D&D (2024) Ben Riggs speculates on 2024 D&D and the OGL.

[Parmandur]

Those are two PHBs and the Planescape adventure. The PHBs are several years old and the Planescape book came right out of a box of em sent by WotC and not via any retail channel.

They do and will print in China.

I believe they prefer not to.

They definitely do both. I haven't checked this years releases, but this is what I found searching my posting history for my physical copies last year:

• Call of the Netherdeep: Printed in the USA.
• Monsters of the Multiverse: Printed in China.
• Radiant Citadel: Printed in the USA.
• Shadow of the Dragon Queen: Printed in China.

Definitely seems to be hit and miss: and really, given how many books they are printing, they are probably going to do both.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Those are two PHBs and the Planescape adventure. The PHBs are several years old and the Planescape book came right out of a box of em sent by WotC and not via any retail channel.

They do and will print in China.

I believe they prefer not to.

I stand corrected. Maybe my info was outdated.

 

[darjr]

They definitely do both. I haven't checked this years releases, but this is what I found searching my posting history for my physical copies last year:

• Call of the Netherdeep: Printed in the USA.
• Monsters of the Multiverse: Printed in China.
• Radiant Citadel: Printed in the USA.
• Shadow of the Dragon Queen: Printed in China.

Definitely seems to be hit and miss: and really, given how many books they are printing, they are probably going to do both.

Absolutely. In order to meet demand I think they have too.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I added that I think they almost have to do it and could just update the SRD. With the CC though it’s almost a moot point.

If the point was to kill the OGL, it succeeded, and the community around the OGL evaporated or went elsewhere.

Shannon Appelcline responded much the same and made me realize that maybe the inkling of Ben’s speculation is why WotC went with species instead of the more common term lineage.

I am pessimistic about the inclusion of an OGL for OneD&D.

I would like to add here that I am completely speculating, and have no insider knowledge of this, but if Wizards is releasing OneD&D in the spring, and they wanted any 3rd party publishers to be able to have a product ready to coincide with the launch, an SRD and OGL should be available by now.

So why is there no SRD and OGL?

There are two possible reasons IMHO.

1) The rules aren’t ready yet. Again, with a spring publication deadline, that is not an encouraging thought. I will mention that on 4th edition, my sources tell me the dev team was given plenty of time to work on rules and research, and then told from on high that they were publishing in a mere six months. This imposition of an artificial deadline led to problems in the rules. Is that repeating here?

2) There will be no OGL for OneD&D. Perhaps, as with 5th edition, the OGL will simply follow later on, but I am very pessimistic about that too. Clearly, there is a faction at Wizards that wants to kill the OGL. Revoking the original OGL is much different than not providing one for a new edition of the game. It is easy to imagine that a possible compromise worked out at Wizards was that 5th edition could enter the creative commons while the juicy new edition was kept for the exclusive use of Wizards/Hasbro.

If you find me interesting, my history of the fall of TSR is now available in paperback. Link below!

Obligatory link to Ben’s book. I think it’s awesome.

Slaying the Dragon - Macmillan

The secret and untold story of how TSR, the company that created Dungeons & Dragons, was driven into ruin by disastrous management decisions, then ...

read.macmillan.com

As always there is great commentary and feedback to the Facebook post.

Facebooks link

I'm confused. I thought WotC actively said 2024 would have an SRD/OGL/CCBY (whatever)?

 

[Parmandur]

I'm confused. I thought WotC actively said 2024 would have an SRD/OGL/CCBY (whatever)?

Yup, both Kyle Brink and Jeremy Crawford have verbally committed to it, and it's on the D&D Beyond community update "to do" list.

But, you know, WotC burned a lsrge bit of goodwill, and Riggs likes to stir the pot.

Riggs seems confused thst they haven't put out the update yet, thinking thwt WotC would need to have it in place by now to allow third parties to develop products to come out along the Core books. However, I donthink WotC cares about that, and we know from the playtests that they aren't doing anything thst can't be retrocloned from the existing CC SRD (like, WotC won't sue anybody for using Species instead of Race, and the mechanics are compatible). The obvious answer as to why they don't have an SRD out yet, is that they are still working on the Core books.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Yup, both Kyle Brink and Jeremy Crawford have verbally committed to it, and it's on the D&D Beyond community update "to do" list.

But, you know, WotC burned a lsrge bit of goodwill, and Riggs likes to stir the pot.

Riggs seems confused thst they haven't put out the update yet, thinking thwt WotC would need to have it in place by now to allow third parties to develop products to come out along the Core books. However, I donthink WotC cares about that, and we know from the playtests that they aren't doing anything thst can't be retrocloned from the existing CC SRD (like, WotC won't sue anybody for using Species instead of Race, and the mechanics are compatible). The obvious answer as to why they don't have an SRD out yet, is that they are still working on the Core books.

Yeah I tend to concur that WotC aren't all that concerned about making things immediately available for 3PPs, for better or worse, especially as they believe this is highly compatible with current 5E, so why would you really need that yet?

I think if they fail to stick to their promises they will bring a terrible gamer curse on their heads so I feel like the SRD etc. will appear eventually

 

[Parmandur]

Yeah I tend to concur that WotC aren't all that concerned about making things immediately available for 3PPs, for better or worse, especially as they believe this is highly compatible with current 5E, so why would you really need that yet?

I think if they fail to stick to their promises they will bring a terrible gamer curse on their heads so I feel like the SRD etc. will appear eventually

Yeah, they have no reason not to, now.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Absolutely. In order to meet demand I think they have too.

It wasn't that long ago that I got shot down on here for saying that they print some of their books in China. I was sure of it, but got "proven" wrong. Looks like I wasn't totally wrong. I'm sure they try to print in the USA as often as possible (or at least, as often as profitable).

 

[Remathilis]

Riggs seems confused thst they haven't put out the update yet, thinking thwt WotC would need to have it in place by now to allow third parties to develop products to come out along the Core books. However, I donthink WotC cares about that, and we know from the playtests that they aren't doing anything thst can't be retrocloned from the existing CC SRD (like, WotC won't sue anybody for using Species instead of Race, and the mechanics are compatible). The obvious answer as to why they don't have an SRD out yet, is that they are still working on the Core books.

I feel this was almost willful trolling: they still have a UA in the wild they haven't gotten feedback on and he's expecting the full SRD in his hands currently? The arrogance of certain parts of the community never fails to impress me.

 

[Parmandur]

OK, just got home from work, and checked my copies of this year's books (all 4 are FLGS special covers):

• Keys from the Golden Vault: Printed in the USA
• Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants: Printed in the USA
• Phandelver & Below: Printed in the USA
• Planescape: Printed in China

So, still a bit of a mixed bag, but leaning more USA than China than the 2022 products.

And my PHB, an earlier printing thing you'd @darjr , even though mine was a replacement for a defective first printing copy: