Ryan Dancey -- Hasbro Cannot Deauthorize OGL

I reached out to the architect of the original Open Gaming License, former VP of Wizard of the Coast, Ryan Dancey, and asked his opinion about the current plan by WotC to 'deauthorize' the current OGL in favour of a new one.

He responded as follows:

Yeah my public opinion is that Hasbro does not have the power to deauthorize a version of the OGL. If that had been a power that we wanted to reserve for Hasbro, we would have enumerated it in the license. I am on record numerous places in email and blogs and interviews saying that the license could never be revoked.

Ryan also maintains the Open Gaming Foundation.

As has been noted previously, even WotC in its own OGL FAQ did not believe at the time that the licence could be revoked.

7. Can't Wizards of the Coast change the License in a way that I wouldn't like?

Yes, it could. However, the License already defines what will happen to content that has been previously distributed using an earlier version, in Section 9. As a result, even if Wizards made a change you disagreed with, you could continue to use an earlier, acceptable version at your option. In other words, there's no reason for Wizards to ever make a change that the community of people using the Open Gaming License would object to, because the community would just ignore the change anyway.

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[Haplo781]

I'm a edition war Anarchist.

I choose chess.

What's your stance on the en passant rule

 

[Olrox17]

One of the Architects of the Original OGL, Ryan Dancey, Discusses Its Cr... via @YouTube

Following it live right now, pretty amazing interview.

 

[Thomas Shey]

correct... for the analogy and the compairison to work it would have to be a splinter company people trusted that had published Dragon and Dungeon magazine for a few years saying "We don't really like this new way, lets keep multi classing and thac0 the way it was... with some minor improvements"

correct... but if the OGL didn't let them make a 3.75 none of that would mean much.

Sure. I'm just saying they also had the advantage that they were working with a fork off the version of D&D that had pulled back in (at least for a time) a lot of lost D&D fanbase; an attempt to do something at the start of D&D3e would have had no such advantage (there were certainly contraversies when D&D3e came out, but the split was hosed down because 3e was getting even more people than it lost, something there's no sign was true with 4e).

 

[darjr]

Following it live right now, pretty amazing interview.

Incredible!

He says he’s astounded by how much D&D makes.
That he never would have guessed in his wildest dreams.

 

[darjr]

Oh! The OSR clones were a surprise

 

[Vaalingrade]

Ryan says that WotC themselves were safer under the idea of the OGL and now they’ve entered a realm of unknowns and are at risk themselves.

Disney could make a video game and use 5e rules and say it’s compatible with D&D. And WotC may not be able to do anything about it.

And people say two wrongs can't make a right.

 

[drow]

let's be honest, if the OGL /did/ include the word "unrevokable", who doesn't think that some lawyer could be paid to argue that it can still be "rescinded", "annulled", or "disintegrated" lacking the opposites of those particular thesaurus entries? its all banter and wordplay until its before a judge.

 

[mamba]

let's be honest, if the OGL /did/ include the word "unrevokable", who doesn't think that some lawyer could be paid to argue that it can still be "rescinded", "annulled", or "disintegrated" lacking the opposites of those particular thesaurus entries? its all banter and wordplay until its before a judge.

agreed, then they would argue that they are not revoking it, it just is no longer authorized, which is a totally different thing, it just acts the same way

 

[Drake2000]

Ryan says that WotC themselves were safer under the idea of the OGL and now they’ve entered a realm of unknowns and are at risk themselves.

Disney could make a video game and use 5e rules and say it’s compatible with D&D. And WotC may not be able to do anything about it.

Speaking of Disney, does anyone know if the in-development Marvel RPG uses the OGL?

 

[Thomas Shey]

let's be honest, if the OGL /did/ include the word "unrevokable", who doesn't think that some lawyer could be paid to argue that it can still be "rescinded", "annulled", or "disintegrated" lacking the opposites of those particular thesaurus entries? its all banter and wordplay until its before a judge.

Yeah, but that at the very least would be pretty good ammo for even a very limited lawyer team (like, say, a lawyer) to argue to get the whole thing tossed out. As it is, open licenses are a muddy enough part of law that they will probably at least have to be looked at by a judge (though I'm dubious they're going ignore the information about apparent original intent presented by representatives of WOTC at the time).