(Photo credit to Josh Whitby)
Written by Colleen Bement, Editor
We switched systems before. We can do it again.
Are you up to date on D&D Open Gaming License (OGL)? According to popular Colorado Dungeon Master Josh Whitby of GamesMastery.com, the damage that Wizards of the Coast brought upon themselves has already been done. The company does not understand how their community works, and Dungeons & Dragons gamers will not play to their hands. Josh has the details as well as some good advice.
GamesMastery.com says don’t throw away or burn your D&D books. You already paid for it. You should still get enjoyment out of it. If you’re already in a D&D group, keep playing! And switch to Pathfinder! The company that makes the Pathfinder game, Paizo, is who players should give their money to. Nerd Alert News sat down with Josh to get an inside look at the D&D OGL controversy.
Nerd Alert News: Thank you for taking the time out to chat about what is happening in the D&D community. Let’s start from the beginning.
Games Mastery: Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), they own D&D, which is owned by Hasbro. They also make Magic (The Gathering) cards and Pokémon cards. They’re the biggest role-playing, tabletop RPG company. Second to that is Paizo and they with the Pathfinder system. The only reason why Pathfinder was made, was because of the Open Gaming License (the OGL), which is what this is all about. This lets people publish and create content for their D&D games.
NaN: Is the Open Gaming License for people who make money, or for personal reasons?
GM: Both. If you want to write a storyline with an adventure or create a special monster for a game, you can publish it, you can sell it, and it’s all under the Open Gaming License. This is part of the D&D ruleset. You can play with the stuff that you’ve created. They want royalties, but we’ll get there. So, because of the Open Gaming License, there are tons of companies making adventures and creating storylines and rules. They’re making supplements like making new spells for your wizard class or new monsters to fight. That’s how Piazo got really big. They have a ton of adventures for the D&D third edition.
NaN: So, did they just realize that they could be making more money?
GM: They don’t want people to pay other companies to make content. They (Wizards) want to control it all. When the 4th edition came out, I think around 2008, it was designed to work like a video game like World of Warcraft. So, the 4th edition came out and that’s when Pathfinder made their own system because nobody liked the video game-style rules of the 4th edition. A lot of us switched to playing Pathfinder instead of 4th edition D&D, and they released the Pathfinder system under the Wizards OGL. Personally, I’ve been playing Pathfinder.
Then 5th edition came out in 2014, and I didn’t switch to it because I was still enjoying Pathfinder. The only reason Piazo was able to make and publish Pathfinder was because of the Open Gaming License. There are a ton of other publishers that make content under that license. It’s kind of like the Creative Commons.
NaN: And that’s been working and people have been enjoying it?
GM: Yes. Pathfinder got huge, and then people went back to D&D when the 5th edition came out. They made it better and easier to learn, which was great for new people who haven’t played before. And then we had content like Critical Role and all these other great streaming shows that made D&D more popular. Now D&D is the most popular that it has ever been!
NaN: What are some of these shows?
GM: There are tons of podcasts and shows doing their own adventures like Critical Role, Dimension 20, and Adventure Zone. There are a lot.
So, in December, there was a leak from Wizards talking about how they want to make a new open gaming license, but it wasn’t very open. Wizards of the Coast wanted to control everything.
NaN: Can people create for free, or do people have to pay to get it?
GM: They wouldn’t have to pay unless they were making money. So originally stated that they could still play, but you’d have to sign a contract. The original idea was they expected people who were making money to show all of their financial reports and report them to the company. If you made $750,000, then they (WOTC) would get 25% of the revenue–NOT the profit, the revenue.
NaN: WOW.
GM: This was what Wizards wanted to do and this is why everyone is pissed off. So, anything on Kickstarter. There are a ton of books being published on Kickstarter. A lot of adventures, extra monster books, ETC. If they had to pay Wizards 25%, they’d never be able to publish.
NaN: They’d never make money. They wouldn’t even break even.
GM: Right. They’re just trying to steal money from everyone who’s trying to play the game.
NaN: Would you have to sign a contract for your website?
GM: Yes.
