D&D (2024) Would a OneDND closed/restricted license be good, actually?

[pemerton]

What exactly stops people from playing other games or creating other games currently?

In my experience, nothing.

Over the past six-odd years I've played (as best I recall) about 3 sessions of AD&D, one session of Moldvay Basic, and 5 or 6 of 4e D&D. (And no 5e D&D.)

In the same period I've played over twenty sessions of Classic Traveller, close to that of Prince Valiant, more than half-a-dozen of Cortex+ Heroic Fantasy (Vikings, MERP/LotR), a similar number of sessions each of Burning Wheel and Torchbearer 2e, several sessions of Agon 2e, and a variety of one-shots (Cthulhu Dark, Wuthering Heights, The Green Knight, In A Wicked Age).

The only obstacle to playing more non-D&D RPGs, in my case, is being able to coordinate available time with my friends I play with.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I have seen the video in the OP and it is just a incohesive rant...
While it is true that there are other great games, his premise that 5e is a bad game is baseless.

 

[FrogReaver]

In may case:

• My group still enjoys 5e
• I'm heavily invested in 5e
• Limited time. I can only participate in one campaign.
• Having to find new groups of players if I switched systems

If D&D was currently less popular would that stop you from being in a group that enjoys 5e?
If D&D was currently less popular would that stop you from being heavily invested in 5e?
If D&D was currently less popular would that stop you from only being able to participate in one campaign?
If D&D was currently less popular would that that make it easier to find new groups of players?

 

[MNblockhead]

If D&D was currently less popular would that stop you from being in a group that enjoys 5e?
If D&D was currently less popular would that stop you from being heavily invested in 5e?
If D&D was currently less popular would that stop you from only being able to participate in one campaign?
If D&D was currently less popular would that that make it easier to find new groups of players?

No to all of the above. Not sure I understand the point of the questions.

You asked what stops people from playing other games. I answered with what stops me from playing other games.

 

[Micah Sweet]

The obvious risk here is one of (even further) fracturing the gaming community into a number of large - and probably competing - sub-communities.

Right now there's basically 5e as a battleship and a whole bunch of other systems (including prior D&D editions) that amount to not much more than rowboats in comparison. Like it or not, that battleship is what holds it all together; it never needs to use its strength because it doesn't have to, and any battles between the rowboats are, in the grand scheme of things, largely irrelevant.

Turning that battleship into five or six destroyers might not be a good idea once they start firing their guns.

The battleship is getting ready to fire its guns now, though. My concern is this will cause some boats I'm fond of to either sink or link themselves to WotC, to the detriment of their content.

 

[Reynard]

D&D with a strong 3PP support environment is a big tent that keep people playing the same game -- a significant benefit to WotC. If some companies are producing great monster books for 5E and others are making good adventures and campaign settings and so on, those people are still playing 5E and embedded in the 5E ecosystem. If those talented creators were doing that for other game systems, then those players would no longer be in that 5E ecosystem and would not benefit WotC with book sales, Beyond subscriptions, etc...

Creators and talent benefits too, because when 5E is open there is a lot more potential work out there. New designers and writers can cut their teeth on 5E and build experience and hone skills. Some of them will go on to design their own successful games, or work for the bigger companies, or otherwise bring innovation to the industry.

No. Returning to the days of suing to eliminate Role Aids is not a benefit to D&D as a game, or roleplaying as a hobby or industry.

 

[mamba]

(Do we have enough threads speculating about the OGL? No, no we do not.)

I am not so sure about that...

Thesis/hot take: a restricted and less open license from wotc for the forthcoming "onednd" would inadvertently benefit the ttrpg hobby more broadly. While wotc will remain dominant, a restricted license and "walled garden" infrastructure will push some players, streamers, and independent creators toward non-wotc-dnd games. Many third party projects will still be possible under the existing open game license, and thus onednd will be but one "branch" off the root of 5e-derived games--others, like levelup, mcdm products, or rules lite hacks like 5 torches deep, would exist alongside it. Further, being cut off from the onednd market may encourage third parties to develop content for other systems.

I do not think streamers are affected by this / do not think they needed to use the OGL in the first place. Also, there are plenty of OSR youtubers at least, no idea about streamers, I do not care for them whether 5e or OSR

As to the rest, I assume most people enter via D&D and either lose interest, stay with it or 'graduate' to other systems from there instead of e.g. starting right with LevelUp. So while this might result in a temporary rush of people fleeing D&D, I do not see much impact in the long run, not until WotC is far less dominant

• "The third party ecosystem is what made 5e thrive." Has it? There have been innumerable debates as to the various factors that led to dnd's popularity in the past decade or so (5e's ease of use and classic feel, stranger things, critical role, pandemic), but I wonder to what degree third party products find their way to casual fans. Certainly for enthusiasts, there have been no shortage of options, but this is not proof that onednd needs third parties.

I do not think there is one single cause, I believe it has contributed however

• "The success of wotc is a success for the hobby as a whole. A rising tide lifts all boats." Does it?

I believe so, see my comment further up in this post about people graduating from D&D to other TTRPGs. As WotC knew when they created the OGL, a rising tide lifts all boats, but not all boats equally, the biggest boat gets lifted farther. They have forgotten that

 

[Micah Sweet]

I am not so sure about that...

I do not think streamers are affected by this / do not think they needed to use the OGL in the first place. Also, there are plenty of OSR youtubers at least, no idea about streamers, I do not care for them whether 5e or OSR

As to the rest, I assume most people enter via D&D and either lose interest, stay with it or 'graduate' to other systems from there instead of e.g. starting right with LevelUp. So while this might result in a temporary rush of people fleeing D&D, I do not see much impact in the long run, not until WotC is far less dominant

I do not think there is one single cause, I believe it has contributed however

I believe so, see my comment further up in this post about people graduating from D&D to other TTRPGs. As WotC knew when they created the OSR, a rising tide lifts all boats, but not all boats equally, the biggest boat gets lifted farther. They have forgotten that

I assume you mean when WotC created the OGL. In no way did they create the OSR.

 

[mamba]

I assume you mean when WotC created the OGL. In no way did they create the OSR.

yep, fixed, thanks

 

[Greg Benage]

• "The success of wotc is a success for the hobby as a whole. A rising tide lifts all boats." Does it? While dnd is a likely entry point into ttrpgs, it's also a sticking point, in the sense that players stick within the 5e ecosystem.

Yeah, this is a good question and I'm not completely sure where I land on it. On one hand, there was a kind of flowering of non-D&D RPGs in the 90s when D&D was weakest (or market fragmentation, depending on your perspective). On the other hand, you could argue there's been a second flowering of non-D&D RPGs during this period when it's been at it's strongest. I do think what happened in the 90s strained 1990s distribution channels (that's the market fragmentation argument), but I wouldn't mind seeing what a "weak D&D" period looks like in the Kickstarter era.

Despite that, in the real world we live in, I'd don't think we're about to enter a "weak D&D" period. All signs point the other direction, for the time being.