Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast (WotC) has moved away from some of the most controversial parts in leaked drafts of an update to its decades-old Open Gaming License (OGL) following widespread fan outcry over the proposed changes.
For example, WotC now directly says that any content already released under the previous version of the OGL will “remain unaffected” by the update. That contradicts the language in a leaked draft of the license update, suggesting that the earlier version of the OGL “is no longer an authorized license agreement.”
The updated version of the OGL will also “not include… any royalty structure,” WotC writes, despite the design language calling for a 25 percent royalty on annual revenues in excess of $750,000. The now-removed royalty language was “designed to apply to large companies trying to use OGL content” and was not intended “to affect the vast majority of the community,” the company writes. “However, the response clearly shows that we rolled a 1.”
WotC also says it will not claim a “non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, sublicensable, royalty-free license” to fan-created content under the OGL, as suggested in the leaked draft update. That language was “intended to protect us and our partners from creators falsely claiming that we are stealing their work because of casual matches,” the company writes. Using that drafted provision as “a means for us to steal work,” as some in the community feared, “never crossed our minds,” writes WotC.
Running away from recoil
WotC says it had distributed its draft copy of the proposed OGL update to content creators and publishers “so that their feedback could be considered before finalizing anything.” That sharing is testament to WotC’s effort to “ask our community’s input before any update to the OGL,” the company writes. “Our goal was to get exactly the kind of feedback about what features worked and what didn’t, and we ended up getting that from you.”
While an OGL update is still coming, WotC won’t be releasing it today “because we need to make sure we get it right,” the company writes. That timing news comes after a Gizmodo report that a planned Thursday rollout for the new OGL had been postponed amid backlash, citing “inside sources at Wizards of the Coast.”
WotC canceled a regularly scheduled D&D Beyond (DDB) live stream for Thursday afternoon on its Twitch channel. At the time of writing, a DDB live stream is still scheduled for next Tuesday.
Prior to today’s update, Paizo Inc., the popular scout series under the OGL for years — announced Thursday that it had “no interest” in the revised version of the license as drafted. Instead, it said it is working on “a new open, perpetual, and irrevocable Open RPG Creative License.” The new “system-agnostic” licensing framework, according to the company, will eventually be owned by a non-profit organization related to the Linux Foundation.
Other companies had indicated similar moves to stop relying on the OGL in light of the drafted licensing changes. Kobold Press announced that while it “wait[ing] to see what the future holds,” it’s moving “forward” with work on a new tabletop ruleset that isn’t built on D&D. Old School Essentials similarly said it was “making various contingency plans pending the official release of the new OGL.” And Troll Lord Games said plainly that its upcoming products “will not have the OGL.”
By Friday morning, an open letter from the organizing group #OpenDND had claimed more than 66,000 signatures demanding that “WotC withdraw the draconian 1.1 OGL and pledge to support the existing 1.0 OGL in future editions of their game.” Popular tabletop gaming influencer Ginny Di had that too urged fellow players to cancel their D&D Beyond subscriptions in a much-shared message Thursday, a move that reportedly temporarily crashed the service’s subscription management page For some.
“You’re going to hear people say they won and we lost because making your voice heard forced us to change our plans,” writes WotC. ‘Those people will only be half right. They won – and so did we.’
