Hello everyone, Darryl here with this week’s gaming news! Reported leak of OGL v1.1, Paizo changes its errata policy, D&D video games cancelled, RPGs featured on PBS NewsHour, and more!
For a quick summary of the week’s news, Jessica Hancock will bring you up to speed with EN Live's This Week in TTRPG every Friday. (Returning next week!)
Don’t forget, you can keep up with all the week’s gaming news in detail with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk. This week, Morrus, Peter, and Jessica look back at the most anticipated RPGs of 2022 and how they turned out.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
In case you missed the last big news story of 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced changes to the Open Gaming License (OGL) with a new version 1.1. While they did not state specifics, a draft of the OGL v1.1 has reportedly leaked from the YouTube channel Roll for Combat and later from Gizmodo/iO9. This sparked public outcry as claims have been made that the OGL v1.1 will “de-authorize” the current version of the license, OGL v1.0a (which was a new version created for the release of the 5e System Reference Document. However, the architect of the OGL, Ryan Dancy, stated to EN World:
This interpretation would match other legal interpretations for similar open licenses used for software such as the GNU Public License as well as the open media license Creative Commons. Additionally, the OGL v1.0 and v1.0a are used for systems which Wizards of the Coast has no rights claim on, including FATE, Open D6 (the former West End Games house system for Ghostbusters and Star Wars), Runic (the Runequest core system), What’s OLD is NEW, and many others.
An additional part of the OGL v1.1 is requirements to pay royalties under that license to Wizards of the Coast, which is reported to have a lower royalty rate when using the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter as opposed to other platforms. Jon Ritter, Director of Games at Kickstarter, clarified the lower 20% royalty rate:
Reports are that the new OGL v1.1 will go into effect beginning January 13, 2023, though Wizards of the Coast has yet to comment or publicly provide the full text of this new license.
In other Wizards of the Coast news, on Tuesday the company announced they are scaling back their video game aspirations with the cancellation of five unannounced Dungeons & Dragons titles in production. This restructuring also cancelled a project codenamed “Jabberwocky” along with two other projects unrelated to the Dungeons & Dragons brand. The cancellations meant that “fewer than 15 people” were laid off, but will be given a chance to apply for different positions within the company. In a statement to Bloomberg, the company “made some changes to our long-term portfolio to focus on games which are strategically aligned with developing our existing brands and those which show promise in expanding or engaging our audience in new ways.” No mention was made of specific projects from other Wizards of the Coast owned studios such as the anticipated science fiction title from ex-Mass Effect designers at Archetype Entertainment, though Wizards of the Coast CEO Cynthia Williams reaffirmed the game’s development in a December 2022 interview. This does not mean that all upcoming games for Dungeons & Dragons are cancelled as the narrative director for Hidden Path confirmed on Twitter the day following the announcement the company is still developing for D&D and are actively hiring, while the official Twitter account for Baldur's Gate 3 updated its pinned tweet Thursday to a confirmation of the game's full release in August 2023.
Paizo announced changes for their errata process in anticipating of the fourth printing of Pathfinder 2nd Edition. Previous policy was to announce errata at the time of a new printing for a book, which meant that print copies of books would match digital copies but would delay rules patches and changes until a print run was near selling out. The new process will be for two errata released per year, once in the spring and once in the fall. The announcement also includes a look of changes coming for the fourth printing of Pathfinder 2e, the largest of which covers alternate ancestry boosts. When choosing an ancestry for a character, players will have the option of taking the suggested ability score boosts or choosing two free ability boosts. The move is an attempt to address issues of biological essentialism and to add more nuance to the world. Other changes will come to the alchemist class, weapon proficiencies, spells, and weapons. The full list of errata for the fourth printing is available on the Pathfinder 2e FAQ.
The votes are in and EN World readers have chosen your top 10 most anticipated RPGs for 2023. The top ten list includes titles from Free League, Chaosium, Schwalb Entertainment, Cubicle 7, Monte Cook Games, and more. While the #10 entry of Monty Python's Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment ProgrammeA Roleplaying Game No It Isn't is kinda spoiled by the image above, you can find the full list here.
And don’t forget, you can also vote for your Favorite TTRPG Podcasts of 2022 in the Talk (talk shows, interviews, reviews, news) and the Actual Play categories. Vote for up to three entries per category until Friday, January 13!
WizKids announced they’re bringing back the Rusty Dragon Inn Box Set for the Pathfinder Battles line. This boxed set is basically a miniature collection in a box filled with over 50 pre-painted figures and accessories. This set includes monsters like flesh golem, vampire spawn, kobolds, goblins, ghouls, bugbears, and more plus heroes and NPCs, domesticated animals like riding hoses and riding dogs, and a full tavern set with bar, barrels, and decorations along with two wheeled wagons. This set is scheduled for release later this month with a retail price of $199.99.
