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theabstruseone · 2 years

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Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, and the Open Gaming License (OGL)

So this story has broken out of the tabletop roleplaying community and gotten into the mainstream and, due to outlets covering the story who aren't well-versed in the RPG industry, there's a LOT of misinformation going around. So I'm going to try to clear up what's going on. Short version: The new OGL is a shitshow, but people are treating speculation and rumor as fact and a lot of people are focusing on the wrong problems.

Oh, and if anyone wants to know why they should listen to me about this: I've been covering the tabletop roleplaying game industry for almost a decade and it's been my primary job for over six years. I've also done extensive research on the history of tabletop roleplaying and made several videos about small aspects of it.

First a bit of history.

Side note: Pretty much every sentence in this part is an entire whole-ass Story on its own, so I'm glossing over a lot of stuff to stay focused on the Open Gaming License.

In 1974, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson wrote a new game based on the Chainmail miniature wargame called Dungeons & Dragons. This is widely considered the start of the tabletop roleplaying game genre. The game was published by a company called TSR Inc., which was taken over by the heir to the Buck Rogers publishing fortune, Lorraine Williams. By the 1990s, TSR dug itself into a deep financial hole. It was on the verge of bankruptcy before being purchased by Wizards of the Coast, the makers of Magic: The Gathering.

Wizards of the Coast launched a new Third Edition of Dungeons & Dragons in 2000 and, as part of the launch, released the Open Gaming License (OGL). This license allowed third-party publishers to create their own products based off of D&D 3rd Edition with some restrictions (they couldn't use specific intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast like the Forgotten Realms setting or some monsters created specifically for Dungeons & Dragons rather than based on myth or folklore). This launched a boom of third-party publishers creating their own products under the "D20 System" label.

The primary reason for creating the Open Gaming License was that we almost lost Dungeons & Dragons altogether. If TSR had fallen into bankruptcy, the assets of the company would be divvied up by creditors and likely auctioned off. Meaning the rights could be scattered to the wind or picked up by a company with no intention of developing a new game or keeping old material in print. Or worse, the rights could have been chopped up so that it became a confusing quagmire to figure out who owns what precisely. This actually has happened in many cases in tabletop roleplaying over the decades with several games currently (and likely permanently) out of print because nobody knows who owns the rights to them.

With the OGL, it was ensured that, at least in some capacity, Dungeons & Dragons would survive.

When Wizards of the Coast decided to update the game to the 4th Edition, they decided not to release 4th Edition rules under the OGL, but offered publishers an alternate but more restrictive license called the Game System License (GSL). This license was so unpopular it's difficult to even find a copy of the license online anymore.

As part of this move to 4th Edition, Wizards of the Coast canceled their contract with a company called Paizo to create the official D&D magazines Dragon and Dungeon. Paizo, who were also publishing campaign collections called Adventure Paths under the OGL, decided they wanted to keep making material for D&D 3rd Edition. So they created their own version of D&D called Pathfinder. Pathfinder became very popular in the gaming community as an alternative to D&D 4e. For modern fans, the home campaign that eventually became Critical Role started out as a Pathfinder campaign.

Due to a combination of factors, Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition was not as successful as Wizards of the Coast's new owner, Hasbro, hoped it would be. It was not a "failure" in terms of a tabletop roleplaying game as it sold very well for a TTRPG and maintained its spot as the highest-selling RPG in the industry through mass-market channels throughout its lifetime (even if Pathfinder did spend a year out-selling it in hobby channels like comic book and game stores). But Hasbro is a multibillion-dollar corporation and they expected D&D to perform as well as their other large brands and it underperformed to that expectation.

So when Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition was in development in 2014 under the name "D&D Next", expectations from Hasbro were lowered and far more realistic. They were more hands-off and less focused on aggressive monetization of the brand. This meant that D&D 5e was released under the OGL. A new boom of third-party content resulted. Several companies ran Kickstarter campaigns for D&D 5e-compatible material, some raising hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars.

Then, thanks to huge gains in the audience from live streaming, YouTube, and podcasting, Dungeons & Dragons became a major hit again under 5e. The game experienced a revitalization and managed to meet the high expectations that Hasbro had for 4e.

The New Open Gaming License

In 2022, Wizards of the Coast announced they were "refreshing" D&D 5e with a new product codenamed "OneD&D". This would not be a new edition, just an update to the previous edition. All 5e material would still be compatible with the new "OneD&D".

In December of 2022, rumors started floating around that Wizards of the Coast was going to "abolish" the Open Gaming License. These rumors were based on pure speculation and "insider information" which turned out to be only partially accurate. Just before Christmas, Wizards of the Coast made a blog post on D&D Beyond (their online portal for D&D) explaining that OneD&D would still use the Open Gaming License, but an updated version of the license.

This new version of the license would function less like the GNU Public License for open-source software on which the OGL was based on, but more like the license that Epic uses for its Unreal Engine for video games. Companies could still use the OGL, but would have to register their sales if they make more than $50,000. If a company makes more than $750,000 a year in gross sales, it will have to pay a royalty to Wizards of the Coast.

In January, "leaks" of this new OGL appeared online via YouTube channels reading select pieces of it. Speculation and rumors ran rampant once again that Wizards of the Coast is "revoking" the OGL.

After almost a week of this, the actual Open Gaming License v1.1 document was also leaked. This was sent to some third-party publishers to get feedback and make them aware of the changes in advance of a public announcement under NDA. The document was split into two sections, the actual License itself which was written as a legal document and a commentary section that is not-legally-binding explanations of the intent of the legalese in that section.

Much of the speculation was based on early leaks, which focused on the not-legally-binding commentary section rather than the actual legal terms of the license. The one that caused the most concern was a statement "de-authorizing" all prior versions of the Open Gaming License.

This story broke out of the tabletop roleplaying news outlets and online community, who began to cover the story as well including outlets like Gizmodo, iO9, Polygon, and Forbes. In many cases, these outlets do not normally cover TTRPGs and Wizards of the Coast had yet to comment, so they ran the story with the version full of speculation and rumor framed by people who had a long history of criticizing Wizards of the Coast (for reasons justified and less so) because it was the only story they had.

Legal experts began to weigh in as well, with a decided split between those who believe that Wizards of the Coast COULD revoke the OGL and those who believe that Wizards of the Coast could only do so for those who agree to the new OGL v1.1 but NOT for people who did not agree to this license.

In the fallout of these events, several tabletop roleplaying companies began making announcements to stop producing third-party material for Dungeons & Dragons. Some announced a new focus on their own original systems, and others stated they planned to develop a version of D&D that they could legally publish without using the OGL.

And, as of January 11, 2023, this is where we're at. Wizards of the Coast only released a "We're working on a statement, please be patient" style statement only posted as a tweet, but no other comment since December.

So...CAN They Revoke the OGL? AKA I, Someone Who Is Not a Lawyer, Explains Legal Issues

When the rumors started in December, I spoke with a couple of lawyers I know, one of whom works in the TTRPG industry as a side-gig and one who works often with open software licenses. Other legal experts have weighed in as well. And the answer to that question is "...maybe?"

The entire case for revoking the OGL is based on a single clause in the original Open Gaming License that allows for the updating of the license. This cause states that, if the license is updated, creators may use any "authorized version" of the license.

However, the license itself does not state who authorizes the license or a process for making a different version of the license no longer authorized. Also, the OGL v1.0a (the older version) only has a process for revoking the license if one party violates the license. There are no other conditions for revoking the license listed in the OGL v1.0a. Also, case law exists for companies attempting to revoke rights under the GPL and other open-source software licenses where they were not legally allowed to.

However (again), the OGL states that the license is "perpetual", meaning it does not have an expiration date. It does NOT state that it is "irrevocable". Meaning that some legal experts believe that it CAN be revoked.

However (again again), when dealing with lawsuits over licenses and contracts, there are two things to keep in mind. In general (and varying on jurisdiction), ambiguity in a contract is generally interpreted as the fault of the side who drafted the contract and so, if the terms of a contract are unclear, the courts will generally side in favor of the one who did NOT write the contract. Yes, I said "generally" a lot because it all comes down to details and we won't know for sure how this will play out unless it goes to court.

