D&D Disaster.

Wizards of the Coast (WotC) which do Magic the Gathering and D&D sent out a few emails last week has got the whole Pen and Paper RPG industry riled up with 10000 account cancellations, 100+ YouTube Videos, and major companies lawyering up. All since January 4th!
Wizards is owned by Hasbro, the big game company with a reputation for breaking toy and game franchises by pushing the fan base just that bit too hard. Both Hasbro and Wizards have new CEO’s from Microsoft that think D&D is under monetized. No names will be given, we don’t need the lawsuit. 

Last year to stay afloat they sold 30 sets of Magic the gathering cards, 6 times normal. This prevented Hasbro from going broke in the Covid crisis but it its knocked the market for Magic the Gathering cards down long term. Inflation works for trading cards just like it works for dollars. With the cash cow of Magic the Gathering maxed out they turned to Dungeons & Dragons.

They produced several new works or new editions of older works. Updating to 5th edition Spelljammer their magic ‘space’ adventure and Dragonlance; one of the fantasy worlds. Both seemed poorly done. Spelljammer lacked the ship to ship combat rules in the first version. The Adventure included was nothing new and repetitive and one of the new race was a copy of another D&D space games race with a different name and another were flying apes that were promptly labeled racist.
Dragonlance 5e also disappointed but I don’t know the details. A few people quit or were dismissed.

There are a lot of people out side WotC that produce D&D content under a free license from WotC. This is called the Open Game License 1.0 created back in 2000 and 1.0a a minor update. The OGL was created when both WotC and Hasbro were making losses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Game_License

The license saved D&D. The problem was that producing the core books is profitable but producing extra game content: maps; adventures; equipment guides; extra monsters, NPC’s, magic items all makes losses. The OGL allows small companies to make that material, out side WotC, taking on the risk, the losses and the profits. Some grew quite large almost matching WotC in size. WotC did not do variant rules and different genres. WotC does not do low fantasy, modern, Science Fiction (except Spelljammer which is close).

Paizo one of the outside companies owned by a former WotC CEO does both a different, “improved” Rule set called Pathfinder. It uses the OGL 1.0a for both Pathfinder and its science fiction version Starfinder. Paizo was created because WotC made a 4th edition that tried to work much more like an RPG computer game. It was hard on Game Masters, so Paizo which owned the major game magazine at the time requested solutions. That lead to Pathfinder, named after the magazine. The solutions were put to WotC but they were not ready to end 4th edition.

WotC later created 5th edition which was successful. Using the OGL 1.0a. That’s the version that has become wildly popular because of Critical Roll, Stranger Things on Netflix and the up coming movie “Honor Among Thieves”. 2022 was a good year for D&D, and all the ancillary companies.

Part of this boom was driven by the success of VTT’s Virtual Table Top software. These allow people to play board games, card games, miniature games, Role playing games as if they were in the same room with each other. It also makes it easy to find willing players for games that are not popular locally. It was perfect for the Covid 19 crisis. WotC is working on its own VTT which is reported to have an AI game master/ referee. That would be powerful. It should sell. So why did the do what they did as outlined below? It makes no sense. 

Late last year WotC announced a new version called, provisionally OneD&D. I’m in the play test though I don’t have a group to play test with but character creation counts. So far the rules look OK.

In the process Wizards came under pressure from the Woke world and decided that the word ‘race’ was racist and banned it. They are now using species. That’s wrong because species can’t interbreed and races can. D&D races definitely do. I’ve pointed that out to Wizards in a survey/ questionnaire, adding that the whole idea of favored, superior or inferior races, comes from Charles Darwin’s second book called Favored Races. Its the origin of modern racism and eugenics and its taught in every school. A similar comment on a Facebook group got blocked. The race/ racism question does not split the community. Paiso and most others are also a little woke or getting pressure from the same lobby group.

There were comments in the OneD&D work and surveys indicating that a new OGL would be included. Everyone agrees that it was needed. A few new classes, monsters and rules need to be added.

In December around Christmas day WotC emailed out NDA’s. Contracts and a new OGL 1.1 followed and the dragon crap hit the fan. OGL 1.1 arrived December saying its official start date is the 4th of January and must be signed by the 13th of January. It threatened legal action if not signed.

To say the reception was bad is an understatement. Some people have closed their business, millions of dollars of projects have been canceled or shelved, thousands hit social media to complain. The OGL 1.1 is not an OGL it reads like an EULA, end user license agreement, the thing everyone clicks without reading when you activate a computer game.