PBS News Hour covered tabletop roleplaying games and Dungeons & Dragons with a look at the inclusivity efforts of the industry. The article is well sourced featuring statements from Monte Cook describing how Monte Cook Games has responded to increase inclusivity, Critical Role and Dimension 20 alum Aabria Iyenger describing her experiences in the hobby, and Connor Alexander of Coyote & Crow discussing the impetus for creating a setting “that didn’t have colonialism as part of its structure at all”. PBS also spoke with academics from University of California Irvine and American University to discuss the history of Dungeons & Dragons and the fantasy genre to examine the roots of the issues regarding race and biological essentialism and the measures taken to address those issues over the years.
That’s all from me for this week! Don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enpublishingrpg.com, and you can get more discussion of the week’s news on Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk every week. You can follow me on Twitch to get notifications when I go live, follow me on Mastodon for RPG chat and general nonsense, subscribe to Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube for videos on gaming history, RPG reviews, and gaming Let’s Plays, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon, Humble Store, Humble Bundle, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
For a quick summary of the week’s news, Jessica Hancock will bring you up to speed with EN Live's This Week in TTRPG every Friday. (Returning next week!)
Don’t forget, you can keep up with all the week’s gaming news in detail with Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk. This week, Morrus, Peter, and Jessica look back at the most anticipated RPGs of 2022 and how they turned out.
In case you missed it elsewhere on EN World this week:
- EN Publishing will be Kickstarting a Level Up: Advanced 5e hardcover Gate Pass Gazette Annual soon, sign up now to be notified when it goes live!
- EN5ider #490 features a collection of new archetypes that allow classes other than Warlocks to accept a bargain for power with “Cursed Warrior Archetypes”.
- EN5ider #491 is “Fountain of Truth”, a puzzle that demands truth in the face of peril along with guidelines for using it in your games.
- EN5ider #492 brings us a new Villain Spotlight, “Tellara the Story Thief” who seeks to steal something far worse than their treasure, she wants to steal credit for their work!
- ENLive released a trailer for the new actual play livestream Against the Dragonlords, playing through the original DL1: Dragons of Despair adventure for Dragonlance using Level Up: Advanced 5e.
- The winner of the Lego Dungeons & Dragons contest has been announced, a model set titled Dragon’s Keep: Journey’s End created by BoltBuilds.
- Egg Embry interviewed Levi Combs of Planet X Games to talk about An Occurrence at Howling Crater for 5e, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Mutant Crawl Classics.
- Rob Wieland reviewed the 5e update of D20 Modern from Evil Genius Games, Everyday Heroes.
- Rob also took a look at Ruins of the Lost Realm sourcebook from Free League Publishing for The One Ring.
- Charles Dunwoody interviewed Clarence Redd about the d100 system The Comae Engine.
- Egg Embry looks back at the big cyberpunk RPG crowdfunding efforts of 2022.
- Michael Tresca gives us an update on the EN World Columnist Program with the new columns coming soon here to EN World plus how you can apply to join.
- Andrew Peregrine continues his retrospective of the Dragonlance setting by looking at Fifth Age, the Saga System, and Margaret Weis Productions.
- Lewis Pulsipher’s newest Worlds of Design looks at the art of being lost and the fun that comes from not knowing where you are.
- Michael Tresca looks at Hasbro’s approach to Dungeons & Dragons as a brand and Wizards of the Coast’s updated plans for going forward beyond the tabletop game.
- Mike Myler’s newest ENterplanetary DimENsions is Gaseous Guncalta, a world of floating platforms high in the sky over a world of clouds.
- Don’t miss out on the newest RPG crowdfunding projects ending soon with Egg Embry’s RPG Crowdfunding News.
- Keep up with all the new print RPG releases with Charles Dunwoody’s RPG Print News.
- Find the big TTRPG sales, bundles, and charity fundraisers with the RPG Bundles, Freebies, and Sales News.
In case you missed the last big news story of 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced changes to the Open Gaming License (OGL) with a new version 1.1. While they did not state specifics, a draft of the OGL v1.1 has reportedly leaked from the YouTube channel Roll for Combat and later from Gizmodo/iO9. This sparked public outcry as claims have been made that the OGL v1.1 will “de-authorize” the current version of the license, OGL v1.0a (which was a new version created for the release of the 5e System Reference Document. However, the architect of the OGL, Ryan Dancy, stated to EN World:
This interpretation would match other legal interpretations for similar open licenses used for software such as the GNU Public License as well as the open media license Creative Commons. Additionally, the OGL v1.0 and v1.0a are used for systems which Wizards of the Coast has no rights claim on, including FATE, Open D6 (the former West End Games house system for Ghostbusters and Star Wars), Runic (the Runequest core system), What’s OLD is NEW, and many others.
