D&D (2024) Lifetime boycott of D&D-branded products?

[BigZebra]

Look, I might not like the owners or the trainer. But I surely do like the players (Perkins et al) and the game (D&D). And all this extreme vitriol is just a bit too much and the idea of Paizo as this white knight is just a bit too weird to be honest.
Read that some of the designers are getting death threats and whatnot. Just ridiculous.

 

[Incenjucar]

Look, I might not like the owners or the trainer. But I surely do like the players (Perkins et al) and the game (D&D). And all this extreme vitriol is just a bit too much and the idea of Paizo as this white knight is just a bit too weird to be honest.
Read that some of the designers are getting death threats and whatnot. Just ridiculous.

I expect that most of the actual D&D design team has been dreading this.

 

[Yaarel]

I expect that most of the actual D&D design team has been dreading this.

Yeah, I doubt the designers are on board with the Anti-OGL.

They understand how important the Open Gaming is. Most are part of their own Open Gaming publishers, like Crawford with Blue Rose, Mearls with Iron Heroes, and so on.

It would suck to be in a company going Anti-OGL.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Read that some of the designers are getting death threats and whatnot. Just ridiculous.

People get death threats for just existing or supporting the wrong football team, so implying that's unusual is pretty silly.

It's obviously completely unacceptable behaviour, but there's very sadly nothing special or unusual about it. Idiots are going to be idiots.

Also, what's your source on this? I ask because none of the designers have really said anything, so it sounds like your source is probably a dude GUESSING that they have. He's probably right because again, lots of people get death threats just for existing, but you're just spreading scuttlebutt if so.

 

[Greg Benage]

I’d be very skeptical of how this “no bigotry clause” could be written in a way that was both legally meaningful and not vulnerable to overreach.

It's done all the time in licensing. It not only isn't impossible, it's entirely conventional. As a licensee, you're never 100% immune to "overreach" by your licensor. It's just a risk you factor into your cost-benefit analysis when evaluating a license agreement.

For my part, I have no trouble believing that Wizards could write it in such a way that most 3PPs would accept the minimal risk...assuming the rest of the terms were attractive. Which they are not, as it stands, based solely on revocability.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Look, I might not like the owners or the trainer. But I surely do like the players (Perkins et al) and the game (D&D). And all this extreme vitriol is just a bit too much and the idea of Paizo as this white knight is just a bit too weird to be honest.

When did you start playing D&D? Because, even if you don't like Pathfinder, Paizo has already been gamers' white knight in the past. It does not seem at all hard for me -- a non-Pathfinder player -- to see them doing it again.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, I doubt the designers are on board with the Anti-OGL.

They understand how important the Open Gaming is. Most are part of their own Open Gaming publishers, like Crawford with Blue Rose, Mearls with Iron Heroes, and so on.

It would suck to be in a company going Anti-OGL.

I have worked for companies that have, at least momentarily, gone to the dark side and it sucks for those working there, many of whom object so vigorously, they risk firing because of it.

I don't think we should take the silence of Crawford and company as a sign that they are not making a hell of a lot of noise in-house.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

People get death threats for just existing or supporting the wrong football team, so implying that's unusual is pretty silly.

I'm not sure the UK (or Argentina) should be the standard for what's normal football behavior, no offense.

There is not an expectation of death threats in most industries in the US. (Poll workers and teachers in the US were unprepared for what was turned on them in recent years, for instance, since it wasn't part of their expectations for the job.)

 

[ECMO3]

How about a ‘lifetime boycott’ from purchasing new D&D-branded products? (If I were to take this up, I’d still allow myself to pick up used copies.)

Such an action could be complementary with switching to A5E / PF2 / 13A / (insert your favorite Black Flag game system here).

I’m at work right now, but I look forward to canceling my DnDBeyond subscription when I get home.

You should probably remove the "D&D" from your avatar if you do this.

 

[Yaarel]

In the 4e GSL fiasco, I was furious about it, because I loved 4e and knew that shutting down access to the Open Gaming community would ruin 4e.

But what Hasbro-WotC is doing now with the Anti-OGL is magnitudes worse. It is harming the Open Gaming community itself.