It’s stunning that Wizards of the Coast has abandoned its plans to revoke the Dungeons & Dragons Open Game License. This marks a tentative resolution to the months-long conflict between Wizards of the Coast and its fanbase over the future of Dungeons & Dragons.
Through leaks and official pronouncements, multiple versions of a new Dungeons & Dragons OGL have recently been made public. The original proposal featured provisions for royalties, license-back payments to content creators, and more robust control over third parties.
These changes were rescinded in the revised draft, but many players were still concerned that the rules might be used to regulate things not made by the league. But in an unexpected turn of events, Wizards of the Coast has decided to abandon its campaign to have the original OGL nullified and replaced with a new one.
According to a recent survey, most D&D players are unhappy with the new OGL and would want to have the original document in place. Wizards of the Coast has decided not to publish a new draft of the OGL and instead promises to leave the original version unchanged, going so far as to cancel the poll at an early stage.
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A massive new version of the Dungeons & Dragons rulebook (the 5.1 SRD) has been released under the Creative Commons license as if retaining the original OGL wasn’t enough of a success. This 400-page document contains almost everything from the Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, such as species, classes, equipment, and even certain monster stat blocks, but it is more than twice the size suggested by the OGL 1.2.
Over the past few weeks you, the community, have made your voices heard. And we’ve listened. OGL 1.0a will remain untouched AND the entire SRD 5.1 is now available under a Creative Commons license.🧵 https://t.co/hJTm2Rgruo pic.twitter.com/qiBODaB7oj
— D&D Beyond (@DnDBeyond) January 27, 2023
Since it has previously released this PDF under Creative Commons, it cannot restrict future players from using it at no cost. This is a massive victory for those who enjoy role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons.
Since the controversy broke, the Dungeons and Dragons community has been inundated with Twitter trends, petitions, and demands to boycott the proposed revisions to the original OGL. Over 15,000 players participated in the poll, and the results directly impacted the final decision, demonstrating that a large enough group may influence a business’s thinking.
Fan pushback worked. As did an avalanche of survey data.
The makers of Dungeons & Dragons are bailing on their plans for a new license for third-party creators, a decision that had many fans, creators and small businesses ready to abandon the gamehttps://t.co/Upa9B1LWOx
— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) January 27, 2023
Players quickly reassure fans that this major win is not the end of the battle. Even though Creative Commons currently covers Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, it is still unclear how One D&D will be dealt with when it is released.
Even though this is a massive step in the right direction, Wizards of the Coast will need to keep up this momentum if it wants to earn back the community’s faith after the controversy surrounding this OGL event. You may buy Dungeons & Dragons right now. The rules for at least one D&D game are currently being drafted.
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