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The Day Has Come! It's An OGL! And A Store To Buy & Sell D&D 5E Products!

The day has finally come! WotC has just announced a Dungeon Master's Guild. "There’s a new way to buy and share D&D adventures. With the Dungeon Master’s Guild, you’ll be able to self-publish material set in the Forgotten Realms using monsters, spells, characters, and locations." You can self-publish D&D materials, and buy, sell, and share it. It's a partnership between WotC and OBS (the company which runs DTRPG and RPGNow) and they take 50% of the revenue. The guild is only accepting 5E material set in the Forgotten Realms. Not only that, but there's also a new SRD (System Reference Document) for use with the Open Gaming License (OGL)!

The day has finally come! WotC has just announced a Dungeon Master's Guild. "There’s a new way to buy and share D&D adventures. With the Dungeon Master’s Guild, you’ll be able to self-publish material set in the Forgotten Realms using monsters, spells, characters, and locations." You can self-publish D&D materials, and buy, sell, and share it. It's a partnership between WotC and OBS (the company which runs DTRPG and RPGNow) and they take 50% of the revenue. The guild is only accepting 5E material set in the Forgotten Realms. Not only that, but there's also a new SRD (System Reference Document) for use with the Open Gaming License (OGL)!

So the store, called the Dungeon Master's Guild, is here. It already has some stuff in it. The System Reference Document is here. I'm sure that over the coming days, there will be plenty of in-depth analysis of what all this means. The SRD is an enormous 360-page PDF containing the rules of the game - as yet I haven't had chance to look closely art what's there and what's not. You have two options - publish under the OGL using the SRD, or publish in the Dungeon Master's Guild. The former lets you do more varied stuff, while the latter has tempting nuggets like the possibility of publication by WotC. The OGL route - as far as I can see at first glance - doesn't offer a way to indicate compatibility, or any kind of logo you can use.

There's a bunch of information on the DG (I'll call it that for the moment, because typing out the whole thing is already getting arduous - we need an acronym, and DMG is already taken!), and here are the salient points as far as I can tell:

  • You can use a bunch of WotC's IP, including brand names and other vital stuff.
  • It's affiliated with DTRPG, and if you charge money it costs you 50% of your revenue (DTRPG normally charges 40% or so).
  • There are resources - templates stock art, et. you can use.
  • Your work has to be set in the Forgotten Realms. Additional settings may open up later. [UPDATE - you can publish setting agnostic stuff, but if it's in a setting, that setting must be FR]
  • You have to agree to a Community Content Agreement (below).
  • You cannot sell your stuff elsewhere. It's an exclusive deal.
  • You keep ownership of your own IP, but others can use it.
  • Your work might be selected for use in an official D&D product or video game.
  • There's no approval process, but they reserve the right to withhold payment and pull your content if you break the content guidelines.



DMsGuild-Logo.png


[h=4]The Community Content Agreement[/h]
For those having trouble finding it, here it is:

This Community Content Agreement (this “Agreement”) is a binding agreement between you, the individual identified by your customer account on this website or the legal entity you represent, and OneBookShelf, Inc. (“OBS”) the parent company of website marketplaces including DriveThruRPG, RPGNow and more.


This Agreement covers your participation in and use of the Dungeon Masters Guild and the website, www.DMsGuild.com (the “Program”).
1. Acceptance
You accept this Agreement by clicking “I Agree” to set up and submit a new title (the “Work”) to OBS.


2. Intellectual Property Definitions
(a) Hasbro, Inc. d/b/a Wizards of the Coast LLC (collectively, the “Owner”) has granted OBS the right to use elements of Owner’s Dungeons & Dragon tabletop roleplaying game (“Owner’s IP”) and sublicense certain limited rights to you under the terms of this Agreement.
Owner’s IP includes any and all Dungeons & Dragons tabletop roleplaying materials and content made available to you through the Program including, but not limited to:
Dungeons & Dragons rule sets
Portions and elements of Dungeons & Dragons campaign settings
Artwork and other graphic templates and materials
Owner’s IP may be amended at any time and for any reason whatsoever without liability to you. However, any Work published in the Program prior to the removal of Owner’s IP will not require the removal or amendment of that Work.
(b) “Program IP” shall be defined as any User Generated Content (defined, below) distributed by the Program.
(c) “User Generated Content” shall be defined as the copyrightable elements included in your Work, such as original characters, scenes, locations and events. Per the terms of this Agreement, you expressly agree that your User Generated Content, once submitted to the Program will become Program IP and useable by other members of the Program as well as the Owner as described in this Agreement.

