#it's always a tradeoff

[utilitycaster]

OGL 1.2 summary

Finally have had a chance to look through properly. I do strongly suggest following people like Gabe Hicks and James Haeck, who are game designers with extensive experience working with WoTC but neither of whom are currently employed by them; Hicks also has done extensive design on other TTRPGs (as showcased in Dimension 20's Shriek Week; they are also a developer for Motherlands RPG and worked on the Uk'otoa tabletop game). Both have had pretty thorough and thoughtful criticism that is grounded in the facts of the matter.

Also: I am doing my best but I am not a lawyer. Please defer to verified lawyers if my paraphrasing is incorrect. Additionally, I am rephrasing things in simple terms, so do not jump to conclusions based on my word choice; if you are looking at the highly specific legal implications of a word you should refer to the actual OGL 1.2 document. And, most importantly, All of this can be commented on at this survey link.

In general:

The core rules, not including classes/races or specific spells, will be covered by a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 license. This includes things like ability checks, saving throws, the core stats stuff, conditions (prone, exhausted, etc) and creature types (but not the creatures themselves). The full SRD 5.1 is available here if you want to check for yourself.

It affirms the fan content policy (never affected by 1.1, but worth mentioning given how often it came up; Actual Play is covered here)

D&D Beyond and DMs Guild are, also as previously, under their own standards that are available for review on those sites. (I think I may have made some errors regarding DMs Guild being a WoTC property with its own rules in the past, but it is and you can review some of their policies here.

The OGL 1.0 is deauthorized, which means that once the OGL 1.2 (or whatever version is ultimately finalized) takes effect, new works must abide by OGL 1.0 rules; however, older materials originally created under 1.0 are still valid under 1.0. The full revocation was perhaps the most problematic part of OGL 1.1, so this is a good step forward and means existing 3PP materials you have can continue to be sold as is.

The actual OGL 1.2 stuff

This applies specifically to commercial content using material in the WoTC SRD not covered by the CC-BY 4.0 license created after this license goes into affect. Again. Does not affect streaming or other fanworks including free homebrew; does not affect other games; does not affect material published in the past.

It also only applies to static published materials and to VTTs; VTTs have a separate section.

Third party works under the OGL 1.2 are owned by their creators in full (this means no possible claims from WoTC to royalties or the IP created by those third parties). There is a clause stating that in the case of unintentionally similar content (the "3PP creates a fire-based druid around the same time as Tasha's came out" case I mentioned previously) a lawsuit may only be for financial damages, not injunction (which I understand to mean things like emotional impact etc) and must rely on proof that WoTC "knowingly and intentionally" copied the work. This is, from what I am given to understand, extremely standard in copyright law because coincidences do happen and people do try to sue over them, and has been deliberately rephrased to affirm that WoTC does not own the third-party content provided the terms of the OGL 1.2 are maintained.

Works must also indicate they are derived from OGL content using appropriate signifiers as put forth by WoTC, clearly state they are third-party and not endorsed by WoTC (this is why Griffon's Saddlebag has been foaming at the mouth) and creators must be in a position to enter into the terms of the license (of age or has had a legal guardian review the terms as proxy), cannot infringe on material that is not in the SRD, cannot violate the law; and there is a morality clause regarding no hateful conduct, the decision of which is made by WoTC.

Additionally, the OGL 1.2's terms cannot be modified, other than the specific details of how to attribute, and some legal pieces at the end regarding notifying creators.

VTT Policy

SRD materials are permitted in VTTs these do not and have never included official images as the SRD does not have images. Fan images are permitted. This information must be static; stat blocks are permitted, but, per the example given, animations such as that of a magic missile are not.

My thoughts/editorial:

I will direct you to James Haeck about VTTs. I have said before I don't really like VTTs. I don't even have a D&D Beyond subscription. I went to cancel mine and found that I was actually just using the free tools (I've bought some books through D&D Beyond, to be fair but I have not subscribed to share them and I have under 6 characters). Personally, I find myself in the awkward position of "I love theater of the mind and imagination in TTRPGs and so I think having an animated magic missile is kind of stupid; honestly I'm not even into D&D Beyond animating the dice rolls" and also "you shouldn't disallow things at a business level solely on the belief that they are kind of stupid." So: worth providing feedback on that one! Also, more relevantly, is this only about licensed D&D content? Can you provide animation for your VTT if you're doing things in a different game, just, once there's SRD content in play on the field, you must stop? Can you provide animation in D&D as long as it's not material covered in the OGL, ie, can you have a sword swinging animation or can the player sprites move rather than just appear in a space, neither of which are unique concepts to D&D (vs. magic missile which is)? In summary: my feelings aside re: VTTs, clarification is in order and I will be providing the latter feedback.

