#daarka gekkers

[daarka]

Actually fucking nuts. Capitalism ruins everything.

Push back against this. Be loud. Use #OpenDnD liberally.

Staying in 5e and ignoring 6e/"OneDnD" is not an option. I'll try to summarize below the cut, but I'm not an expert, so please seek out resources that aren't me for full info. This link is a good start. This is the full deep-dive I read up on a few days ago. Listening to the community is also worthwhile to understand from the voices of those affected most. To be more involved in the discussion yourself, a lawyer has set up a Discord server for the community to gather and converse in regarding this issue.

Again, for full context and information from more knowledgeable sources than me (including actual professionals), please go to the links I included above. If you don't have the time/patience/spoons to read those articles, scroll a twitter feed, or poke around a Discord server though, here are the things that made the most potent impression on me and why you should care about this issue.

As mentioned, staying in 5e and ignoring 6e/"OneDnD" is not an option. While OGL1.1 was made for 6e, the extensive parts of the document that have been leaked make it clear that with OGL1.1 going into effect, OGL1.0a (which has been the OGL for the past decade) will no longer be functional. 3rd party creators must choose to either sign the OGL1.1 and comply with it's insanely restrictive and predatory terms, or face legal repercussions for publishing the content they have made their livelihoods off of the past decade.

Per the leaked document, all 3rd party creators must register themselves and their creations with WotC. - 3rd party creators making over $50,000 USD per year must also report their earnings to WotC. - 3rd party creators making over $750,000 USD gross per year must also pay WotC a 25% royalty. This means it is not 750k in profits, it is 750k before any expenses that they are taking the royalties from. Anyone whose profit margin was 25% or less would be financially invalidated by this royalty, and can even end up losing money. Furthermore, the nature of Kickstarters for example is that there is no upper ceiling on earnings, so a KS for a 3rd party sourcebook will suddenly be facing a massive expense they may not have planned for if their campaign exceeds the 750k mark, potentially destroying their ability to deliver on the rewards when they otherwise could have. While currently only a small number of creators are known to make over 750k/year (gross, not net), that does not mean this will not affect you. It creates a very dire argument for why 3rd party creators should not even make the effort in the first place, especially with crowdfunding where too much success can suddenly ruin them.

Remember how those who make over 50k have to report their earnings? Well, the 750k threshold is one WotC says they have the right to change at any time in OGL1.1. This means they can see what people are making when creators are forced to report their earnings over 50k, and use that data to lower the threshold of income for their royalty fee, and they can do this at any time, however much they want. Per OGL1.1, they are telling you that they can decide on a whim that actually, anyone making over $5,000 USD gross a year has to pay the 25% royalty.

D&DBeyond / OneDnD are working towards creating a VTT to host OneDnD/6e. While Roll20 is licensed by WotC if I'm not mistaken, virtually no other VTT is. Platforms like Foundry VTT (my personal favorite and most beloved VTT) will not be able to host the D&D system on them under OGL1.1. What does that mean? Hard to say. But it will objectively become much harder to play D&D outside of WotC-approved spaces in the near future, and that is by design. They want to monopolize how this game is played, and that means making it difficult, inconvenient, or even illegal to play the game outside of their personal playground.

Under OGL1.1, WotC claims full and complete ownership over any and all 3rd party content created for D&D, and the rights to use it however, whenever, and wherever they want without paying you royalties. You made this? Hasbro made this.

