They're still going through with it and maintaining that they have the right to change the terms whenever they feel like. As expected they're rolling back one or two things (which they can undo whenever they want) and acting like people won. Fuck WotC.

  • ssjmarx [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    First, we wanted the ability to prevent the use of D&D content from being included in hateful and discriminatory products.

    I love the fact that they keep frontloading this, as if a single person criticizing the new OGL was saying "what if I want to make a racist D&D book?"

    edit: anyway, the damage is frankly already done, no matter what Hasbro tries to claw back. Their biggest competitor is releasing a new license, which will be held by a neutral organization, which is going to be superior to what the OGL was already, much less the gimped version that WOTC intends to release next.

    The real question is whether this saga will actually create a change in the market. I'm a bit cynical to the idea that everyone will suddenly switch to Pathfinder instead of D&D 6 - right now Pathfinder is only about 1/10th the size of D&D, and every other TTRPG barely shows up as a blip compared to those two, and I just don't see the kind of seismic shift happening that would need to happen to break that status quo. Everyone publishing TTRPG materials will need to publish D&D materials in order to make money, which should force the OGL 1.1 to have a big install base even if it's a reluctant one.

    • WoofWoof91 [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Everyone publishing TTRPG materials will need to publish D&D materials in order to make money

      you mean just 3rd party supplements?

      • ssjmarx [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Right yeah. Though I think it would be really funny if we saw the major 3rd party publishers do two things:

        • Publish supplements for 🅱️ungeons & 🅱️ragons, which is legally distinct from that other game
        • Publish supplements simultaneously for multiple systems, esp. if you're primarily selling PDFs there's no reason why you could have alternate versions with different game mechanics
    • Ithorian [comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I doubt this will push the pen and paper market that much but the VTT market is very noticeably changing already if you follow all of the patreon creators.

    • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Pathfinder will get a bit of growth but it's not positioned to be the lifeboat it was with 4E. Pathfinder 2E is a very different system with different design principles and you can't convert characters from D&D like they could last time. The good news is that being its own thing will give it a much stronger position in the ensuing legal battles, but the drawback is that it'll be harder to get people to switch.

      If there's going to be a system that emerges as a clear lifeboat, it's probably one of the ones being developed in response to this happening.

      • ilyenkov [she/her, they/them]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Hopefully people will end up giving Pathfinder 2E a good try, IMO a better system. I've been in a game for a couple of years now and its pretty good.