The issue is that folks want an open license, and that's not what this is. It's a perfectly normal license.
Bob Worldbuilder debunks the Daggerheart license “scandal”
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darjr
I crit!
I'm not so sure. I mean look at how much 3rd party content there was for Shadowdark right after it's success and look at Daggerhearts, and Shadowdarks wasn't a creative commons license either, though I think they should also release an SRD into CC-By.
I do realise that the difference could by only my perception.
Open licenses are the exception not the norm. We’ve just been trained by our experience with D&D and the OGL to think it’s the norm.
darjr
I crit!
I disagree. It’s what it should be going forward. The OGL debacle just showed us the way.
CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing (He/They)
It is interesting just how much of a game-changer (pun intended) the Open Gaming License was in the industry.
When Wizards of the Coast bought D&D from TSR, they didn't have to give us an open license. Nobody asked them for one, it wasn't a requirement of the purchase agreement (as far as I know)...it was a rare and unusual thing to do. I imagine their lawyers were scratching their heads about it.
But it saved the hobby, skyrocketed their brand's popularity, and changed the tabletop gaming industry forever. It was so successful and so important that when they tried to replace it with 4th Edition's GSL, or tried to change it 3 years ago, the entire industry pushed back. And now, like @darjr demonstrates above, it has become the expectation.
Time will tell if having an Open License will be as helpful for smaller game shops as it was for Wizards of the Coast. That kind of success probably takes more than just an OGL to get third-party publishers to climb aboard...you need visibility, brand recognition, a massive fanbase. Critical Role has a better shot than most.
When Wizards of the Coast bought D&D from TSR, they didn't have to give us an open license. Nobody asked them for one, it wasn't a requirement of the purchase agreement (as far as I know)...it was a rare and unusual thing to do. I imagine their lawyers were scratching their heads about it.
But it saved the hobby, skyrocketed their brand's popularity, and changed the tabletop gaming industry forever. It was so successful and so important that when they tried to replace it with 4th Edition's GSL, or tried to change it 3 years ago, the entire industry pushed back. And now, like @darjr demonstrates above, it has become the expectation.
Time will tell if having an Open License will be as helpful for smaller game shops as it was for Wizards of the Coast. That kind of success probably takes more than just an OGL to get third-party publishers to climb aboard...you need visibility, brand recognition, a massive fanbase. Critical Role has a better shot than most.
darjr
I crit!
It's not just that.
There is something off about this license. It is probably one of the best selling core books ever in the time it's been available, probably only bested by the 2024 and 2014 PHB. Think about that. And then realize there is a desert of 3pp announcements or third party projects. Shadowdark, a very successful RPG in itself, with probably a fraction of it's sales, has dwarfed it in 3pp content.
What ever you may think about the license that right there is odd. I think it's due to that very license.
mamba
Legend
it won't make them into the new D&D, that was helped by the network effect, but it probably will get more people to create content for their game than a closed license would.
The one thing I can see them having second thoughts about is to not just allow content for their game to be created, but for a competing TTRPG to be created from their SRD. That I can see as a legitimate issue for a small publisher, and the only legitimate restriction compared to CC-BY. Any restrictions beyond this are at best a nuisance and at worst so detrimental that they prevent material from being created (by some)
mamba
Legend
how soon did SD get 3pp products? I assume it is simply still too early… Maybe not being part of the homebrew-heavy OSR also has something to do with it, at least if you count the number of releases only and ignore their size
Spectral Anomaly
Adventurer
It also really doesn't hurt that a lot of the SD 3pp content can be knocked out in a day or two.
I'm unclear what you're disagreeing with? You believe that open licenses are the norm? I mean, they're not. Saying that you believe open licenses should be the norm does not contradict anything I said.
If you look at the majority of licensed properties -- Star Wars, Middle Earth, Star Trek, the other thousand or so licensed TTRPGs out there -- there's nary an open license in sight. Most licenses are temporary and distinctly non-open. And outside our little niche hobby, open licenses are even rarer.
We were pretty lucky to get the OGL. That's not the normal way companies license their IP.
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