WotC Backs Down: Original OGL To Be Left Untouched; Whole 5E Rules Released as Creative Commons

Hundreds of game publishers sigh in relief as, after extensive pressure exerted by the entire open gaming community, WotC has agreed to leave the original Open Gaming License untouched and put the whole of the 5E rules into Creative Commons.

So, what's happened?

• The Open Gaming Licence v1.0a which most of the D&D third party industry relies on, will be left untouched for now.
• The whole of the D&D 5E SRD (ie the rules of the game less the fluff text) has been released under a Creative Commons license.

OGL 1.0a & Creative Commons

Over the past few weeks you, the community, have made your voices heard. And we’ve listened. OGL 1.0a will remain untouched AND the entire SRD 5.1...

www.dndbeyond.com

WotC has a history of 'disappearing' inconvenient FAQs and stuff, such as those where they themselves state that the OGL is irrevocable, so I'll copy this here for posterity.

When you give us playtest feedback, we take it seriously.

Already more than 15,000 of you have filled out the survey. Here's what you said:

• 88% do not want to publish TTRPG content under OGL 1.2.
• 90% would have to change some aspect of their business to accommodate OGL 1.2.
• 89% are dissatisfied with deauthorizing OGL 1.0a.
• 86% are dissatisfied with the draft VTT policy.
• 62% are satisfied with including Systems Reference Document (SRD) content in Creative Commons, and the majority of those who were dissatisfied asked for more SRD content in Creative Commons.

These live survey results are clear. You want OGL 1.0a. You want irrevocability. You like Creative Commons.
The feedback is in such high volume and its direction is so plain that we're acting now.

1. We are leaving OGL 1.0a in place, as is. Untouched.
2. We are also making the entire SRD 5.1 available under a Creative Commons license.
3. You choose which you prefer to use.

This Creative Commons license makes the content freely available for any use. We don't control that license and cannot alter or revoke it. It's open and irrevocable in a way that doesn't require you to take our word for it. And its openness means there's no need for a VTT policy. Placing the SRD under a Creative Commons license is a one-way door. There's no going back.

Our goal here is to deliver on what you wanted.

So, what about the goals that drove us when we started this process?

We wanted to protect the D&D play experience into the future. We still want to do that with your help. We're grateful that this community is passionate and active because we'll need your help protecting the game's inclusive and welcoming nature.

We wanted to limit the OGL to TTRPGs. With this new approach, we are setting that aside and counting on your choices to define the future of play.
Here's a PDF of SRD 5.1 with the Creative Commons license. By simply publishing it, we place it under an irrevocable Creative Commons license. We'll get it hosted in a more convenient place next week. It was important that we take this step now, so there's no question.

• SRD 5.1-CC

We'll be closing the OGL 1.2 survey now.

We'll keep talking with you about how we can better support our players and creators. Thanks as always for continuing to share your thoughts.

Kyle Brink
Executive Producer, Dungeons & Dragons

What does this mean?

The original OGL sounds safe for now, but WotC has not admitted that they cannot revoke it. That's less of an issue now the 5E System Reference Document is now released to Creative Commons (although those using the 3E SRD or any third party SRDs still have issues as WotC still hasn't revoked the incorrect claim that they can revoke access to those at-will).

At this point, if WotC wants anybody to use whatever their new OGL v1.x turns out to be, there needs to be one heck of a carrot. What that might be remains to be seen.

Pathfinder publlsher Paizo has also commented on the latest developments.

We welcome today’s news from Wizards of the Coast regarding their intention not to de-authorize OGL 1.0a. We still believe there is a powerful need for an irrevocable, perpetual independent system-neutral open license that will serve the tabletop community via nonprofit stewardship. Work on the ORC license will continue, with an expected first draft to release for comment to participating publishers in February.