Secondly, courts will examine things like industry standards when determining the validity of an interpretation of a contract, and the established industry standard within the TTRPG industry is that the OGL could not be revoked, a standard established by Wizards of the Coast themselves in 2006 when they stated so clearly in a FAQ about the license (formerly on their website, now only available via the Wayback machine...and this isn't because they're trying to hide it, but because they revamped their entire website several years ago and a whole lot of posts and documents from the 2000s were removed).

Finally, the Open Gaming License is used by companies beyond Wizards of the Coast. I don't even mean like Paizo (Pathfinder/Starfinder), Pelgrane Press (13th Age), and EN Publishing (Level Up) who made D&D derivative games, but systems like Basic Roleplay from Chaosium that powers Call of Cthulhu and RuneQuest, FATE which powers the licensed Dresden Files RPG, D6 System used by West End Games before that company collapsed for Ghostbusters and Star Wars, and several others. The systems released by these companies have NOTHING to do with Wizards of the Coast or Dungeons & Dragons, so "revoking" the OGL would directly affect them despite not interacting with Wizards of the Coast's IP in any way.

So CAN Wizards of the Coast revoke the Open Gaming License? Maybe, but probably not. But the bigger question is...do they actually WANT to do it? I mean, yeah, they probably WANT to, but what I mean is do I think it is their actual plan to revoke the OGL?

What I Think Wizards of the Coast is Actually Doing AKA It's Bad in a Different Way

Wizards of the Coast purchased D&D Beyond, a website that acted as a character builder and digital storefront for official Dungeons & Dragons material, last year for several million dollars. They also announced their own virtual tabletop (VTT) is in the works, a system that allows people to play RPGs remotely by simulating the tabletop experience on a computer or tablet. They also have a licensing deal with OneBookShelf (the company that owns the VTT Roll20 and the digital storefront DriveThruRPG) for Dungeonmasters Guild, a site that allows community content creators to make their own D&D products under a license more permissive than the OGL in content (you can set your adventures in Forgotten Realms or Ravenloft and use characters like Drizzt and Raistlin) but that requires payment of royalties to Wizards of the Coast.

I believe that Wizards of the Coast wants to encourage third-parties to sign the OGL v1.1 in order to gain access to their walled garden digital storefronts. Because D&D Beyond and the VTT are first-party products and Wizards of the Coast has a far larger marketing budget, they can easily create an environment where the vast majority of the tabletop gaming customer base uses their marketplaces. Meaning if you want access to millions of customers, you HAVE to go through Wizards of the Coast and agree to their royalty terms.

After a few years, this would give Wizards of the Coast the same dominance in the online tabletop gaming space as they have in the mass market space through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Target, and other mainstream retail stores. And when the eventual Sixth Edition is released that is no longer compatible with 5e, they can release that document under the OGL v1.1 and cut off anyone from creating products without agreeing to the terms.

However, I don't think they want to eliminate the OGL v1.0a for ALL creations. It would be an iffy legal case and, as you've likely seen, would be a public relations nightmare. It would also be a bad move for Wizards of the Coast as the company (like all TTRPG companies) relies heavily on freelancers. Freelancers who typically get experience by writing and publishing on OGL material. I'd be utterly shocked if there was anyone working at Wizards of the Coast right now in a game design capacity who did NOT, if not getting their start in OGL material, at least published something under the OGL for D&D 3rd Ed, 3.5, Pathfinder, or 5e.

Not only would revoking the OGL v1.0a entirely be a costly endeavor, it would be a fruitless one. You may have seen in the various discussions the phrase, "You can't copyright game rules". This is true - game mechanics are covered in intellectual property law by patents, not copyright. You cannot copyright a set of game rules, you can only copyright the expression of those rules.

Side note: This is also the reason why every online recipe starts with an overly-long blog post about the recipe's role in the author's life - they can't copyright the actual recipe because it's just a list of ingredients and a description of the steps. They CAN copyright the story surrounding the recipe though, so if some bot steals their blog post and reposts it, they'll know because the story that IS protected under copyright was likely stolen as well.

While it isn't necessarily an easy process because it requires interpreting what is and is not a "creative expression" of describing the rules, it IS possible to recreate pretty much any game's core system in a way that is perfectly legal under copyright law. Kit Walsh wrote about this for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (though I disagree with some of her other conclusions here, that part is a pretty accurate explanation).

Side note: The EFF formed thanks to tabletop roleplaying games. The US Secret Service raided Steve Jackson Games, the publishers of GURPS who eventually went on to create the card game Munchkin. A group of lawyers represented SJG in their lawsuit against the government, and those lawyers decided to form the EFF as an organization to continue defending digital rights. I did a video about it a few years ago.

The OGL's primary value is that it addresses this hole in intellectual property law. While it's possible to publish compatible material for a game system without a license or even recreate the entire game system, it's not exactly easy. There are many ways that creators can accidentally violate copyright without realizing it.

For example, many Old School Rennaissance systems attempt to re-create the rules from older editions of Dungeons & Dragons which were NOT released under the OGL by using the material that IS in the OGL. However, they are limited in using some terms because they are too descriptive rather than functional, therefore falling under a creative expression. Like in previous editions, each level of a character class had its own title. Like Thieves in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition went from 1st level Rogue to 2nd level Footpad to 3rd level Cutpurse and so on. Those cannot be reproduced, but most other aspects of level advancement can.

The OGL solved the problem by giving clear guidance on what could and could not be used. Meaning Wizards of the Coast didn't have to worry about a dozen different versions of the 5th Edition of the D20 System popping up under different names -- completely bypassing their core rulebooks -- because it was unnecessary.

So I don't think Wizards of the Coast plans to announce a complete unilateral revoking of the OGL v1.0a nor never intended to do so. I think the plan was to introduce the royalty-based license first, using access to their walled garden as the benefit, then eventually switch entirely to the new license for Sixth Edition a few years down the line.

So What IS So Bad About the License?

The Unreal Engine license from Epic is a godsend for independent developers. The number of patents, copyrights, sublicenses, and so on involved in a video game engine make it necessary to obtain a license. A license with no up-front cost that only charges royalties after a certain level of gross sales is AMAZING for small developers because they can start working on a game and take risks because of lowered start-up costs of obtaining a license. It also means that, if the game isn't a big hit, the company isn't still on the hook for royalty payments off the paltry sum they make in sales.

None of that is the case in tabletop roleplaying games.

All this license does is allow Wizards of the Coast to start skimming profits off of other companies. If a creator's product makes more than $750,000 in gross sales, they have to start paying royalties on amounts over that. So say my Kickstarter takes off and funds for $800,000, I only owe royalties on $50,000 not the full $800,000.

However, part of the license makes clear that ALL FUNDS RAISED through a Kickstarter have the license applied. The thing is that most of the TTRPG Kickstarters that make over $750,000 do so through selling things other than the game product itself. Miniatures, sculptures, t-shirts, art books, personalized videos, creators running the game for backers, stuff like that which are products that ARE NOT licensed under the OGL. They don't include any material from the game so are not OGL material. BUT under this license, Wizards of the Coast gets to skim money off of those unrelated products.

On top of that, the license includes a sweetheart deal for Kickstarter. If you use Kickstarter to crowdfund your game, you only have to pay 20% royalties rather than the normal 25%. This comes on the heels of multiple competitors to Kickstarter gaining traction, such as BackerKit and GameFound. This is anti-competitive behavior.

Finally, if you don't pay royalties on time, you have to pay interest. Okay, sure...but the rate is 1.5% PER MONTH. That is a 19.56% per year interest rate which would be shitty for a credit card, let alone just for late fees on a royalty payment. If you screw up and underpay by 10% or more (easy to do when there's two royalty rates for different outlets between Kickstarter and all other sales), you're responsible for paying the costs of Wizards of the Coast auditing the account to determine the amount. How much these costs will be is not stated.

The OGL v1.1 also changes how material is used. While the OGL always had a share-a-like aspect to it so that, if you created an awesome class or feat or whatever, Wizards of the Coast could use it as well in their products...so could anyone else. For example, if I made a really cool Pirate class in my OGL book, you could use that Pirate class in your own book. Under the OGL v1.1, this is no longer the case. The flow of content is one-way ONLY to Wizards of the Coast. THEY can use any material created under the OGL, but no one else can.

