Taking a Step Back

[Arilyn]

WotC is using their vastly stronger position to bully 3pp and lie to fans. There are many ways to make more money off D&D without attempting full control.

I'm done. We don't need them. Support 3pp!

 

[Bravesteel25]

There was a middle way. They could have gone the 4ed route of again abandoning the OGL. Maybe make a new GSL, maybe rely on DmGuild licensing only. With the curent market position and without the other factors dooming D&D4ed I think this might had a fair chance to work. Creators would have flocked to it, even some accepting the risk of the royalties. Wizards could have suggested their OGL-1.1 terms (possibly without the grant full use clause), and people would have happily taken it. Wizards would still be a company with a track record of fair business dealings, and hence a potential reliable partner. Getting access to the updated "true oneD&D" would be enough carrot, as the current huge pool of causal gamers would likely have followed without thinking.

You still don't think this is possible? I think there are enough minor and mid-level creators that would sign up to play directly in D&D's D&D Beyond playground rather than being on OneBookShelf's Dungeon Masters Guild. True, the big publishers like Kobold Press, Paizo, and EN Publishing will move on to ORC* that just leaves the opportunity for other 3PP to take their place in the D&D ecosystem.

*I think ORC is the best thing to come out of all of this, and I hope it brings some healthy competition to D&D as a whole as I believe WotC has been really phoning it in this edition.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I am sentimentally attached to the brand and, despite my raking them over the coals on particular design decisions from time to time, I still have overwhelmingly good will towards their creative staff. There is something perverse about blackballing a company like that over the actions of a few mostly recently arrived executives.

But as long as those executives remain entrenched and as long as their actions stand, WotC is, as far as I'm concerned, excommunicated from the ttrpg community. In fact, I'd view them as excommunicated from the D&D community, as confusing a prospect as that is.