Wizards of the Coast to Restrict Use of Dungeons & Dragons IP in New Open Gaming Licens – The owner of Dungeons & Dragons, Wizards of the Coast, intends to limit who can use the IP to create role-playing games, making earlier OGL agreements “illegal,” according to a document about the revised Open Gaming License that has apparently leaked.
To put things in perspective, OGL 1.0 was released in 2000 and it allowed experts and amateurs to create their own Dungeons & Dragons-related games, such Kobold Press and Green Ronin. These games will have to modify their business model in accordance with OGL 1.1 (the purported new document) in order to stay in operation (as reported by io9).
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OGL 1.1 reportedly states, “the Open Game License was always intended to allow the community to help grow D&D and expand it creatively. It wasn’t intended to subsidize major competitors, especially now that PDF is by far the most common form of distribution.”
The revelation that Dungeons & Dragons is under-monetized follows statements made by Cynthia Williams, CEO of Wizards of the Coast. It isn’t Wizards of the Coast’s most valuable asset despite having a significant cultural cache, enough to be featured extensively in popular shows like Stranger Things.
Dungeon masters, according to Williams, account for about 20% of all players but “the largest share of our paying players.” Making D&D more accessible will therefore be a top priority in 2023 and 2024, with a focus on digital distribution and the impending One D&D, the game’s next significant edition. However, eradicating rivals by altering the OGL agreement appears to be in keeping with this objective to better monetize D&D.
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The new OGL document is apparently 9,000 words long, in contrast to the previous OGL paper’s 900 words. However, it also allegedly mentions that agreements will be terminated if third-party publishers include material that is “blatantly racist, sexist, homophobic, trans-phobic, bigoted or otherwise discriminatory.” Most of it will force licenced publishers to redesign their products to comply with new rules.
Additionally, WotC stated in 2022 that it would revise the OGL, and this leaked document is consistent with that claim. It’s unclear how it will affect the original’s emphasis on the System Resource Document, which includes items, gaming mechanics, combat, animals, species, classes, and more.
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