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.

​

 

[Sacrosanct]

edit made this post the same time as Dannyalcatraz

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The theme is when we remove somebody from a position for their ideas. This is plainly wrong. I cannot but find insincere the attitude of a publisher who remove a book from his catalogue due to political views of the author. The same for a producer that do not want an actor because of he said something racist on twitter. This removals are always motivated by the fear of a money loss, because in a particular hystorical periods there is a vast majority of people among the costumer base that wants to boycott that kind of ideas to the point to mix the man, the work of that man and the personal view of that man.

Mod Note:

Just looking at part of your post…

Karl Popper and a lot of others would disagree with this. Strongly.

There is no objective requirement that any free society give a platform to the views of those who espouse hate, oppose freedom, push back against equality for all, and so forth.

When a business entity and its agents, money is unquestionably involved. But to say that’s the main or even sole motivation for a company to disassociate from those espousing hate is, at best, simplistic, and at worst, gaslighting.

And to be clear: there ARE personal beliefs and works that are antithetical to basic human dignity, and deserve to be relegated to tha ash heap of human history.

You’re done in this thread.

 

[HectorsNemesis]

Well Wizards does sell tobac and pipeweed to smoke in their Adventure League "Breath of the Yellow Rose"

A large wooden silhouette of a pipe with smoke rising from the bowl hangs over the door. Clearly profitable, large glass windows allow you to seen inside where jars of incense, tabac, pipeweed, matches and other wares are displayed.
Behind the counter is bulky man of Rashemi descent with a full black beard and thinning hair, sucking on a pipe. Towards the back of the store, just before a walk-in humidor, three men and woman sit at a table drinking from small cups and passing a hookah between them.

After reading that I had the strong urge to light up some black cavendish.
Wizards being harmful again? ;-P

 

[Faolyn]

Well Wizards does sell tobac and pipeweed to smoke in their Adventure League "Breath of the Yellow Rose"

A large wooden silhouette of a pipe with smoke rising from the bowl hangs over the door. Clearly profitable, large glass windows allow you to seen inside where jars of incense, tabac, pipeweed, matches and other wares are displayed.
Behind the counter is bulky man of Rashemi descent with a full black beard and thinning hair, sucking on a pipe. Towards the back of the store, just before a walk-in humidor, three men and woman sit at a table drinking from small cups and passing a hookah between them.

After reading that I had the strong urge to light up some black cavendish.
Wizards being harmful again? ;-P

There's a surprisingly large difference between a fantasy world that has spells that cure disease in six seconds flat, and the real world.

 

[mamba]

The theme is when we remove somebody from a position for their ideas. This is plainly wrong.

No, depending on the ideas that is absolutely the right thing to do.

EDIT: guess a mod was faster

 

[Umbran]

Hmm. There is no case in history where deliberately ignoring your opponent's motivations lead to a good outcome. It might feel good in the moment, but it creates hell in the future.

Mod Note:
With respect, Zak S will be forgotten by history anyway. He's not some global threat. Please stop insisting that people give him free brainspace.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

You're losing sight of the issue, which is whether or not working for Yiannopoulos is worse than working for Big Tobacco. I'm of the opinion that the former is nowhere near as bad as the latter, as one person's airing their personal viewpoints doesn't directly injure or kill people, whereas the latter makes products that do.

If you think otherwise, well, you and the small number of people who agree with you on that one can be alone together.

Spoiler: hadn’t seen moderation yet

The level of passive aggressive self-righteousness in your posts on this topic is truly wild.

Working in or for the tobacco industry isn’t ideal, but mid-level associates are not running companies. Anyone below the executive level is a misguided target for your self righteous judgement.

On top of that, you refuse to acknowledge the harm caused by neonazi propagandists, I guess because they aren’t involved with a physical product. Not like hate crimes and white supremecist recruitment have increased in the last 20 years or anything. You also can’t even bring yourself to acknowledge that the high-sugar, high-sodium, low quality, addictive, products of the fast food industry are one of the primary drivers of the obesity epidemic, the rise of severe type 2 diabetes (fairly uncommon amongst people with low sugar and processed carb/starch intake), and the rise of heart cardiovascular disease (one of the most common causes of death in America), and as such absolutely are on the same level of “evil” as the tobacco industry.

So maybe get off your high horse, and keep crusades to yourself when on a discussion board about something completely unrelated to said crusades.

Suffice to say, material harm is caused to millions of people by many industries. Passing judgement on a mid-tier employee of a company in such an industry is both objectionable, and irrelevant to the topic of the thread.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Well Wizards does sell tobac and pipeweed to smoke in their Adventure League "Breath of the Yellow Rose"

A large wooden silhouette of a pipe with smoke rising from the bowl hangs over the door. Clearly profitable, large glass windows allow you to seen inside where jars of incense, tabac, pipeweed, matches and other wares are displayed.
Behind the counter is bulky man of Rashemi descent with a full black beard and thinning hair, sucking on a pipe. Towards the back of the store, just before a walk-in humidor, three men and woman sit at a table drinking from small cups and passing a hookah between them.

After reading that I had the strong urge to light up some black cavendish.
Wizards being harmful again? ;-P

There’s a place you can order from online (or at least was a decade ago) that stocks a pipe tobacco blend they call Shortcut To Mushrooms, that is the lightest, smoothest, and yet earthiest, smoke I’ve ever had.

Not good enough for a relapse, but man…when I do have a craving, that’s often what my mind returns to.

There's a surprisingly large difference between a fantasy world that has spells that cure disease in six seconds flat, and the real world.

Depends on how readily available that cure disease is, and what counts as a disease.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

@Alzrius thank you for mocking that post with a laugh reaction. Doing so will help me avoid wasting time in the future.

 

[HectorsNemesis]

There's a surprisingly large difference between a fantasy world that has spells that cure disease in six seconds flat, and the real world.

Well you are right about that. I'm just still venting at the audacity of Wizards OGL 1.2 morals clause (which is obviously moot now anyways) in which "harmful content" might cause them to revoke a license. After all when I watch a movie or TV show there is a disclaimer that persons in the show are smoking, so it's not that far-fetched Wizards might have done such a thing.