Morality/Hateful conduct clauses are complicated. I absolutely agree that I do not trust a corporation to determine what's hateful. I also 100% do not trust the community either, and I 110% do not trust people who say the community will police itself. I've been open in the past about how I don't fucking trust the D&D community on Jewish depictions (spoiler: actually, non-Jewish people handwringing about goblins, golems, and phylacteries has often been extremely condescending and misinformed, and while obviously Jewish people are not a monolith, my primarily Jewish D&D tables have never taken issue with these things as presented within WoTC materials, but have taken issue with fan-created depictions, and I'm tbh hardcore side-eyeing the Hasbrodeus module for like 20 reasons, of which that is one). However, the same is not necessarily true for other minority groups, notably PoC, of whom there have been some quite harmful depictions; and I think most of us are aware that morality clauses have long been exploited to label queer depictions as obscene: I don't have a good answer for this other than "needs more specificity." A good start for the latter issue would be spelling out bigotry (ie, "discriminatory on the basis of sexual orientation or gender presentation") and providing a clear process for appeal. I do understand where WoTC is coming from given the whole issue with the new TSR but this is incredibly complicated and impossible to outline in a one-size-fits-all clause. Worth noting, however: DMs Guild, again, has separate and more rigid standards. This does not mean the horny gay vampire game that was removed from it would be permitted to be self-published under the OGL 1.2; it also does not indicate that it wouldn't, because, again, lacking in specificity on what "obscene" means.

I find the choice to make the core mechanics Creative Commons but not the class structure (which is under the OGL 1.2 proper) to be a really interesting one, and I mean this in a neutral-to-complimentary way. Not sure what the implications are, but excited to find out, because I think it might lead to more interesting indie games that can capitalize on the widely known core combat/ability check mechanics of D&D but develop wildly different class structures.

DnD Shorts continues to shit the bed in the extreme; for real, do not listen to this dude. His twitter is currently a wild self-contradictory mess, his journalistic integrity never existed, and he is literally a clickbaity mediocre white man who has probably been playing D&D for less time than you. I understand that not everyone learns how to determine trustworthiness of a source online but like...why would you trust a guy who has no reason to have insider information and every reason to want clicks and attention. He isn't even a creator affected by the OGL (unlike, say, Hicks or Haeck), and some of what he said was literally obviously false to anyone who's filled out a UA or OneD&D survey.

Honestly, in general, I think the end takeaway really has been "try to determine the motivations and concrete actions of people talking about this." Are they pushing a specific game (rather than generally providing alternatives for those looking)? Do they run channels that don't rely on the OGL 1.0 OR 1.1/1.2 in any way but do rely on clicks? Are they a creator genuinely concerned for their livelihood, or are they a person who thinks that when a game company gets sufficiently large (or even when they don't...see someone asking a tiny Native-owned TTRPG for their SRD) IP laws should no longer apply?

[tubbytarchia]

You know what the world needs :

The rancher’s cuddling

Just fluff and cuddles (they deserve it)

Wouldn’t that be adorable 🥰 (p.s i love your art. i squeal and kick my feet every time I see it❤️)

I'm 2 months late to this um I hope this suffices!! Thank you so very much for the kind words 🥺 Your art is also awesome!! It makes me so happy that you like mine as well ❤️

[yinyuedijun]

aventurine banner released overnight for me and I'm suffering bc I cannot pull without my partner around to hold my hand but they're at work 😔

[bethanydelleman]

People always laughing at those "dummies" in the past rubbing lead on their faces and thinking that bleeding is medicine.

It is highly likely we will live long enough to learn about the lead we've been rubbing on our faces and the thing we thought was medicine but was actually as effective as bleeding.

