I’m sure many of you have heard the news regarding the changes that Wizards of the Coast proposed to the D&D Open Game License (OGL). In short, the original OGL 1.0(a) gave third party publishers the ability to create and sell material that used some of D&D’s core mechanics and intellectual property without fear of legal repercussions or demands of royalties from Wizards of the Coast. Now, after ~20 years, Wizards of the Coast (and their parent company, Hasbro) is revising/replacing that license with a newer, more restrictive license dubbed OGL 1.1 (or now maybe OGL 2?). Both the contents of the new license and the less-than-professional manner of its release to the community by Wizards of the Coast have been met with an enormous amount of backlash from fans as well as third party publishers (myself included).
The nitty-gritty details of “OGL 1.1” and the drama surrounding it have been laid out several times so I won’t go into that here. If you’d like to delve more into that, this thread on Reddit is a pretty good starting point. In this post, I want to discuss what the new OGL means for I Loot the Body and what the future may hold for this project.
How will the new OGL impact this site?
Note - The murky world of licensing, intellectual property, and content creation in general are all very new to me, so everything (or nothing) that I’m about to say could be incorrect (or correct).
Just before the news about the new OGL broke, I had already been looking into how to make sure I am complying with any legal requirements with regards to the D&D-related terminology I use on this site. I was already confused and the huge influx of articles and opinions that came in the wake of the OGL 1.1 leak did not clarify much for me. After minutes of research into the topic I’ve come to a conclusion: neither the old OGL nor the new OGL will have much of an impact on this site.
In the coming days I will be adding documentation to the site as required by the original OGL 1.0(a) to ensure that the few references I make to D&D mechanics are done so legally. In the coming weeks, depending on the final wording of the new OGL, I will either update that legal documentation accordingly or I will remove all references to D&D-specific mechanics and content. Luckily, if it comes to that, I could scrub my whole site of any references to D&D without too much trouble - the perks of being a new site with relatively little content.
So rest assured that no matter which way the OGL winds may blow, I Loot the Body will continue to provide tools and inspiration for all TTRPGs.
What is the future of D&D content on this site?
Despite my personal disappointment with the direction that Wizards of the Coast is taking D&D, that doesn’t change the mission of this project. This site is meant for players of all TTRPGs, including those that choose to continue playing any version of D&D. I highly doubt that D&D is going anywhere anytime soon. As long as the OGL permits it, I will continue to provide tools and resources for those that play it. However, the amount of D&D-specific content I create may be reduced going forward.
D&D is not and has never been the only system I want to provide content for. As my own personal experience with other TTRPGs has expanded, it has been my goal to expand this site to provide tools and resources for a wide variety of TTRPG systems. The actions of Wizards of the Coast and the subsequent reactions of other publishers such as Paizo, Kobold Press, and MCDM have only made me more sure of that goal.
A Personal Note
Now that the “official” stuff is out of the way, I just wanted to express my personal feelings on this whole OGL debacle. Like so many others, I am a D&D 5e baby. It is the game that got me into the greater TTRPG space and will always hold a huge amount of sentimental value for me. And, despite its flaws, I think it is an incredibly well made game that has pulled so many new people into this wonderful hobby.
As a result, the recent showing of corporate greed from Wizards of the Coast is pretty disappointing to say the least. It’s one thing to know in the back of your mind that any company’s primary goal is to make money. It’s another thing to see a company try to wring every last drop of money they can out of an already wildly successful game, potentially harming other businesses and the very players of that game in the process. The 5th edition of D&D isn’t successful in spite of the plethora of 3rd party publishers using the OGL, it’s successful because of them.
Let’s be honest, the quality of the officially published D&D content is hit or miss. I understand wanting to avoid the bloat of published content that plagued 3rd edition, but the official content from Wizards of the Coast is sparse to say the least. Not to mention that the sourcebooks and adventures that have been published are of dubious quality. If those had been the only resources available to us for the last 8 years, I don’t think the game would be nearly as popular as it is now.
Meanwhile, a menagerie of 3rd party publishers have sprung up in the last two decades to create a wealth of amazing material to enhance play for everyone and extend the system’s longevity. I believe that this ecosystem within the larger D&D umbrella has become a quintessential part of the hobby for many people and is made possible by the OGL. This isn’t restricted to just large, established publishing companies either. Thanks to the OGL and the rise of crowdfunding tools like Kickstarter, literally anyone can make their D&D adventure idea, homebrew items/monsters, rules expansion, or campaign setting into a tangible product and even create a thriving business off of it. It’s a truly unique and amazing system that has benefitted not only the D&D and TTRPG community, but also has likely had the runoff effect of making Wizards of the Coast a ton of money.
It’s heartbreaking to see that instead of embracing and nurturing it, Wizards of the Coast is attempting to snuff out this creative fire that has helped fuel their recent growth. In response to the new OGL, many people are moving to other TTRPG systems and advocating that others do the same. While I agree with this response - there are so many amazing systems out there and I myself will be moving my next home game to a new one - it still saddens me to see so many people becoming disenfranchised with the game that we once loved.
I’m angry at Wizards of the Coast for handling this so poorly. If they had shown even an ounce of integrity and been transparent with this new OGL there is a chance they could have worked with the community to create something that worked for everyone going forward.
I’m angry with Hasbro for putting ever-increasing profits above the community that helped make their company so profitable in the first place.
But mostly I’m just sad. Sad that the game that I once cherished now has this dark cloud hanging over it. Sad that fond memories are now dulled by a melancholy filter. I’m sad because I think that D&D, a game that made me feel a true sense of wonder for the first time since I was a kid, has lost some of its magic for me.