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What's All This About The OGL Going Away?
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<blockquote data-quote="wingsandsword" data-source="post: 8833093" data-attributes="member: 14159"><p>I think a bit of historic context as to why the OGL was created, and the SRD's released, would also help clear the air.</p><p></p><p>Back in the 1990's, TSR (who, for those who don't remember, was the company that used to make D&D more than a quarter-century ago) was <em>extremely </em>litigious. They were notorious about sending threats of legal action to fan websites that published home-brew D&D spells, monsters, character classes or similar content. There were entire netbooks of fan-made D&D content that used pseudo-D&D terms by renaming everything about D&D and trying to make something distinct from D&D rules, but easily translatable back to them. There was a HUGE amount of bad blood between D&D fans and the company that made D&D, because normal things D&D fans would do in the course of fandom (like custom spells and monsters) were things that TSR saw as illegal derivative works of their IP when shared with other fans.</p><p></p><p>There was enough bad blood that it contributed a lot to TSR being on the verge of bankruptcy because D&D sales had been dropping substantially (for several reasons, but antagonizing the fans certainly contributed). They didn't have enough money to keep in operation, and were VERY close to shutting down permanently. . .and with it, D&D going permanently out-of-print (there was a lot of speculation of whoever bought the D&D name in the bankruptcy proceedings might only care about using it for video games).</p><p></p><p>Wizards of the Coast, at the time known almost entirely for Magic: The Gathering, swept in and bought TSR at the last moment. I think it was OGL architect Ryan Dancey who talked about being the one who went to TSR headquarters to arrange the buyout, and noticing an oddity about D&D production. . .there was literally no market research. They just made whatever they wanted and assumed players would buy it.</p><p></p><p>One big reason for the OGL was to to allow for fans to make D&D compatible materials in a way that would keep the lawyers happy and let fans do their thing, and to ensure that D&D could never go out of print, by putting the core rules of 3rd edition (and later 3.5e, and to a lesser extent 5e) in the open where they can be reprinted by anyone or used to create a clone of D&D itself (much like retroclones do for earlier editions of D&D).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="wingsandsword, post: 8833093, member: 14159"] I think a bit of historic context as to why the OGL was created, and the SRD's released, would also help clear the air. Back in the 1990's, TSR (who, for those who don't remember, was the company that used to make D&D more than a quarter-century ago) was [I]extremely [/I]litigious. They were notorious about sending threats of legal action to fan websites that published home-brew D&D spells, monsters, character classes or similar content. There were entire netbooks of fan-made D&D content that used pseudo-D&D terms by renaming everything about D&D and trying to make something distinct from D&D rules, but easily translatable back to them. There was a HUGE amount of bad blood between D&D fans and the company that made D&D, because normal things D&D fans would do in the course of fandom (like custom spells and monsters) were things that TSR saw as illegal derivative works of their IP when shared with other fans. There was enough bad blood that it contributed a lot to TSR being on the verge of bankruptcy because D&D sales had been dropping substantially (for several reasons, but antagonizing the fans certainly contributed). They didn't have enough money to keep in operation, and were VERY close to shutting down permanently. . .and with it, D&D going permanently out-of-print (there was a lot of speculation of whoever bought the D&D name in the bankruptcy proceedings might only care about using it for video games). Wizards of the Coast, at the time known almost entirely for Magic: The Gathering, swept in and bought TSR at the last moment. I think it was OGL architect Ryan Dancey who talked about being the one who went to TSR headquarters to arrange the buyout, and noticing an oddity about D&D production. . .there was literally no market research. They just made whatever they wanted and assumed players would buy it. One big reason for the OGL was to to allow for fans to make D&D compatible materials in a way that would keep the lawyers happy and let fans do their thing, and to ensure that D&D could never go out of print, by putting the core rules of 3rd edition (and later 3.5e, and to a lesser extent 5e) in the open where they can be reprinted by anyone or used to create a clone of D&D itself (much like retroclones do for earlier editions of D&D). [/QUOTE]
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