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There is 20+ years of accumulated OGC that we all have the right to use under a perpetual, royalty-free license. That's huge. Sadly, most of it depends on WotC's contributions to that body of work, and it would require the licensing regime to stay as is. We have nothing to gain by negotiating a...

Yeah, the trust is broken. This is more about saving what has already been built, and our collective rights in that body of work. I don't think anyone really wants to do any new business with WotC going forward, no matter the terms.

I don't think the Monster Manual from 1997 is open game content though. My claim to commercial exploitation rights over the poor thing is almost entirely based on the OGL 1.0(a) (and of course the fact that's it's just not that original to begin with). Hasbro/WotC is now trying to monopolize it...

I like your chutzpah. If they're trying to illegally gimp the competition, let's just gimp all of 'em instead. No fancy VTT stuff for anyone. Fantasy TTRPGs should be played in the real world anyway.

Don't give up on the owlbear, man. It's in the 3.5 SRD, might be in the 5.1 SRD as well (I've never read that document). It's also... not a very original idea (chimeric creatures are all over mythology and folklore), and the design is supposedly from a Japanese children's toy from the 80's anyway.

Currently serving as a judge, so we're unlikely to get a statement here, yeah?

I see they keep circling back to the need for a morality clause. Assuming this is not just a trojan horse clause to empower them to de-license anyone they want at will (which it currently is), is it possibly that their trademark case against NuTSR is actually going poorly? They know that those...

That would probably be considered a derivative work, yeah. If WotC could incontrovertibly claim copyright (and possibly a trademark) to the name and idea of the Owlbear, a Fey Owlbear seems derivative to me. I don't get to write the next Harry Potter book just by making him into a redhead -- or...

https://www.belloflostsouls.net/2021/04/bols-prime-the-many-lawsuits-of-tsr.html

Owlbear, man. It’s all about the owlbear.

I'm buying that. Maybe I'll make the Oglebogle compatible with Dragons & Dungeons in my next update. :D

TSR was notorious for that kind of despicable behavior back in the day. Games Workshop have gone on two similar rampages during my still quite short life on this planet. This is specifically part of the truce that the original OGL set out to achieve.

I think you're also in breach of Section 7 by implying compatibility with Future D20, which is probably someone's trademark. You have thirty days to cure that now that you've become aware of it. :P

I think so. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qcGKt0rpL7SgFowZkpqn4aJ2mLY2HJk1?usp=share_link

I can no longer use, say, a hypothetical Fey-addled Owlbear from some old, OOP book from a bankrupt 3.0 publisher in a PF1 module without exposing myself to a silly lawsuit. Even if I put that PF1 module out for free on the Internet. Hasbro's trying to claw their owlbears back, but they've...

I could see some hypothetical scenario where WotC could argue that they haven't given anyone permission to use the license text itself in such a case. The "THIS LICENSE IS APPROVED FOR GENERAL USE" language is from the Open Gaming Foundation (which doesn't legally exist, it's an alias of Ryan...

I don't think they're very interested in anyone using this license in particular, no. They want the big players to beg them for secret deals, I think. That was what they tried to do initially, wasn't it?

Bingo.

This might lead to the second era of litigious frenzy in the RPG industry. Nobody wants that. And it would leave a post-apocalyptic wasteland of what once was a thriving ecosystem of common works available for all to use, from the amateur homebrewer to the Paizo's and the Roll20's of the world...

That's the definition of letting them divide and conquer. While I might not really care about them, I stand in solidarity with e.g. VTT creators. And they are getting a very bad deal right now, specifically. We all are, but WotC really, really wants to get an unfair and monopolistic advantage in...