I've only ever played 5e. But this link I put up above was very informative about prior editions and the drama surrounding them. 3e had an OGL, and the community began to flourish with 3rd party content. WotC didn't like that people who weren't them were making money off a passion for D&D, and they regretted the OGL--but that OGL was irrevocable, and could not be cancelled, removed, or in any way undone. So they put together 3.5e. They promised 3.5e would be backwards compatible, and all your resources for 3e would still work for it. So people jumped to 3.5e, only to find all their 3e content was now worthless, because that hadn't been true. And 3.5e, of course, did away with that open and welcoming OGL from 3e. Sound familiar? "OneDnD" is touted to be backwards compatible. And yet also comes with crushing restrictions in their OGL1.1 that make it impossible for the D&D community to exist as it has been. It is transparently clear that for WotC/Hasbro, an ideal world would be one where all the money people have spent on flourishing this community over the last decade would have gone exclusively into their pockets. D&D makes hundreds of millions every year, but it's "under monetized" according to their new CEO. It doesn't matter if "Honor Among Thieves" flops at the box office, WotC has already green-lit the production of multiple D&D movies. It's not about fanservice, it's about fan exploitation. Because they can't fucking stand that the game they made can be played obsessively and passionately for decades with only the one-time purchases of the DMG and PHB. And instead of fixing the apparent "under-monetization" problem by publishing more official content, they choose to poach 3rd party creators. The very lifeblood that has caused D&D's success. Because capitalist greed is a soulless poison to whatever it fixes its attention on.

The only way the community has any shot in hell to fight this is if the pushback is intense and loud. WotC has released statements mentioning an openness to listening to the community and revising their choices based on feedback; whether that proves to be lip service or not remains to be seen, but either way: the only thing they seem to care about is money. Fine, let your money do the talking, then. Wholeheartedly support the boycott. Proclaim your support of it loudly. Let Hasbro know that their attempts to milk more profits out of this franchise will be the very thing that kills it if they don't ease the fuck back and allow OGL1.0a to persist. They apparently didn't learn shit when this happened in 3e/3.5e. They can either wise up now before they fuck up beyond repair, or they can be fully destroyed by their own greed. Time will tell.

Edit:

Good catch, thanks! You're right, I must have had some wires crossed when writing that bit. They couldn't revoke it, but they did publish new content for 3.5e that made 3.0e content feel worthless; this is not something I personally lived through, but is based on the reporting from this second article I linked. Likewise, that article explains how 4e did not have an OGL and was consequentially a bit of a wasteland, presumably prompting WotC to bring the OGL back for 5e. Which flourished. And now we're here.

Edit II:

I'm Super not the best source of information for this because I'm absolutely all over the place, but 2 things.

Please check out OpenDnD.games for full, proper info and a place to give your signature in support of the community's pushback.

Something else I failed to mention above: OGL1.1 has a "poison pill" clause. Anyone who signs it permanently forfeits their right to publish under prior versions of the OGL, even if they are unable to take down those prior versions. DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING FOR OGL1.1. Even if the community pushback yields results, you may have trapped yourself. "Predatory" does not even begin to cover it.

[daarka]

I'm seeing this response a lot. I want to quickly throw this out there: this is also not an option.

Several other games, such as Pathfinder 1E, Pathfinder 2E, 13th Age, Fudge, and Traveller all use the OGL1.0 as the backbone of their existence.

They, too, will be forced to choose to either cease all production and sales of their products, or sign on to OGL1.1 and give WotC a 25% (gross, not net) royalty to stay in compliance with the new license.

I cannot overstate this enough:

THIS WILL AFFECT YOU.

Again, please go here for all information, and sign the letter in support.

Also thank you to this person, you gave me a snicker.

[daarka]

Fair enough!

Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast. Wizards of the Coast owns Dungeons & Dragons.

If you play Dungeons and Dragons (or really, have any exposure to it at all), chances are, you either use or are in some way influenced by D&D content created (and probably published) by someone who is not WotC. If you use hand-drawn battle maps made by artists like Czepeku, or VTT tokens drawn by ForgottenAdventures, or perhaps you use a spell or subclass created by KibblesTasty, or an enchanted item created and illustrated by The Griffon's Saddlebag. Or maybe you just use roll tables, adventure modules, virtual tabletops like Foundry VTT, or prewritten settings made by people who are not WotC. This includes the big names, like Tal'Dorei: Campaign Setting Reborn from Critical Role. On that note: Critical Role. Maybe you've heard of it. Dimension20, The Adventure Zone. The list goes on.

All of these things are known as 3rd-party creators. That means these people just happened to like the D&D franchise, and made content for or about D&D which they profit from. But they do not work for Wizards of the Coast and have absolutely zero ties to the official company.

