Kyle Brink (D&D Exec Producer) On OGL Controversy & One D&D (Summary)

The YouTube channel 3 Black Halflings spoke to WotC's Kyle Brink (executive producer, D&D) about the recent Open Game License events, amongst other things. It's an hour-plus long interview (which you can watch below) but here are some of the highlights of what Brink said. Note these are my paraphrases, so I encourage you to listen to the actual interview for full context if you have time.

OGL v1.1 Events

• There was a concern that the OGL allowed Facebook to make a D&D Metaverse without WotC involvement.
• Re. the OGL decisions, WotC had gotten themselves into a 'terrible place' and are grateful for the feedback that allowed them to see that.
• The royalties in OGL v1.1 were there as a giant deterrent to mega corporations.
• Kyle Brink is not familiar with what happened in the private meetings with certain publishers in December, although was aware that meetings were taking place.
• When the OGL v1.1 document became public, WotC had already abandoned much of it.
• The response from WotC coinciding with D&D Beyond subscription cancellations was a coincidence as it takes longer than that to modify a legal document.
• The atmosphere in WotC during the delay before making an announcement after the OGL v1.1 went public was 'bad' -- fear of making it worse if they said anything. The feeling was that they should not talk, just deliver the new version.
• Brink does not know who wrote the unpopular 'you won but we won too' announcement and saw it the same time we did. He was not happy with it.
• 'Draft' contracts can have dates and boxes for signatures. Despite the leaked version going to some publishers, it was not final or published.
• There were dissenting voices within WotC regarding the OGL v1.1, but once the company had agreed how to proceed, everybody did the best they could to deliver.
• The dissenting voices were not given enough weight to effect change. Brinks' team is now involved in the process and can influence decisions.
• The SRD release into Creative Commmons is a one-way door; there can be no takeback.

One D&D

• The intention is that all of the new [One D&D] updates they are doing, "the SRD will be updated to remain compatible with all of that". This might be with updted rules or with bridging language like 'change the word race to species'.
• Anything built with the current SRD will be 100% compatible with the new rules.
• Brink does not think there is a plan to, and does not see the value, in creating a new OGL just for One D&D. When/if they put more stuff into the public space, they'd do it through Creative Commons.
• WotC doesn't think of One D&D as a new edition. He feels it's more like what happened with 3.5. They think 5E is great, but coud be better and play faster and easier with more room for roleplay, so there is stuff they can do to improve it but not replace it.

Inclusivity

• WotC is leaning on the community to discourage bad actors and hateful content, rather than counting on a legal document.
• They are working on an adaptable content policy describing what they consider to be hateful content which will apply to WotC's work (no legal structure to apply it to anybody else).
• They now have external inclusivity reviewers (as of last fall) who look over every word and report back. They are putting old content through the same process before reprints.
• Previously cultural consultances were used for spot reviews on things they thought might be problematic, but not everything (e.g. Hadozee).
• The problematic Hadozee content was written by a trusted senior person at WotC, and very few people saw it before publication.
• 'DnDShorts' video on the internal workings and management culture of WotC is not something Brinks can talk on, but it is not reflective of his team. Each team has its own culture.
• In the last couple of years the D&D team hiring process has made the team more inclusive.
• When asked about non white-CIS-men in leadership positions at WotC, Brinks referred to some designers and authors. He said 'guys like me, we're leaving the workforce, to be blunt' and 'I'm not the face of the hobby any more'. It is important that the creators at WotC look like the players. 'Guys like me can't leave soon enough'.

Virtual Tabletops (VTTs)/Digital Gaming

• Goal is to make more ways to play ('and' not 'instead') including a cool looking 3D space.
• Digital gaming is not meant to replace books etc., but to be additive.
• The strategy is to give players a choice, and WotC will go where the player interests lie.

​

 

[BlueFin]

I started selecting portions of the summary to quote as “BS” and then realised I was just selecting every point.

I’m most likely rehashing a hundred or more other people’s comments but here goes …

This is nothing but corporate BS. The whole “I don’t know what happened in meetings I wasn’t present in” etc answers, are BS. If he/wotc were serious about rebuilding trust, then it was his damn job to find out and answer those questions straight. They obviously knew he was going to be asked about it and they built a corp-speak 101 response.

”We’d already abandoned most of 1.1 by the time it leaked” - BS. If that were true then there would have been no reason to be afraid of putting out a response to immediately say they had already abandoned it.

Nothing in this rebuilds trust as far as I’m concerned.

Being truthful is where that would begin, and this guy is being anything but (in regards to 1.1 - we of course can’t yet know the truth of anything he has said about the future of 1D&D etc).