3. Account Information; Account Suspension.

(a) Account Information; No Multiple Accounts. You must have an active user account in order to participate in the Program. You must ensure that all information you provide in connection with establishing your account, such as your name, address and email, is accurate when you provided it, and you must keep it up to date as long as you use the Program. You may maintain only one account at a time. You will not use false identities or impersonate any other person or use a username or password you are not authorized to use. You also consent to our sending you emails related to the Program and other publishing opportunities. This consent regarding contacting you by email takes precedence over any contrary directions you may have given us, including through a Wizards website.
(b) Account Security. You are solely responsible for safeguarding and maintaining the confidentiality of your account username and password and are responsible for all activities that occur under your account, whether or not you have authorized the activities. You may not permit any third party to use the Program through your account and will not use the account of any third party. You agree to immediately notify OneBookShelf.com of any unauthorized use of your username, password or account.
(c) Account Suspension. We may suspend your account or your participation in the Dungeon Masters Guild at any time. You acknowledge that if we do so, you may be prevented from accessing communications and content on the Dungeon Masters Guild. If we suspend your account, you must stop using all Dungeon Masters Guild accounts and you will not create any new accounts.

4. Rights Granted to You.

(a) Subject to your compliance with the terms of this Agreement, OBS grants you the limited, nonexclusive, nontransferable, personal, worldwide and revocable right to use and otherwise incorporate Owner’s IP and Program IP into your Work(s) for distribution through the Program or other platforms and channels at the sole discretion of Owner.
(b) Except for short promotional excerpts used to promote your Work, you may not display, recreate, publish, distribute or sell your Work (or derivatives thereof) outside of the Program administered on OBS websites or through other platforms or channels authorized or offered by Owner.

5. Rights You Grant to OBS

(a) No Reversion. Due to our licensing arrangement with the Owner and the collaborative nature of the Program, you are granting us broad licenses in your Work and your User Generated Content included in your Work, and the rights to your Work will not be reverted once it is published in the Program. You will have the ability through online tools at OBS websites to stop public display and sale of your Work on OBS marketplaces, but not to stop the sale of works of other authors in the Program even when such works use your User Generated Content that you originally created in your Work and thereby became part of the Program IP for other authors to use.
(b) Exclusive License to your Work. Effective as of the date you setup your Work through the Program on OBS’s website, you grant us the exclusive, irrevocable license for the full term of copyright protection available (including renewals), to develop,
license, reproduce, print, publish, distribute, translate, display, publicly perform and transmit your Work, in whole and in part, in each country in the world, in all languages and formats, and by all means now known or later developed, and the right to prepare derivative works of your Work.
(c) Exclusive License to all User Generated Content in your Work. Effective as of the date we first make your Work available through the Program, you grant us the exclusive, irrevocable license for the full term of copyright protection available (including renewals), to all User Generated Content included in your Work. You agree that the User Generated Content is available for unrestricted use by us without any additional compensation, notification or attribution, including that we may allow other Program authors, the Owner and other third parties to use the User Generated Content.
6. Waiver of Claims; Waiver of Moral Rights.
In order to prevent legal claims that could be disruptive to the Program participants or impede the ability of you and other Program authors to participate in the Program, you irrevocably waive any legal claim you may have under any theory of law in any territory that your rights were infringed due to any use of your User Generated Content by us, the Owner or its affiliates, licensees and sublicensees, and/or any other Program authors, including copyright infringement. This waiver does not apply to royalty payments we may owe you under Section 7. You also irrevocably waive any moral rights in your Work and agree not to assert any moral rights in your Work against us, the Owner, and/or other Program authors. If, under any applicable law, this waiver of moral rights is not effective, you acknowledge that your Work is subject to the licenses you grant in Section 4 without any credit obligation, that you intend for your Work to be used in this way, and that this form of use will not be contrary to your moral rights.