This is possible through something called an OGL, or Open Game License, in combination with an SRD, or System Reference Document. In short: WotC wanted (initially) to allow their players to grow the community by making their own 3rd party content. To encourage this, they went through the core rules of D&D5e and selected bits of it to put in a System Reference Document. Then they created the Open Game License, which is a legal document that explains how anything within the SRD can be more or less referenced and used for anyone to profit off of (whereas things they built into D&D but did not put in the SRD were still off-limits to protect their intellectual property from being completely public domain).

The OGL1.0 had one small revision shortly after launching, which is known as OGL1.0a. OGL1.0a has been the active license for about the past decade, untouched beyond that initial small revision. This OGL allows all the aforementioned creators to do what they do freely and passionately without having to worry about things like lawsuits for using the D&D intellectual property.

Based on recent interviews, actions and choices made by WotC/Hasbro, I feel it's safe to presume that what has happened is that WotC/Hasbro have loved seeing the boom in popularity for D&D over recent years, but have found themselves restless about how so much of that success went into the pockets of 3rd party creators. They acquired a new CEO, who in an interview, declared D&D to be "under-monetized". Instead of seeking to rectify this by listening to the community and producing more content they wanted, their solution to this apparent ""problem"" (D&D as a franchise makes hundreds of millions of dollars per year, btw) was to move towards a new edition of D&D, and with it, establish a new OGL.

The new edition is, basically, D&D6e, but is being referred to as "OneDnD" during these early developmental periods. With the development of OneDnD/6e, a new OGL was drafted, because evidently, they very much regretted the OGL put in place for 5e, because it gave them no way of taking a slice of the pie that 3rd party creators had made into the gourmet dessert it has been. The new OGL they drafted is referred to as OGL1.1. However, despite the label as an OGL, it is not an Open Game License. It is anything but open. It creates not only harsh and predatory restrictions for all 3rd party creators, but with its release, it also renders the old OGL null and void.

In short, every single 3rd party creator has a choice right now that they are being forced to make on an extremely small time crunch: either sign on to OGL1.1, and in doing so, forfeit all rights you had under OGL1.0a that you based your entire business upon, giving WotC your soul and full ownership over all your creations, with freedom to use them however, whenever, and wherever Hasbro chooses without owing you any compensation at all, or cease publishing 3rd party content for profit. Or continue to do so and face a lawsuit.

To reiterate/sum up:

Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast is trying to develop the next edition of Dungeons & Dragons, and with it, they are TORCHING the old licensing system that has allowed 3rd-party creators to make their livelihoods around the D&D fandom. They are instead rewriting this license to force said creators to either sign on and comply, thus granting Hasbro total and compensation-free use of anything and everything the 3rd-party creator publishes amongst other predatory clauses--or else legally barring 3rd party creators from otherwise continuing to publish their work as they have been.

If you're wondering about the big names like Critical Role, they are no doubt under an NDA right now, as I'm positive WotC reached out to them well in advance to lock them into said NDA and OGL1.1 contracts as soon as possible. Due to their high earnings, WotC is now being payed 25% of their GROSS income as a royalty fee. Gross=Before expenses. So this is not 25% of Critical Role's profits, this is 25% of everything they make, before they spend any of that money on expenses--which undoubtedly cuts majorly into their profits, and consequentially, the new ventures they are able to pursue. If you don't care about CR, replace them with any similarly big-name D&D based company, like Dimension20, TAZ, Kobold Press, etc. Edit: Please refer to my original post for full details! To be clear, this 25% royalty applies only to creators making over $750k gross /year--but under OGL1.1, WotC can change (including lowering) that threshold to whatever number they want.

Hopefully that helps clarify some things! Full details of all the red flags I'm screaming about are in my other prior post. This is, unfortunately, not fearmongering, either. This is the cold and bitter factual reality of the matter. It really is this nasty.

[daarka]

Actually wild (and tragic) to watch unfold.

