We got an official leak of One D&D OGL 1.1! Watch Our Discussion And Reactions!

[dbolack]

I've posted an article summarsing the current situation as best I can at present:

The OGL -- Just What's Going On?

D&D fandom is in uproar again about purported upcoming changes to the Open Gaming License, and rumours are flooding social media regarding WotC's intentions to 'de-authorize' the existing Open Gaming License in favour of a new one. What's the OGL? The Open Gaming License is a share-a-like...

www.enworld.org

That status change... new?

 

[mamba]

But again, what could compel that? If I don't agree to v1.1 — if I just act like v1.1 doesn't exist and go about my merry way publishing under v1.0 — what could stop me?

WotC's lawyers

 

[MockingBird]

Does this make anyone else not want to participate in the playtest?

 

[Vaalingrade]

Does this make anyone else not want to participate in the playtest?

Yeah, makes any help you give them feel a lot like being the accomplice in what could be the ruining of many, many lives.

 

[Scribe]

Does this make anyone else not want to participate in the playtest?

Oh 100%. I'm sitting here reading all this, just going.

 

[Cadence]

Even if WotC were to come out and say "we reconsidered", it feels like unless there's a court decision saying it's irrevocable or a 1.0b* that's just like 1.0a except with irrevocable, that it would be silly for anyone not to think this 1.1 wasn't right around the next management-change corner?

*Not that the new things coming up from WotC have to be under it, just that all the old stuff doesn't go away.

 

[Ondath]

Does this make anyone else not want to participate in the playtest?

I recorded a podcast episode where I played the playtest with a few friends. Even if the episode gets published, only a small portion of it will be on the playtest itself and most of it will be on the OGL.

 

[overgeeked]

Does this make anyone else not want to participate in the playtest?

It wasn't a play test to begin with, but it makes me want to participate in the surveys even more.

 

[Alzrius]

Even if WotC were to come out and say "we reconsidered", it feels like unless there's a court decision saying it's irrevocable or a 1.0b* that's just like 1.0a except with irrevocable, that it would be silly for anyone not to think this 1.1 wasn't right around the next management-change corner?

*Not that the new things coming up from WotC have to be under it, just that all the old stuff doesn't go away.

Yeah. Casting doubt on the perpetual viability of the OGL v1.0a that was heretofore unquestioned is already a degree of damage that won't be easily undone.

 

[dbolack]

I unfortunately don't believe that. The OGL was a tactical error that allowed Paizo to grow and flourish using familiar D&D IP. D&D now doesn't need the OGL and all the D20 come along games and third party stuff to be successful. I don't think D&D 5th edition took off because of the OGL.

The only tactical error that was made with the OGL, from a money-grubbing perspective, was not binding it to the D20 STL. This would have prevented Pathfinder but allowed most everything else.

Similarly Chaosium would be better off having published Delta Green as a branch of Call of Cthulhu, and not allowed it to go off and make someone else successful while being hard to distinguish system and background wise from CoC.

I'm not sure what you're going for here.