7. Royalties and Payments

(a) Royalties. As full consideration of the rights you grant us under this Agreement, we will pay you a 50% royalty of the price paid on digital download format sales of your Work, and a 50% royalty on the print margin of print-on-demand sales of your Work. Print Margin is the amount paid less the print cost to physically manufacture the book as listed on OBS websites.
(b) Sales taxes and freight charges are not considered part of the price paid.
(c) No royalties accrue on sales resulting in consumer refunds, charge backs, or fraud.
(d) Royalties are computed in US dollars.
(e) Royalties are paid via PayPal. You shall have access on OBS websites to a webpage that allows you to withdraw accumulated royalties to your PayPal account. OBS may deduct a fee of $2 or PayPal’s prevailing fee for its MassPay service from each payment to you.
(f) OBS or Owner may send complimentary copies of your work for reasonable promotional and administrative purposes. No royalties shall be paid to you on such copies.
(g) You shall set the sale price of your Work. OBS may include your Work in site promotional sales events at discounts up to 40% off your normal sale price.
(h) Royalties on a sale of your Work shall be eligible for your withdrawal 60 days after the sale.

8. Representations, Warranties and Indemnity.

You represent and warrant that:
(a) You are old enough to form a legally binding contract.
(b) If you are accepting this Agreement on behalf of a company or other legal entity, you represent that you have the legal authority to bind that company or legal entity.
(c) Excluding the Owner’s IP and Program IP which we license to you, you are the sole owner of all rights in your Work.
(d) Your Work does not contain material that is libelous; that violates the copyrights or trademarks of another party; that violates the law; or that the general public would classify as pornography.
You will indemnify and hold OBS and Owner harmless from any liability or cause of action arising from any breach of your representations and warranties including all reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.

9. No Obligation to Make Available or Sell. You acknowledge that we have no obligation to market, distribute, or offer for sale your Work, or to continuing marketing, distributing or selling your Work after we have started doing so. We may remove your Work from the Program and cease further exploitation at any time in our sole discretion without notice to you.

10. Disclaimers; Limitation of Liability. THE PROGRAM IS PROVIDED "AS IS." WE AND THE OWNER WILL IN NO EVENT BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF DATA, LOSS OF PROFITS, COST OF COVER OR OTHER SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT, EXEMPLARY OR RELIANCE DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR IN RELATION TO THIS AGREEMENT, OR FOR ANY EQUITABLE REMEDY OF DISGORGEMENT OR OTHERWISE, HOWEVER CAUSED AND REGARDLESS OF THEORY OF LIABILITY. IN NO EVENT WILL OUR (OR OWNER) LIABILITY UNDER THIS AGREEMENT EXCEED THE GREATER OF (I) THE AMOUNT OF FEES DUE AND PAYABLE BY US TO YOU UNDER THIS AGREEMENT FOR THE TWELVE-MONTH PERIOD PRECEDING THE CLAIM AND (II) FIFTY DOLLARS ($50.00). WE SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM, WITH RESPECT TO ALL SERVICES, SOFTWARE, CONTENT OR PRODUCTS PROVIDED BY OR ON BEHALF OF US IN CONNECTION WITH THIS AGREEMENT OR THE PROGRAM, ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. YOU AGREE THAT WE CANNOT ENSURE THAT EDITIONS OF YOUR USER GENERATED CONDITIONS WILL BE PROTECTED FROM THEFT OR MISUSE OR THAT CUSTOMERS WILL COMPLY WITH ANY CONTENT USAGE RULES. ONEBOOKSHELF WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY ARISING FROM A FAILURE OF ANY SECURITY SYSTEM OR PROCEDURE OR OF ANY CUSTOMER TO COMPLY WITH ANY CONTENT USAGE RULES. WE CANNOT GUARANTEE THAT OUR SYSTEMS WILL ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE, AND WE WILL HAVE NO LIABILITY ARISING FROM SYSTEM OR PROCESS FAILURES, INTERRUPTIONS, INACCURACIES, ERRORS OR LATENCIES.
SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE DISCLAIMER OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES; AS SUCH THE FOREGOING DISCLAIMER MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU IN ITS ENTIRETY.