I don't want anything to do with the next edition, it's just a blatant, soulless money grab tied up in a bow of some QoL mechanics updates that you can just homebrew into your 5e instead (and probably already do).

Heart absolutely breaks for all the full-time creators whose livelihood is tied to the 5e OGL/SRD, so many of whom I give money to on Patreon and Kickstarter, who are now anxious and uncertain of what is to come. I hope they can keep enjoying their dream jobs, and OneDnD flops.

If we're lucky, the 5e OGL cannot be revoked, and 3rd party content creators who make maps, tokens, supplements, homebrew, adventures, and even VTTs and physical merchandise, can all continue on as they have been, just... wholly ignoring OneDnD/6e and OGL1.1. What a fucking joke.

D&D is under-monetized. For some people, no amount of money in the world is enough. Catch me pirating Honor Among Thieves lmfao

Just upset that DnDBeyond got gobbled up by WotC already. While it ensures they can't be thanos-snapped by the giant greedy wizard in the sky, it makes me uncertain what's to come with that platform. Like yeah, I DM games from there, I rely on that service and so I pay for it. I buy books from it. I'm wary of what might change in an effort to bleed me dry somehow, just because they can. That's clearly the MO.

aight im done, im just salty. I spend a LOT of money giving myself serotonin by collecting 3rd party dnd content. I'm pledged to a ton of patreons, I've backed a ton of kickstarters, all of which seem to have their creators posting news updates in the last few days expressing anxiety and uncertainty for what will unfold throughout the rest of this month. It absolutely breaks my heart and I hope they're all somehow able to forge a path forward that is not to their detriment. D&D is only as good as its community, and WotC is really doing everything in their power to dissuade that community from leaving 5e.

Just download the unearthed arcana for OneDnD and homebrew any changes you like into your 5e games. The links are public. The rest can rot. Thots & Prayers going out to Hasbro for the disappointment coming their way.

[daarka]

#OpenDnD

Hey look! It's an entire website for an open letter to D&D that you can sign, including a ton of informative resources, all in the same vein as the things I have been posting! :) I wish I was just misinformed and blowing things out of proportion and completely wrong in my statements. I have yet to see proof that I am.

If you care (and if you play D&D5e, you absolutely should), please click here to sign this letter to WotC! This site also has ample links for anything you might want to better understand.

OpenDnD.Games

Get loud. Get upset. Show them what under-monetized actually looks like. I truly believe we can make a difference.

[daarka]

A phenomenal breakdown addressing some of the questions I've seen going around that are more niche--questions about "can't you just do X?" "What about people who are doing Y?" "What about prior editions?" and whatever else. Highly recommend this video by Legal Eagle.

I have a full cliffnotes on the whole situation for people who have no idea what's going on here, by the way.

[daarka]

Obligatory: The situation, if you're not up to speed. Courtesy of CritCrab. Shout out to the anon who said I was spreading misinformation lmfao; the OGL1.1 leak has been validated by one of the higher-ups at Kickstarter, who confirmed WotC reached out to them to discuss their upcoming royalty fee. o/

The Twitter post was not the reassurance they thought it'd be. Also cool of them to have the @.DnDBeyond account post it instead of @.Wizards_DnD -- make DDB take the heat like a meat shield. That was intentional.

It was also intentional to word it the way they did.

"We know you have questions about the OGL and we will be sharing more soon. Thank you for your patience."

This is the statement you make when you are going to plow forward with your plans, but can at least commit to explaining those insidious plans soon (once your lawyers and PR team get done finding ways to rephrase things so it's the least overtly shitty it can possibly be).

This is not what you would say if you are making overhaul changes to the license you had written based on community feedback. Maybe it's just me, maybe it's things I've heard from my own very reputable sources, but I'm sorry man--if I was WotC rn, and I was intending to heed the community backlash, my statement would look more like "We know you have concerns about the OGL. We are listening and making sure your voices are heard, and we will have a formal statement in full for you soon. Thank you for all you've contributed."

Hear the difference?