This specific clause also causes problems for companies making licensed work. For example, Cubicle 7 released an OGL 5th Edition version of their Doctor Who roleplaying game, while Free League Publishing came out with a 5e Lord of the Rings RPG. Because of this clause in the license, those products would be impossible to make because Cubicle 7 doesn't own Doctor Who. The BBC does. Free League doesn't own Lord of the Rings, the Tolkien Estate does (technically, Embracer Group bought them, but that's a whole other mess). Cubicle 7 and Free League does not have the right to give Wizards of the Coast access to that intellectual property, but the OGL v1.1 REQUIRES that they do so.

OGL games using licensed properties have been a staple of the OGL since it came out. In the 3rd Ed era, there were D20 System RPGs for Babylon 5, Farscape, Warcraft, Stargate SG-1, Conan the Barbarian, and a lot more. It was a good way for smaller companies to grab licenses that weren't used and make a big splash as well as to allow customers access to games set in their favorite fictional settings without hoping Wizards of the Coast would show interest (as they did, making D20 versions of Wheel of Time, Star Wars, and a few other licensed properties during this era).

Further, there's a clause that allows Wizards of the Coast the right to revoke the OGL at their discretion. This is framed as allowing them to revoke the OGL from anyone publishing offensive material that's racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, etc. but that is NOT spelled out in the legally-binding section of the document. Meaning that if someone at Wizards of the Coast doesn't like something a creator has posted on social media, they can pull the license. This clause also eliminates all rights to challenge this: You cannot sue and there is no arbitration. Wizards of the Coast decides what material is and is not offensive.

And even if it WAS enforced as stated, there have been recent controversies with "ethics clauses" like this being enforced against women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ people, disabled people, and other marginalized groups describing the bigotry, prejudice, and oppression they suffer under claims it violates the terms of the license. I'm not saying Wizards of the Coast WOULD do that, but at the same time, they don't have the best track record in these matters...

Then there's a new Indemnity clause. This means that if a creator publishes something under the OGL that gets them sued, Wizards of the Coast can decide the creator isn't defending the lawsuit well enough, take it over, and then bill the creator for all legal fees. It would be a rare situation (someone would have to work hard to get a claim that would involve the OGL itself in court), but the fact that Wizards reserves the right to take over a lawsuit and stick the creator with the bill isn't a good thing.

Then there's the "Other Products" section that expressly forbids the use of the OGL in the creation of any product other than a tabletop roleplaying game product. The comments section (the "not legally binding" bit) clarifies a list of products this covers including "videos, virtual tabletops or VTT campaigns, computer games, novels, apps, graphics novels, music, songs, dances, and pantomimes."

Of all of these, the only ones in which the OGL would even remotely apply would be virtual tabletops, apps, and computer games. And even that would be very specific cases where they recreate game rules from D&D. A novel doesn't include game rules. A video doesn't include game rules. A song doesn't include game rules. NONE of this stuff requires using the OGL in the first place so I have no idea why any of this is included (or rather, excluded) unless there are some further legal shenanigans planned for the future that affects Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok.

So yeah, this license is a garbage fire that's not good for creators and not good for the long-term health of Dungeons & Dragons as a game. Even if I don't believe that Wizards of the Coast plans to eliminate the OGL v1.0a and destroy a large portion of the tabletop roleplaying industry in the process, I do think their plan is detrimental to the hobby and reflects long-term plans for further anti-competitive behavior.

What Happens Now?

As of right now (early afternoon in North America on January 11, 2023), we're still waiting on an official statement from Wizards of the Coast. Until they make some official move, everyone in the industry is in a bit of a holding pattern or making plans for the worst.

For the vast majority of Dungeons & Dragons players, none of this means anything. There are millions of people who just play their regular game, use material from the core books, and that's it. They don't follow the industry, they likely don't even know that dedicated tabletop game stores exist let alone ever been to their local store because they bought their books from Amazon or Barnes & Noble and their dice from Target or Dollar General. They've never been on DriveThruRPG, aren't aware Pathfinder exists, and have put exactly as much consideration into following Wizards of the Coast accounts on social media as they have in following Starbucks.

However, the online tabletop RPG community has made a LOT of noise about this. Like I said earlier, more mainstream outlets have picked up this story. Hashtags related to it have been trending off and on all week on Twitter. People like @wilwheaton and Gail Simone are talking about the controversy. Some of these players, who make up the vast majority of the customer base for Dungeons & Dragons, might get curious. They won't understand what the OGL is or why it matters, but they'll come away with the impression that Wizards of the Coast did something that hurt small publishers and people don't like it.

Whatever happens, keep your friendly game designers in mind. Even the ones working for Wizards of the Coast. Many publishers have serious questions about their ability to continue as a business, and many creators are facing stress and burnout seeking off-ramps out of tabletop RPGs. Some other independent creators and their fans are taking the opportunity to be assholes by gloating over the situation, something which helps nobody. Designers who work for Wizards are being harassed even though this is very obviously a corporate-level decision that the people writing the game have absolutely no control over.

In short, the future is uncertain and it costs nothing to be kind to the people suffering right now.

Edit for a Post-Script: I've seen a post floating around Tumblr about this situation that tries to play off this situation as Good Ackshually because the OGL always involved signing away rights to gain access to something you already had. I want to reiterate a point I made above: "You can't copyright game mechanics" is far more complicated than a simple statement. Even the post itself explains all the legal pitfalls with that assumption by pointing out issues of mingling and other ways rules can be protected under copyright law. What the OGL did was allow independent creators with no budget - which is every single tabletop roleplaying game company outside of WotC, Paizo, and maybe a handful of others owned by large companies like Edge Studios (Azmodee/Embracer Group), White Wolf (Paradox Interactive), and a few others and even THOSE are tiny subsidiaries in a larger corporate umbrella. Pretty much every other roleplaying game company on the planet is under 10 total employees (often just one or two) and a bunch of freelancers.

This industry does not have the capital to hire a lawyer every time they want to release a new product to ensure the IP doesn't violate the law. The OGL allows those companies a clear framework to publish compatible material with the game system used by at LEAST 80% of the customer base of the industry without fear of legal threats. This is the difference between theory and practice. In theory, publishing without a license is better but in practice, it's a money sink and legal minefield. And telling publishers and professionals who have been working under the license for two decades now they should be thankful the entire industry is under threat of being upended is condescending at best.

Edit Part 2: I knew I'd forget some things that are terrible about the OGL v1.1

First, there are now two licenses, a Commercial and a Non-Commercial one. I still haven't figured out the purpose since it's the same license only the Commercial one has all the bits about royalties. It seems redundant because if someone's not making money, they wouldn't meet the threshold for reporting gross sales anyway since they don't make money.

Anyway, to the actual issue I forgot: Information gathering!

You have to register every single product you release under the OGL v1.1 with Wizards of the Coast. You must describe the product, state where you will offer it for sale, what price you will charge, provide contact information, and "filling out a form" (they don't state what other information will be on this form). There are no restrictions whatsoever placed on how Wizards of the Coast can use this information. Even the most benign version of how this information can be used is anti-competitive as it would give Wizards of the Coast free market research - if all products have to be registered but only products that make $50,000 in gross sales must have their sales reported, then Wizards of the Coast knows what products are selling and which ones are not.

The RPG industry has horrible market research information. There are only a handful of places to track what people are actually buying or playing. Few companies release sales information. All you can do is check Kickstarter yourself for what products are crowdfunding well, use ICv2's reporting which is limited to physical sales only at participating hobby game stores in North America (leaving out any store that doesn't participate, mass market outlets like Amazon, direct sales through a publisher's website, digital or print-on-demand sales from DriveThruRPG, etc.), and quarterly user reports from virtal tabletops Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. That's ALL we have to judge where the market is. Having access to that kind of information would give Wizards of the Coast an even larger edge in the RPG market, which they already dominate.

And that's the benign reading. For example, there are no restrictions in the OGL v1.1 against selling that information to third parties. Granted, the European Union would have some things to say about that. Also, remember that the OGL v1.1 flows one-way. Wizards of the Coast can republish anything they like with no compensation or even credit provided to the previous author. If they see a particular product is selling well, they can just republish it themselves.

