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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tazawa" data-source="post: 8883293" data-attributes="member: 11334">I agree that the second statement is hard to prove. The biggest impact of the OGL has been through network effects, which are very hard to directly measure through revenue. But I also work in marketing and know how amazingly powerful being regarded as the default rule system is and how much goodwill can impact the bottom line.With regards to WotC being paid for their IP, they definitely are. If you want to publish on DMs Guild, you pay 25% royalties to reference their game world, characters, etc. WotC in turn, pays royalties when the they use other people’s IP in their books (Critical Role, Stranger Things, etc.)The IP in the game rules, of course, is slightly different. Everyone always says that game mechanics can’t be copyrighted, and it is true. But RPG rules are in kind of a gray area where it is unsure where the pure game mechanics and the copyrightable content overlap. The OGL was a truce—people wouldn’t take each other to court over game mechanics and could concentrate on developing the really valuable aspects of IP (characters, stories, etc.).All of that will end if WotC is successful revoking the OGL. It will become too expensive for third parties to Kickstart D&D content. No new ‘Critical Roles’ will choose D&D. No innovative new writers will risk losing control of their IP and will not choose to support D&D.</blockquote>