GM: So that’s the biggest thing that people are mad about is that they’re trying to take money from the players. Their app is called D&D Beyond and it allows you to create your D&D character by building it through the app. But, it has some paywalls. If you pay, you get all of the books they’ve ever written and all of the extra rules and information. Instead of buying a book, you can order the info through D&D Beyond.
NaN: Is the contract for regular people who just want to play, like if I wanted to go play?
GM: No, it wouldn’t affect you. But the problem is if we created any content that had to do with D&D at all, they would say they would own it. Therefore, anything that I wrote for my personal game, it would be owned by WOTC and they could do whatever they wanted with it.
GM: D&D got so popular because of the original Open Gaming License in the first place. There are tons of people and huge companies and millions of DMs all over the world sharing their ideas online. That’s why Critical Role exists in the first place. WOTC doesn’t realize that without that license, they wouldn’t have any money at all.
NaN: They’re greedy.
GM: It’s the community working together under the OGL that made D&D what it is. So, that all happened in late December. They were supposed to come out with a new version of the Open Gaming License on the 13th of this month (January), but there was so much backlash that they didn’t publish anything. A lot of the backlash came from tons of youtube videos and everyone Tweeting about it because all of these content creators didn’t want to give Wizards all of the content that they worked hard to create. It’s like they were working for them for free.
NaN: That’s awful.
GM: The way that we were able to boycott and the backlash was because money talks and the only way they (wizards) would see that was if everyone canceled their subscriptions on D&D Beyond. So on Thursday the 12th, they already had over a million people unsubscribe from D&D Beyond. Keep in mind that the original thing that they wanted to do came with a contract that they wanted publishers to sign. They would own the names of the characters and monsters, but according to copyright law, you can own a name, a character, or a creature, but you can’t own the actual text. The specific rules of D&D cannot be copyrighted anyways. WOTC knew that and they were still trying to get people to sign the contract to give up complete control.
They (WOTC) put out an apology–it wasn’t an apology, it was a statement. They didn’t apologize at all. They said that their original Open Gaming License 1.1 or 1.5, but they haven’t released anything yet. It leaked that they had a copy of the contract for people to sign. That was a problem because when they made their statement last week, they were calling it a draft.
NaN: How do you sign a “draft?” Did anyone sign it?
GM: No, because they didn’t really release it. So in the statement, they were lying about calling it a draft and were lying about giving up control saying that you’ll own your content, but they still have the final say on whatever it is. Part of their reasoning was they don’t want people creating bad or offensive content in D&D.
NaN: So, you’d have to get it approved when you create characters?
GM: Right, so that was their excuse. No one signed anything and no one should sign anything. Ever, because we should be free to play our game. There are also plans of boycotting the movie coming out this summer. The problem is, we want the movie. We want more content. The plan was to wait until after three weeks of its release, because after three weeks the movie company doesn’t make as much money, and more money goes to the theaters.
NaN: How can we stay current on this unfolding drama?
GM: Be sure to follow DnD Shorts on YouTube.
I was just at HexaCon in Denver last weekend and in prepping for my panels, I did a lot of research including watching a great YouTube channel called D&D Shorts. D&D Shorts has a connection with employees at WOTC, and it was his video that exposed all the lies and all the BS. There was also a video from Legal Eagle called “Dungeons & Dragons Rolls a 1” about the New License and it talks about the copyright stuff. Also, follow Ginny Di on YouTube and Instagram.
Also, Paizo, the company that made Pathfinder, put out a statement about how they’re going to put out their own open gaming license that anyone can use. They’re not going to own it. They’re going to pay for publishing fees, all the legal stuff, and do whatever they can to get this out there. It’s going to be called the Open Role Play Creative License, ORC.
NaN: Haha. What a perfect name!
GM: Everyone has at least heard of Pathfinder.
NaN: Was Pathfinder already working on this or is this a response to what WOTC has done?
GM: I’m not sure, but they released an announcement that they’re working hard on it it. Kobold Press is another company that publishes adventures. They are working with Paizo and a group of other 3rd party publishers to create the ORC.