Whatever. My optimism has dimmed significantly in light of various things. Hasbro's stock was down 40% in 2022, and D&D is by far their largest-earning franchise. But despite it making over $1 billion, Hasbro only saw a little over $100 million in profits. Hasbro is feral.

WotC/DnDBeyond doesn't have a choice. Trust me when I say that the people working at WotC/DDB want to deliver a game they're passionate about--but it's not up to them anymore. Hasbro is the new ownership, and Hasbro is sinking financially. These OGL changes are Hasbro clawing at the person holding them afloat, and drowning them in the process.

There might be a way forward for 3rd party creators in spite of OGL1.1. If so, I'm not smart enough or knowledgeable enough to know what it is. But the more I hear, the more rare insights I'm granted, the less optimistic I am that any amount of community outrage will matter. And holy fuck is that depressing lmfao

We'll just see, I guess. I'm very tired :)

[daarka]

My post covering this stuff is here. If you prefer to listen instead of read, CritCrab's videos cover just about everything up to the time of me writing this. Only thing he hasn't mentioned in a video

Paizo (creators of Pathfinder), Kobold Press, and a sizeable collection of other large name creators have joined together to make the Open RPG Creative License (or ORC License). It will be a system-agnostic license that is irrevocable, and will never be owned by a company that makes money off of publishing RPGs to ensure it can never be jeopardized. Their full statement is on their website, the link for that is here.

My sincere hope is that this will allow creators who love 5e and don't want to leave that system if they can help it to continue publishing 5e-compatible content that they're passionate about, under ORC instead of any bullshit OGL at Hasbro's control. The path forward will require time and effort and, more than likely, some manner of adjustments... but as someone who absolutely Does Not Want to leave 5e despite being thoroughly repulsed by WotC's behavior, I actually have a shred of hope again. I am deeply, deeply appreciative of Paizo today.

[daarka]

What's it like being a dumbass motherfucker who's spreading misinformation online

Oh wow!! My first anonymous hate mail! This is super exciting--okay so

I'm not fluent in CounterProductiveGamerRage, but I think what you meant to say is "Hey! I noticed an inaccuracy in something you posted, thought I'd let you know so you could revise it if you so chose." Followed by what, specifically, the inaccurate information was, and your sources for information to the contrary.

As mentioned multiple times in my prior posts, I'm certainly not an expert, I'm just a little dumbass motherfucker (you have a keen eye!) who did a lot of research to the point where I felt confident posting anything at all. But due to my innate nature as a dumbass motherfucker, it's certainly possible I got some things wrong! And I'm happy to amend my prior posts and reblog them with a disclaimer about what was changed if I'm shown valid proof to the contrary of anything I said.

However, in the absence of that, I can only assume your qualm is with me saying WotC is doing all this in general, in which case--I'm really sorry to be the one to have to tell you this, but WotC isn't gonna sleep with you for your valiant work defending her honor in an anonymous ask.

Still--again!--I'm happy to be proven wrong and will amend any prior posts where appropriate in a timely manner if you would like to contribute something of substance.

Anyways, thanks so much for the ask! It absolutely made my day. Have a good one ♡

[daarka]

Charlie actually covered this lmfao

That's how you know WotC fucked up.

[daarka]

I wanted to make a proper post about this to share--because I'm real proud of what @krakendraken and I came up with, simple though it may be! So enjoy a bit of a lore dump

(very brief/undetailed mentions of prejudice and self harm below, the latter without going into any details at all)

Nils and Eidunn (now Cassiana, but Eidunn originally) got these tattoos for each other as wedding gifts. They tell the story of their life together, and new runes appear when they begin a new chapter of their journey with one another.

The first rune is representative of their starting points: who they are as people.

For Nils, he is represented by algiz ᛉ, the elk. It speaks of his strong intuition and protective, guardian-like nature, with the power to manifest his dreams.

For Eidunn, she is represented by kenaz ᚲ, the torch. Eidunn was born into a nomadic tribe of raiders, all shadar-kai. She was content living amongst them until she began to notice how colorful the world was beyond her culture. Kenaz speaks of following your own truth, seeking creativity and inspiration, which she did as she left her people and began a new path in life that was more than what had been prescribed for her.