Edit 3: Wizards of the Coast FINALLY released a statement and...fuck me, I did NOT expect them to give up on the royalties. I figured that was the primary motivation for the license update. They're also changing the terms to make clear that Wizards of the Coast does not have the ability to publish material from third-parties (that part of the license was meant to protect them in case of convergent design, where somebody's third-party published adventure or sourcebook coincidentally has the same elements as a new sourcebook or one of the new big-budget TV/film/video game projects and just overreached according to the statement).

They still don't address the actual "open" part of the open license that would allow third-party publishers to share their material with other third-party publishers. There have also stated that content already released under the OGL v1.0a will not be affected by the change to a new OGL license (rumors are they're changing it from "OGL v1.1" to "OGL v2.0" but that's not in the statement), but have NOT stated whether they believe they have the right to unilaterally prevent anyone from continuing to use the OGL v1.0a if they do not agree to the new OGL. Both of these are major concerns with the new license.

However, we DO have a good update: Paizo is spearheading a new open license called the Open RPG Creative License or the ORC License. You can read about it in the link, but the primary points are that Paizo will NOT own this license nor will anyone else who makes money publishing RPGs - it will be managed by a non-profit to ensure that no company in the future can exact unilateral changes that affect the entire industry. The license will be perpetual and irrevocable. So far, major TTRPG companies participating include Paizo (Pathfinder, Starfinder), Chaosium (Call of Cthulhu, RuneQuest), Kobold Press (prolific 5e OGL publisher), Green Ronin (Dragon Age, The Expanse, Modern AGE), Atlas Games (Ars Magica, Over the Edge), Legendary Games (third-party OGL publisher of 5e, Pathfinder, Starfinder, and Savage Worlds), Pinnacle Entertainment Group (Savage Worlds, Deadlands), Rogue Genius Games (Owen K.C. Stephens' company), and I don't know how many others since the announcement was made.

We won't know for sure how this will shake out for the industry until the terms of the new OGL and the terms of the ORC License are made public, but either way, a trust has been broken as a multibillion dollar corporation came after small publishers trying to scrape together enough to make any money at all off their games, and the industry won't forget that easily.

EDIT FINALE

It's now January 29, 2023, and there's been a huge update that should close out this entire saga.

A couple weeks ago, Wizards of the Coast released a draft of the OGL v1.2 along with a survey for public feedback. The new version dropped the royalties entirely along with any claims of ownership to content created under the license and the registration requirements. It did keep the "morality clause" that was vaguely worded and overly broad allowing them to revoke the license from any company producing a product they considered "harmful", "obscene", or "illegal" without defining those terms. Meaning they could revoke the license from a company if LGBTQ+ content is deemed as "obscene" (which has happened before with licensed D&D content), or "illegal" if it includes queer content in some countries or "Critical Race Theory" in some American states, or "harmful" as "this is harmful to our profits because it's selling too well". The new version of the OGL also maintained that the OGL v1.0a would be "de-authorized".

The other attempt to placate critics was releasing 58 pages of the SRD 5.1 (the document that outlines what parts of the rules for Dungeons & Dragons were considered Open Gaming Content under the OGL v1.0a) would be released under a Creative Commons license. The pages included rules for combat, ability checks, monster abilities, and a few other aspects of the game but would NOT include races/species, classes, backgrounds, spells, magic items, or monster stat blocks. Basically, these 58 pages were functionally useless on their own as they referenced rules that were not included in the CC-licensed content. It would be impossible to create adventures (no monsters or treasure) or sourcebooks (no classes, races/species, or spells) under this license, which makes up the vast majority of third-party OGL content for 5e. I should also note the SRD 5.1 is over 400 pages long, meaning they released just over 10% of the already-stripped-down rules.

The survey went out about a week ago and, on Thursday, D&D Beyond announced on Twitter the results were pretty obvious the OGL v1.2 wasn't helping matters. And on Friday, January 27, the company announced that the survey would be closed early (it was originally scheduled to run until February 7) because between 85% to over 90% of people participating responded negatively to the questions posed in the survey. In response, Wizards of the Coast stated:

The Open Gaming License v1.0a would be left in place completely untouched as it has been since 2000.

The SRD 5.1 would be released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.

This is not a "we will do it at some point in the future pinkie swear" thing. As of that posting, the SRD 5.1 is now available under the Creative Commons license.

So the situation is resolved. Not only did Wizards of the Coast back down from their plans, they released more of the game to the public than was originally released.

This won't stop Wizards of the Coast from trying something similar in the future, but they'll have to do it with an entirely new and incompatible edition of the game. Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition is now freed as the rules are permanently and irrevocably part of the Creative Commons with no legal method for Wizards of the Coast to take it back.

#dnd #dungeons & dragons #d&d #rpg #rpgs #roleplaying #roleplaying games #ttrpg #ttrpgs #tabletop rpgs #tabletop roleplaying #ogl #open gaming license #wizards of the coast #wotc #tsr

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weepingwidar · 2 years

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Dave Rheaume (Canadian, 1963) - Hell's Quagmire (n.d.)

#dave rheaume

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sapphirebluejewel · 4 months

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Cry Me A River(2)

-The school reacts badly to Dave's on-air comments about his co-host's gender identity. Clare continues her campaign to get on the school paper. Fiona gets a surprising new challenge at school.

Dirth Off Your Shoulder(1)

-Eli finds he's having trouble writing and tries substituting meds for a muse. Riley meets a girl that his mother says wants college info and finds himself on a date. KC lingers at work to avoid Jenna and his parental quagmire.

Descriptions from IMDb

#degrassi #degrassi next generation #degrassinextgeneration #sapphirebluejewel #degrassi tng #degrassithenextgeneration #degrassi episodes #Degrassi

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yeahimwiththeband · 2 months

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-> with the band chapter 21

feels so scary getting old

warning: conquering anxiety and almost getting cooked

A/N: with the band is a love on tour au.

word count: 2.3k

Izzy carried that New Year’s Day sunrise with her back home, and she felt its warmth keep her going as she got off the plane and onto the train with Olivia—trying not to think about Harry. Or dancing with him, before the news of Lydia’s wedding. Or that voice.

She could feel a warm glow in her fingertips and through the ends of her hair as she stoped in front of the store on her way back to the apartment—stopped in her tracks on the sidewalk by the sight of a new drip in the window, a cropped tank and fitted skirt that looked like they could have been made in the last year. A fashionable fit, at her family’s store. Even more shocking? Her dad was behind the counter (watching a game on a very small tablet he was trying to hide behind a stack of bolsters). Izzy nearly dropped her backpack. Her dad had to look at her twice, at first not recognizing her—bag slung across her chest, a heavy backpack at her feet. She looked so grown up. He had to stop her in the hallway upstairs, where she went to find her mom; Izzy had assumed he was only downstairs to cover a bathroom trip or brief bolster emergency. But her dad informed her that Eleanor was out for the day, at a new book club with friends, and then some sort of retailers meetup. Izzy felt herself relax.

When she passed it in the hall, her old bedroom looked so small. She hung back in the doorway and looked over its dusty, babyish lamps. An old charger still snaked across the bed, where she used to lie for hours, looking out the window, waiting for her life to start. Her life had finally started. And her parents were thriving.

The butterflyweed plant Izzy left behind was not, and Izzy arrived back at her apartment to the sight of Olivia trying to revive it wit ha heavy overwatering and patting coffee grounds into the soil, her backpack still leaning against the doorframe. Before they left Mrs. Shepherd’s place the day before, Izzy had cast out their cofffe grounds from that morning over the front yard, a prayer for beautiful flowers in the spring, when the mimosa flowers would bow to red and pink oleanders that would climb over everything. She had spent their last week at the house letting the property to a young couple who were going to fix it up in return for almost no rent. The woman said she loved the garden, and the man taught music at the school the next big town over. When Izzy, Meg, and Olivia drove past Harry’s place on the way to the airport, all the lights were off—he was gone.

Izzy had a lot to keep her busy. A full course schedule, a major final capstone project that involved a real permaculture installation that would decide whether or not she would pass or fail, and she’d have to split her weekend days between the store and the nursery to build up her savings again.

And she wanted to support Olivia with her demo: tomorrow, they would go into the city to meet her new producer. Izzy wouldn’t have any time at all to think about George and Lydia or Jess and Harry. She had only briefly scrolled past a headline about a new re-release of all of Harry’s old hits—the preteen songs that made him famous, which he hated. She barely read the whole thing and only briefly glanced at the promo video on TikTok. She wouldn’t open any articles about George, or look at any paparazzi shots of him with bloodshot eyes out late. She would bring her laptop to the studio tomorrow and stay out of trouble.

