czrpg

CZRPG's stance on the OGL 1.1

Added 2023-01-09 01:27:43 +0000 UTC

Hello Patrons, our dear supporters!

We'd like to bring a transparency update on the OGL topic, is which hot and trending right now. This is Christian here writing, on behalf of Jeremy as well.

The dreaded and sad OGL topic

There's a chance you heard about the new OGL topic in the past days. It's currently quite hot. If you think this whole thing is "fear mongering", skip to the links at the end then come back to the text.

There's lots of information about it already and I'll post links at the end, but I'll try to make it very simple even though I'm no expert there, and even though the topic is extremely complex.

The Open Game License existed for over 20 years and many 3rd-party publishers and even other systems (e.g. Pathfinder) use it to create their own content. It's partially the reason why the D&D community is so strong and why D&D is so popular.

As you can imagine, CZRPG uses the OGL to publish our work over the Patreon and also over Kickstarter.

However, Wizards of the Coast/Hasbro announced changes to the OGL, having sent the updated terms to roughly 20 "big players" in the industry, folks who have 750k or over revenue with OGL content. These people are under NDA and can't share the documents, but a lot of these people have spoken about this. I was very skeptical at first, but now with so many people saying the same thing, these leaks seem very much real (links at the end).

This new OGL is immoral and almost evil towards 3rd-party publishers. It's not conceivable to even think in agreeing to its terms. Before I try to explain the issues, note that I'm not a lawyer and that the lawyers who have looked into the matter have different opinions. NOBODY knows for sure what would happen exactly if this was to go ahead.

Issues with the new OGL

The new OGL intends to "de-authorize" the current one, something that some lawyers say it can't be done, but some say it could
All content created by CZRPG would be Hasbro's ownership, free for their usage
CZRPG could only provide content as PDFs or books, no VTTs anymore, or other formats
Maps would remain untouched, this concerns only 5e content
Hasbro can change anything with their license with 30-days notice. Examples:
They could lower the cap from 750k to 75k
They could raise the royalties to 35%
CZRPG would need to share income reports with Hasbro
CZRPG would need to register its products with Hasbro

There's a lot going on and nothing is currently certain. A Discord server called Defend the GL has been created, counting with content creators, publishers, and community supporters.

"How can I help?"

We need all the help we can get. There are a few ways to help creators and 3rd-party publishers:

Join Defend the OGL Discord
Sign the petition on the OpenDnD website
Send a message to Wizards explaining how this move can hurt their brand
Call them (instructions below), though there's a chance for a bigger coordinated effort potentially later this week
WotC number: +1 (425) 226-6500.
Be polite and assertive with the customer rep, using something along these lines:

"I am a paying customer and have played D&D for X number of years now, and I would like to say that I am extremely dissatisfied about the news of your company's plan for the original OGL as outlined in the press release dated Dec. 21, 2022. If you go through with that, I plan to stop buying or recommending your products, including the movie and any other upcoming productions, not just D&D itself. Thank you."

If Wizards ends up following through these changes, the impacts will be huge and felt by many people, including themselves! In my opinion, this new OGL, coupled with the recent stuff (cancelling video games, announcing a willingness to increase monetization of D&D, etc) is actually a brand killer. I know a lot of decade-fans D&D folks who have had their motivation to even play the game stripped away.

Speaking for myself, I can't say I'm thrilled with all that, but I want to continue providing 5e-related content if there's a safe and not-illegal way to do that. We need to wait for the official statement, but I wanted to let you know about this topic and my views on it.

Our Patreon team is already working on The Forgotten Citadel for January 2023 but if the OGL actually gets updated on Jan 13th, we'll need to re-think things. So please be patient.

We appreciate your unending support, it means a lot!