It is no understatement to say that the past few weeks have been tumultuous for Wizards of the Coast, parent company Hasbro, and the Dungeons & Dragons brand. After the alleged leak of the Open Gaming License version 1.1, fans and third party creators of the world’s most popular tabletop roleplaying game were united in their uproar. But while the first official response of the company still resulted in a largely negative reaction, the design team issued and apology, as well as a new version of the OGL that might be better received.
— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) January 18, 2023 Brink began with a positive note, apologizing and taking ownership for the chaotic events since the OGL 1.1 was leaked: However, some fans are unhappy that the verbiage referring to the OGL leak was a “draft”. According to the sources of these leaks, it was not a draft, but the final version of the OGL 1.1 and was already set to be rolled out, if not for the massively hostile pushback against it. The leaked OGL 1.1 (and the revised OGL 1.2) is intended to address the D&D brand being “undermonetized”. The next part of the post shared that a new iteration of the OGL documentation will be available in a similar way as D&D Playtest materials. In addition, users of D&D Beyond will be able to respond to a survey regarding the proposals: There are fans who are critical of this method of feedback, as the results of the survey would not be available publicly, thus lacking in transparency. On the other hand, there are fans happy with this more democratic approach compared to the earlier OGL 1.1. The final part of the post appears to be direct responses to the key issues raised about the prior OGL provisions: This seems to be a step in the right direction, but many D&D fans and third party creators are still unsatisfied, as they question the actual need for any new OGL. Why not simply keep the OGL 1.0a as it is? For the most part, those still opposing any changes prefer to just add the “irrevocable” clause to the original version of the OGL.
— Dungeons & Dragons (@Wizards_DnD) January 19, 2023 The OGL Playtest was made available in a later post, as well as additional details, including making the D&D core mechanics available as a Creative Commons License: The latter part of the update reiterates that the changes proposed for OGL 1.2 and to deauthorize OGL 1.0a are to address potential issues with inclusive play, Virtual Tabletops (VTTs), and apparent hateful content. Will the new Dungeons & Dragons core mechanics playtest and survey end the bad publicity from the OGL 1.1? If you want to use quintessentially D&D content from the SRD such as owlbears and magic missile, OGL 1.2 will provide you a perpetual, irrevocable license to do so. Creative Commons is a nonprofit dedicated to sharing knowledge, and it developed a set of licenses to let creators do that. The Creative Commons license we picked lets us give everyone those core mechanics. Forever. Because we don’t control the license, releasing the D&D core rules under the Creative Commons will be a decision we can never change. Will this finally end the controversy behind the OGL? Will the backlash be over against the D&D live action movie and even the popular “let’s play” web series Critical Role? Regardless, it is clear WotC and Hasbro are intent on officially modifying the Open Gaming License in order to resolve the alleged undermonetization of the D&D brand. The draft for the Open Gaming License 1.2 and System Reference Document (SRD) playtest, as well as the link to the survey, can be found on D&D Beyond. The survey itself will remain open until February 3.