…

Dave Nolsevic had always admired Eddie, the renowned indie producer who hit it big with Harry Styles by dragging him out of the quagmire of pop drek that launched his career. Dave and Eddie came up together, and had even run into each other decades ago at the tiny east coast studio where Dave and his band recorded their first album. Eddie had resigned from his label, a one-man insurrection against the encroaching commercialization of rock and roll (Dave thought). When Dave heard that Eddie was looking for new projects, it seemed like a sign: they were meant to work together. Dave was a great believer in signs, and the news that Eddie was back east ran in his ears like a cymbal in an empty arena. Which is the exact experience he and his band had had the week before, when a reunion show sold barely half the tickets.

It was clear to Dave: California was over. Instead of playing his old hits in smaller and smaller rooms, he would record his best hits reimagined and reinvent the genre. Lydia had agreed that this was meant to be, and despite protests from George, Dave left California to find Eddie. Malibu was eating George alive.

…

When Olivia and Izzy had arrived at the studio downtown, Izzy almost had to close her mouth with her hand like a cartoon character. It was like a factory for music: all stainless steel and brand concrete floors, leather shoes and gelled hair. Harry had sold out for this?

…

Eddie realized how much he hated sunlight when Harry dragged him to Sicily to dry out (and stalk his opener’s ex-girlfriend, a woman who clearly hated him—did musicians never change?). After twenty years in dark arenas and windowless recording studios, this new rental on the east coast was a shock; it used to be a radio station. It had skylights in the hallways and vines eating the mortar. It was the only thing Eddie could afford. He wanted to record new artists and he would do it here, as far away from Ryan as he could get without leaving the US.

After Ryan unceremoniously fired Eddie from the label with no severance after Harry (allegedly) tried to fight paramedics to stay out of an ambulance, Eddie was shocked to find that his years on the road had left him with very little. He had slowed to a stop in the town where he grew up, crashing in his sister’s guest bedroom, playing nanny to her kids during the day and touring studio space at night—all of them too expensive. Until he found this place, which no one else wanted. Eddie feigned annoyance at his new non-nomadic lifestyle, felt himself relax at home. He now knew he was better off living with family than nodding off in the green room at night or waking up alone in a hotel room in a city he couldn’t name. When Harry floated the idea of sending Dave over, Eddie surprised them both with his reluctance. He felt done with messy rockstars. But Eddie needed to record something, and Dave had fans. Old, rich fans who didn’t use Spotify and would buy whatever Dave recorded. This time would be different, Eddie told Dave over the phone. You’re on time to record or we don’t record.

The phone calls made Dave wonder who put Eddie up to this—if there was some backer or suit pulling the strings from the shadows.

“There’s something circular about it, yeah, but we’ve circled back to a new place,” Eddie said while wiping down an ancient mix board in his new rental space.

“It was meant to be, man,” Dave said. It sounded like he was under water. Or extremely drunk.

“I hope so.”

“It’ll be like I never left. Like the good old days.”

“Good new days, Dave.”

Dave tested his theory his first day in Eddie’s studio. He had flown in the day before, and was supposed to arrive at 3—an early start—to play around with some new material and get Eddie’s feedback. But when Dave showed up just after 7, barely four hours late, the door to the studio was locked with a mean little note taped to the door, saying that Eddie had stepped out to go to some open mics. The fact that Eddie hadn’t just waited for Dave shocked them both. And then, to brag about courting other musicians—to rub Dave’s face in it? Dave was incensed, and tried calling Eddie, but he didn’t pick up. At the sound of the tone for his voice mail, Dave hurled the beer bottle he was holding against the locked studio door, where it shattered, soaking the note and tearing it in half.

That’ll send a message, Dave thought. He found the nearest bar, where at least one person—a regular who looked like he had grown out of the bar stool he was trying not to fall off of—recognized him, and railed about the death of art and music. The bar had a mic and the bartender was thrilled to hear him play, but when Dave started one of his old favourites, he looked up to see that just the regular was listening. The rest kept talking like he wasn’t there. He felt like a ghost.

The bartender cleaned a glass intently, focused on it like he couldn’t look at Dave. Like watching him would be uncomfortable.

Dave could still sing, he knew that. Maybe his words were a little slurred and certainly, he had forgotten a word or two and the acoustics in the dive couldn’t be helped, but the song was gold. When he launched into the final chorus, the big finale that used to rumble arenas that could seat thousands, the bartender still couldn’t look up.

Dave showed up at Eddie’s studio the next day at 4 PM on the nose, just an hour late. He was stone cold sober—just two beers in—and ready to play. But he didn’t know what. He wanted something really new.

“We’ll work it out,” Eddie said from the doorway. The note and shards of glass from the day before had been swept away.

…

The two (sweat) suits in the booth worked furiously as Olivia and Izzy waited in the hall outside, not exactly sure where to stand. Framed platinum records gleamed from the walls and ricocheted off the shiny floors and many wall screens, staring down at them from all sides. The men typed, twisted dials, pushed buttons, pressed their headphones into their ears. An overgreen fig leaf plant in the corner was the only sign of organic life in the studio, and it was entirely plastic. She suspected any real plants here would die from neglect quickly.

Izzy gave Olivia an encouraging smile as the men beckoned her in to record. She sat down on a beautifully designed, but impossibly uncomfortable metal bench beside them, and took out her laptop. Balancing it on her knees, she got through an online assignment—multiple choice, oen attempt allowed. In just two months, after her final project, she’d be done her certificate and ready to take on real permaculture projects at the nursery. Sitting in the sterile studio, she couldn’t wait to get her hands literally dirty.

On the other side of the glass, Olivia bled into the mic. Izzy watched her face crease as she sang one of her new songs, written in Italy, about going out on her own. One of the suits in the booth scrolled his phone. Izzy rolled her eyes. She closed her laptop and that’s when she heard it: that voice.

“Excited to be here, Aidan,” Harry said. Izzy whipped around, but the hallway was empty. She craned her head up toward a large flatscreen to see Harry and Jess bearing down on her in 8k.

Jess clutched Harry’s hand; he looked waxy. They were doing some sort of morning talk show and Harry looked like some sort of hostage.

But Izzy reminded herself that his choices were his own. He could end his Insta relationship with Jess. He could have stayed in Italy. He could have come after her when she left California.

“It’s just all about the music for me,” he said.

“For us,” Jess added before the host could cut back in, “that’s all that matters.” She squeezed his hand.

“And did I hear that you’ve got a special treat for us today?”

The camera pushed in on Harry, trying to force a grimace into a smile. He smiled and clapped his hands together, casting off Jess’s.

“Jsut for us, you remember the hit that made him a star—“ beamed the host, who seemed to be entirely made of teeth, “performed for the first time in ten years, but not the last I’m sure! Right here on LAM TV…”

Izzy watched Jess give Harry’s hand a little squeeze before he hopped off his stool and jogged over to a small stage to loud screams from the audience. Jess hated this kind of fake shit too, Izzy remembered—or most of it, excluding her “relationship” with Harry. And Harry hated his old music. One of the early nights after she joined the tour, Harry refused Ryan’s pleading by reiterating that he wasn’t a cover band, the second time Izzy had heard him say that.

A mid-20s drum kit filled the hallway and Harry started into a song this label wrote for him at 15. He sounded strained, sharp. The camera panned back to Jess watching him, giving him and index and forefinger heart. Izzy winced. She stood up and after some pressing around, managed to change the channel. It landed on a tabloid TV show, flashing photos of Harry with a black eye spilling either into or out of an ambulance, phone flying through the air, a paramedic with his arms around his chest.

Izzy gasped. He looked drunk.

She scrambled to change the channel, cutting back across Harry crooning, through the news, and finally onto some sort of nature show—a mallard cutting through still water. The hall filled with silence and Izzy exhaled. She turned back to the studio; Olivia and the suits were talking intently through the glass. Izzy sat back down and opened up her laptop, bringing up her plan for her final project. She wanted to do raised garden beds outside the store, with native climbing plants. The vines would twist around the eavestroughs in the summer and paint the building green. She already had her mom’s permission, and hoped the final result—along with the research paper to go with it—would get her a full-time job doing what she loved, for the first time ever.