Over 1,500 Publishers Support Paizo's Upcoming Open RPG Creator's License

Paizo has revealed some of the 1,500+ tabletop RPG publishers who have expressed an interest in their new Open RPG Creator's License (ORC), describing the group as the 'ORC Alliance'. The license itself is still being worked on, so these 1,500 publishers have not actually seen it or signed...

www.enworld.org

 

[dave2008]

So... think this means they'll change 6e/One to be just different enough to not be compatible with 5e like they had originally planned?

IDK, I am guessing no - but that remains to be seen.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

Well, this is great news. Better archive this page everyone, for when they try this again in 10-20 years.

i got you chief
edit: this is not the site i thought it was.

 

[Incenjucar]

Mainly I want to make sure they don't try to muck things up for the OSR crowd and things based on 3E etc. I don't trust them to not find smaller battles to be petty over after this.

Also still going to prioritize ORC stuff. D&D gets to be in my lower tier now, but it's at least an option again now.

 

[Steampunkette]

Is there a particular reason you would use ORC? I personally don't see a point for it now - though it hasn't been released, so maybe there will be.

To allow other 3rd party creators to build off of my work within the same framework of cross-promotion that the OGL was designed to provide.

 

[Mannahnin]

As I understand it though, now that the SRD 5.1 is in the Creative Commons, even if WotC were to try again to de-authorize the OGL at some point in the future, that wouldn't necessitate any 3PPs redoing their books and rules at all, except just to remove the OGL.

It would be a minor inconvenience at best, while they switched to the ORC or something. Which now has a much less urgent purpose and use-case.

 

[Justice and Rule]

Those words aren't mine, but I'd like to dedicate them to all of the posters, here and elsewhere on the Internet, who said that the OGL v1.0a was as good as gone, that WotC couldn't be made to change course, and that we should give up on it in order to negotiate a better OGL v1.2. This is what it looks like when an entire community comes together and rejects that kind of cynicism, instead utilizing the same tactics that we use in our OGL v1.0a games: teamwork, determination, and not being afraid to push back against an enemy that's a lot bigger than we are.

WotC failed their morale check, and we won the encounter and earned some major experience points.

Damn straight. Hasbro is big, but D&D as a brand isn't big enough to ignore its core buyers. They saw the way the wind was blowing. Not sure this is going to completely reestablish trust, though. But at the least, it probably avoids their worst case scenario.

 

[Jimmy Dick]

This also means that ONE DND will NOT be compatible with 5e.

 

[overgeeked]

Somehow they managed to exceed my best case scenario.

Entire 5.1 SRD under a CC-BY license is amazing. A license under control of a third party is actually better that I could have possibly expected. All of it including all of the spell and monster names and class mechanics.

Yeah. It's absolutely wild.

But it's also a calculated risk. Literally the entire industry rallied against them. The saw the industry fracturing and splintering. They saw the potential end of their dominance. So they release the 5.1 SRD as CC-BY4.0 and hope that people will continue to make products for their game and system. Because if all those 3PP that have kept WotC dominant over the years with the endless stream of supplements were to suddenly dry up, WotC would actually have to compete against not just one Pathfinder, but dozens. No way WotC wins on quality there. No way.

They attempted to close the game up and somehow managed to open it up even further. Truly amazing.

Yeah. It's absolutely wild.

My suspicions that this caused an internal battle inside of Wizards have definitely increased - I don't think you get this outcome without someone on the inside being a strong advocate for an open license.

Or the news broke out of the niche bubble and got so wide that investors started making phone calls.

I'm not going say my trust in Wizards is restored, but I certainly feel like I can continue buying Hasbro products including D&D in the future now. An outcome I was not expecting.

My trust in WotC is dead and buried. I hope people keep experimenting with different games and system and I hope that this doesn't stop all the really interesting sounding products that were announced as a result of these shenanigans.

Future of the ORC? Future of Project Black Flag? Future of the MCDM RPG? Future of the C7d20 system? And all the rest.

I still want to see those come to fruition. My fear is this just knee-capped all those projects.

 

[MoonSong]

 

[Greg Benage]

This also means that ONE DND will NOT be compatible with 5e.

No, it doesn't mean that.