That’s another problem that WOTC is having. The last two books they have written are trash, and nobody likes them. They’re reading stuff written by Kobold Press and Paizo instead.
NaN: So this has been going on for a while now.
GM: Yes. So, Wizards took back what they said because everybody got so pissed, so they’re trying to come up with a new open gaming license that everyone will agree with. But, the damage is already done. Nobody’s going to contract with them. Nobody’s going to buy D&D books anymore.
GM: It’s funny because I play Pokemon cards, I play Magic cards, and that’s all owned by WOTC, and because of that, I bought stock in Hasbro last year. The stock went down A LOT.
NaN: On no! That’s terrible.
GM: It’s hilarious, is what it is. It’s hilarious for WOTC because they have no real clue how this gaming community works. Just the fact that they want to control the open gaming license in the first place is the exact opposite of what D&D is supposed to be. D&D is a group game and a collaborative effort. Everyone works together to create content and share ideas. To create the game that they want to play, and Wizards is trying to control that and make money off of it.
NaN: What is going to happen going forward? What’s going to happen with the fans, and what do you think WOTC is going to do?
GM: This is my personal opinion. I think the damage has already been done. They’ve shot themselves in the face. They’re shooting all of their customers–their entire community that plays and supports D&D. No one’s going to give them any of their money, no matter how hard they try to back-peddle and lie, the damage has been done.
The fact that they wanted to create a new OGL in the first place, is just stupid. It worked just fine over the last 20 years, and they’ve been making millions of dollars because of that license. That’s why they have people buying D&D books. If someone got something from a third-party publisher, they’d still be supporting the D&D game where they need to buy the player’s handbook in order to play D&D in the first place. They shouldn’t be changing anything at all. What they should be doing is hiring real writers and real gamers who are part of the community.
NaN: What’s going to happen with the fans?
GM: We’re all going to switch to the new ORC system to play Pathfinder and play different games.
NaN: What is your advice to my readers?
GM: Don’t throw away or burn your D&D books. You already paid for it. You should get enjoyment out of it. Don’t waste your money. They’re not going to come after you for playing a game. Just don’t get online and don’t give Wizards any more of your money. Buy from Paizo. Buy from Kobold Press and all of the other publishers and Kickstarters who are not Wizards.
If you’re already in a D&D game, don’t give it up. It’s your group of friends that you play with. As long as you’re not sending Wizards more money, you’ll be fine. For normal players, it’s not going to affect anyone because Wizards hasn’t actually tried to do anything yet. They pulled it back. We still don’t know what Wizards is planning. A lot of this stuff is up in the air and changing every day. Stay tuned to DnD Shorts for updates.
Paizo is the company you want to give your money to. When Pathfinder first came out, it was under the Open Gaming License, but they printed all of the books and had it all available for free online. You didn’t have to pay for a $50 book to play Pathfinder. They did really well with that because they knew how the community worked and they still know how the community works. They’ve been doing great for the last 20 years. All of the D&D players are going to switch to Pathfinder of their new ORC system.
There’s at least one good thing coming from all of this: People will actually be curious and open to RPG other than D&D.
Find GamesMastery.com online and at Denver area conventions. Be sure to get in line as his panels fill up quickly.
Hi, I’m Lynn, and I Make.
Props, Cosplay, Scale Models, Home Projects, and just about anything else that involves me Making.
Eldwenne’s Fantasy™ and Wire Wrapture Artistically Twisted ™
Jodi invites you to explore your well-being with designs from Wire Wrapture Artistically Twisted™ and to declare your favorite fandom proudly with designs from Eldwenne’s Fantasy™.
A riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a warm tortilla, served to you fresh using patented space-age technology. all games played on this channel are using original hardware and software whenever possible.
A positive podcast about video games. Chris and Ashley go over the video games we love. Updated biweekly.
Chris and Lynn
Evan Conroy
Ron Peterson
If you like what you see, please consider joining our Patreon Family
For as little as $1 a month, you can really help us out.
1 thought on “D&D OGL Controversy Explained By A Dungeon Master”
Comments are closed.