“Izzy, could you listen to this?”

Olivia, almost frowning, leaned out of the studio’s doorway. Izzy stepped inside, and the team in the booth restarted the song playback. Izzy waved toward the glass, but no names were exchanged. The two original men had been joined by a wall of ballcaps and bomber jackets.

The delicate synths Olivia had described to Izzy had been replaced by thundering base blasts, her voice floating above them, barely audible. Then, a dance beat started to pick up. Olivia tilted her head. The boys in the booth nodded and passed earphones around. They had turned Olivia’s folk song into electronica, something that was meant to be a club hit.

“It’s just a prelim mix,” one of the guys shouted. “But isn’t it fire?”

Izzy looked at Olivia.

Olivia shook her head slightly.

“This isn’t what she wanted,” Izzy said. Telling the truth was easier and easier. “It’s supposed to be folk, not pop.”

“Are we listening to the same track?” Another one replied. “This is what Ryan wants,” he added. “This will play. This will sell.”

“Did you sign anything?” Izzy asked under her breath.

“Not yet. Just a deal memo for the recording time for the first track on the demo. Nothing about IP, titles…”

“Could you give us a copy of the tracks?” Izzy tried. “We might want to play around with them a bit—“

He cut her off. “This one’s locked in. We’ll see you tomorrow for number two.” The boys drained out of the booth to a door straight outside, leaving Izzy and Olivia there alone. Olivia shoulders dropped, and she started to pack up her guitar. Izzy eyed the empty booth.

She could see the reflection of the screens on the glass, all still logged in.

The door still open.

Izzy grabbed her laptop and snuck into the booth, then searched around for a cable to connect to one of the computers. She found the laptop where the tracks were still up and connected by Air Drop. She exported the tracks that were up on the screen, and then sent them. The files were huge and a progress bar appeared.

“Elizabetta,” Olivia started, “This isn’t peaceful.”

“It’s your track. Maybe we can extract the vocals.”

A door opened outside.

“Hurry!” Olivia urged, surprising herself.

The file transfer ticked past 50%, then 60%, then 70.

The studio door cracked open and Izzy froze. 90%. A ballcap paused in the doorway, looking back behind him, putting out a cigarette on the ground. 100%.

Izzy grabbed her laptop and flew back around to the recording room. She closed her laptop and clasped it against her chest.

“We’ve got another artist in 15,” said one of the suits, turned away from them. Evidently, they were supposed to leave during their smoke break.

“See you tomorrow,” Olivia said. No reply.

They left through the back, as giddy as if they had robbed a bank. When they got home, Olivia started playing around with the recording, stripping back the layers added by the producers and playing around with her vocal and guitar tracks. Izzy watched her from the door of her room—working so intently, with so much purpose. As if the music was sacred.

Izzy watched Olivia get lost in the music, and it made her remember everything.

#harry styles #love on tour #hslot #harry styles fanart #romance readers #harrystyles #harry edward styles #harry #harry styles fan fic #harry styles fic

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popculturebuffet · 2 years

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Avengers #200 Review: One of the Worst Moments in Marvel History (Comissoined by Brotoman.EXE)

Trigger Warning: Rape, Manipulation, and Gaslighting.

Avengers #200.. is the worst thing i've ever had to cover ofr this blog. I thoguht after the 22 minute transphobic nightmare of quagmire's mom it'd NEVER be topped.. but as I wrote this the anger just welled in me more and more, every stupid line, bad decision, and gross bit of misogny and rape just pissed me off mor eand more and more. Quagmire's dad is close and it physically hurt to write this one too but not as much. I'm honestly suprised I finished writing this, but i'm proud I did but man was it a lot.

If you haven't heard of this issue… super good it means your life is slightly better. But in short it folllows Carol Danvers through the worst moment of her life. At the time Carol was , naturally, an avenger, having migrated from her recently canceled solo by Chris Claremont to the avengers and at what started as a good time: David Michlinne of Iron Man and Spider-Man fan started a , from what i've read of it that's not this steaming bowl of elephant piss, fairly good run, clarifying Wanda Maximoff's backstory , having nice dynamics with the team and writing Carol Herself well. Carol had just had her ongoing by Chris Claremont, which despite it's issues is worth checking out and also integral to the sequel to this story we'll also be covering shortly, canceled but was popular enough to get ported to avengers, and Michline continued the work claremont did having her as strong, indepdneent and badass.

So what to do with her next? Have her slowly work up to leader like future Captain Marvel Monica Ramebeau would? Have her serve? No his plan.. was to get rid of her by magic space pregnancy.

See for a long time the Kree Supreme Intellgence, the incredibly huge head that rules the miltaristic Kree Empire, had wanted to end his species genetic stagnation, and thus was fascinated with Carol as a Kree-Human hybrid. So Dave's brilliant idea… was to have her be pregnant thanks to him.

Yeah that's already not great, but likely would result in her fighting him. and the build up.. wasn't half bad. It still had both the terrible trope of "magic prengancY" which is RIFE with terrible implications on it's own and had a moment.. like this where David interprets "feminism" as "hates the idea of having children" instead of "Supports women's rights to CHOOSE if they want to have a child or not"

But I chalk that up unlike the decision to do this storyline at all or it's awful, AWFUL conclusion to David simply not getting how feminism worked and to his credit when writing Mary Jane on spider-man, the years had taught him how to write an independent female character with a career driven mind with more nuance. I mean he still had her kidnapped and stuff but like… it's progress from "You know what would be funny and ironic? Have carol hate the idea of having a child, as is her perogative, and instead have her get forcibly imprennated?" I mean most writing decisions are better than that but I respect when a writer changes with time and actually evolves as he goes instead of stick to sexist belieifs.

Carol suddenly fates and at the hopsital dr. phil announces her prengancy with all the grace and tact you'd expect.

"I mean what woman WOULDN'T be exicited to suddenly find out she's pregnant after three months and clearly didn't know it? It's not like they have a dangerous job where the baby couldn't of been hurt, could've been assaulted or GASP dont' want to raise a child" Women amirite?. Get used to that last one, as this comic has big "Women amirite" energy

Anyways next issue, we do get a genuinely tender well done scene as Carol admits her vulnerability to Scarlet Witch.. as well as her secret identity.

It's a touching moment between friends and something Chris Claremont clearly remembered for his followup. It's also notable Wanda is one of the only people who seems to consitently think about Carol's needs during this whole debacle.. even if sh'es dead wrong about two thigns: that scarf she tied to her head is absolutely not working for her, and The Avengers are going to be as unhelpful as possible. Well okay unhlepful as possible would be chucking her into the grand canyon while 9 months pregnant, as she'll be shortly, but even that sounds better than some of teh shit they'll do and say.

Finally after an incident involving a giant samurai robot built to kill Godzilla, which also isn't even in Wanda's top 10 but does at least make the top 20, the avengers return to find Carol.. though weirdly Captain America, one of the sharper people in the marvel universe.. can't recognize carol despite not wearing her domino mask. I mean look the ms marvel outfit is fine but like… it's not that concealing. Though frnakly his reactiona t least makes sense as he's shocked since he only saw carol days ago entirley not pregnant. IT's the resonable reaction to finding out your friend has a rapidly escalating pregnancy. The less resonable ones are…

Yeah these responses are a sign of things to come from these three idiots… and just for some context, Janet Van Dyne is fucking aweosme. Henry McCoy used to be fucking aweosme.a nd Simon Williams eh he's alright. But the weird dopplegangers replacing them for avengers 199 and 200 can fuck right off as their written so terribly it hurts. Janet wants to celebrate despite being told in THE PREVIOUS PANEL that she was suddenly 7 months pregnant, beast makes a stupid joke, and Simon CONGRADULATES her. I get Janet wasn't the firey independent woman she'd become post divorce but she still was empathetic enough not to do this. Hank is a certified genius and hindu sex god, he'd at least know whne not to joke and Simon out of all of them at least comes off like he had no idea what to say to any of this. It's also neat Donald Blake is way better to Carol than his alter ego will be, but we'll get to that.

