We All Won – The OGL Three Years Later

[Some Dude]

As someone who thinks D&D being the de facto face of the hobby is a bad thing, I was really hoping the OGL would disappear. And take D&D's dominance with it.

The architects of the OGL have admitted that it was designed to curtail interest in non-D&D rulesets. And it's led to everyone trying to cram every possible concept into a D&D-shaped box, no matter how ill-fitting it is. It's also given us the repetitive creative bankruptcy of large swaths of the OSR.

They say a rising tide lifts all boats, but the D&D juggernaut has been actively drilling holes in other games' hulls since at least the '80s.

Which isn't to say I think D&D is a bad game. I'm preparing a 1/2E campaign as we speak. But D&D, as a steward of the hobby, has been terrible. Besides, there are any number of better designed games out there that are more fun and interesting than D&D. Hell, there are plenty of worse designed games that are more fun and interesting than D&D.

Again, I don't hate D&D (though I'm definitely an older editions/OSR guy - 5E bores me to tears). But I think it's been reigning over the hobby for far longer than it deserves.

I just don't understand the Stockholm Syndrome gamers have with D&D.

 

[mamba]

The architects of the OGL have admitted that it was designed to curtail interest in non-D&D rulesets. And it's led to everyone trying to cram every possible concept into a D&D-shaped box, no matter how ill-fitting it is

nothing to admit there, that was most of the point, enable people to create products for D&D and the network effect basically makes D&D the center of the TTRPG universe forever

Finally some other publishers are releasing their stuff under an open license too, took them long enough to figure out what WotC realized 20 years ago

 

[Morrus]

But D&D, as a steward of the hobby, has been terrible.

Depending on how you define the hobby—the D&D hobby, or the broader TTRPG hobby—D&D has never claimed to be its steward. That seems to be something we’re projecting onto it. WotC is the owner (and arguably the steward) of the D&D brand, but not the TTRPG hobby.

 

[Reynard]

They say a rising tide lifts all boats, but the D&D juggernaut has been actively drilling holes in other games' hulls since at least the '80s.

I don't think this is an accurate assessment of the situation. People playing D&D. Some of them stop playing D&D. Some of those quit the hobby, while others find other TTRPGs that fit their interests better. Assuming whatever portion of D&D players this last group represents stays consistent (and there is no reason to believe otherwise) then the more people who play D&D does in fact mean more people playing other games at some point downstream.

 

[Some Dude]

Depending on how you define the hobby—the D&D hobby, or the broader TTRPG hobby—D&D has never claimed to be its steward. That seems to be something we’re projecting onto it. WotC is the owner (and arguably the steward) of the D&D brand, but not the TTRPG hobby.

I get the academic distinction, but the fact remains: When D&D sneezes, the hobby catches cold. That's why I used the term de facto.

 

[Aldarc]

Never once during or since the OGL debacle have I ever felt like I won anything, but now someone is telling me that I won? Pass.

 

[SlyFlourish]

IMO, we got something close to the least-worst possible outcome. That's not a 'win' for anybody. To hear it described as such frankly turns my stomach.

What would a better outcome look like?

 

[cranberry]

I just don't understand the Stockholm Syndrome gamers have with D&D.

Bingo!

 

[Reynard]

I just don't understand the Stockholm Syndrome gamers have with D&D.

That's because it doesn't exist and it is a pretty gross thing to say.

 

[LordEntrails]

What would a better outcome look like?

For the debacle to have never happened.

But seeing as that's not possible, claiming that anyone won after a completely unnecessary, damaging and hurtful actions were taken is ... kind of sad. Sure, lessons may have been learned and people might be better now than they were before, but damage has happened. Claiming victory is completely belittling the damage was done.

It's like a celebrity making an ugly racists or sexists comment to someone in public and then a third party claiming 2 years later that we are all better now because we have learned not to be racist or sexists and the celebrity has sort of apologized.

A better outcome? How about as others said, WotC actually carry through with the promised to release to CC all the other SRDs? What about a true sincere apology? What about true transparency on what the actual decision process and decision makers were? And what their honest intentions were?

But yea, what we got was about the least worst outcome we could reasonable expect, but not hope for.