Audio EXP: #180 – The sneaky bit in the OGL 2 tactics

Welcome home.

This is Audio EXP for the 14th of January, 2023, and the title of this episode is “The sneaky bit in the OGL 2 tactics”.

[The following is a transcript of Audio EXP: #180]

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Catilus is in the Spotlight this month, as voted for by Patreons.

I’m emailing Catilus, but ate a few days by being busy at work and trying to keep up with the Open Game Licensing news. I could follow the headlines but was fortunate enough to be involved in some behind-the-scenes conversations between publishers.

I was impressed at how quickly RPG businesses responded to the threat of the proposed new OGL. I suspect it’s not a situation that any other big corporate like Hasbro faces. In the publishing community, groups can form, coordinate and have an impact quickly.

However, while I was impressed, I also didn’t want to leak those plans, and release dates kept on changing.

Ultimately, we got to the point where Paizo is leading the charge, drawing a legal line and issuing a court threat while setting up the Open RPG Creative License, aka ORC, in response.

But let’s recap.

The OGL, the Open Game License, are the rules by which third-party publishers such as MCDM, Goodman Games, Darlington Press, or Privateer Press sign to use D&D’s 5e and some flavour from it. It means these companies can’t pretend to be D&D but can publish content for 5e.

With One D&D on the way, Wizards of the Coast wanted to revise the document’s text, which leaked. Publishers didn’t like that Wizards of the Coast would take royalties, actual money, from big successes. Publishers didn’t like WotC seemed to be exerting more control over other people’s creations. In fact, there wasn’t much in it that publishers did like. Many didn’t like that the rules were changing at all.

D&D players hated it as well, not all, but many. It was one of those tidal moments in which the crowd swept people along, growing in momentum. I saw people who’ve moaned about so-called Cancel Culture tweet suggestions that players cancel their D&D Beyond subscriptions. I saw die-hard loyalists turn on a dime and forever swear off D&D.

The cancellations of D&D Beyond subscriptions may have been the money move that forced Wizards of the Coast to rethink. Previous Audio EXP podcasts contain a lot of my rambling about the importance of the subscription model to future RPG publishers.

Then, on Friday the 13th, Wizards shared an update.

They said they had wanted to make sure hateful content was not used for D&D. They said they didn’t want NFT companies to make money from D&D. They said they wanted to look after fans.

The new OGL proposes dropping the back license control rule, the royalties and the virtual tabletop exclusions. With one exception, I thought it looked pretty good.

Whether it was an honest reflection of an ethical company or just necessary PR, I don’t know. Still, the changes were significant, and I imagined that if this had been the first proposed revision to the OGL, then the fanbase might have accepted it.

One caveat, though, is that we’ve already noticed small and undisclosed changes being made to what was initially published. None of this is set in stone, and it may all change.

That one thing I didn’t think looked good? There was a weird parting shot about winning and losing. I thought it was a bad tactic because it emphasises a them v us perception, that there had been a fight rather than a discussion and just felt out of place with the otherwise level headed comment.

I think, on reflection, the winning and losing outro was a sneaky distraction.

The Friday the 13th update insists that Wizards of the Coast will be changing the OGL. Right now, fans can say that they’ve won and I’ve seen media focusing on the fact that the D&D community has done just that by forcing Hasbro and WotC to change their plans.

Here’s what I think the sneaky thing is; by talking about who won or lost the fight, WotC plant the seeds that the fight is over.

If the fight is over and WotC sounds like a sore loser, and the updated OGL concedes so much, then the community will call it a victory.

It won’t be, though. If WotC changes the OGL, then it sets the precedent that the OGL can be changed.

So, let’s come back to Paizo. The RPG news is that ORC is coming and publishers like Chaosium, Rogue Genius and Legendary Games are on board.

Paizo, though, begins by saying that they’ll go to court to stop Hasbro deauthorizing OGL 1a and that was my headline.

