D&D exec: OGL fiasco worsened by lack of respect for Wizards of the Coast
‘I should have had more of my team in the room,’ says executive producer
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‘I should have had more of my team in the room,’ says executive producer
In a blog post published Friday, Wizards of the Coast announced that it is fully putting the kibosh on the proposed Open Gaming License (OGL) 1.2 that threw the tabletop RPG community into disarray at the beginning of this month.
Instead, Wizards will leave the previously enshrined OGL 1.0 in place, while also putting the latest D&D Systems Reference Document (SRD 5.1) under a Creative Commons License (thanks to GamesRadar for the spot).
The original OGL was put in place with the third edition of D&D in 2000, and allowed other companies and creators to base their work off D&D and the d20 system without payment to or oversight from Wizards. A draft of a revised OGL 1.1 leaked early in January, which proposed royalty payments and creative control by Wizards over derivative works. This immediately incited a backlash from fans. Wizards backpedaled, introducing a softer OGL 1.2 that would still replace the original, and opened the community survey cited in today’s announcement.
With 15,000 respondents in, the results of the survey were pretty damning. 88% didn’t “want to publish TTRPG content under OGL 1.2,” while 89% were “dissatisfied with deauthorizing OGL 1.0a.” 62% were happy that Wizards would put prior SRD versions under Creative Commons, with most of the dissenters wanting more Creative Commons-protected content.
In response, Wizards of the Coast caved.
“We welcome today’s news from Wizards of the Coast regarding their intention not to de-authorize OGL 1.0a,” tweeted Pathfinder publisher Paizo, who’d launched an effort to move the industry away from WotC’s OGL. But “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.”
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
For a while there, it looked like Hasbro and its Wizards of the Coast label were about to destroy more than two decades of goodwill from fans, but the company is making some significant moves to reverse course, it announced today (via Gizmodo).
Dungeons & Dragons executive producer announced that they’re pulling back from the planned launch of Open Gaming License 1.2, which would replace and deauthorize Open Gaming License 1.0. Wizards of the Coast launched this license in 2000 with the intention being it would last indefinitely.
“When you give us playtest feedback, we take it seriously,” Brink wrote. “Already more than 15,000 of you have filled out the survey. The 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.”
Tabletop roleplaying game company Paizo has released a statement following the delayed announcement of Wizards of the Coast’s Open Gaming License 2.0. The company, whose staff includes several former Wizards of the Coast executives, developers, and lawyers, has announced that it will be pursuing the creation of a new…