foster creativity and innovation in the tabletop gaming ecosystem than any other element. By allowing creators to use and collaboratively build upon the core mechanics and concepts of existing games, the OGL has created a wide variety of new games and game products, ranging from minor independent releases to large, commercially successful titles.
End of an Open Era
However, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has announced an updated OGL (version 1.1)—an attempt to dismantle the entire RPG industry. This new license intends to completely revoke the old OGL, a perpetual license designed by WotC themselves to be irrevocable.
Nothing about this new license is “open.” It chokes the vibrant community that has flourished under the original license. No matter the creator, it locks everyone into a new contract that restricts their work, makes it mandatory to report their projects and revenues to Wizards of the Coast, and gives WotC the legal right to reproduce and resell creators’ content without permission or compensation. The new license can also be modified with worse terms or terminated at any time without any recompense by creators.
For the largest creators in the industry, WotC is imposing an impossible tax of 25%—based on their total sales above $750K, not profit. This is anti-competitive, monopolistic behavior designed to crush small businesses that collectively employ hundreds of designers, writers, and artists. Under this tax, it becomes impossible for creators to put books on game stores’ shelves or run Kickstarters for large audiences. Even though this only affects some companies in the space, those targeted are still tiny compared to Wizards of the Coast, which made $1.3 billion in 2021.
On top of that, games such as Pathfinder 1E and 2E, 13th Age, Fudge, and Traveller—which use the 1.0 OGL as the backbone of their existence—will need to cease sales of upcoming products or give WotC 25% of their revenue to stay in compliance with the new license.
Furthermore, under the new license, virtual tabletops (VTTs) cannot operate. They can no longer support OGL systems, and creators can no longer release modules and adventures on popular digital platforms such as Foundry, Alchemy, or Shard.
If this new license gains wide adoption, the tabletop landscape will fracture and lose its biggest onboarding mechanisms, shuttering the small businesses that populate your local cons and putting a stop to their creations. Innovation in the gaming industry will evaporate; your favorite games will be trapped in the past, instead of being allowed to migrate to your phone, virtual reality, and beyond. Diversity in the industry will shrink away, as projects from marginalized creators are effectively written out of the future.
We expect Wizards of the Coast to attempt expensive and illegal lawsuits to enforce compliance with their new agreement. Even if they aren’t successful in court, they will irrevocably damage the tabletop industry.
#OpenDnD
#OpenDnD is a rallying cry under which creators and fans have unified to demand that WotC revoke the draconian 1.1 OGL and pledge to support the existing 1.0 OGL into future editions of their games. This isn’t an opportunity to litigate and tinker with a new license, but to return to the values of open gaming. Our community deserves an open future if we want our favorite games to not only survive, but thrive!!
If you are a creator, #DontSign the new agreement. If you love roleplaying games, let WotC know we won't support them without an #OpenDnD!
WotC has shown that they are the dragon on top of the hoard, willing to burn the thriving village if only to get a few more gold pieces. It’s time for us to band together as adventurers to defend our village from the terrible wyrm.
D&D's 4th Edition's art direction wasn't doing so well itself with le epic glowing eyes everywhere and Rob Liefield anatomy and grimaces all over the place. It was trying way too hard to visually be World of Warcraft.
5th Edition's art was much better, impressively so.
With the corporate sent seeking skullduggery happening with 6th/One(tm)(r), it won't matter to me what the art looks like because I'm not going anywhere near it.
Not just visually from what I remember of the gameplay. Tbf though I only played a little 4e.
But yeah I like pathfinder despite the hideous art. I even think they've got cool ideas to their visual design, like I enjoy their freaky alien elves, but it's all either terribly drawn like in this example, or its a combination of enough design elements to build an army all crammed into one character.
Sometimes both. Not usually though.
Yeah. It tried way too hard to pigeonhole every class into "tank/healer/dps" roles and tried to make "solo bosses" play like "raids" and be just as tedious for people that don't really enjoy spending hours doing tedious synchronized mechanics to take down some big boss. The storytelling was kind of Blizzardesque too, where each character was presented as simultaneously LE EPIC HERO from the start but in a way that made it seem like LE EPIC HEROES came out of a factory somewhere and that everyone else was a placeholder or set decoration, in a way making "NPCs" seem even more like the modern concept of "NPC" that way. Older D&D used to stat block even a city guard to make them seem like they played by the same rules, but now that same city guard was supposed to be instantly in awe of the LE EPIC HEROES that came fresh off the factory line to chase a few pre-selected LE EPIC DESTINIES that generally assume some kind of vague godhood as a matter of course.