Why Open Gaming Is Important

[Reynard]

Getting away from D&D, PbtA is an example of a system that has given us a multitude of games. It doesn't use the OGL to be open but the idea of open gaming in rpgs grew from the OGL, I believe. So even if the OGL is killed and we no longer have an open D&D environment, open gaming is still with us. Without D&D, it will be much smaller and I am certainly not downplaying the potential loss of livelihood of 3pp but open gaming will not die. And I hope that in the future, WotC/Hasbro learns that their walled garden may be very pretty and tame, but ultimately dull, and people quit paying to walk through the gate.

it pretty apparent that their allowing people to do whatever without any sort of license has lead to the huge amount of innovation in that space.

 

[payn]

I'm not 100% sure that it is. D&D and the RPG industry thrived for years without an Open Gaming paradigm throughout the 80s and 90s. It was different than it had been in the last few years, but it was a successful model nonetheless.

Wasnt the 90's not so successful for D&D?

 

[eyeheartawk]

Wasnt the 90's not so successful for D&D?

Mostly through self-owns though, right?

If they hadn't overprinted product, went all in on fiction and getting murdered by the bookstore returns and also fleecing the company for the family owned Buck Rogers stuff they probably would have been fine?

 

[Desdichado]

Wasnt the 90's not so successful for D&D?

But the INDUSTRY was fine. Not exactly my point, but a good side effect nonetheless.

 

[Reynard]

But the INDUSTRY was fine. Not exactly my point, but a good side effect nonetheless.

Briefly. White Wolf had a moment.
Then MtG came along and obliterated tabletop RPGs and killed many, many stores.

 

[payn]

But the INDUSTRY was fine. Not exactly my point, but a good side effect nonetheless.

The industry will always be "fine" being that it will always exist. Though, the OGL was created because of how things were going at the time.

 

[Oofta]

Mostly through self-owns though, right?

If they hadn't overprinted product, went all in on fiction and getting murdered by the bookstore returns and also fleecing the company for the family owned Buck Rogers stuff they probably would have been fine?

There were many, many issues with TSR management.

 

[TwoSix]

How exactly is that not one in the same?

It can be objectively true that most people won’t notice or care while still being morally wrong that most people won’t notice or care.

@Oofta is certainly correct to point that a large fraction of the D&D player base will only see a minimal impact from these changes. That doesn’t lessen the impact to those that are affected, of course, but it helps give context as to why WotC may pursue such a course.

 

[Oofta]

It can be objectively true that most people won’t notice or care while still being morally wrong that most people won’t notice or care.

@Oofta is certainly correct to point that a large fraction of the D&D player base will only see a minimal impact from these changes. That doesn’t lessen the impact to those that are affected, of course, but it helps give context as to why WotC may pursue such a course.

I am also not giving WOTC a free pass. After reading what actual lawyers have to say, I don't think WOTC can legally revoke the OGL 1.0a. However some of the things people have been saying (i.e. "The Critical Role stream is dead!"*, "The only reason WOTC is making a new edition is because they wanted to force DndBeyond to sell!", "All VTTs will be shut down immediately!") seem to be overblown. So it's hard to tell what the real impact will be or what the reasoning behind it was.

Should companies like Kobold Press pay some amount of money for profiting from WOTC's IP? I kind of think they should be, even if the current amount in the leaked document is far too steep, along with other issues. Do I think this is a good idea? I have no clue what the long term impact will actually be. I think a better option would have been to open up DndBeyond to sell 3PP products for a reasonable licensing fee, along with direct integration with VTTs. But I'm not talking about any of that, I don't feel qualified.

If all 3rd party products were taking off the market tomorrow it would not affect me personally. It wouldn't affect the Thursday game I play in. Over the past several decades I have never been part of a campaign that relied on 3rd party books other than an occasional monster here and there. When people are not directly impacted by something unless it's especially egregious such as Nike using child labor in sweatshops most people simply don't care.

If the law is enforceable, it will harm many people's livelihood. I just don't think it's going to have a major impact on sales.

*Streams are not and never have been covered under the OGL. Darrington Press that publishes some of the Tal'Dorei campaign books could be affected of course.

 

[Dausuul]

It's been mentioned in other threads, but WotC has also benefitted from the OGL due to it leading to the creation of 3pp to develop talent that they've gone on to hire. Dan Dillon came over from Kobold Press, F. Wesley Schneider worked at Paizo. I'm sure there's other examples, but the existence of these other companies has definitely had benefits to WotC.

Mike Mearls was hired after creating Iron Heroes with Malhavoc Press. Jeremy Crawford came from Green Ronin.

That would be 100% of the lead designers for 5E.