WOTC OGL fiasco

[brewdus]

Is there any indication how this OGL mess might affect Herolab? It sounds like a lot of 3rd party publishers (Paizo AND Green Ronin, specifically) might be jumping ship. How could this affect the Pathfinder and M&M licenses?

[Dami]

Its way too early to know what could or will happen. The companies using the OGL 1.0 will need to know what 1.1 really is, before they can make any real decisions, and then pass those on to LW.
There's hope that existing/past material created under 1.0 won't be affected. The worst case is probably that LW has to pull all support for anything using 1.0, but that wouldn't stop anyone with the Classic program and files from continuing to use it. We just won't have any support or the ability to upgrade or buy more packages.

[MadCat75]

Been watching videos on Youtube about the WotC fiasco. Just saw an announcement from Paizo about them creating their own version of the OGL, called ORC (Open RPG Creative License).

[daplunk]

There is supposedly a updated OGL being released next week. From the leaks that I've seen there is no mention that they are removing the following though.

Why is Wizards of the Coast updating to OGL 1.1 and subdividing it into Commercial and Non-Commercial terms? A lot has changed since the old OGL was launched, and that means the old license has some unintended applications we need to fix. For example, when we released OGL 1.0a, YouTube, apps, blockchain, crowdfunding, and other now every-day technologies and distribution channels didn’t really exist in the way they do today. OGL wasn’t intended to fund major competitors and it wasn’t intended to allow people to make D&D apps, videos, or anything other than printed (or printable) materials for use while gaming. We are updating the OGL in part to make that very clear.

B. Works Covered
This license only applies to materials You create for use in or as roleplaying games and as game supplements and only as printed media and static electronic files such as epubs or pdfs. It does not allow the distribution of any other form of media. And does not apply to creation of anything else.

They are being incredibly clear about their intent. They want to shut down digital tools. I'm hearing though that anything released under the previous OGL will not be impacted. It certainly means anything moving forward will be a target. But with Pathfinder creating the ORC really changes the future landscape.

Interesting times.

[Farling]

Official statement from WOTC on the past week's controversy is available at https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/1423...me-license-ogl

[Azhrei]

Thanks for the link.

They explicitly state that they don't intend to limit the usage for VTTs, which to me is very important. (And not just as a founder of RPTools, either, but also as a player!) We'll see what the final document actually looks like...

[RavenX]

WotC has already soiled their new edition with this fiasco. If the declining stock price and canceled subscriptions on D&D beyond are any indication, they hosed themselves on this. Maybe hosed is putting it mildly, they fired cannons into their own ship and the pirates started leaping off to safety before it was completely scuttled.

They tried doing this with 4E and the boycotts wiped out the edition in 3 years. ONE D&D may be dead on arrival. The new WotC CEO knows nothing of the company's history, much less that they've been walking on eggshells trying to rebuild rapport that 4E killed with the community... hence 5e being publicly playtested for every product they made in 5e.