So far, I think it's safe to assume they're all categorized as "VTT", being "software that replicates and/or automates the tabletop". So far. Until WotC decide they're not. I'm very, very uncomfortable having these things picked out and not covered by the OGL directly.
It's the entire REASON they are doing this in the first place. I've said it before and I'll say it again:
This is about WoW money. It's about charging that subscription money to players, the "recurring revenue" through which an under-monetized D&D brand will come into its own. That, in turn, is about selling eye candy and
SIZZLE.
Why are they releasing the 5.1 SRD under the OGL 1.2 when they already did it under 1.0a? Because of what it does and doesn't apply to:
WotC does not want a competing VTT which can offer those things. Foundry VTT can do those things RIGHT NOW.
Animations: JB2A
Automated Animations: triggering Combat animations, spell effects AND sound effects during RPG play:
3d Canvas Suite: TheRipper93
For those thinking that 3d map making is beyond their capability? Have you looked at
Dungeon Alchemist? ("DA"). DA's authors had a
ridonculously successful Kickstarter raising ~ €2.5m and they are busy now fulfilling it. As it turns out, the authors of
DA got a little too cheap and quickly licensed a bunch of 3d objects and textures on license terms which prevents them from re-exporting those in 3d. So right now, there is no way to get a DA map into blender via exporter in DA that the DA team has written.
This is important, because there is no way to make use of DA maps in 3d form, only as a render in 2d image format. And while kinda cool? It's not terrible useful in that format.
This is
temporary only though. Somebody, somewhere,
inevitably, will create a blender importer for DA which will import a DA map into that 3d modeling software. That isn't because they actually want to model DA maps in blender. It's simply so they can then use blender to export the map into a format that 3d Canvas can read -- and
Bob's Your Uncle. Just like that, every popular adventure module will have a community map made for it in 3d. And while it takes a while, we all know that the best community maps tend to be pretty kick-ass. Suddenly it's patreons and
VOOM - an RPG adventure's artistic need are fulfilled in a pretty kick-ass way.
This is where all of this is going -- and WotC is concerned that it will provide a broad-based competing product that offers the same or similar features as its own 3d VTT hopes to offer, with one notable exception. Players don't pay to play in a Foundry VTT game. WotC wants those players to pay a monthly subscription ("WoW money") and they don't want there to be a free alternative for people who don't want to pay for a monthly subscription for DDB 3d VTT.
WotC does not want Foundry VTT to work for 6e (nor any other similar software).
WotC has pared down in "OGL" 1.2 most of all the other things people reacted to with 1.1. The royalty stuff is gone. Still, I have argued throughout that stuff was never the reason for it, it was just a case of being
in for a penny, in for a pound. And when top management presses people to increase revenues from all sources, they will go grubbing down the side of the couch looking for quarters. That's what the royalty stuff was. GREED that would hurt a lot of small creators, but which doesn't move the income of a corporation like Hasbro by a material amount. It's not worth the bad press - and out it went.
So that's gone now. The stuff that remains are the core business objectives of WotC. This is about WoW money and the software subscription through which they hope to earn that money.
And they don't want there to be any competition to it; no revenue leaks through substitute products in the marketplace. That's why we are here: because they don't want my Foundry sessions looking as good and sounding as good as they already do, let alone as they will look and sound in the future.
It is akin to complaining that your minis are painted too well, your 3d terrain looks too good, your Dwarven Forge is too snazzy -- and too easily afforded. Our soundtracks sound too good, and our sound effects too.
WotC wants to be the sole purveyor of VTT sizzle for 6e. That is why the OGL 1.2 reads the way it does.
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