A lot is being said about how 1.1 kills or attempts to kill 1.0a. That's being discussed everywhere.
Let's pretend 1.0a never existed and WotC is just making 1.1. No Paizos, no other large OGL games. WotC releasing 1.1 is the first opportunity to make D&D related content in the world.
What is in it for me?
That's not a flippant statement. Someone please explain (like I was 12 if that helps) what are the advantages and disadvantages of using it? Don't compare it to 1.0a, I just want to know what 1.1 alone would offer.
Anyone who can parse legalese, this would be appreciated.
IANAL, but from reading it.
1) Two licences, commercial and non-commercial.
2) Non-commercial only applies if you ONLY give away stuff for free. Any kind of paywall or anything at all except tip buckets like KoFi, you are commercial. Even barter or exchange makes it commercial (they specify!).
3) Non-commercial lets others use your work - any or all of - you can't protect any of it. So it's like you marked the entire document (including illustrations, maps, etc.) "Open Gaming Content" under OGL 1.0a.
4) Commercial to be clear, does not let you share anything with anyone, but WotC, so I know the focus isn't on restrictions, but I just need that to be clear. There is no "open" and no "sharing" with any but WotC with Commercial.
5) What can you sell under the OGL? Print and PDF/ePub/mobi essentially. That's it.
They specifically ban a bunch of stuff, but we're not talking about that. Assume if I didn't say it you can't.
6) However, they are clear you get to sell "self-merch" pretty freely. Physical goods particularly. So long as they're 100% about your IP and not D&D. So minis, letter-openers, dice, etc. - are all going to be fine so long as you don't but anything from the SRD on them, or anything WotC owns. They also don't count against the $750k. But the second something touches the SRD or even thinks about it, it does count.
7) You get a logo.
8) You get to use anything in the SRD 5.1.
No that's not a typo. Only
that SRD. Not a future SRD. Not a past SRD. Just 5.1. Also you've got to mark everything in your book that is from the SRD. Examples they suggest are a different font, different colour text, or pages at the back listing out what's SRD and what's not. Yes I know we already had access to it under OGL 1.0a lol.
8) You get a number of requirements from WotC you have to fulfil that increase as you make more money per annum.
So what's in it for you? A logo, a single specific SRD you already have access to, and legal safe-harbour. And it all it cost you was the entire concept of Open Gaming. It's very hard to see why anyone would sign up to this, given the main reason people went OGL in the first place was the Open Gaming bit.
TLDR: The only actual carrot is a logo. Everything else carrot-flavoured was in OGL 1.0a.
I think the Non-Commercial license is okay. It's pretty much a non-commercial share-alike license.
I don't agree because it's basically IP-destroying, as everything it is auto-shared. You have no designation or control at all. I think licences like that make sense for software, but for creative stuff, they make no sense unless you're intending to never make any money from stuff related to that.
