OGL 1.2 survey is now live

[Aspirinsmurf]

Fiiiiiiine.
"Compatible with the Fifth Edition of the Word's Oldest/ Best/ Most Popular Roleplaying game."

I think that kind of language on the cover goes against the spirit of the thing. I'd say they have a reasonable case that it would serve to reference their trademark specifically.

 

[mamba]

Their shareholders

not sure they are happy right now either

 

[FormerLurker]

Stop trying to tell people what they can or cannot do.

Do as I say, not as I do?

Also stop with this false dichotomy. People can boycott WotC by not purchasing anything from WotC/Hasbro unless they stop pursuing this course of action AND still play 5e witheir exising books and with 3PP material. It's not hard to do, in fact.

Which is fine. As long as you don't support the game in any way and don't bring new players into the hobby and don't buy any licensed or supporting material like dice and miniatures. Or replacements for damaged books. Or visiting their websites. Even buying 3PP for the game is effectively advertising the game by proxy. Oh, and of course don't raise brand awareness by talking about it online.
Oops. Too late.

Regardless, it's deeply hypocritical to boycott a company while still using their products.

Accepting it wouldn't have brought the change so far from the 1.1 to the 1.2. Accepting it won't bring further change.

Responding to the survey will bring future change. This is where "not accepting it" ends.

 

[mamba]

And it just hurts the hobby as there's no standard entry point.

Sounds like that is hurting WotC to me

It's hard enough finding a good new player for your D&D table, let alone finding someone to play Fantasy Age or Numenera or Shadow of the Demon Lord. Fracturing the community into a half-dozen competing minor games means more spread out gamers and increased difficulty in finding games. Which discourages people from playing, shrinking the industry.

Having trouble finding alternative RPGs might be changing as we speak...

 

[Aspirinsmurf]

The ORC is fixing that

The problem with the ORC is that we can't get orphaned works out of the old OGC commons without WotC being involved. It would have to be done through the ORC being an "update" to the OGL, which is a power that WotC actually holds.

If WotC transferred their copyright and their right to update the OGL over to this non-profit foundation that's being set up for the purpose (or an existing foundation that can be trusted to serve as a custodian), that would probably be the best solution.

 

[mamba]

The last time D&D went away (4e) the entire industry shrank and contracted.

that was because D&D is such a large part of it, not because the others shrank...

 

[mamba]

That is essentially what 1.2 is (plus some more).

no it absolutely is not, it can be revoked just as easily as 1.0a (or easier, because 1.0a is older so might be protected by its old language)

 

[mamba]

WotC could destroy most 3PP for a variety of reasons without even trying. Kobold Press once released a book that heavily plagiarized the Dungeon Master's Guide. WotC could have destroyed them. But they didn't. Because the D&D team was friends with the head Kobold and knew it was an accident, and Kobold Press corrected the error.
This is just baseless fear mongering.

are you sure that would be the same outcome if it happened today?

 

[mamba]

There is an OGL 1.0a they can release it under because it cannot be revoked or "deauthorized". Hopefully, that will come out in a presentation before a court with a jury.

it is already released under 1.0a, and in WotC's scenario that would not exist anyway, so no, there is no 1.0a to release it under, no matter how you slice this

 

[mamba]

Why do they care?
It's either because they're not monsters who want to make people happy or they want to make as much money as possible and don't want to lose customers. Pick the option that fits your level of cynicism.

I pick the option that fits their behavior, how about that...