11. Execution of Further Agreements and Documents. Protection of rights sometimes requires formal filings of paper documents and it may be helpful for us to have physical signed versions of this Agreement or other documents. You agree to sign and deliver to us any further documents that we may reasonably request to confirm your grant of rights to us (and Owner) under this Agreement, following all instructions we provide for signature and return (“Additional Documents”). If you do not complete and return any such Additional Documents within 30 days after we request them, you agree that we can sign the Additional Documents on your behalf and, to make your agreement legally enforceable, you hereby irrevocably appoint us as your attorney-in-fact with full power to execute, acknowledge and deliver the Additional Documents as required to confirm our rights. In legal terms, your appointment is a power coupled with an interest.

12. No Rescission or Injunctive Relief. All rights granted to us (and Owner) under this Agreement are irrevocably vested. No breach by us (or Owner) of this Agreement will entitle you to equitable relief, whether injunctive or otherwise, against or with respect to your User Generated Content or any other works produced pursuant to the rights granted under this Agreement or their exploitation. If the rights granted to OBS (or Owner) under this Agreement should revert to you under any copyright law or similar law, and if you are at any time thereafter prepared to enter an agreement with a third party for the license, exercise or other disposition of all or any of those rights, you will, before entering into the agreement, give OBS and Owner notice of the proposed terms (and all modifications of the terms) and the party involved. In each case, both OBS and Owner will then have 10 business days in which to elect to acquire the rights involved on the terms you offered to that third party.

13. General Provisions.
(a) This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to its subject matter. If any provision of this Agreement is held invalid by a court or other tribunal with jurisdiction over the parties to this Agreement, that provision will be deemed to be restated to reflect as nearly as possible the original intentions of the parties in accordance with applicable law, and the remainder of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect. The failure of either party to enforce any provision of this Agreement does not waive the party's rights to subsequently enforce the provision.
(b) The parties are independent contractors with respect to each other. This Agreement does not constitute and shall not be construed as constituting a partnership or joint venture among the parties hereto, or an employee/employer relationship.
(c) This Agreement will be binding upon, inure to the benefit of and be enforceable by the parties and their respective successors and assigns.
(d) You agree that all matters relating to your access to or use of the Program, including all disputes, will be governed by the laws of the United States and by the laws of the State of Washington without regard to its conflicts of laws provisions. You agree to the personal jurisdiction by and venue in the state and federal courts in King County, Washington, and waive any objection to such jurisdiction or venue. The preceding provision regarding venue does not apply if you are a consumer based in the European Union. If you are a consumer based in the European Union, you may make a claim in the courts of the country where you reside. Any claim under this Agreement must be brought within one (1) year after the cause of action arises, or such claim or cause of action is barred. You expressly acknowledge and agree that no recovery may be sought or received for damages other than out-of-pocket expenses, except that the prevailing party will be entitled to costs and attorneys’ fees. In the event of any controversy or dispute between us and you arising out of or in connection with your use of the Program, the parties shall attempt, promptly and in good faith, to resolve any such dispute. If we are unable to resolve any such dispute within a reasonable time (not to exceed thirty (30) days), then either party may submit such controversy or dispute to mediation. If the dispute cannot be resolved through mediation, then the parties shall be free to pursue any right or remedy available to them under applicable law.
Changelog


We will update this section if/when we make updates to this Agreement.
 

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Orlax

First Post
The DMGuild limitation on campaign settings makes some sense when you consider that campaign settings are one of the easiest things to do badly. Adventure writing is hard. Creating balanced mechanics is hard. these things take real work from a design perspective. Anyone can blather one for 30K or 40K or 100K words about their homebrew world and how their elves are so much better. If WotC wants to avoid glut in the DMGuild store it is certainly one way to do it. Now if they had only managed a way to cut down on the number of alternative rangers we are going to see...