An additional part of the OGL v1.1 is requirements to pay royalties under that license to Wizards of the Coast, which is reported to have a lower royalty rate when using the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter as opposed to other platforms. Jon Ritter, Director of Games at Kickstarter, clarified the lower 20% royalty rate:
Reports are that the new OGL v1.1 will go into effect beginning January 13, 2023, though Wizards of the Coast has yet to comment or publicly provide the full text of this new license.
In other Wizards of the Coast news, on Tuesday the company announced they are scaling back their video game aspirations with the cancellation of five unannounced Dungeons & Dragons titles in production. This restructuring also cancelled a project codenamed “Jabberwocky” along with two other projects unrelated to the Dungeons & Dragons brand. The cancellations meant that “fewer than 15 people” were laid off, but will be given a chance to apply for different positions within the company. In a statement to Bloomberg, the company “made some changes to our long-term portfolio to focus on games which are strategically aligned with developing our existing brands and those which show promise in expanding or engaging our audience in new ways.” No mention was made of specific projects from other Wizards of the Coast owned studios such as the anticipated science fiction title from ex-Mass Effect designers at Archetype Entertainment, though Wizards of the Coast CEO Cynthia Williams reaffirmed the game’s development in a December 2022 interview. This does not mean that all upcoming games for Dungeons & Dragons are cancelled as the narrative director for Hidden Path confirmed on Twitter the day following the announcement the company is still developing for D&D and are actively hiring, while the official Twitter account for Baldur's Gate 3 updated its pinned tweet Thursday to a confirmation of the game's full release in August 2023.
Paizo announced changes for their errata process in anticipating of the fourth printing of Pathfinder 2nd Edition. Previous policy was to announce errata at the time of a new printing for a book, which meant that print copies of books would match digital copies but would delay rules patches and changes until a print run was near selling out. The new process will be for two errata released per year, once in the spring and once in the fall. The announcement also includes a look of changes coming for the fourth printing of Pathfinder 2e, the largest of which covers alternate ancestry boosts. When choosing an ancestry for a character, players will have the option of taking the suggested ability score boosts or choosing two free ability boosts. The move is an attempt to address issues of biological essentialism and to add more nuance to the world. Other changes will come to the alchemist class, weapon proficiencies, spells, and weapons. The full list of errata for the fourth printing is available on the Pathfinder 2e FAQ.
The votes are in and EN World readers have chosen your top 10 most anticipated RPGs for 2023. The top ten list includes titles from Free League, Chaosium, Schwalb Entertainment, Cubicle 7, Monte Cook Games, and more. While the #10 entry of Monty Python's Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme
And don’t forget, you can also vote for your Favorite TTRPG Podcasts of 2022 in the Talk (talk shows, interviews, reviews, news) and the Actual Play categories. Vote for up to three entries per category until Friday, January 13!
WizKids announced they’re bringing back the Rusty Dragon Inn Box Set for the Pathfinder Battles line. This boxed set is basically a miniature collection in a box filled with over 50 pre-painted figures and accessories. This set includes monsters like flesh golem, vampire spawn, kobolds, goblins, ghouls, bugbears, and more plus heroes and NPCs, domesticated animals like riding hoses and riding dogs, and a full tavern set with bar, barrels, and decorations along with two wheeled wagons. This set is scheduled for release later this month with a retail price of $199.99.
PBS News Hour covered tabletop roleplaying games and Dungeons & Dragons with a look at the inclusivity efforts of the industry. The article is well sourced featuring statements from Monte Cook describing how Monte Cook Games has responded to increase inclusivity, Critical Role and Dimension 20 alum Aabria Iyenger describing her experiences in the hobby, and Connor Alexander of Coyote & Crow discussing the impetus for creating a setting “that didn’t have colonialism as part of its structure at all”. PBS also spoke with academics from University of California Irvine and American University to discuss the history of Dungeons & Dragons and the fantasy genre to examine the roots of the issues regarding race and biological essentialism and the measures taken to address those issues over the years.
That’s all from me for this week! Don’t forget to support our Patreon to bring you more gaming news content. If you have any news to submit, email us at news@enpublishingrpg.com, and you can get more discussion of the week’s news on Morrus’ Unofficial Tabletop RPG Talk every week. You can follow me on Twitch to get notifications when I go live, follow me on Mastodon for RPG chat and general nonsense, subscribe to Gamer’s Tavern on YouTube for videos on gaming history, RPG reviews, and gaming Let’s Plays, or you can listen to the archives of the Gamer’s Tavern podcast. Until next time, may all your hits be crits! Note: Links to Amazon, Humble Store, Humble Bundle, and/or DriveThru may contain affiliate links with the proceeds going to the author of this column.