I was accused of clickbait, but I think that’s the most critical takeaway because WotC are, as of today, insisting on change and the Open RPG alliance, led by Paizo, have the legal team stood up to stop that. One side has to back down or a court in the United States of America will decide the future of the tabletop RPG publishing business.

Wizards of the Coast lost the PR war and might have done more damage than that. I think the turning point was when the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which protects digital liberties, stepped in with a warning. They pointed out that publishers cannot copyright game rules, just creative expression.

As it is impossible to copyright game rules, then unless publishers sign those rights away via something like the OGL in exchange for access to some fluff like spell descriptions and marketing permissions, publishers can still use the mechanics people associate with D&D.

In other words, WotC has highlighted how unattractive the OGL is for some publishers.

Matt Colville said that he couldn’t imagine anyone signing the leaked OGL and in the same Twitch stream revealed that MCDM will accelerate the creation of their own rule system.

MCDM’s Kickstarters have been in the millions, and the streamer is so popular he keeps people interested in D&D. MCDM was a WotC ally, but now, not so much.

Kobold Press announced Project Black Flag which is, yes, you guessed it, their own system. They’re also cooling on the OGL.

Kobold Press are another publisher that moves the needle for D&D, a one-time ally who might now be forced to take sides.

EN Publishing, who published Advanced 5E have said they’re now investigating whether they can get out of the OGL or decouple the Level Up series from it.

EN Publishing will also invest more in its WOIN system. Again, another former ally has been pushed away by WotC’s ambitious attempt to rewrite the rules.

I can’t help but think of comments the Wizards of the Coast leadership made about being able to extract more money from D&D just before bringing the OGL changes to people’s attention. What an error. If they had said they needed to make edits to keep NFTs at bay, I’m sure it would have been very different, except they’d still have set the precedent of being able to change the OGL.

Meanwhile, alternatives to the OGL have been very popular. Savage Worlds sold out in print. Monte Cook Games expanded the Cypher System Open License, and there’s more news on that in just a bit.

In this week’s Routinely Itemised RPG news I have got a whole section on what various publishers have said. I missed more than I caught, but I noticed many.

Now, before sneaking back to that Cypher news and bundles, I do want to squeeze in some headlines that are not from the world of tabletop RPGs. There’s just a tiny bit.

I was worried about the reboot of the anime Trigun. It’s about a pacifist sharpshooter with such a large bounty on his head that the stampede of people chasing it down causes all sorts of problems.

Of all the advanced screeners I’ve had access to, Trigun Stampede is the only one I’ve written up and that’s because it’s good news.

Yes, it looks different, and some characters are changed, but I still think it works. I look forward to episode two on Crunchyroll.

I also finally sampled Dragonlance. My route was the Audible audiobook for Dragons of Autumn Twilight, and it was okay.

It was a good romp, like a D&D adventure written up. It was cringe at times, and every single time there was a gully dwarf in the scene was one of those times.

I’ve no idea why it’s been so successful, but perhaps teenagers read it differently. My disagreement with many other reviewers is that I liked the efforts of Paul Boehmer more than most.

Now, as Dragonlance merges back into tabletop RPGs with books, let’s do it again with that Cypher System news.

Amazon has shared the trailer for Carnival Row season 2.

That’s an urban fantasy in which supernatural creatures are refugees in a human city and are not treated fairly. The main character is a police inspector who cares about murders in the community.

There’s a free Carnival Row setting for the Cypher System. You still need to pay for the core rules or download the free quickstart, and work it as hard as you can, but that’s an example of a big media property doing RPGs without it being 5e.

DriveThruRPG is busy with many and generous bundles of non-OGL publishers pushing their wares forward. Another example of the agile market, but the three bundles I want to highlight here are the usual Bundle of Holding countdown offers.

There’s Dungeons on Demand for quick and plentiful adventures.

A flash sale for QAGS, a generic system, is about to end.

But there’s also a big offer with the snappy title of Non-OGL Fantasy.

So, let’s finish there and see where the lawyers take us next week. Keep safe.