[riddlerosehearts]

vil/idia valentine's day headcanons 💜💙

(as usual this post ended up more detailed and lengthy than i originally planned it to be, but i hope someone will enjoy it because i love this silly little ship of mine.)

idia has never liked valentine's day. it always seemed so pointless and frivolous, and there's so many people out talking and holding hands and kissing. probably all judging him for being alone. the only reason he cares at all about it is because many of the games he plays have limited-time valentine's events, so he usually just stays in his room all day playing through them.

and sure, idia loves a good romance anime, and he has more than a few favorite ships he thinks should totally be canon, but that's all just fiction. it's an escape from a reality where true love doesn't exist.

or so he used to believe. he never thought he'd find someone he really wanted to be with, or that they'd want him in return. not until, somehow, vil became that person. all the dating sims in the world couldn't have prepared him for this.

he knows he can't just hide out in his room on valentine's day when he has someone so important to spend it with now. but how can he give vil the happiness he deserves?

he could build a high-end custom laptop from scratch for him, or buy him a bouquet of his favorite flowers and take him to the fanciest restaurant in all of twisted wonderland, even though the latter idea utterly terrifies him. he could use his tech skills and his family's money to give vil the world, but if he knows his boyfriend at all, he knows that he probably doesn't want anything that extravagant.

(and besides, if the vil schoenheit tried to go out in public with his partner on valentine's day they would just get swarmed by paparazzi and idia is sure he'd roll a 1 and fail the stealth check required to avoid them. yeah, that's a quest path he will not be choosing anytime soon.)

idia knows it would be best to get vil something simple, but still thoughtful enough to make him feel special. and in the shoujo manga he likes, people always give handmade chocolate as a gift. but his cooking skill is stuck at level 1, and even if he could grind it up to 100, vil wouldn't want a box of chocolates loaded with sugar and calories. it can't just be some normie thing either--it has to stand out from the flowers and candies and love letters he gets swamped with by his fans.

remembering how vil has praised his gear designs for ortho before, he decides to buy some purple and gold beads and string them together to make a necklace. in the middle he places a small heart-shaped bead, adding an LED light inside that makes it pop with a subtle glow.

he also makes a handmade card that with a design that lights up at the press of a button. i imagine he'd put a pixel heart inside of it similarly to this zelda themed pop-out card i found:

they're both very simple projects for idia, but he feels certain that vil will love them.

and as for vil, he thinks valentine's day is a lovely holiday. it's an opportunity for people to celebrate the beauty of love, and to relax and take better care of themselves. even if you're single, you can still pamper yourself and celebrate with a friend. vil always tries to take the day off from any obligations if he can, though sometimes there are things he just can't slack off on.

this year, though, he absolutely will not be doing any photoshoots or interviews. this year he has a boyfriend, and yes he knows that idia hates the holiday but in his mind that's even more of a reason why he needs to be there for him. he won't allow idia to spend even one more second feeling lonely and unloved on valentine's day.

he initially has no idea what he should get idia, and ends up getting laughed at by cater who catches him googling "valentine's gifts for gamers" on his phone. look, just because he's acted in a few romance films and is considered a teen heartthrob by countless people who don't even know him, doesn't mean he automatically knows everything about dating.

cater and idia are friends, though, and cater knows enough about what he likes to be able to help vil pick a couple things out.

the first thing vil settles on is a lego building set that depicts a bouquet of roses. it would be fun for the two of them to build them together, and he wouldn't have to worry about idia inevitably forgetting to water them.

he also gets a card that's even dorkier than the one idia made for him--i'm specifically picturing this:

he tucks a note inside of it, with a short list of just a few of idia's best qualities. he hopes it can remind idia of why he likes him and wants to be with him and not someone else.

and lastly, he purchases a pack of bath bombs made to look like colorful D20 dice--relaxing, good for the skin, and aesthetically in line with idia's interests.

when valentine's day comes, they exchange gifts in vil's dorm room at pomefiore, where they've planned to spend the day. vil thinks the things idia has made for him are beautiful and he tells him as much.

but when idia recieves his gifts, he starts mumbling something about how a weirdo shut-in otaku like him doesn't deserve to be seen as a viable love interest and how vil must have had a confusion status debuff on him this whole time.

vil: "excuse me? you're not insulting my SSR boyfriend, are you? you don't think that i would try to max out the affection points for your route if i wasn't sure you were the perfect option for me?"

idia, who just knows the tips of his hair are turning pink: "s-sorry... i ran into a glitch that triggered the wrong dialogue. what i meant to say was, of course you picked a genius like me to be your player 2 instead of some lame normie who you'd have zero percent compatibility with! how could anyone but me match up to your top-tier stats?"

