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...

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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.
 

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Haplo781

Legend
If they'd just approached all those 3pp and said "hey we want to make sure nobody can use our monsters and spells in movies and stuff, what concessions should we make so that's acceptable?" none of this drama would have happened.
 

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Scribe

Legend
I mean, yes, I agree. But the thing is, we already had all that and more under the OGL. 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.

I think it will quickly be noted that what is actually being offered, is that meme of the trade deal guy.
 

Charlaquin

Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
I think it will quickly be noted that what is actually being offered, is that meme of the trade deal guy.
I hope so. I dunno, I think a lot of people are going to read “the core D&D rules will be licensed under CC, except Owlbears and Magic Missile and stuff” and be satisfied with that. Up until now WotC has been bungling the PR at every step of the way, but for once this was truly brilliant diversionary tactic. I think we’re going to be seeing a lot less support from the casual D&D playing crowd now, and I’m not convinced the 3rd party publishing crowd will have enough momentum to come out on top without that backing.
 

The Sigil

Mr. 3000 (Words per post)
So, thoughts on my initial read-through:

NOTICE OF DEAUTHORIZATION OF OGL 1.0a. The Open Game License 1.0a is no longer an authorized license. This means that you may not use that version of the OGL, or any prior version, to publish SRD content after (effective date). It does not mean that any content previously published under that version needs to update to this license. Any previously published content remains licensed under whichever version of the OGL was in effect when you published that content.
This is better than the leaked draft because it explicitly spells out that the deauthorization only applies to SRD content from WotC. It means other works that published under OGL 1.0a are still licensed under 1.0a. This removes some of the clouds around "what about material others contributed under the OGL 1.0a that isn't WotC's." So that's an improvement. But it's still trying to take away the ability to create new content under 1.0a based on works already released under the OGL 1.0a and that remains problematic for me.

Our Licensed Content. This license covers any content in the SRD 5.1 (or any subsequent version of the SRD we release under this license) that is not licensed to you under Creative Commons. You may use that content in your own works on the terms of this license.
So... SRD 5.1 only, huh? This means all 3e, 3.5e, Modern, 5.0, and other SRDs released by Wizards is being withdrawn from the OGC Commons pool? That still makes this a hard no for me. While I can see they want to get better control over 5e/5.1e products, I feel it is completely unreasonable to lock up content for any version of D&D you are no longer actively supporting (e.g., 3e, 3.5e, Modern, etc.)

Even if I feel there are valuable considerations being offered in OGL 1.2 (and the use of a creator logo that is visually adjacent to a TSR trademark IS a consideration of some value though I'm not sure how much) for which it might be worth considering to agree with WotC to change the terms under which I'm using their licensed content, I still don't like the attempt to unilaterally deauthorize 1.0a. However, doing things in this manner would work in a manner similar to the d20 STL - in exchange for more restrictive license terms than the base OGL 1.0a, you got the ability to use the d20 logo on their stuff. But the problem is WotC is still effectively trying to unilaterally take back a gift they've already given freely to each member of the community individually (rights to use content released under OGL 1.0a in perpetuity) without each individual's consent.

No Hateful Content or Conduct. You will not include content in Your Licensed Works that is harmful, discriminatory, illegal, obscene, or harassing, or engage in conduct that is harmful, discriminatory, illegal, obscene, or harassing. We have the sole right to decide what conduct or content is hateful, and you covenant that you will not contest any such determination via any suit or other legal action.

(Emphasis mine) This is a non-starter for most companies as this clause empowers WotC to cut off a company at any time for effectively any reason ("sole right to decide") and deprives the company of the ability to contest that decision.

As an extreme example, what happens if WotC determines that the term "dwarf" is a hateful, ableist term that denigrates people that have achondroplasia? Any licensee that has ever included the word "dwarf" in their products will now see their ability to create new product terminated under the terms of this morality clause!

'Yes, TECHNICALLY the contract allows us to do that but we would NEVER use it in that way.' Sorry, that isn't good enough - maybe YOU don't intend to use it that way, but the next guy in your seat might. You need to actually write the contract in such a way that prevents it from being used to execute the extreme scenario. Improve the execution of this clause (particularly by adding a reasonable cure period or the ability to at least appear before an arbitrator or both) because in its current form it's completely unpalatable.
 
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Scribe

Legend
I hope so. I dunno, I think a lot of people are going to read “the core D&D rules will be licensed under CC, except Owlbears and Magic Missile and stuff” and be satisfied with that. Up until now WotC has been bungling the PR at every step of the way, but for once this was truly brilliant diversionary tactic. I think we’re going to be seeing a lot less support from the casual D&D playing crowd now, and I’m not convinced the 3rd party publishing crowd will have enough momentum to come out on top without that backing.

I think it just needs to be noted what is NOT being included, and we need to keep beating the drum.
 

blakesha

Explorer
So I'm much happier with WotC today than I've been in a fortnight or so. In part because I no longer need them, and am no longer trapped in a somewhat unhealthy relationship with them. They've set unambiguously free the necessary pieces for a thousand people to make clones or other games that any 5e player could learn in an afternoon. They've also made it clear that non-clone games can unambiguously incorporate things like advantage/disadvantage or use the same skills without fear of a lawsuit from Hasbro. Things like the iconic six D&D ability scores and the alignment system now unambiguously belong to everyone. Generally the legal status of any game taking substantial inspiration from D&D is much clearer.

I still have little confidence in WotC, but whatever doom they take themselves to they've done the gaming community a tremendous favor today.
Their (WotC) expression of the mechanics is copyrightable, so this is giving the community something. What would be interesting is if the "structure" of class definitions and monster stat blocks and magic item descriptions are being released under this model
 

Bravesteel25

Baronet of Gaming
This doesn't actually seem that bad, but I fear it is too little too late for a lot of 3PP. I think WotC let the cat out of the bag. If they had started with this after the initial leak then things may have been different. I think there are too many ways for them to strip OGL 1.2 from you as well.
 

Mistwell

Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
This is a boondoggle to distract from the deauthorization of the OGL 1.0a, which they aren't backing down on despite having no ability to do so legally. They also have a ridiculous "VTT Policy" packaged with this.
What is it you could have done with 1.0a before which you cannot do with this combination of CC and 1.2, other than hateful content, which you wanted to do with it?
 

Equally, there's no point in any of these mechanics being CC, they are the most un-copyrightable part of D&D. I mean, the SRDs were already fairly limited in their utility to anything but retroclones, but I really struggle to see why anyone would need these CC-mechanics.
Probably not protected by copyright and declared creative commons by the purported copyright holder are miles apart in terms of the certainty with which one can incorporate material into their own game. Whereas before anyone making a game that was similar to 5e or D&D in general would have to cautiously approach the core mechanics with a worry that they might cross some invisible threshold of aggregate similarity where WotC brings down the hammer and just maybe a court agrees, now they can focus those worries on classes or spells.
 


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