WotC/"New OGL"

[Grimace]

Some of you may have heard the massive teeth-gnashing at the change of the OGL for D&D, and how it unauthorizes 1.0a and turns it into a money grab with version 1.1

Well, it turns out, the D6 OGL uses the 1.0a OGL, it even includes the Wizards of the Coast information. So it, too, would become invalid.

Thus, by default, from a legal standpoint, the OpenD6 OGL will be no longer valid the moment WOTC releases OGL version 1.1

I know there's not a whole ton of material that came out under of OpenD6 OGL, but there are a few out there, including Septimus, the D6System book as well as all of the Eric Gibson WEG material, and Westward & Azamar from Wicked North Games , plus some smaller supplemental products like In Flames, Destiny6 and many others.

Now that obviously won't stop any fan-released stuff for Star Wars, but it has the potential to significantly affect the future development of OpenD6.

Thoughts?



ADMIN EDIT: This post contains misinformation.

[Whill]

The future development of OpenD6? Is OpenD6 developing? My impression was that it was already dead, or at best on life support. But maybe you know more than me. What is currently happening in OpenD6? What upcoming projects are threatened?
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[Grimace]

I don't know if there was anything for certain, but I had heard of some projects in mind with people from a few years back (right before Covid hit).

But the thing is, it also invalidates anything previously put out under the OGL.

[Whill]

EDIT: This is a joke.
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[ThrorII]

I personally don't think WotC cares one whit about the OSR, or retro clones of OD&D, B/X, BECMI, AD&D, 3.5 or 5e.

I truly believe the 1.1 OGL license is geared towards those companies that would make virtual products compatable for virtual 1D&D.

It seems that WotC is gearing all their actions into the virtual world and micro transactions for 1D&D. If so, they would want to control who can add to the virtual marketplace, and who can run the virtual marketplace.

I also feel that the language of the OGL, and the FAQ from WotC themselves, shows that the OGL is non-reversable.
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[KageRyu]

From a purely legal standpoint, WoTC updating the gaming license can only invalidate the previous license in regards to products WoTC has authority over. Products made by other companies referencing the previous license that are not beholden to WoTC and not for properties controlled by WoTC will not be affected unless the other parties who also used the context of the OGL also state acceptance of the new OGL. As WoTC never owned or had any authority over D6, nor is D6 in any way a supporting product for a WoTC owned property, they can not invalidate the 1.0a license as it pertains to D6.
While they could try to argue the old license is no longer authorized to be used with creating new material, existing products may still be published, sold, or distributed.
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[Whill]

I haven't researched it in depth but so far that has my findings as well. The change seems to be focused on those making money off of D&D-compatible games, which would have zero bearing on OpenD6. Also, it is my understanding that they withdrew the license for 4e, only to come out back out with it for 5e and now this altered version. If the 4e removal didn't affect OpenD6 products using the original OGL, then I don't see how this does either.

So unless anyone has a reputable source to share, let's steer away from unfounded conclusions and speculation along the lines of 'This undoes OpenD6.'

And even if this did undo OpenD6, it still has little impact on the movement because OpenD6 is already almost nil as it is. If anything, plans before the pandemic should have been accelerated by the pandemic, as many people found themselves with a lot more time to engage in creative pursuits. March of 2020 is still the all time biggest traffic this site has ever seen.

And even if this did undo OpenD6, it still has very little impact on the primary purpose we are here. Star Wars D6 has been a dead game since 1998, yet we persist. This site has survived the end of the official WEG forums, and its successor. We've survived the demise of the WEG as an active brand. We've survived the OpenD6 movement. We've survived two other official Star Wars RPGs (and the third one is just now started coming out with reprints). Star Wars D6 will be around as long as we are.
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[Jerrod Owex]

TL;DR - This OGL is a threat to ALL TTRPGs!(potentially and allegedly, since it's all still speculation)

Without going into a lot of fear stuff this OGL 1.1 IS something that we NEED to be worried about! As you said Whill "Star Wars D6 will be AS LONG AS WE ARE"! If WotC/Hasbro wants, they can through C&Ds at the site hosting company, scare them with a lawsuit and if they DO actually fight it they might go into bankruptcy and then we lose this site! Move to a different you say?! Wash, rinse, repeat! Hasbro is TOO BIG for most people to compete with in what I have seen referred to as "lawfare" a few times!

[Whill]

[KageRyu]

[Whill]

Since it reared its ugly head here, of all corners of the gaming universe, I begrudgingly took some time to read about this new OGL hubbub...

I had already known about Paizo's Pathfinder, the #2 top selling RPG in the world, but I do not own it. I do own some of the Starfinder game (core). Starfinder is of course a space fantasy game set in the future of the Pathfinder setting. The core book has a lot of nice art and some interesting fluff. I own the entire game line of Dragonstar, an earlier a space fantasy game (FFG/Mystic Eye). Some good art and ideas. And I own DC Adventures, the DC-flavored core book of the Mutants & Mastermind 3e superhero game, and Golden Age, an 2e M&M supplement (Green Ronin). I'm a DC Comics fans. But I've never played any of these games and I never will, outside of maybe a one-shot.

All these are OGL books, and the game mechanics are based on d20, some more modified than others. What I hadn't fully realized until this week is that there are a lot more OGL d20-based games out there by a lot of different publishers. But I'll come back to that...

[Whill]

Paizo announces system-neutral Open RPG Creative license (ORC)

There are books already at the printers, and kickstarters in the works that will still be OGL, but many companies have announced that regardless of what WotC does, they are done with OGL as soon as possible. Fans are unsubscribing from WotC services in droves. Social media is flooded with anti-WotC sentiment. Of course, they aren't going out of business and they will still have a solid core of diehards who aren't interested in anything but D&D and maybe other WotC games. But WotC hurt themselves and things will never be the same.

Paizo says that with Pathfinder 2e they relied less on OGL d20 game mechanics text and the OGL was mainly so their works would still be open for others to build off of, the same purpose that OpenD6 used the OGL. Paizo is partnering with Kobold Press, Chaosium, Green Ronin, Legendary Games, Rogue Genius Games, and a growing list of publishers to create and support new Open RPG Creative License, an alternate system-agnostic open game license that will not be owned by any of the companies. It will instead be managed by a non-profit organization. Paizo's law firm will help establish this for the industry at Paizo's expense. A lawyer at Paizo's law firm used to work for WotC and helped create the original OGL. The end result will be that the industry still has an open game license option without any connection to WotC.

And even though WotC seemed to backdown from worst aspects of the leaked draft of the new OGL, Paizo said they firmly believe that the original OGL is irrevocable and they are prepared to do a legal battle over it if need be. But WotC is bleeding loyal customers right now so they would absolutely idiotic to pursue royalties any further.

The sad news is, d20 is deeply intrenched in the game world to a larger degree than I had even realized before this week. Since under copyright law you can only copyright text describing game rules and not game systems themselves, quasi-d20 rules are probably still going to be the norm in the industry. Oh well. At least we still have Star Wars D6.
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[KageRyu]

[TauntaunScout]

I know most people will want to stick with something more glitzy like Pathfinder, but The DCC RPG by Goodman Games is really all the D&D I'll ever need again. There's just so much to recommend it over other fantasy roleplaying games. It's an old open-source D20 engine thing, but it's departed enough from that, I can't imagine it being in any way affected by this change. Hasbro gets enough of my money through reissuing Kenner figs, they won't be getting any of my gaming money.

[Whill]

WotC is Thanos...



And virtually all OGL licensees will move away from any OGL by WotC.