This is also very true.
 

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Orlax

First Post
Yeah, I get that. I'd love to see some Eberron or Dark Sun goodness. :)


Ooh man, who actually holds the copywrites for those settings? Technically those guys have enough of a following on the eberon and darksun namez that they could do ogl releases without identifying D&D within its promotion. Same with dragon lance...
 

delericho

Legend
Ooh man, who actually holds the copywrites for those settings? Technically those guys have enough of a following on the eberon and darksun namez that they could do ogl releases without identifying D&D within its promotion. Same with dragon lance...

WotC own all three. They may be interested in licensing them out (they have in the past for Dragonlance), though there's no indication of anyone talking about them.

My guess is that if the designers were really keen to do a setting, they'd go for something new-but-similar, the way Bruce Heard is doing a kinda-Princess Ark setting. That way, they can leverage the recognition from their names but retain full IP rights. Either that, or wait for the settings to be added to DMguild - I'm perhaps more confident than you that "not yet" may mean "but soon".
 

Orlax

First Post
WotC own all three. They may be interested in licensing them out (they have in the past for Dragonlance), though there's no indication of anyone talking about them.

My guess is that if the designers were really keen to do a setting, they'd go for something new-but-similar, the way Bruce Heard is doing a kinda-Princess Ark setting. That way, they can leverage the recognition from their names but retain full IP rights. Either that, or wait for the settings to be added to DMguild - I'm perhaps more confident than you that "not yet" may mean "but soon".

Trying to maintain a cooler head on it, and not buy into the whole never going to happen thing, I think it won't be till some time after the movie drops that we will see a move away from fr. I think I finally have to cede that associating D&D with FR as much as possible is the strategy leading up to the movie. I think they are hoping the movie will do well, and will also bring in some new blood to the table top game itself. Hence making sure the only fully licensed material is either setting agnostic or set in the same setting as the movie (so as to keep it accessible to the new blood). Once the new blood is in, then they introduce them to the idea of a setting change a ways after that (hopefully accompanied by a movie set in the new setting, I'd love to see a warforged on screen).
 


Exactly how does one CLEARLY label Open Game Content?

In general you put a paragraph some where that explains in plain English what is open content and what is not.

In practice there are two extremes.

The first is to just say the entire document except for the art and certain trademarks are open content.

The second is to say something like this.

Designation of Open Content: Subject to the Product Identity designation above, all creature and NPC statistic blocks are designated as Open Gaming Content, as well as all material derived from the SRD or other open content sources

This is typically used in adventures where the only the stat blocks are open content and the rest is considered an original work and declared product identity. This also is used a lot in supplements that are licensed property (For example Conan, Stargate, etc)

When this is used the work is pretty much useless in terms of reusing it.

However far more common with supplements is that the declaration of open content will say that the text in shaded areas or the following chapters are considered open. In which case it is clear what portion of the work is open and what is not. It what I did with the my own Majestic Wilderlands Supplements. It has three sections, the first two are 100% open content, the third (the setting description) is declared product identity.




For example, a creator of spell uses the phrase ‘gains an advantage’. The ‘fluff’ of the spell is the IP of the creator. But how does one clearly convey that the term ‘advantage’ comes from the SRD?

My view is that the author should designate everything about that spell as open content. If he doesn't then he is being a jerk and not acting in according to the spirit of the OGL.


What is the rule of thumb?

For you as the author? Hand the work to a couple of your friends. If they can figure it out then you are done. If they can't then work some more on your deceleration of open content.


Are all things assumed to be the IP of the creator unless they happen to also exist in the SRD?

Yes the author has the copyright to all original content.

The Open Game License is about giving one author giving permission to use their work under certain conditions. The condition set by Wizards for the d20 SRD and now the 5e SRD is that anything you use or DEVIRE from, you have to give others the same right to reuse that content.