Thankfully Janet is back to being herself for a moment next panel.. as the avengers worry.. and we get one heck of a cliffhanger

Yeah the labor itself is normal. But everything about this is as nuts as it is awful, so join me under the cut as I get into the issue itself if you feel comfortable doing so. I'd normally just say join me under the cut but given the books contents (poitns to content warning) I feel just saying "GET IN THERE" isn't reomtely approraite. If you can though, come right this way

So with a bunch of the avengers waiting outside the Mansion's operating theater, where Dr. Donald Blake is tending to MS. Marvel. As for who donald is he's the alter ego of thor, who had one for most of his life till Walt Simonson decided "nah" and did away with that and most attempts to try it again haven't stuck. He's sometimes a diffrent being, sometimes just thor in a human body, sometimes a mad god after being stuck in his own pocket realm. He's a multifacted indivdual. Point is he's the doctor the avengers turn too when needed without most of them knowing he's actualyl mighty thor since they didn't want to bother to introduce another superhero doctor, kinda like how Doc Sampson is the psychatrist to most superheroes. At any rate he's operating with Jocasta. Jocasta is a mechanical wife built by Ultron, who being based on Hank Pym's brain patterns in the comics, decided to base Jocasta's on Hank's then wife Jan. But like all Ultron's creations except his robot dog I just learned existed

Such a good boy he, she rebelled and became a sorta member of the avengers for a while. She also ended up dating Hank Pym despite being her grandfather as she saw him more as "god", and really given her own creator wanted to make her his wife, I can't blame her for not wanting to go with that line of logic.

Waiting around we see some other avengers: Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye and the previously seen Wonder Man and Beast. For those more familiar with the MCU I don't really need to explain the first two. Hawkeye as you can see had one hell of an outfit, one that's both a tad goofy.. and really cool at the same time. Why they coudln't of just adapted this one but took off the giant mask (Which I love but get may of not worked on film), and isntead just gave him a purple bodysuit I don't know. He also had an actual personality instead of "Has family, did spy stuff, natasha was like a sister to him", being a bit abrasive, when just starting out he had a habit of challenging cap at every turn which makes them later being close friends all the sweeter, but ultimately a well meaning guy. He had his lapses in judgment and periods written as a total ass hat, see "getting mad his wife didn't save her rapist" and "any time brian micheal bendis has ever written him", but at his best he's a well meaning hot mess whose far more capable than most give him credit for .

Wonder Man is a sun glasses wearing fellow with a complicated history. In short, he was a faile dindustralist who was given super powers by the masters of evil, think evil avengers, and sent in as a mole. He genuinely bonded with them but his body seemingly gave out.. but instead his ionic powers put him in a death coma, and when he was brought back as a zombie he genuinely came back and thus became an avenger for real. The Vision was based on his brain patterns, with how he feels about Vision depending on whose writing him: At best, like under Steve Englehart, he sees Vision as a brother if it's a bit awkward since he wasn't ask. At worst, lik eunder JOhn Byrne.. he refuses because he wants to sleep with his wife. Most of the time though Simon is pretty likable, just not one of my faviorites.

Finally we have Beast. Most probably know his deal as he's been in almost every x-men adaptation and is you know awesome.. or at least was. But many are likely curious why he's an avenger. It's pretty simple: a few years before this the x-men's ongoing title ended, and for whatever reason Beast got a very short lived solo adventure. It's also where he got his iconic fuzzy apperance as he drank some science juice to give him an extra boost while exploring some corrupt employers and didn't change back in time. For whatever reason Steve Englehart took to this new version of Beast and had him join the avengers during an open tryout. He's also the one who gave beast his cheery personality, with Hank deciding after some moping to make the best of his new form. He and Wonder Man are best pals and he was a valued member for some time and it's why when you see him in the early chris claremont x-stuff, he's with the avengers, first asking the x-men to take care of a dangerious situation we'll get to next month, and then guest starring for a few issues during the dark phoenix saga, which we'll hopefully get to later this year.

So yeah while I just defended clint not a paragraph ago.. this is one of those total asshat periods as.. this is what he has to say abotu cap being understandably worried about his friend having a mystery child she dosen't rmemeber conceiving coming out of her about a day after finding out.

YOU SEEM PRETTY WORRIED OUR CLOSE FRIEND HAS A DEEPLY TROUBLING MAGICAL PREGNANCY, YOU MUST HAVE PUT LITTLE STEVE IN HER AMIRITE? Anyways the birth goes on as WandaVision join them, and while everyone's worried, the birth is soon done and Doctor Blake announces

God I wish it were Freddy Kruger. But no it's a seemingly normal baby they all coo over forgetting you know.. this is fucking weird. Also Beast thinks he'll be quarterbacking for the jets. I didn't know Hank liked sports ball.

Also at the birth are a recently arrived Wasp and Yellowjacket. For those less familar with two of my faviorite heroes, their Janet Van Dyne and Hank Pym, but in the comics they were both around the same age as Scott Lang instea dof the previous generation. Their relationship also ended pretty badly with hank having a severe mental breakdown and phsyciclaly and emotoinally abusing janet. Hank did later make amends, get help , and what not but he never forgot wha the did nor stop trying to atone for it. So it makes it kinda awkward to see them here just a few years before all that happened. Hank was Yellowjacket becaause during one breakdown brought on by some lab chemicals, he developed a split personality that claimed he killed haank and Jan's reaction instead of.. telling her friends so she could cure him.. was to marry him like this. I can't imagine why no one voted for that one in the valentine's poll. At any rate Jan goes to check up on Carol, Ms Marvel at the time. Carol is.. abotu enthused about all this as she should be.

Carol is right that both she was used, how we'll get to and this isn't a good thing. She's RIGHT to be pissed after being forced through birth and having everyone around her tell her. It's especially bad since for all we know she has postpartum on TOP of having been grossly used, and everyone's response is "OHHH A BABY SO CUTE WHO CARES IF HE"S A HORRIBLE MIRACLE BABY WHO POPPED OUT OF OUR FRIENDS UTERUS AFTER SOME UNKNOWN ENTITY POPPED IT IN HER" .

So we get some interludes for a bit: Vision and Wanda happily make up for lost time (He stayed on duty during her sabstical), and both agree having kids right now probably isn't the best decision since they both have very dangerous very active careers, while we get a fun scene of Hank hustling Hawkeye at pool, using a calculator to easily fleece him. Both scenes that would be great and fondly remembered if they werne't in the middle of hell.

Speaking of which the demon baby speaks with one word "c'-change" Because apparentlye ven rapists self birthing baby men like david bowie.

Anyways after a guy ends up in another time period after coming back with groceries. This both has an explination and as we've sene is far from the most baffling thing in this comic

We cut back to Carol whose back up and about and in costume.. and we get.. this scene

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Okay this one isn't AS infurating as while Simon is still being a dick.. it's more of a "it was 1980 most men would likely say this kind of shit and not get what they were doing". The effects of having a child through rape, which is what this is and what it comes off as in Carol's reactoins, wreen't known and Simon dosen't get forcing her ot face her trauma this soon is bad. But at least he's trying to take her feelings into account and trying to help. He's doing it fucking horribly..but he's not going "OHHH BABY OOHHHH BABY" like he just ate some bad enchaladas. He's still a bit of a dick but it's at least more "this has aged poorly" than

SPeaking of which as you can see Beast's reaction.. is to give the now child nightmare baby some sports stuff but he instead wants electronics. Cap, apparently carying the team brain cell at the moment instead.. interogates him since it's obvious the kid has full intellgence.

…. okay i'm really starting to wonder about that gas leak. So to recap in response to Cap wanting to honestly find out what is going on here, and spoilers Marcus, as he calls himself, ISN'T lying, and it's every bit as horrifying as it sounds but we'll get to that, Tony's response is "Oh just give the mystery baby who apparently impregnanted our friend against her will with himself it'll be fine". We then get simon being a full on dick as his repsonse to Carol not showing up.. is… is… this.