The second rune is one they share, representative of their marriage. It is dagaz ᛞ, the dawn. It speaks of new beginnings, of new things becoming possible, of hope and security. It is also symbolic, as the rune of the dawn, as the time when night and day meet, when the sun and the moon cross paths. This added a touch of sentimentality to the rune for these two, as they had likened themselves to the sun (Nils) and the moon (Eidunn) in their partnership.

The third rune represented the path they chose to forge together: working and fighting within a resistance. They loved their homeland, but the people who populated it were outright hateful of the less human races. Tieflings often encountered the worst treatment, even being killed on sight due to the stereotypical assumption that they brought Hell's influence with them. Eidunn, being an elf, was inoffensive, but she found it odd to think that being unaffected by the rampant prejudice was a reason to not want to fight for change.

For Nils, this rune is othala ᛟ, the rune of heritage--but inverted. Inverted, it represents an inheritance of an unwanted nature, such as the prejudice he faces due to simply being born with horns. His involvement in the resistance comes from a place of being personally affected by it, and wanting better for his homeland.

For Eidunn, this rune is thurisaz ᚦ, the hammer. This speaks of powerful direction of energy and force, either of destruction or defense. Conflict that may be cathartic, may be cleansing, or may be purgative. Her involvement in the resistance came from a place of seeking to lend her power to protect and defend those who faced injustice, even though she herself was not a victim of such treatment.

The fourth rune is what derailed their involvement in the resistance: their deaths.

For Nils, this is hagalaz ᚺ, the rune of hail. It represents cataclysmic disaster striking out of the blue, destroying things of deep importance. It is unavoidable change that shakes one to their foundation. This was the case for Nils when Eidunn was ripped apart in front of him, the destruction running so deep that he couldn't find it within himself to go on living without her.

For Eidunn, this rune is eihwaz ᛇ, the ash tree. The focus of Eidunn's death (for her) was not the violence with which her life ended, but the transformation it created. As her soul was ripped from its corporeal vessel, it was taken into the care of Kalma, a deity of graves and decay. The henge Nils built for her as her final resting place elicited the approval of this goddess, a shrine to Her domain that saw fit to make those who rested there Her champions.

After thirty years of lying at this gravesite, their bodies had not decayed, preserved by the grace of some otherworldly force. And one by one, the two corpses were granted a new existence adjacent to life.

It was four more years before they reunited again, their reawakening having been staggered so that they did not begin their second life together, nor realize such was even an option. In no small part, because Eidunn did not awaken with any memory of who she was, or the life she had once lived. She did not even recognize the corpse that lay beside her.

When Nils finally found her again, understanding she did not remember him was a hard pill to swallow. But he felt indescribably familiar to her, and so she found herself wanting to remember. Willing to try. The two of them even willing to start over, as long as they could be together again.

Their fifth rune is another they share: ehwaz ᛖ, the horse. It is gradual but steady progress made through teamwork, trust, and loyalty. Moving forward through cooperation and allegiance. It is their rune of beginning again, and rebuilding a trust that, even through death and the loss of Eidunn's memories, managed to not be entirely lost.

[daarka]

Just saw you love getting asks on your post about your girl Valentine so here I am!

Question 1: Who’s your favorite dnd OC you’ve played?

Question 2: Your dice are beautiful—have you ever made a set inspired by your own OC?

goshhhh youre so sweet

Answer 1: THATS A HARD QUESTION I think the answer changes fluidly over time, but at the moment, I adore Skena and Cassiana. I'm just... I'm a cleric main, I won't apologize for having two clerics.

Skena is a death cleric, daughter of Anubis, 4'6" and full of anxiety. and bees.

Cassiana (Cass) is a grave cleric, a one-eyed double amputee (left leg and left arm; she has a glass eye prosthetic, but I promise one eye is missing) who used to be a shield maiden barbarian. It's complicated, but I adore her.