vil just smiles and rolls his eyes.

idia then reveals that he actually did get vil something sweet, but originally felt too nervous to give it to him.

it's a pack of candy flavored lip glosses. vil laughs and insists that they'll have to kiss enough times to taste test each flavor. idia's whole head of hair turns pink.

they spend the whole day together, doing things like watching an old romcom that vil adores or playing a co-op game that idia picked for them, and of course putting the lego rose bouquet together.

they also eat a nice meal together in a private place that vil set up for them in pomefiore--and all the other students know they'll incur their dorm leader's wrath if they dare to bother him on his date.

[junosmindpalace]

To follow up, WHO decided to make this scene a hundred times worse

[machinavocis]

ok is this whole "remember to TAP IN your eye creams lest you accidentally create MORE WRINKLES via Excessive Skin Wiggling" an actual real thing or

[july-19th-club]

hideous! so my insomnia is mostly brought on by anxiety, right? well last night i went to bed at around 11 like i usually do but didn't actually fall asleep until well after midnight. but i didn't know that until i woke up briefly at approximately 3am, because the whole time in between i was having a stress dream that it was the next day and i hadn't slept at all

[subconsciousmysteries]

what I like about 7s is you can tell when they are fuckboys unless you have a room temperature IQ. maybe it is a natural talent that only I have (I really doubt this but I dont wanna insult ppl who've been victimized by 7 fuckboys). however it is just so obvious to me when a 7 dude is a fuckboy trying to taste all his options vs. when he is ripe and ready for commitment. the way that 7s show you bluntly when they are bored with you by ignoring you or only responding with one liners is actually a good thing. I find 7s to be very transparent, very obvious about what they want from you even if they don't directly communicate it with words. they are not capable of leading me on because they never give me the impression that they think I'm special in the first place. they never immerse themselves in my world and make me feel special because they're too preoccupied with their own.

meanwhile other types of men cough cough withdrawns are confusing as hell to the point it feels like manipulation and deception. they can larp like they are all innocent when they are the world's biggest fuckboys. they become deeply connected to you as a friend, they show you that they have a crush on you that they are too scared to act on, and they act like they're ready for exclusivity to get you into bed when often they are not. with words and with showing a genuine interest in your world, they make you think you are extremely special to them, yet many of their actions (or lack thereof) imply that you are not.

no one talks about how 7s with the 1 line can grow up and develop an intense dutifulness towards relationships. the meme is that 7s struggle with commitment but in my experience it really depends on the 7 in question. relational commitment issues are a lot more complicated than "lol 7". any type can have them and its usually rooted in trauma or plain old spiritual weakness.

see my tags for more

[unproduciblesmackdown]

mused on some thesis about how billions uses Indignity to illustrate that something someone does has failed / gone wrong in one way or another, and how the way this punishment is an Emotional one means that it can't land if the character just doesn't Feel that punished by it, or at least doesn't like attribute the supposed failure to something inherent enough to them to particularly stew on it, see for example people heightening/escalating their efforts to embarass someone if even that person doesn't Seem to sufficiently externally react in embarassment. winston able to truck along while (a) consciously crafting or maintaining some persona, of eternal and irrefutable dignity or whatever else is associated with "merit"/status, isn't much of a priority, when to him his skills speak for themself even though to others this is about their own merit in recognizing independently if winston's skills Happen to have use, and putting him down if he tries to speak to that anyways, and (b) he's also just able to move along from L's handed to him, whether he thinks it was warranted (like that he'll accept it doesn't count if he only thought it but didn't say it) or not (why can't you count to loyalty), when even if this resilience To How Others Treat Him isn't exactly peak realistic, that he thinks of himself in such a way that he doesn't need to be striving for some paramount official status, or think he's defined by never failing or indeed never possibly able to be seen within a "wow undignified / embarassing" framework so long as this winningness is recognized, or so long as anything is anything, is sure feasible enough.

but anyways thought about it like this thesis is just "i am cringe but i am free" like yeah that works

[mousegirlheart]

absolutely no-one:

my legs:

[thisgodwontforgiveyou]

the only part of skyrim id say is unilaterally bad is its writing like they really just did not know what they were doing

