The Secret Economics of D&D

What happens when a company tries a huge experiment with their most famous game? And what happens when they change their mind?

Here's the video.

How this video happened

I knew for a while that massive innovative businesses were being built around D&D. But the deeper I got, the more I realized this was one of the first "secret economics" videos I've done to truly have an economic angle, thanks to the IP experimentation with the O.G.L.

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Here's a link to the commentary video (for some paid tiers). Reaction felt a bit long this week, so it's the most interesting fact I had to cut from each interviewee.

Can you actually copyright a game?

If you've watched the above video, you know that the narrative engine is the creation of (and subsequent rumored revocation) of the Open Game License (the O.G.L.). The story is that the O.G.L. gave creators of all types — long before "creator" was a trendy job title — an opportunity to create content around D&D without fear of a lawsuit.

But could they have done that even without the O.G.L.?

This was actually the meat of my interviews with the two D&D-playing lawyers kind enough to speak with me: Chris Seaman and Bob Tarantino (more about their work is linked down below). I decided it was a bit too in the weeds, and a bit too much of a gray area, for the video proper, but it's an interesting question: the O.G.L. let people create content and spin-off D&D game rules, but could Wizards/Hasbro have even stopped them if they wanted?

Those of you who are familiar with board game trivia may know that games like Monopoly have patents, but many of these patents are more legal arcana than precedent — in many cases, it's become clear that you can't really protect the "rules" to a game (ie, stuff like roll configurations or hit points in D&D). You can mainly protect IP (say, character names, art, or logos). So while the O.G.L. may feel revolutionary, there's some question as to whether it did anything.

In reality, it's all about vibes.

"The O.G.L. license will essentially be our promise to you, that we're not going to sue you," Chris told me.

Bob echoed that: "We're not just sending out a press release and saying, oh, we're not going to sue you. We're creating a license."

While the O.G.L. may have claimed to give up certain rights it didn't necessarily have, it also created a climate that basically said, "we're not TSR. We're totally chill and we want to party with you."

This extends to the fan content approach as well — though I didn't make the connection as explicit as I'd like, it all represents an overall ethos of non-litigiousness that let D&D's creative community flourish.

As importantly, this was in contrast to the old TSR days as well as other board game companies. Chris spent some time contrasting D&D to Magic: The Gathering and Settlers of Catan. Settlers is known for being a bit more lawsuit happy — and the threat of a lawsuit can discourage creativity as much as a successful lawsuit. With regards to Magic, MTG even patented card turning methods.

When Wizards released the O.G.L. under a Creative Commons license as an apology for the controversy of 2022/2023, it did create a meaningful beachhead for open source gaming. Chris pointed out that CC licenses have been legally tested, which is meaningful for creators looking to invest their time and money. And the inclusion of new characters in the CC O.G.L., though somewhat legally murky, is typically read as recognition by Wizards that they had to give fans a cookie after screwing things up so badly.

Lawyer-realm is one to which few D&D campaigns venture, and for good reason — it's a gray area that's all about risk assessment rather than hard and fast rules of right and wrong (at least in my opinion). Ultimately, even if the O.G.L. gave permission to people to do something they already could have done, it also changed the vibes around D&D forever (or at least until late 2022). And that may be just as important.

Sources for this video

• Linda Codega is the rare reporter whose work was so influential that I heard about it over and over again during my interviews. Though I didn't rely much on Codega's work for my story, it's clear that the work is indispensable to a D&D fan. Codega drove the narrative in D&D for the industry and most of the players.

Now on to my interviewees, in order of proper appearance in the video:

• Myles of Runefable is a nice representative of the many dice makers in D&D land (I am already trembling in fear of the commenters who will critique my use of die vs. dice in the video). His resin dice are all one of a kind creations, and it takes just 5 minutes of chatting to see they're a labor of love.

• Christoff at Cantrip Candles really sparked some entrepreneurial awe in me. I don't know, the idea is so creative yet so spot on — we need nice smelling D&D! I was impressed that they make all their own candles.

• Miguel Zavala is an enigma to me. Why? Well, I would get updates from his insanely prolific minis Patreon while I was filming this video and wonder — how does this guy do it? And how does he remain so chill and pleasant in person? I can't resolve that here, but I do think you'll have fun downloading — and perhaps printing — some of his models. What a great example of the power of liberal IP policy by Hasbro/Wizards AND the artistic power of Patreon. I mean, I appreciate all of you and think Patreon is great — but Miguel is a legit sculptor being funded by patrons. Michelangelo watch out!

• Bob Tarantino wrote his PhD thesis on the O.G.L. You can't beat that. His thesis starts with some theoretical stuff about IP, but then it provides a detailed history of the O.G.L. with lots of nuggets I couldn't fit in. Did you know, for example, that the "halflings" class were originally called "Hobbits" until the Tolkien estate got wind of it?

• Chris Seaman provided a nice overview of games and IP that gave me a sense of the O.G.L. gray areas while still convincing me that it was a meaningful move.

• Timm Woods is a professional GM and educator who was the perfect guide to D&D. He often "onboards" new players to the D&D world in addition to media appearances like his on Pardon My Take.

• Devon Chulick at Start Playing was a GM too! We largely focused on his platform though, which gave him a nice overhead view of the market. He said D&D does remain dominant over all other systems (most people say Pathfinder is a distant second, for now).

• Ginny Di was actually the first person I talked to for this video. She was such a great person to help me get my bearings, and as a YouTuber I was naturally really curious about her business as well as her perspectives on D&D.

• Jasper William Cartwright at 12 Sided Studios was fascinating to me as a new type of celebrity — a touring game player and GM with his own shows and frequent guest appearances on others. But he really lit up when talking about the industry at large and all the opportunities.

• Elliott Kaplan at TPK Brewing  — what can I say? The uniqueness of this business model is so cool that I am still wrapping my head around it. They are writing hundreds of pages for campaigns, creating unique beers, GMing a wide variety of games. It's incredible. Someone on Instagram actually messaged me about them and I'm glad fate brought me to them.

• Matt Colville was recommended by a few interviewees, so I felt really lucky we got to chat. MCDM is clearly a huge influence in the space, and it was great to hear from the ground some of the feelings about TTRPGs and O.G.L.-gate.