WotC To Give Core D&D Mechanics To Community Via Creative Commons

Wizards of the Coast, in a move which surprised everbody, has announced that it will give away the core D&D mechanics to the community via a Creative Commons license.

This won't include 'quintessentially D&D" stuff like owlbears and magic missile, but it wil include the 'core D&D mechanics'.

So what does it include? It's important to note that it's only a fraction of what's currently available as Open Gaming Content under the existing Open Gaming License, so while it's termed as a 'give-away' it's actually a reduction. It doesn't include classes, spells, or magic items. It does include the combat rules, ability scores, and the core mechanic.

 

[Scribe]

So this was really about the owlbear all along?

And the friends we made along the way.

If they're willing to throw baseline PHB classes (and the mechanics for subclasses), races (particularly dragonborn), ultra-basic magic items, and Backgrounds into the Creative Commons material, that would go a long, long way toward fixing the problems. It would mean that you could use the CC license for retroclones (especially of 4e, hence my emphasis on dragonborn) and other ultra-generic stuff, but if you want the convenience of things like spell lists and the like, you need the OGL. I'd still want the "we can terminate the license if we think you've been a bad person" part radically changed, but...releasing enough of the fundamental rules into the Creative Commons so that someone could genuinely rebuild D&D even if WotC went belly-up and the rights became a living nightmare to parse? That would be actually tempting as an offer.

This is kind of where I'm at.

If they pulled out the Spell Lists, and good f'n luck on fighting over things like FIREBALL, and Monster List (yes you may keep your owlbear Wizards, I dont care) then we could be fine.

This is essentially where I am at. I want the SRD out there, and I want to wipe my hands of Wizards forever after that.

 

[Nikosandros]

Oh. OSRIC!

Thanks a lot, that clarifies things!

OSRIC and Swords & Wizardry. He's been quite a contributor to the OSR!

 

[Charlaquin]

Many OGL games are satisfied by what's included, though. If I was going to make an RPG based on HBO's The Wire, or Netflix's Stranger Things, or any rando-property, most, or at least A LOT, of the excluded content is irrelevant to me.

Right, but the thing is, I don’t think you need this Creative Commons license to do that anyway. Like, I’ve been consistently saying “the fact that game mechanics can’t by copyrighted isn’t the ironclad defense some people seem to think it is,” but the portions of the SRD that they’re releasing under Creative Commons are only the parts that it would be incredibly difficult to argue are anything but game mechanics.

I think going forward, products that want to reproduce a lot of D&D tropes in a different setting will either abide by the new OGL terms, or just re-imagine their products as classic campaign setting products, and not standalone games. I was already team-hasbro obviously, but I wonder if the other side of the debate feels a change like that is a deal breaker?

Unfortunately (in my opinion), I think this will actually satisfy a lot of people on the anti-WotC side of the fence. It’s a really, really sneaky move, because saying “we’ll license the core rules under Creative Commons except anything that’s quintessentially D&D,” sounds fantastic, if you don’t read into it any further than that. But if you look closely, it turns out they aren’t actually licensing anything you would need a license for in the first place. Meanwhile, they’re still trying to deauthorize OGL 1.0a.

So, basically, WotC is offering a trade: They want: us to forfeit our rights to ever produce new content using the 3e or 5e SRDs, and in exchange they will give us: a limited selection of content already licensed to us under the OGL, which we didn’t need a license for anyway.

 

[Voadam]

Interesting.

First it still attempts to deauthorize everything off of the OGL. So no new OGL 5e, Pathfinder, OSR, 3e and spinoff OGL games. Still big.

Not clear to me yet what happens if you try and recreate them using the CC and you want to remake say Castles and Crusades or Pathfinder with the CC. Using the words Fighter and Druid becomes not clearly safe harbor.

No classes, monsters, spells, etc. is big. And Messy.

Their ability to terminate somebody's license in their discretion over "hateful content or conduct" is a big power over every 1.2 licensed thing. Conduct seems to be a new one.

"One key reason why we have to deauthorize" No, that is one key reason you want to. You don't have to do any such thing.

 

[Charlaquin]

So this was really about the owlbear all along?

Along with literally every other monster, magic item, race, and class.

 

[Scribe]

Right, but the thing is, I don’t think you need this Creative Commons license to do that anyway. Like, I’ve been consistently saying “the fact that game mechanics can’t by copyrighted isn’t the ironclad defense some people seem to think it is,” but the portions of the SRD that they’re releasing under Creative Commons are only the parts that it would be incredibly difficult to argue are anything but game mechanics.

I think this still matters, because despite how some wish to portray this as "well if you have nothing to hide, just sign up" most people WANT to be on the right side both legally and morally here. Its like the pirated software/books discussions. Most people want to support those who provide the content.

Yes, it would be tough to say 'Nope, you cannot use Dexterity.' but its nice to have it out there, and free, officially.

 

[Michael Linke]

Right, but the thing is, I don’t think you need this Creative Commons license to do that anyway. Like, I’ve been consistently saying “the fact that game mechanics can’t by copyrighted isn’t the ironclad defense some people seem to think it is,” but the portions of the SRD that they’re releasing under Creative Commons are only the parts that it would be incredibly difficult to argue are anything but game mechanics.

As I said a moment ago, you didn't need the SRD or CC to restate those rules, but it was on you to make sure you stated those rules in a way that was concise and clear to your reader. The OGL was there to let you just use, verbatim, certain rules expressions so you didn't have to go to the effort of writing every single mechanic in your own words. I think this CC move means there are a good chunk of past and future products that will just no longer need the OGL either as-is, or with minor edits.

 

[Haplo781]

Interesting.

First it still attempts to deauthorize everything off of the OGL. So no new OGL 5e, Pathfinder, OSR, 3e and spinoff OGL games. Still big.

Not clear to me yet what happens if you try and recreate them using the CC and you want to remake say Castles and Crusades or Pathfinder with the CC. Using the words Fighter and Druid becomes not clearly safe harbor.

No classes, monsters, spells, etc. is big. And Messy.

Their ability to terminate somebody's license in their discretion over "hateful content or conduct" is a big power over every 1.2 licensed thing. Conduct seems to be a new one.

"One key reason why we have to deauthorize" No, that is one key reason you want to. You don't have to do any such thing.

If Wizards really wants to protect themselves against hateful or discriminatory content then they need a third party arbitrator. Like the Anti-Defamation League or the Southern Poverty Law Center.

And they should be bound by that third party just as much as anyone else. After all, it's to protect the community, right?

 

[TerraDave]

Along with literally every other monster, magic item, race, and class.

But now having read the draft, the Owlbear, with a capital O, is very prominent.

At least this was over something important.

 

[Charlaquin]

I think this still matters, because despite how some wish to portray this as "well if you have nothing to hide, just sign up" most people WANT to be on the right side both legally and morally here. Its like the pirated software/books discussions. Most people want to support those who provide the content.

Yes, it would be tough to say 'Nope, you cannot use Dexterity.' but it’s nice to have it out there, and free, officially.

I mean, yes, I agree. But the thing is, we already had all that and more under the OGL 1.0a. They’re still trying to get away with taking away most of what they irrevocably licensed out, now they’re just saying “you can keep this small portion of it, and this time it’ll really be irrevocable for reals!” I still don’t think they actually have the legal grounds to take back 1.0a, but I worry that this is going to get enough people to throw up their arms and say “better than nothing, I guess” that we won’t have the necessary collective will to defend 1.0a any more.