I'm struggling to write this one because a good chunk of this comic is just… pure infuration. Just sexist nonsense about how Carol should just buck up nad face a baby she didn't want nor ask for that was raped into her and that it's just "WOMEN AMIRITE" while al lher friends give said baby man everything he asks for with no questions. Every panel is some form of character assasnatoin and it's not even the INTENTIONAL kind. It's so assinine their doing this purely on accident. I mean so far Jan has cooed over Marcus, Beast just wants to give him sports ball, Simon has berated his friend for not wanting to face her child by rape just yet that also done did it, Hawkeye cracks jokes about Steve being the dad, Tony and Thor give him electronics, and Jocasta hasn't been mentioned by me but is busy being mad Vision is with his wife instead of her, but at least has the exccuse of emotoins being new to her!! Steve , Wanda and Vision are either on the sides or have their own crap to deal with and Carol is you know HORRIFIED. Every other character is being butchred by this fucking thing. And given as I've said I love Hawkeye, Beast, Janet and Hank, it's PAINFUL to see them butchered by this and disgusting to see this done to carol.

Okay so back with the plot Carol decides to see her son when.. this happens

…. just.. my god. The only thing more unsettling than this.. is the reveal of just what's going on her. Which is somehow worse than Carol eyehumping her newly born now adult son.

The Avengers, somehow, have bigge rproblems as a spaceship, a t-rex and god knows what else are appearing outside as time itslef breaks down. And the ensuing actiona s most of the avengers go to deal with it… is pretty awesome. Like the scene with beast were this comic not what it was, this would be pretty badass. I mean iron man punches a dinosaur, vision lasers a ufo, wanda hexes a medivil witch hunting knight. It's all pretty dope stuff.

The dope stuff ends for a second.. with some racisit sterotyping.. and with Cap succumbing to the gas leak.

Yes le'ts not assume the mostly naked man who mysteriously appeared inside your friend's uterus and has been buidling some science fiction tower in your house is behind time suddenly going apeshit. ONE OF THE 616'S GREATST STRATEGESTS EVERYBODY

So while Marcus finishes his machine, the rest of the avengers join the fight and while Vision takes out some lasers, Wonder man gets attacked by a prehistoric snake… and again while the rest of this comic is pure agony.. we get something really awesome. Like… all time i'm going to bring this up when possible awesome. Something that dosent' remotely make this worth it but helps keep me coherent enough to finish instead of just banging my head on the keyboard a few times and calling it a day.

Yeah you saw it here.. unless i'm halucinating this from the stress: Wonder Man just fast balled special a large prehistoic snake into a ptreodactyls' throat to free iron man from it's cluttches. Even in it's darkest hours shit like this reminds me why I love comics.. and it somehow gets better as thor's solution to all of this?

BEHOLD THE THORNADO! Forget going to the head he should've just done THIS to thanos! This may be one of the coolest, dumbest, most awesome things i've ever seen. It also dosen't make this comic worth it but LORDY this is fun to look at.

We get some more as Jarvis, the team's butler instead of an ai here, cold cocks a musketeer and jocasta helps beat witch hating knight.. btu sadly the fun has to end as we get back to marcus.

I am crying tears of agony right now.. not a joke. I just… my god this is fucking painful to read. Someone WROTE that. I know they were desperate to rewrite things, but .. SOMEONE THOUGHT THAT LINE WORKED. Who.. what.. who what… AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. tyghb hnhygghyghb vghkjklghg… I.. I had to stop banging my head on the keyboard I don't want to get more of a headache from this shit. Which sadly means I have to finish this. So hawkeye UNDERSTANDABLY thinks the almost naked man attacked his best friend and destroys the machine. Marcus cries then tries bating hawkeye , then the rest of the avengers into killing him

Sadly.. they don't as his victim stands in their way and we get an explination.. and if you thought I was mad before, I have not BEGUn to rage yet. Okay so Marcus is the Son of Immortus, whose also a lot: So Immortus is the possible future verison of Kang the Conquerer, avengers foe and soon to be mcu big bad, a time traveler who conquers throughout time and space, hence the possible future self. He apparently died even though that makes no sense, but we don't have time to unpack that.

Marcus was born when Immortus saved a woman from a shipwreck then …

Okay first off FUCKING EWW showing Immortus raping this woman on panel. Second , unlike with Carol they basically acknowledge this is rape,.. yet still romanticize it. RAPE IS FINE IF YOU LOVE HIM. So much horseshit and so painful to. Like.. did we need EXTRA rape in this?

And I do mean extra as we cinally get to marcus' OWN rape of Carol Danvers>... speaking of which ...

Yeah… not only do we see his rape on screen too.. but they trry to protray him as diffrent.. despite unlike Immortus just kidnapping carol, using her for his own ends, and when he couldn't win her INFLUCING HER MIND. Immortus RAPED her. He brainwashed her into loving him, and into becoming his own incest baby. And when you look into his sick, fucked up thought patterns, you can see just how selfish he is: his thorughts are "I need someone strong enough to rapid birth me" not "I wonder how she'll feel about this" and he makes her love him when he can't get her to naturally. Marcus is a FUCKING monster and the story tries to paint hi mas sympathetic! He's a fucking rapist who put all of reality in danger because he was bored! and his only excuse for not helping was "Would you help if I told you I was the son of your enemy". Well probably not at first but they might've if you reached out. You coudl bring peole there, bring cap there, and give him a few weeks to get to know you. The avengers have the genius of tony stark and hank pym.. well not today, gas leak and all but usually! They coudl've helped you! Instead you raped a woman because you wanted to! Because at the end of the day it was easier to just rape your way into this world and because you WANTED to. And Jim shooter thought THIS was okay? I get he had to change gears but THIS wa shis first thought? and everyone went along with this? All of this can fuck straight off. Originally when I started writing this it was only tied for the worst thing i've read but nothing, not even the blatant family guy transphobia that once held the spot has made me this. fucking . angery. They had a character rape a woman and had the fucking GALL to try to go "oh but he's so sad and lonely". So was the Phantom of the Opera and you know what? He murdered a bunch of people even did a kidnapping but he didn't RAPE christine! He had weird conseual sex that produced a son accoridng ot the sequel but he didn't. You did. You violated a woman because you deep down wanted to and then told the story in a way to make you come out the hero while still BLATANTLY mentoining you manipulated her. It was right there, as Carol will rightly point out in the sequel. Marcus.. is a rapist and the story treats him as the hero

So Marcus explains he has to leave forever.. and….

Yeah you just saw that. Marcus leaves.. and they LET Carol go with him despite CLEARLY not being hersel fat the itme, having hated this whole idea before seeing marcus and "suddenly" being infatuated with him. At the very least despite you know, helpng with the stupid tower plan, Tony is clearly like "what the actual fuck" and it's VERY clear he dosen't remotely think this is a good idea, want a part in this or want this to happen. Thor though? thor is like "ZOUNDS I'LL TAKE YOU THERE YOU WANNA GO THERE I'LL TAKE YOU TO THAT GREAT PLACE OF RAPE AND MORE MOLESTATION!"

And all we get of possible regret.. is this

Go jerk off in a lake, both of you. Oh and in case your wondering, as I did ther eis some followup next issue and both simon and tony CLEARLY doubnt what they've done. Which somehow makes it worse as it's clear at least one of the writers knew this was wrong but coudln't stop it.

Thor: God of Dickheads. Yeah as you can tell this issue is a disaster. I'm sure there were letters against it but most dammingly was the essay the rape of miss marvel published by one Carol A Strickland, which nicely details how utterly gross this was with less mental breakdowns than me but just as much anger.

Thankfully her stay wasn't long. And trust me in comics it can sometimes take DECADES for a bad decision to be overturned. The stupid ediotrially mandated retcon that Sam Wilson be a pimp took until the mid goddamn 2010's for a writer to formally say "this didn't happen", and shockingly easily and in a way that could've been done long ago. This only took a year as one of the many pissed off.. was X-Men's CHris Claremont. See before this Chris had written Carols' solo, so the first chance he got he fixed this and just to make sure nothing else horrible happened spirtied carol's body and mind over to Uncanny X-Men. HOw'd he do it? We'll find out next time. As for this issue: it's terrible, you shouldn't seek it out, and you should stay far away form it. You shoudlnt' forget it exist so shit like this dosen't happen again, and it should serve as a dark reminder of the worst comics is capable of.. but you don't have to go through it yourself. It's agonizing, terrible and gross and I feel bad for having read it and everyone involved feels as bad as they fucking should have fo rhaving made it. Thanks for reading, sorry it had to be about this.

#avengers #captain marvel #carol danvers #thor #iron man #captain america #beast #janet van dyne #the wasp #yellowjacket #hank pym #wonder man #jocasta #horrible

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