• It says if you don’t sign you face legal action.
• You can’t use any D&D Intellectual Property if you don’t sign.
• You must report you revenue above a threshold.
• It de-authorises the OGL 1.0 and 1.0a. That’s the big problem.
• If you do sign up you get a label to stick on your products.
• Virtual table tops (VTT) could not use D&D if they don’t sign up and could not use non WotC D&D material if they do sign up. That wont work! Its a probable breach of contract. Some VTT’s are overseas and the EU loves suing US companies.
• If you sign up WotC owns all your stuff and can use it freely without payment anywhere. Competing directly with your sales. 
• If you make over 750000 in Revenue (Not profit) you must pay 25% of every dollar beyond that number. Someone at Wizards seems to think only 10 people meet this threshold but its thousands of businesses.
• If you make over 750000 in Revenue (Not profit) from Kickstarter you must pay 20% of every dollar beyond that number.
• WotC can change the deal at any time.
• The signer waved the rights to sue and all disagreements are resolved in a Washington state court without a jury.

It is horrendously and hilariously one sided. All stick, no carrot. Needless to say no-one is known to have signed it by now, the due date. Several copies leaked before the 4th and everyone declared war. Several news organizations reported on it. 

https://gizmodo.com/dnd-wizards-of-the-coast-ogl-1-1-open-gaming-license-1849950634

https://www.ign.com/articles/wizards-of-the-coasts-new-dungeons-dragons-license-ogl-controversy

Note; Canceling the OGL 1.0a will impact more that just people producing support material for D&D. There are movies that use it, books, computer games, Minecraft servers, hundreds of YouTubers. The Traveller game has supplements that use the OGL in spite of it being a different game system. That’s lawsuit insurance. The entire D20 system, 100+ game brands, is under the OGL 1.0a.

In response to the leaks WotC sales portal D&D Beyond came out with a single Twitter post saying they are aware of the concern.
“We know you have questions about the OGL and we will be sharing more soon. Thank you for your patience.”
Jan 11. Nothing since. Normal live streams from D&D Beyond did not occur the next day.

Several people on Facebook said it a draft copy and was not supposed to be sent but it was sent with and after NDA’s and with contracts. The Games manager at Kickstarter confirmed its real. As did Kobold press and today Paizo. Two of the biggest players in the field.
WotC and D&D related discord servers banned any discussion of it. 

Here is an anonymous leak from D&D Beyond staffer that there is significant disagreements between the rank and file workers and upper management. Unless the bottom line falls and money is lost the management are “…still hoping the community forgets, moves on, and they can still push though.”
People are canceling their D&D Beyond accounts though I’m not sure that would work for me. WotC management is hoping the movie ‘Honor among thieves’ will bring in new younger people. The average D&D player is ‘old’, 24 to 26 years of age. There are calls to boycott the movie. 

Half the staff at WotC are still on holidays. The real fun starts when they all get back to the office next week.

The community is responding with hundreds of YouTube videos, tweets, blog posts.
Its only been 9 days yet in that time. Lawsuits have been filed. The people that created OGL 1.0 were found and interviewed on live streams. That was not hard, most of them still work in the companies that WotC threatened to sue. Did no-one in management think to check?
https://youtu.be/MDuHjpwx5Q4

[warning hours long.]

Web sites have been created or up dated. At least a dozen people are very publicly designing new systems that work and feel like D&D but do not use all the IP from Wizards. Some are doing it on YouTube and twitch live streams.

Paizo was suspiciously silent until today but then came out with another new OGL. This is called the ORC, Open RPG Creative License. The team writing it include the team that wrote the OGL1.0 /1.0a ! One owns a multinational law firm; another owns Paizo and is the former millionaire CEO of WotC that Hasbro bought out.  Almost everyone out side WotC (and perhaps some on the staff) have signed up.
https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6si7v

It seems no one signed OGL 1.1 and many have willingly breached the NDA’s.

Can the management at Wizards of the Coast back down? If no-one signed the license then they will need to come up with a new contract. However the inside information is that these managers are all about the money so there is not really anywhere for them to go. Industry margins are so tight that even if everyone signed up, most could not pay without doing bankrupt. The money WotC is going after is a financial illusion. 25% exceeds all the after printing value of most books and leaves no money for advertising, shipping and profit. Margins are really 3-5% not 25- 30% seen in part of the computer game industry where the management people came from.

If WotC survives and backs down it may come with management resignation. They will be well paid to leave.
Resignations at the lower level would have the opposite effect. It would wreck WotC. Most artists, writers, web designers at WotC have worked for the other companies in the field. They would have other jobs to go to. Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro face a chance of bankruptcy. In that case the IP will be sold off to either a well funded fan, one of WotC’s rivals/ offshoots, or China (Though China has cash flow problems too).

To call this an epic case of over reach is an under statement. Someone at the top seems to believe capitalism = monopoly + exploitation. The karma is about to get real.