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Message: <blockquote data-quote="humble minion" data-source="post: 8885479" data-attributes="member: 5948">I'm a hairsbreadth more generous to WotC than that.  I don't think they're automatically trying to destroy anyone who becomes successful.  I think they're more trying to exert a degree of control over the 3pp publishers.  The 25% over $750k is obviously a business-killer, but equally, WotC have talked about making private arrangements with companies that meet that threshold (and seem to be seeking to do just that, now).It looks to be a carrot-and-stick arrangement, where WotC tries to motivate 3pps to stick to the sort of product that WotC is ok with them producing.  The stick is clear - the 25% fee, and also being bound to the OGL 1.1 which WotC can arbitrarily change at any time.  The carrot is (probably) paying a much smaller fee or even no fee at all, certainty with your licence rather than the eternal 'will WotC decide to destroy my company by changing it today?' dilemma that 1.1 offers, and maybe some preferential access to DndBeyond and even perhaps to WotC IP etc, but at the cost of giving up some of your autonomy.  I suspect for instance, that WotC would refuse to come to one of these private licencing agreements unless the 3pp signed away their right to create a PHB-substitute product, or an alternate core bookset like Pathfinder started out as.  This is about keeping the 3pps in what WotC believes to be their proper place - enriching the broader D&D ecosystem by making niche or low-margin products which WotC doesn't really want to make, but not getting uppity.</blockquote>

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