Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Are WotC Sticking Their Dicks in a Blender with the new OGL?

With the leak of what might be the new not quite Open Game License version 1.1, Wizards of the Coast appear to be trying to force the genie back into the bottle. 

At this link you can read the full text, and hopefully you'll have enough legal knowledge to pick through it without straining you eyes or brain. http://ogl.battlezoo.com/

If you want to here some perspective from a contract lawyer check this out on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDuHjpwx5Q4

Among the things controversial about the leaked OGL 1.1 are WotC's attempt to retroactively invalidate earlier versions. I'm no lawyer, but this sounds like a very difficult, if not a legally enforceable trick to pull off. Were they to call the next edition 6th edition and applied the new license to it and any editions going forward, it would likely work without a problem, but they aren't planning to call 6th edition 6th edition.

Further, they reserve the right to take a creator's material and resell it themselves without compensating the creator, who also is on the hook for destroying existing inventory. If you crowd-funded the project and are about to ship to backers when that letter arrives, you and your backers are fucked in so many ways.

Then there are royalty tiers that are damned expensive. Most creators don't have a profit margin even approaching the 20 to 25 percent cut WotC is asking for.

They have VTTs (virtual table tops) in their sights as well. Now that they are building their own after acquiring D&D Beyond, they are going to interfere with what these other VTTs can use of the game. Since I use Vorpal Board with my Dwarven Forge terrain while I DM, this won't impact me unless I play in someone else's game.

We already have some idea where Kobold Press stand on the issue. They announced today that they will be developing their own Fantasy TTRPG system. https://koboldpress.com/raising-our-flag/

I can't wait to find out what WotC told Critical Role regarding profiting from D&D. What CR says back could be even more interesting. Critical Role can be directly credited with driving some of the increased popularity of D&D over the past few years, as well as Stranger Things (will they go after the show as well?). Trying to cut a leg off of a cash cow that it still producing is a damned fool idea.

Since the launch of 5th edition Wizards of the Coast have generated a hell of a lot of good will among the public and fan base. Now they're looking to piss in everyone's cereal bowl. That's a dick move Wizards. There's a very good chance it will hurt rather than help your bottom line.




1 comment:

Dave Turner said...

WOTC is shitting where they eat on this one. Like the lesson from the GSL was that it wasn't enough of a dick move.