Gizmodo Reveals OGL v1.1's 'Term Sheet' Carrots For Selected Publishers

In December, WotC arranged meetings under NDA with a number of prominent third party 5E OGL creators in order to persuade them to sign up to the new Open Game License v1.1. before it was revealed to the world.

Part of this approach included 'Term Sheets'. According to Gizmodo, which has sources at Wizards of the Coast, these term sheets offered:

• A 15% instead of 25% royalty
• Marketing on D&D Beyond (but not at times when WotC had its own releases)

It's not clear whether any publishers actually signed the contract at the time.

WotC has since walked back some of the terms in the upcoming OGL v1.1, but the OGL v1.0a still remains slated for 'de-authorization'.

According to an anonymous source who was in the room, in late 2022 Wizards of the Coast gave a presentation to a group of about 20 third-party creators that outlined the new OGL 1.1. These creators were also offered deals that would supersede the publicly available OGL 1.1; Gizmodo has received a copy of that document, called a “Term Sheet,” that would be used to outline specific custom contracts within the OGL.

These “sweetheart” deals would entitle signatories to lower royalty payments—15 percent instead of 25 percent on excess revenue over $750,000, as stated in the OGL 1.1—and a commitment from Wizards of the Coast to market these third-party products on various D&D Beyond channels and platforms, except during “blackout periods” around WotC’s own releases.

It was expected that third parties would sign these Term Sheets. Noah Downs, a lawyer in the table-top RPG space who was consulted on the conditions of one of these contracts, stated that even though the sheets included language suggesting negotiation was possible, he got the impression there wasn’t much room for change.

Cancelled D&D Beyond Subscriptions Forced Hasbro's Hand

Swift consumer action prompted Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast to to scrap licensing updates. The players aren't done yet.

gizmodo.com

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I wouldn't call it baseless.

If there's no basis for the concern other than "it would bother me if it happened," it's by definition baseless.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I wouldn't call it baseless. Is it 100% true? Don't know, it's enough to concern. Especially with the push for the 3d VTT and everything that has happened in the past several weeks. If they go bookless, that's one of my lines in the sand. I'll just have to wait and see.

It's baseless. There is nothing absolutely nothing suggesting physical books are going away just because they want to do a VTT. The events of the past weeks also have nothing to do with physical books, people are just making stuff up to fear monger about cause they got angry.

 

[MockingBird]

It's baseless. There is nothing absolutely nothing suggesting physical books are going away just because they want to do a VTT. The events of the past weeks also have nothing to do with physical books, people are just making stuff up to fear monger about cause they got angry.

You asked, I answered. Gonna have to agree to disagree.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

You asked, I answered. Gonna have to agree to disagree.

aka baseless.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

people are just making stuff up to fear monger about cause they got angry.

Nah, people have been running around worried about this for a while. There doesn't seem to actually have been an original inciting incident other than "this would be bad if it happened!"

I mean, it'd also be bad if my wife left me for Idris Elba, but I'm not going to lose a lot of sleep over it until I catch him slowly driving back and forth past my house.

 

[MockingBird]

I can't say it's 100% baseless since it was brought up by WotC upper management. This comes from sources that some outright refuse believe. That's fair, I'm not calling anyone out for not believing it. Do I know if it's true? I can't say that. All I can say as I said above is it is a concern. With everything that has been leaked (some I didn't believe but later changed because it turned out to be true) I am in a wait and see mode. Like I said above.

 

[J.Quondam]

It's baseless. There is nothing absolutely nothing suggesting physical books are going away just because they want to do a VTT. The events of the past weeks also have nothing to do with physical books, people are just making stuff up to fear monger about cause they got angry.

The physical books aren't going away, and even the leaks don't make that claim. The speculation is that the physical books will become a secondary consideration to the VTT, boutique items aimed at completionists or something. For some gamers in an era of ebooks, etc, that's practically what they are already, so it's not a huge leap to guess that a business strategy focused on digital* might push in that direction.


* Just for the record, the push toward digital is not a baseless rumor, fwiw. That comes straight out of that shareholder meeting, the one with the "under-monetized lifestyle brand" quote.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

The physical books aren't going away, and even the leaks don't make that claim. The speculation is that the physical books will become a secondary consideration to the VTT, boutique items aimed at completionists or something. For some gamers in an era of ebooks, etc, that's practically what they are already, so it's not a huge leap to guess that a business strategy focused on digital* might push in that direction.


* Just for the record, the push toward digital is not a baseless rumor, fwiw. That comes straight out of that shareholder meeting, the one with the "under-monetized lifestyle brand" quote.

I know there is a push for digital offerings not debating that. But Physical books are not going away.

 

[J.Quondam]

I know there is a push for digital offerings not debating that. But Physical books are not going away.

Then it's a good thing no one consequential in or out of WotC is suggesting they are.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

WotC, if you want to get more serious about online offerings, can we talk about how mediocre and under-publicized your organized online play opportunities are? What GenCon Online has been doing should be the minimum for the wealthy brand leader is capable of doing. Instead, GenCon laps your efforts, despite having a fraction of the working capital.