She's also, despite being objectively the Most handicapped, the party's tank.

can't dodge for shit, but she can hella take a hit, despite looking like she's going to fall apart at the seams from a stiff breeze. I'm obsessed with paradoxes in characters so this delights me.

Answer 2: THANK YOU! And I have! I'm working towards having dice for all my characters.

From years ago, closer to when I first started making dice, I made some for Skena;

And then later, revisiting the design with updated molds;

But I have to say, my favorite Skena dice I own--frankly, potentially my favorite dice I own period (and I have A Lot)--is this set I was gifted from @decusdice a couple years back:

There's a whole ass Anubis in the D20, and the D10s have a heart and a featherrrrrrr I cried

I also have these I made based off my character, Daarka

I also have dice I've made for Cass but I caNT FIND THE PHOTO OF THEM

And don't get me started on dice I've made for my bestie's characters... I basically got it in my head when I started making dice that I would make him dice for all his characters. He only has about a dozen, maybe a little less than that, but it's been like three years and BOY I am making slow progress. I guess let me know if you want to see a dump full of those dice/side by sides with the characters they're for? I can upload that separately, I think I'm cutting it close on the 10 image limit for this post lmao

[daarka]

I now own 5 blue death feigning beetles and I love them very much

1 of them will be named by a collective vote from all friends everywhere. Do you want to submit a name you think I should assign to this child?? Send it my way here: https://forms.gle/cfPCwLmG5hf1PA8NA

i have had these children less than a day and i adore them endlessly thank you for your time

[daarka]

do you like beans?

My lizard's name is Beans.

i have no idea if that answers your question.

[daarka]

Source: "Defend the OGL" Discord Server

You can join the server yourself here. Transcription of this screenshot is below the cut.

TLDR: Person who led the original drafting of the original OGL1.0 speaks on their support of #OpenDnD and a desire to establish an Open RPG License that is system/publisher independent. He is also extending an invitation for any publishers/designers to join in these efforts.

Transcription:

(A Discord message posted by user TAT, who created and loosely runs the "Defend the OGL" Discord server)

Folks, Last night I spoke to Brian Lewis, the attorney that originally led the drafting of the OGL 1.0 as an employee of Wizards of the Coast, who was very supportive of the opposition to the changes. Today, I received the following email from him, directed to me and numerous other studios and interested parties. He asked me to share - I have edited only to include hyperlinks that do not survive copy-pasting. I am not sure what to make of the URL of the second one.

(The following is Brian Lewis' letter.)

"I could use your help. Our firm believes that it is crucial to our industry that it have an agnostic open source style license that provides designers and publishers clarity on what they can readily use from a publisher’s game without having to pay lawyers to research or defend that use. The mere threat that the OGL, a tool that has widely been perceived as working toward that goal, could be unilaterally be modified or withdrawn casts a chilling specter of doubt and uncertainty on the gaming industry.

As the person that came up with the legal framework behind the OGL, and as an invested custodian of our industry, I feel a powerful desire to drive a project to create the OpenRPG License which is envisioned as a truly independent open source license (of the kind that did not exist in 1996 when I started conceiving of this). Ultimately, this needs to be in the hands of a recognized and respected independent open source community hub that functions like Linux.

Today we would like to announce this effort and create a hub for socializing and refining the OpenRPG License. I am hoping that you can help by letting me know if you support this, and if so, if you would be willing to share a message on your social media platform(s) roughly along the following lines:

I believe our industry needs a new Open RPG License that will be system and publisher independent. My friends at Azora Law (OpenRPG@azoralaw.com), an intellectual property law firm that represents several game publishers, came up with the legal framework for the original OGL over 20 years ago. I trust and support them in shepherding a broad effort to create an agnostic open source style license that provides designers and publishers clarity on what they can use from a participating publisher’s game without having to pay lawyers to research or defend it. They will also find an appropriate independent, non-profit home for the new Open RPG License.

If you are an interested publisher or designer, I encourage you to join the effort and provide input and feedback on drafts of this license."

(This concludes both Brian Lewis' letter, as well as user TAT's Discord message.)

[daarka]

this is the funniest $8 i've spent in ages