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Can we get System Reference Documents added?

This seems to have had some effect on their stock price. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/26/stocks-making-the-biggest-moves-after-hours-intel-visa-hasbro-and-more.html

The HTML distribution of the 3.5 SRD has a notice on every single file. "This material is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a."

Indeed. Commercially, it would be like releasing a PC game that doesn't run on Windows. That's suicide.

Under the OGL 1.0a, those VTTs can pull subclasses from literally every other OGL-licensed 3pp supplement in existence. They can also make their own.

I don't think WotC have any faith that they can make more enjoyable subclasses than anyone else either. I don't know what subclasses are in this context, but I'm sure that whatever they are, the community at large would be better able to design them than the team at WotC anyway. And I think they...

Yes.

Still zero. Why would I rent anything that I can afford to buy? If said material was only available for renting, I'd be looking at alternatives. Why would I encourage predatory, rent-seeking behavior like that?

The OGL allows competitors to make VTTs that are essentially D&D played on a computer. WotC have no faith in their ability to compete with these offerings while making the kind of profits that they imagine would be possible otherwise.

I agree with PC Gamer in that a healthier industry would have less products tied to the mechanics of D&D. I don't think that has much to do with the OGL though. There are many RPGs with different rulesets out there already. Some of them have embraced open licenses, others haven't. D&D mechanics...

These goals can be more readily achieved with a restrictive Trademark License and a badge of approval. See for example Paizo's Compatibility License. They have nothing to do with what the OGL itself is actually supposed to be about, which was to create a common lingua franca of rules...

If they're contractually bound by accepting the terms of the license, that follows, doesn't it? Section 10: "You MUST include a copy of this License with every copy of the Open Game Content You Distribute." Do the books WotC publish contain such a copy of the license? Do all the video games that...

I, too, would be skeptical of an interpretation that would preclude an original contributor of OGC from distributing or licensing that material in any other way than under the terms of the license. WotC have certainly done so unopposed in the past. And so, I think, have other contributors of...

They've certainly distributed some SRDs with that notice and with that license. They could cease to do so at any time though.

I know. WotC should too, but they appear to have no institutional memory at all. Big gamble, this plan.

It make sense though, doesn't it? Instead of taking traditional table-top role-playing mainstream (like we want them to), they reconfigure the brand into being about something that's already more mainstream, accessible and profitable. Their executives are from the video game world. It's what...

I think @pemerton has acknowledged that this interpretation is possible, if not plausible.

I think you're essentially correct here, under what I believe are the most plausible interpretations of the various provisions. However, the definition of Derivative Material isn't "derivative work" in the legal sense, i.e. content that's original but infringes on someone's else's copyright...

That's actually a good point. I was thinking about how you couldn't possibly be able to affix notices to all the OGC in existence without Using all of it yourself, but that provision actually only applies to the content that you Use. And so the "collective of Contributors" interpretation...

This appears to be what WotC's current line is, yes. It's not favored by any single one of the lawyers who have spoken on the subject. They're all talking about revocation as a hypothetical possibility instead. "De-authorization" is a non sequitur. I'd love for someone to actually argue...