Wizards of the Coast it has driven a huge wedge between themselves and the community. The owner of Dungeons & Dragons is preparing a change to the OGL (Open Gaming License) that aims to impose fees on third-party creators who use the RPG system.
Launched in the year 2000, OGL is the system that publishers around the world use to create their own tabletop RPGs and exploit their products. This version 1.0 has remained unchanged for 23 years, but now its owners intend to change the rules at the beginning of this 2023.
“We are making sure that OGL 1.1 be clear about what it does and doesn’t cover“, say from Wizards of the Coast, while also noting that they want to put up barriers to “third parties accumulating D&D NFTs and large companies.” On the other hand, there is a substantial modification with which the company will have to be informed about the annual income related to OGL. Of course, as long as more than $50,000 a year is generated.
However, we are talking about revenue, not profit. A leaked draft reveals that if a Kickstarter campaign generates hundreds of thousands of dollars, but you haven’t turned a profit yet, you’ll have to pay back accordingly. In turn, Wizards of the Coast reserves the right to revoke the license for any reason with 30 days’ notice. Not only that, but each creation will have to be registered and the company will be able to make use of its content “for any purpose”.
popular opposition
Several companies in the industry will have to revise their own games, many of them generated through the original OGL and will have to comply with the OGL 1.1 standards. One of them is Paizo, best known for putting the RPG Pathfinder on our table, and which has taken on Wizards of the Coast to tell them no.
In a recent post, Paizo has stated that “for more than 20 years, the OGL has been a mutually beneficial license that should not, and cannot, be revoked.” With this mantra in mind, the final decision is to release ORC, a proprietary Paizo license based on the SRD (System Reference Document) that includes the basic D&D game schematics.
Thus, Chaosium, Green Ronin, Kobold Press and other publishers have decided to support the cause. “You can count on us not to break our word,” they say from Paizo. The brand will begin phasing out its OGL-licensed games, though there is no confirmed release date for ORC.
