Wizards Of The Coast Admits Missteps In New OGL, Is Making Major Changes

Wizards of the Coast has finally released a statement regarding its recent controversial decision to change how its Open Game License works.

Last week, a report emerged from Gizmodo that said D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast would be revising its Open Gaming License for the game, a document that so far has allowed a huge range of independent publishers to create their own games based on the basic D&D ruleset. The revisions would mean that fans and third-party publishers would be restricted in what they can make, as well as anyone making money having to report products to Wizards of the Coast directly. Now, Wizards of the Coast has released a statement on the situation through a blog post, and shared its plans going forward.

The post explains that there were three main goals in wanting to revise the OGL, the first being that it prevents D&D from being used in “hateful and discriminatory products.” The second goal was that it wanted to make clear that OGL content could only be used for “tabletop role-playing content like campaigns, modules, and supplements,” as opposed to controversial tech like web3, blockchain games, and NFTs. And the last goal was that “the OGL is for the content creator, the homebrewer, the aspiring designer, our players, and the community–not major corporations to use for their own commercial and promotional purpose.”

Apparently some content creators and publishers were provided early drafts over the new OGL to gather feedback, with certain royalty language “designed to apply to large corporations attempting to use OGL content. It was never [Wizard of the Coast’s] intent to impact the vast majority of the community.”

There are still plans to create a revised version of the OGL, with the intent to “specify that it covers only content for TTRPGs,” meaning “other expressions, such as educational and charitable campaigns, livestreams, cosplay, VTT-uses, etc., will remain unaffected by any OGL update,” and content released under the original OGL will not be affected either.

Importantly, the post notes that this future version of the OGL won’t contain a royalty structure. “Under any new OGL, you will own the content you create. We won’t. Any language we put down will be crystal clear and unequivocal on that point.”

Prior to Wizard of the Coast’s public statement, Pathfinder (a TTRPG based on D&D) publisher Paizo announced its intent to create a new “system-agnostic” Open RPG Creative License, one that won’t be based on any particular game, but instead offer a blank template for any publisher to offer their rules for use by others. Paizo stated it will pay for the legal work involved in drafting this document up, and invited publishers worldwide to support the project. Other publishers like Kobold Press, Legendary Games, and Green Ronin have already agreed to take part.