[thecindercrow]

sometimes a well-meaning warning about something that fails to provide baseline information to guard against the thing it’s warning about actually just comes of as sensationalist instead of all that helpful

[rinisbowen]

so i know rini not singing “gotta go my own way” in season 2 was a missed opportunity. like it absolutely would’ve changed the gravity of how things did go down, and i really appreciated the emotional weight of the scene we did get if it had to end that way, but also- it was a perfect opportunity for the song... it fits so well with their arc at that point in the story. they even have necklaces that can be sadly removed and placed into the palm of one’s hand.

but what if someone sings it in season 3?

like idk when we found out season 3 was a summer season i kinda had a moment of like... wow wait a second maybe this is exactly why we barely got any high school musical 2 songs in season 2. maybe they were intentionally saving them. 

like the odds that “gotta go my own way” is one of the songs they would want to use for season 3 are very uncertain... given the dancers had ‘pool rehearsals’ i’d be willing to bet we perhaps see some rendition of maybe “fabulous”. (my sincerest apologies to those who wanted seb’s full version of fabulous) but i don’t think i’m thinking about something out of the question. 

“gotta go my own way” talking about “i’ve gotta leave but i’ll miss you”. i want to be happy but things are not working the way we wanted and i can’t do this anymore. “we might find our place in this world someday, but at least for now... i gotta go my own way”. goodness gracious this song is so fitting for rini’s breakup in season 2 but i’ll shut up about them for the moment, i apologize. that’s a strong message for a very solid breakup moment... and well- with the tagline being ‘love is an open door’ i don’t think the idea that we see another big breakup is out of the question. but there’s also the context of the movie where troy and gabriella get back together and so even if we see a breakup that doesn’t automatically mean it’s permanent depending on the implications of the scene.

i don’t think we’re going to see any hsm3 songs in season 3. they’d be best saving a lot of that for the rini / kourtney / big red graduation season. but i do think this is the perfect chance for them to do something with some of the unused hsm2 numbers, and maybe some of the ones they touched on in the medley. 

the only hsm2 songs i don’t see as having any real chance of returning are “bet on it” (ricky gave that song everything that needed to be given, i don’t think they’re going to bring it back even in new circumstances.), and “you are the music in me” (rini did it to a pretty full extent in the 2.01 medley in comparison to a lot of the other shorter song pieces, and then the cast did a rendition ooc for the finale / wrap day, so i think the song has been used.) 

they could pull out the troy/sharpay version of “you are the music” in me... i suppose? i’ve seen people joking on twitter about ricky / lily doing the troy / sharpay “you are the music in me”, because lily has the chaotic energy to pull off the over the top sharpay moment, and ricky has the lost but competent vibes of troy. and i mean if you want to point out the ways lily’s not quite right for ricky then juxtaposing that song that fits his relationship with nini and that he sang wholeheartedly with nini in the ballad style on his guitar to him putting on that mess of a production number type ordeal with lily... it’s not a bad concept. but it’s not one i see the writers pulling out of the hat because well- frankly it feels like a waste of time in such a short season. 

but yeah idk. the reason i mention we might see some of the medley numbers (aside from you are the music in me) in full, is because imdb has episode 1 as being titled ‘all for one’ and as such i would be quite surprised not to see them singing “all for one”. and that was in the medley. also- i know “fabulous” is in the medley and i think it’s possible we see its return as per my earlier mention of pool rehearsals with the dancers. i mean they could also just be rehearsing in the pool just like- for a general pool scene that’s not a musical number but... idk. 

the show does tend to focus towards the original songs, which is entirely understandable, and we’re dealing with a lot of sources to pull from to some uncertain degree, so i don’t think we’ll get a ton of hsm2 songs, but i do think that we’ll get a good few to go with the summer season energy. it’s the summer movie- it would be a waste if they didn’t. 

[sharkieboi]

i just had the most Autistic-to-Autistic conversation with my car repair person - he gave me the full How It’s Made about what part he was repairing and exactly what was wrong with my car I gave him the “tell me exactly what is being done and how long it will take okay thank you very much i will meet you at the specified time”

[kittykatinabag]

Holy shit living with a regular tobacco smoker and an occasional marijuana smoker (who tbh will probably regress to indulging more than she has in the past nine months) is absolute pain.

I'm probably going to have to get rid of half my already small wardrobe whenever I get the chance to move somewhere else.