Statement on OGL from WotC

Wizards of the Coast has made a short statement regarding the ongoing rumors surrounding OneD&D and the Open Gaming License. In a short response to Comicbook.com, the company said "We will continue to support the thousands of creators making third-party D&D content with the release of One D&D in 2024. While it is certain our Open Game License (OGL) will continue to evolve, just as it has since its inception, we're too early in the development of One D&D to give more specifics on the OGL or System Reference Document (SRD) at this time."

Dungeons & Dragons Clarifies Support for Third-Party Material as New Edition Draws Near

Wizards of the Coast has responded to rumors of changes to the Open Game License and System [...]

comicbook.com

It's not clear what WotC means when they say that the OGL will 'continue to evolve' -- while there have been two versions of the license released over the years, each is non-rescindible so people are free to use whichever version of the license they wish. Indeed, that is written into the license itself -- "Wizards or its designated Agents may publish updated versions of this License. You may use any authorized version of this License to copy, modify and distribute any Open Game Content originally distributed under any version of this License."

During the D&D 4th Edition era, WotC published a new, separate license called the Game System Licence (GSL). While it was used by third party publishers, it was generally upopular.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

It is like there is no institutional memory over at WOTC and, thus Hasbro regarding the 4e GSL ....

Among the executives there likely isn't, none where there for that and they likely didn't consult with those designers and other folks who were.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

It's all it took for WotC to fold in the face of the Dragonlance lawsuit, they saw fans were pissed and folded, settling out of court, giving Tracy and Maraget what they wanted, for WotC not to breach the contract made with them.

They really need better lawyers who will tell the bosses the truth instead of what they want to hear.

I suspect the lawyers are fine but the bosses need work.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Do you have any evidence that this is what happened, or is this just speculation?

Again, baseless speculation.

It's not baseless speculation, WotC settling out of court on the DL case is public knowledge, do yoy think they did that so quickly because they feared the opposing lawyer?

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

It's not baseless speculation, WotC settling out of court on the DL case is public knowledge, do yoy think they did that so quickly because they feared the opposing lawyer?

They settled a court case. We know that they did that. We don't know if public backlash was a substantial factor in that. It could have just as easily been resolved internally. Stop stating baseless speculation as if it were fact, please.

 

[humble minion]

It's all it took for WotC to fold in the face of the Dragonlance lawsuit, they saw fans were pissed and folded, settling out of court, giving Tracy and Maraget what they wanted, for WotC not to breach the contract made with them.

My memory is a bit fuzzy on this, but I don't think the public backlash had much to do with WotC settling that case. I think it was more that it became clear they were going to lose. There's a reason WotC booted their head of fiction soon afterwards. From vague memory WotC had the right to approve W&Hs work before publication, and decided for whatever reason to arbitrarily delay that approval forever without actually knocking it back either, and you're not allowed to do that sort of stuff. But there's a looong thread about that back in the archives somewhere.

Some publishers are already turning away from WOTC and D&D over this. The lady from Arcane Library posted that she is now updating a product that was to go to Kickstarter in February from OGL to another license.

I just got an email from Kobold Press overnight saying that they'll soon be launching their Deep Magic II kickstarter 'for 5th edition games' in the near future. Odds on are that KP are one of the 3pps under NDA - it'll be interesting to see what licence they publish under, whether they've come to a private bespoke agreement with WotC, or whether they talk about any of this at all. It doesn't seem to have made them put a hold on their product pipeline though.

 

[Irlo]

It's not baseless speculation, WotC settling out of court on the DL case is public knowledge, do yoy think they did that so quickly because they feared the opposing lawyer?

I think they settled quickly to save money. That’s why most suits are settled.

But that’s just me speculating.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I suspect the lawyers are fine but the bosses need work.

Yeah I'm increasingly convinced new leadership is needed at WotC deseperately. I suspect that the activist investors are quietly marshalling their forces for a renewed battle over the fate of WotC, just too many angry fans, bad publicity, potential lawsuits, and a host of other issues. WotC is just too valuable to keep dropping the ball like this.

Also rember they just cancelled 6 games, most of which I believe were partnerships, so that roughly 5 more partners pissed off.

This is looking increasingly bad.

 

[Art Waring]

What was Morrus' advice?

quoted from @Morrus

"anybody who thinks they might conceivably want to use the OGL 1.0a in the future should do so immediately by releasing a tiny 'product' into the wild under the OGL before WotC stops 'offering' it. If this version turns out to be the way it goes, those people will perpetually have the right to use the current SRD contents"

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I think they settled quickly to save money. That’s why most suits are settled.

But that’s just me speculating.

My understanding from the discussion here. It sounded like a WoTC executive was stalling the approval of the novel, not rejecting not approving. That was the basis of the suit.

 

[ersatzphil]

quoted from @Morrus

Just so I’m clear - offering an ‘anything’ now, so that if things play out certain ways, we would be party to the license for other arbitrary projects in the future?