WotC Backs Down: Original OGL To Be Left Untouched; Whole 5E Rules Released as Creative Commons

Hundreds of game publishers sigh in relief as, after extensive pressure exerted by the entire open gaming community, WotC has agreed to leave the original Open Gaming License untouched and put the whole of the 5E rules into Creative Commons.

So, what's happened?

• The Open Gaming Licence v1.0a which most of the D&D third party industry relies on, will be left untouched for now.
• The whole of the D&D 5E SRD (ie the rules of the game less the fluff text) has been released under a Creative Commons license.

OGL 1.0a & Creative Commons

Over the past few weeks you, the community, have made your voices heard. And we’ve listened. OGL 1.0a will remain untouched AND the entire SRD 5.1...

www.dndbeyond.com

WotC has a history of 'disappearing' inconvenient FAQs and stuff, such as those where they themselves state that the OGL is irrevocable, so I'll copy this here for posterity.

When you give us playtest feedback, we take it seriously.

Already more than 15,000 of you have filled out the survey. Here's what you said:

• 88% do not want to publish TTRPG content under OGL 1.2.
• 90% would have to change some aspect of their business to accommodate OGL 1.2.
• 89% are dissatisfied with deauthorizing OGL 1.0a.
• 86% are dissatisfied with the draft VTT policy.
• 62% are satisfied with including Systems Reference Document (SRD) content in Creative Commons, and the majority of those who were dissatisfied asked for more SRD content in Creative Commons.

These live survey results are clear. You want OGL 1.0a. You want irrevocability. You like Creative Commons.
The feedback is in such high volume and its direction is so plain that we're acting now.

1. We are leaving OGL 1.0a in place, as is. Untouched.
2. We are also making the entire SRD 5.1 available under a Creative Commons license.
3. You choose which you prefer to use.

This Creative Commons license makes the content freely available for any use. We don't control that license and cannot alter or revoke it. It's open and irrevocable in a way that doesn't require you to take our word for it. And its openness means there's no need for a VTT policy. Placing the SRD under a Creative Commons license is a one-way door. There's no going back.

Our goal here is to deliver on what you wanted.

So, what about the goals that drove us when we started this process?

We wanted to protect the D&D play experience into the future. We still want to do that with your help. We're grateful that this community is passionate and active because we'll need your help protecting the game's inclusive and welcoming nature.

We wanted to limit the OGL to TTRPGs. With this new approach, we are setting that aside and counting on your choices to define the future of play.
Here's a PDF of SRD 5.1 with the Creative Commons license. By simply publishing it, we place it under an irrevocable Creative Commons license. We'll get it hosted in a more convenient place next week. It was important that we take this step now, so there's no question.

• SRD 5.1-CC

We'll be closing the OGL 1.2 survey now.

We'll keep talking with you about how we can better support our players and creators. Thanks as always for continuing to share your thoughts.

Kyle Brink
Executive Producer, Dungeons & Dragons

What does this mean?

The original OGL sounds safe for now, but WotC has not admitted that they cannot revoke it. That's less of an issue now the 5E System Reference Document is now released to Creative Commons (although those using the 3E SRD or any third party SRDs still have issues as WotC still hasn't revoked the incorrect claim that they can revoke access to those at-will).

At this point, if WotC wants anybody to use whatever their new OGL v1.x turns out to be, there needs to be one heck of a carrot. What that might be remains to be seen.

Pathfinder publlsher Paizo has also commented on the latest developments.

We welcome today’s news from Wizards of the Coast regarding their intention not to de-authorize OGL 1.0a. We still believe there is a powerful need for an irrevocable, perpetual independent system-neutral open license that will serve the tabletop community via nonprofit stewardship. Work on the ORC license will continue, with an expected first draft to release for comment to participating publishers in February.

Over 1,500 Publishers Support Paizo's Upcoming Open RPG Creator's License

Paizo has revealed some of the 1,500+ tabletop RPG publishers who have expressed an interest in their new Open RPG Creator's License (ORC), describing the group as the 'ORC Alliance'. The license itself is still being worked on, so these 1,500 publishers have not actually seen it or signed...

www.enworld.org

 

[overgeeked]

I wonder if the reveal that Pathfinder selling through something like 4+ months of stock in the past week pushed WotC over the edge.

I think it was 8 months, but yes, that likely rattled them a lot.

 

[Maggan]

These live survey results are clear. You want OGL 1.0a. You want irrevocability. You like Creative Commons.

I can't but to stop and ponder the possibility that there were other, way cheaper and less destructive ways for WotC to find this out.

Like, I don't know, just keeping their ears to the ground among the community for the last 20 years or so ...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Whoa.

Holy crap.

 

[ReshiIRE]

I wonder if the reveal that Pathfinder selling through something like 4+ months of stock in the past week pushed WotC over the edge.

8 months.

In two weeks they sold through what they expected to be 8 months of stock of the Core rulebook.

They made a Twitter thread to try and point out other places people could access and / or buy the rules, and said they'd get books ready again by mid April.

 

[Retreater]

So you're telling me I just wasted an hour being salty on the OGL survey just to get what I wanted anyway?!!

 

[Steampunkette]

As I understand it though, now that the SRD 5.1 is in the Creative Commons, even if WotC were to try again to de-authorize the OGL at some point in the future, that wouldn't necessitate any 3PPs redoing their books and rules at all, except just to remove the OGL.

It would be a minor inconvenience at best, while they switched to the ORC or something. Which now has a much less urgent purpose and use-case.

KIND of.

We'd still need to use something like the ORC to make cross-attributable material available between publishers, or some other license specific to that end.

But with 5.1 in CCBY4 it's just a huge benefit to 3rd party publishers, whatever happens to 1.0 in the future.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Some will probably say this was a publicity stunt

Those are also the people who believe there's no such thing as bad publicity. They are wrong.

 

[overgeeked]

8 months.

In two weeks they sold through what they expected to be 8 months of stock of the Core rulebook.

They made a Twitter thread to try and point out other places people could access and / or buy the rules, and said they'd get books ready again by mid April.

I really hope this helps to get people interested and keep people interested in non-D&D games long term.

 

[J.Quondam]

Sweet, what excellent news!
And best of all, now I don't have to go fill out the survey this weekend. A truly mighty win for procrastination!

 

[Steampunkette]

Personally, I'd be perfectly OK with them doing that. I mean, it would be kind of stupid, but they've never promised to release future products under any kind of open license. My main issue with this whole hoopla was that Wizards were trying to break a promise they made. If they want to shoot themselves in the foot going forward, that's on them.

It was part of the advice I gave them.

1) Apologize
2) Put SRD into Creative Commons or make OGL 1.0 irrevocable
3) Do a GSL for OneD&D

I posted it a few times, here, on the forums. And once on the designer discord for Level Up. All in all, it was sound advice they've taken 2/3rds of. We'll see what happens with the GSL2.0, if there is one.