As for your original content it up to you to decide to share. My advice is to be generous. Don't get worked up about sharing the fluff of a spell or a monster. Likely it won't make much sense without the stuff that you clearly declared as product identity. So put all your spells in a chapter, all your monsters into a chapter, and declare both of those open content. That way you have covered yourself in regardless to anything you used from Wizards.

But some authors are really not happy doing this. They feel possessive enough about their work that they only want to share the minimum. If this is the case then probably what best is to hire an IP attorney to comb over the work and give you advice as to what you must declare open content.

But then again, even a IP attorney can't tell you how things will play out in court. So again if you don't want the headaches then be generous as to what you make open content.

Finally put away your 5e books. Don't look at them or use them as references while you are writing. Only use the SRD. Where author screwed up in the initial days of the 3.0 SRD was using their MMs, PHBs and DMGs while they write.
 


Kris

Adventurer
Sorry if this seems like a dumb question (or if it's already been asked) - but how does this affect artwork appearing in 3rd party DMGuild products?

For example, lets say that a publisher commissions me to draw a map of a little village and a dungeon for their DMGuild adventure - are those maps then considered 'open content' (and can be used by other publishers)?

I'm not saying that I'm against anything like that - I'd just be interested to know how that would work (as it might affect the wording of any future contracts I'm asked to sign ...as this wouldn't fall within the usual 'exclusive' / 'non-exclusive' terms and conditions).


EDIT - and can that artwork only appear in DMGuild products? (as this would have an impact on whether or not I'd be able to licence an existing image out to a DMGuild publisher too)
 
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Beleriphon

Totally Awesome Pirate Brain
Ooh man, who actually holds the copywrites for those settings? Technically those guys have enough of a following on the eberon and darksun namez that they could do ogl releases without identifying D&D within its promotion. Same with dragon lance...

Wizards of the Coast for all of them. If it came out for D&D I can almost guarantee you that it will be a copyright/trademark for Wizards.

Sorry if this seems like a dumb question (or if it's already been asked) - but how does this affect artwork appearing in 3rd party DMGuild products.

For example, lets say that a publisher commissions me to draw a map of a little village and a dungeon for their DMGuild adventure - are those maps then considered 'open content' ...and can therefore be used by other publishers too?

I'm not saying that I'm against anything like that - I'd just be interested to know how that would work (as it might affect the wording of any future contracts I'm asked to sign ...as this wouldn't fall within the usual 'exclusive' / 'non-exclusive' terms and conditions).


EDIT - and can such artwork only then appear in DMGuild products? (as this would have an impact on whether or not I'd be able to licence an existing image out to a DMGuild publisher too)

If I read it correctly the OGC stuff only applies to text, and even if it doesn't one can easily make sure that original art pieces are excempt by stating as such in the OGL section explaining what is OGC. Additionally section 5 of the OGL has this:

OGL Section 5 said:
5.Representation of Authority to Contribute: If You are contributing original material as Open Game Content, You represent that Your Contributions are Your original creation and/or You have sufficient rights to grant the rights conveyed by this License.

I'd take that to mean that if you are commissioned to for artwork all you need to do is include in your contract that you provide permission for the art to be used only in a specific product, and that not additional rights beyond being used in said product are extended. That covers OGL section 5 by removing the any ability of the commissioner of said art to do anything other than use it the way you've agreed to. That being said, I'm not a lawyer but the OGL is written in a pretty straight forward manner so it should work as expected.
 
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The DMGuild seems to be a separate program, but I'm still uncertain if you can use the OGL with it: i.e. can you declare content posted on the site Open Content?
To my non-lawyer eyes, it seems like the agreement refers to "the work", which is defined as the title. So you can sell the content elsewhere, so long as the title itself is exclusive. You can make a variant with the same content (which seems to be what happened to Kobold Press' content) but cannot sell that exact PDF elsewhere.

Or if you can withdraw the content.
Right now the exclusive licence seems irrevocable, so you can only stop publication but not take your content and publish it elsewhere if you change your mind.
To my non-lawyer reading, if you create an adventure you retain the IP (characters, setting, etc) but you are effectively giving away the adventure text itself for the chance of selling copies.

Am I right? Dead wrong?
 

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