 

[clearstream]

Right. Which would also…just happen…to put smaller companies right out of business. Even with their so-called “sweetheart” deals.

My impression is that their goal was to set the trigger above anything smaller companies would likely revenue. That said, to get clear of the most successful Kickstarters they should have set it well above $1m.

They could also have avoided placing a reporting burden on smaller companies by giving themselves an auditing right (at their own expense.)

 

[clearstream]

If this holds true, then this entire fiasco is a complete 180 internally at Wizbro.

Initial Position: Our IP is at risk and must be locked down.
Current Position: We are giving away our IP completely and will do so further.

I think they are giving away the expression of their game rules.

It's true folk make errors, but if counsel at Hasbro are at all typical of larger games companies then they will have a well informed view of which IP they can and should protect.

 

[Myrdin Potter]

And then he ran away via blocking me.

Not surprised.

 

[Bagpuss]

Seen a section of this interview taken out of context online...

That Kyle Brink said

"I think there's been mistakes made in years past where people assumed that d&d players were all you know white dudes in a basement which is which has been a faulty assumption for a lot of years and gets more and more false every day and so it's in my viewpoint honestly guys like me you can't can't leave soon enough for this Hobby"

Implying that he (and therefore WotC) think CIS white guys should leave the hobby.

I think it is important to see it in context.

Where as if you put it in context he is answering a question about leadership positions at WotC, and the fact they are still dominated by CIS white men, and he is looking forward to more diverse talent moving up through the ranks to replace him.

Here's the context I've cleaned up the transcript a little. Happens from 47:02 in the video.

Jeremy Cobb: In terms of hiring diversity this actually speaks to one thing that Orion Black said in their statements. Which is that they believed that they were essentially a diversity hire. Which look we're all here we're all in favor of diversity but ultimately I think what makes the difference in a company like this is if you have minority people in positions of power and while I'm sure that there have been numerous hirings of people from a variety of different minorities at least in the case of racial minorities I've met a number of people who including yourself who are fairly high up in D&D and I think every single one of them has been white and also I think all of them have been CIS men.

Not to say that everybody there is a CIS man but it seems to be consistently that we have white CIS men still at the top of these groups can you identify any specific positions of like significant power um because you've got you got I mean even on the D&D team you still got you've still got Jeremy Crawford, you still got uh Mike Merles, and so forth what can you identify any specific positions that have like higher ranking positions that have been filled by people of say racially diverse backgrounds?

Kyle Brink: I think if you look at the the credits of our books you'll see some lead designers there who are are not CIS men you will also see a lot of primary authors on sources. These are folks who are coming up through the ranks and proving themselves and earning their respect not because of who they are but because of how they are as professionals. Which is the best kind of respect, right? You know you don't want to be respected because you're the diversity hire you want to be respected because you're awesome at your job and that's and that's happening more and more.

This you know look guys like me we're we're leaving the workforce, to be blunt and we're also not this is not the face of the hobby anymore. I'm not the majority of this hobby anymore and I and so it's important to me that my team of creators look like my players, and have the lived experience that my players do, and I think there's been mistakes made in years past where people assumed that d&d players were all you know white dudes in a basement um which is which has been a faulty assumption for a lot of years and gets more and more false every day and so it's in my viewpoint honestly guys like me you can't can't leave soon enough for this Hobby and we owe you good games we owe you good products and so we need to make sure that everybody working on it is real good at it, and that means not just hiring but also developing right when we bring people in who are good we need to empower them give them more room to run. Give them guidance on what we learned when we were creating stuff so that they can create great stuff too and then you know I always hire people smarter than me so that I can get out of their way that's my Approach uh and so as as long as we stay on this trajectory yeah this is this is the face of d d will literally change.

 

[darjr]

Kyles second interview is with Teos Abadia aka Alphastream.

Thread here OGL - Kyle Brink Interviewed by Teos Abadia (Alphastream) on the Mastering Dungeons YouTube.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

And then he ran away via blocking me.

Not surprised.

There are people you will run into in life who will disagree with you. Handling that is part of being an adult. If someone blocks you strictly because you disagree with them... there is something that person needs to work on. (caveat: you are not someone wishing this person physical or psychological harm... that's quite a different scenario)

 

[darjr]

... If someone blocks you strictly because you disagree with them... there is something that person needs to work on. (caveat: you are not someone wishing this person physical or psychological harm... that's quite a different scenario)

Bull.

People block if you need to. Take ZERO pressure from anyone else about it.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

Bull.

People block if you need to. Take ZERO pressure from anyone else about it.

You're a good person. But we will have to agree to disagree on this point.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

You're a good person. But we will have to agree to disagree on this point.

Please don't block me