D&D 5E Rants Regarding the Corporate Castration of our Beloved Hobby

[Art the DM]

Okay, I am full of rants. The one that really gets me going lately is concerning D&D Beyond, the OGL and SRD. So, you might be familiar with such online tools as OrcPub? OrcPub was, and still fairly is, an amazing online character builder for 5e. OrcPub is solely responsible for the ease with which I began my foray into this beloved hobby called Dungeons & Dragons. Without their amazing tools, I would probably have suffered from information overload and extreme tedium, ultimately giving up on D&D altogether. OrcPub was especially amazing because it included options from EVERY source, even Unearthed Arcana articles, for creating your character. It DID, anyway, until WotC caught wind of it and stepped in. They demanded that OrcPub remove all non-SRD content from the site, limiting each class to a single archetype and every character to the Acolyte background. OrcPub, of course, complied as they did not want to incur the wrath of the vampiric corporate lawyers. Why would WotC do this over a simple character builder? Something that isn't selling its service or even turning a profit? The answer is....drumroll...D&D Beyond!

Now, WotC, in partnership with Hasbro and Twitch, cooked up a neat little toolset for 5e and named it D&D Beyond. This toolset includes a character builder and compendium of all things 5e. However, and here is the caveat, it is incomplete. It, too, only contains SRD content unless you buy digital copies of the core books and adventures in order to unlock their content in the toolset. So, to summarize, I currently own about $300 worth of hard copy core rulebooks and adventures that sit on my shelf in my living room. In order to utilize the content of those books on D&D Beyond, I would then need to buy the digital version for $30 EACH BOOK! No unlock codes for those holding hard copies. No love for those who have already shelled out the big bucks for the real-world, ink and paper books. Due to this, they feel it necessary to scour the webs for anyone utilizing non-SRD content and put a stop to them so that we, the devoted fans, players and DMs, have no choice but to submit to their grand conspiracy to separate us from even more of our hard earned money. As if we have not spent enough of it already.

This infuriates me. To me, this seems to demonstrate such disregard and lack of appreciation for WotC's customers that it borders on insulting. F#$% you all, give us more money! Thoughts?

 

[RangerWickett]

Yeah, corporate power is kinda all-consuming. If you don't like their business model, you can play their game without giving the corporation money.

Honestly, 5e ain't that complicated. Why do we even need a character builder? Pathfinder is super complicated, AND they put nearly all their material online in various fan sites, and they seem to be doing okay. I dunno, maybe they could be raking in cash if they were more cut-throat, but they seem to be making fine content, and earning a living doing so.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just checking, A.j., how long have you been in the hobby? I’m asking because it’s always been a bit pricey and time consuming.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

I swear this is one person who created two-thousand accounts when Orc Pub got its C&D and has been spamming every RPG discussion forum on the internet with the exact same complaints ever since.

 

[Harzel]

Some of the revenue from purchases of nonSRD content on D&D Beyond goes to Curse for their development work, and some unknown amount goes to WoTC for licensing. I also somewhat resent paying WoTC for their IP multiple times. But because WoTC has multiple licensing deals with entities that provide digital services incorporating WoTC IP, it would not be straightforward to create a discounting scheme that would be both workable and perceived as fair by everyone. Also, I can't think of any practical way to retrofit a scheme onto materials that have already been published.

OrcPub does seem to be contemplating pursuing a licensing deal with WoTC. It will be interesting to see how that goes.

In the end, I find it less stressful to think about it this way. It is not unfair for WoTC and Curse to insist on being paid for their work. The value proposition they are offering is what it is; if having the material in a particular format is not worth it to you, don't buy it. Of course, it is perfectly reasonable to also express your opinion of the value prop to WoTC and/or Curse. That may be more or less effective, but however effective it is, posting on EnWorld is almost certainly less so.

 

[Icarus Dreams]

First off: any non-srd content cannot, from their POV, be allowed to stay on the internet outside their direct control. If they don't go after sites like orcpub, they WILL lose the rights to go after anyone else using the same information as orcpub. Which it sounds like is everything. If they let orcpub keep doing its thing, they set a legal precedent that allows everyone to do it too. There'd be no reason, for a number of people, to buy the books. Everything would be online, completely free, and 100% legal. That is not how you do business, even if many or most people still buy things.

