WotC Talks OGL... Again! Draft Coming Jan 20th With Feedback Survey; v1 De-Auth Still On

Following last week's partial walk-back on the upcoming Open Game Licence terms, WotC has posted another update about the way forward.

The new update begins with another apology and a promise to be more transparent. To that end, WotC proposes to release the draft of the new OGL this week, with a two-week survey feedback period following it.

WotC Walks Back Some OGL Changes, But Not All

Wizards of the Coast has finally made a statement regarding the OGL. The statement says that the leaked version was a draft designed to solicit feedback and that they are walking back some problematic elements, but don't address others--most notably that the current OGL v1.0a is still being...

www.enworld.org

They also list a number of points of clarity --

• Videos, accessories, VTT content, DMs Guild will not be affected by the new license, none of which is related to the OGL
• The royalties and ownership rights clauses are, as previously noted, going away

OGL v1 Still Being 'De-Authorized'
However, OGL v1.0a still looks like it's being de-authorized. As with the previous announcement, that specific term is carefully avoided, and like that announcement it states that previously published OGL v1 content will continue to be valid; however it notably doesn't mention that the OGL v1 can be used for content going forward, which is a de-authorization.

The phrase used is "Nothing will impact any content you have published under OGL 1.0a. That will always be licensed under OGL 1.0a." -- as noted, this does not make any mention of future content. If you can't publish future content under OGL 1.0a, then it has been de-authorized. The architect of the OGL, Ryan Dancey, along with WotC itself at the time, clearly indicated that the license could not be revoked or de-authorized.

While the royalty and ownership clauses were, indeed, important to OGL content creators and publishers such as myself and many others, it is also very important not to let that overshadow the main goal: the OGL v1.0a.

Per Ryan Dancey in response this announcement: "They must not. They can only stop the bleeding by making a clear and simple statement that they cannot and will not deauthorize or revoke v1.0a".

Ryan Dancey -- Hasbro Cannot Deauthorize OGL

I reached out to the architect of the original Open Gaming License, former VP of Wizard of the Coast, Ryan Dancey, and asked his opinion about the current plan by WotC to 'deauthorize' the current OGL in favour of a new one. He responded as follows: Yeah my public opinion is that Hasbro does...

www.enworld.org

Amend At-Will
Also not mentioned is the leaked draft's ability to be amended at-will by WotC. An agreement which can be unilaterally changed in any way by one party is not an agreement, it's a blank cheque. They could simply add the royalties or ownership clauses back in at any time, or add even more onerous clauses.

All-in-all this is mainly just a rephrasing of last week's announcement addressing some of the tonal criticisms widely made about it. However, it will be interesting to see the new draft later this week. I would encourage people to take the feedback survey and clearly indicate that the OGL v1.0a must be left intact.

 

[Jer]

To be fair, even that didn't really divert much effort away from non-d20 games.

I agree on the creation side of things. Where the d20 glut hurt was on the retailer side of things where it was hard for those games to get retailers to buy in because they were spending lots of money loading shelves up with d20 books of varying quality. And then when the d20 market tanked retailers were left holding a lot stock of varying quality and couldn't stock more on the shelves.

But you're right - even in the early 00's the games from the 90s were still around. Though some of those publishers even dabbled in cranking out their own d20 versions of their games and probably diverted resources away from other projects to do it (remember Deadlands d20? Trinity d20?)

 

[eyeheartawk]

But you're right - even in the early 00's the games from the 90s were still around. Though some of those publishers even dabbled in cranking out their own d20 versions of their games and probably diverted resources away from other projects to do it (remember Deadlands d20? Trinity d20?)

As an avid 7th Sea player at the time I really hated this. They d20fied my game and I'm still mad about it to this day.

 

[Jer]

As an avid 7th Sea player at the time I really hated this. They d20fied my game and I'm still mad about it to this day.

I forgot about 7th Sea. Yeah - AEG went all in with a lot of d20 stuff at the time, didn't they? I didn't play 7th Sea myself but ooh boy do I remember people being upset at how they just abandoned the game to try to capture the d20 audience (and then failed to do so in a spectacular fashion).

 

[vilainn6]

That isn't the part in question in my post. First, there are no major competitors. None. Not even Paizo is a major competitor and they are the largest OGL user out there that I am aware of. Second, the major competition that could arise would be from megacorporations who invest in movies, video games and perhaps a VTT. That hasn't happened yet and is part of what I agree that WotC wants to shut down.

My posts have been about the little guy and leaving them to the 3PP and social media content that they have been producing.

If the part I quoted doesn't target publishers like Kobold Press, Cubicle 7, or others who have published 5e compatible products all those years, who are they targetting? Stuff like Critical role and their animated show on Amazon?

 

[Greg Benage]

But you're right - even in the early 00's the games from the 90s were still around. Though some of those publishers even dabbled in cranking out their own d20 versions of their games and probably diverted resources away from other projects to do it (remember Deadlands d20? Trinity d20?)

Call of Cthulhu d20, Legend of the Five Rings d20, 7th Sea d20...

 

[Micah Sweet]

As an avid 7th Sea player at the time I really hated this. They d20fied my game and I'm still mad about it to this day.

How do you feel about 7th Sea 2e? Very different game from either 1e or the d20 version.

 

[Jer]

Call of Cthulhu d20, Legend of the Five Rings d20, 7th Sea d20...

Was there an L5R d20 that wasn't the 3e "Oriental Adventures"? I feel like that's a different category of thing because it was actually published by Wizards (though I do now remember that there were non-Wizards supplements for the line, so it does fit the argument).

That's also why I didn't think to put Call of Cthulhu d20 on the list, since it was also a Wizards product and so I don't think diverted any Chaosium attention over to it (though to be fair - Chaosium was doing a good job at some point shortly after the d20 glut diverting attention away from projects all on their own...)

 

[eyeheartawk]

How do you feel about 7th Sea 2e? Very different game from either 1e or the d20 version.

Surprising absolutely no one I hate it with the fire of a thousand, million suns.

The setting changes aside it's a game of mother may I.

It's like if somebody designed a story/narrative game in the year 2000 without looking at anything that's come out since. It's wild how bad it is.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Was there an L5R d20 that wasn't the 3e "Oriental Adventures"? I feel like that's a different category of thing because it was actually published by Wizards (though I do now remember that there were non-Wizards supplements for the line, so it does fit the argument).

That's also why I didn't think to put Call of Cthulhu d20 on the list, since it was also a Wizards product and so I don't think diverted any Chaosium attention over to it (though to be fair - Chaosium was doing a good job at some point shortly after the d20 glut diverting attention away from projects all on their own...)

AEG made their own 3e-compatible book, Rokugan, following up on Oriental Adventures, and a series of supplements for it. The first few were d20-only rehashes of old content, but a lot of supplements published after that were duel system. And then they pulled out of d20 completely when they got their license back and published 3e, and later 4e.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Surprising absolutely no one I hate it with the fire of a thousand, million suns.

The setting changes aside it's a game of mother may I.

It's like if somebody designed a story/narrative game in the year 2000 without looking at anything that's come out since. It's wild how bad it is.

Couldn't agree more. Worst Kickstarter I ever backed.