As pointed out by Morrus, this is a myth. Trademark needs to be protected, copyright doesn't. A quick explanation for the difference can be found at the bottom of the post to keep others from proposing the same misinformation. Thanks for the swift correction!

This is not a question of making you buy things twice. As pointed out above, WotC has to pay different people different amounts based on what format the book is bought in. Physical books have the printers and possibly the distributers to pay, and digital has to pay whatever platform it's on. This is no different than me having to buy New Vegas a second time when I made the switch to PC. I owned the game, but I owned it from an entirely different distribution network. Even if they wanted to, I doubt they would have been able to give me a discount on the Steam version because of agreements with Valve. I'd assume the same thing goes with the Beyond stuff.

This is not a case of corporate greed. It's a case of either consumer ignorance or consumer entitlement. I like to assume the best of people, so I'm going to assume you aren't of the opinion that because you bought the book in one format, with all the fees and agreements that entails, that you are entitled to that content in another format, with the different fees and agreements that entails. Having a Harry Potter book on my bookshelf doesn't entitle me to the ebook or the audiobook versions, because that's not what I bought. It entitles me to the physical print copy in my hands, and that's what I get.

I AM NOT A LAWYER. The information contained in this post comes from research done by a hobbiest of law, and you should consult a real, Bar certified lawyer before acting on the information contained herein. Also, real lawyers: correct my ups. I like having correct information.

Correction of the myth from plagiarismtoday.com with some minor readability changes:

Copyright is not like trademark. Copyright has a set period of time for which it is valid and, [if you don't act], you do not give up those rights.

To be fair, the level of enforcement or protection you’ve provided a work can be a factor in how much damages are awarded. For example, if a photo you took has been circulating widely for years with no action and you sue one user of the work, that would mitigate the market value of the work, the damage the infringement could have done and how the court feels about the infringement itself. All of these things can affect the final judgment.

However, unlike trademarks, which do have to be defended, there is nothing the precludes you from enforcing your copyrights at a later date.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

They live and die by their IP. Granted, nobody around these parts gives a monkeys - I've never seen a hard copy of any Wizards product in the one gaming store that I've found. That's in part due to the exchange rate, and also the lack of distribution. When you're out of the reach of Amazon, your options for gaming purchase drop significantly.

On the flip side, there's an obvious passion for the hobby here, and its growing. Just not.. paying WoC for it, for whatever reasons. I'm okay with that, truth be told. Said passion funds other fantasy/rpg/gaming shops and projects, the vast majority of them local.

I've no love for D&D Beyond, mind, though to be fair, I just don't use it. I would prefer the time, energy and marketing oomph to go into more shiny books/material though.

 

[Morrus]

First off: any non-srd content cannot, from their POV, be allowed to stay on the internet outside their direct control. If they don't go after sites like orcpub, they WILL lose the rights to go after anyone else using the same information as orcpub.

That's a myth which is spread around a lot every time a discussion like this comes up. While there is some truth about that regarding trademarks (such as the Dungeons & Dragons brand name), you do not lose your copyright if people copy or distribute it, whether or not you do anything about it.

 

[Uchawi]

I can understand limiting content to third parties. But even a third party product that made it easy to add content would be stellar. However, it does irk me that D&D beyond is limited to SRD and you must buy everything else to unlock content. As I understand it D&D beyond is also developed by a third party, but why WOTC does not have a special arrangement with them to offer more content is baffling. I guess WOTC can hide behind the fact that they did not develop it. But perception is everything.

I like having the tools regardless of how complicated or simple a game is. Like any other tool or automation, it saves precious time.

 

[Blue]

It DID, anyway, until WotC caught wind of it and stepped in. They demanded that OrcPub remove all non-SRD content from the site, limiting each class to a single archetype and every character to the Acolyte background. OrcPub, of course, complied as they did not want to incur the wrath of the vampiric corporate lawyers. Why would WotC do this over a simple character builder? Something that isn't selling its service or even turning a profit? The answer is....drumroll...D&D Beyond!

This is speculation, and it's poor speculation at that because it doesn't fit known facts. Well before D&D Beyond (and even before 5e) WotC has taken down sites that included all of their IP that would remove the need for people to buy the books.

Heck, in 4e they took down sites that provided up to date data files for their own offline Character Builder after they abandoned it. 3.x they had PCGen remove files. This has been going on since WotC owned D&D. (And TSR was even more litigious, there just wasn't the internet during much of those days.)