Wizards of the Coast has announced that it’s backing off proposed changes to its Open Gaming License for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, following backlash from fans and content creators throughout the industry. In its current form, the Open Gaming License allows people to create content that uses the current D&D ruleset, with printed works involving official D&D material (such as the Forgotten Realms campaign setting) also being allowed. As part of this, Wizards of the Coast and OneBookShelf received a 50% profit split.
A leaked version of a proposed 1.1 version of the OGL recently made its way online. It contained language that gave Wizards of the Coast partial ownership of fan content, with people who make more than $50,000 from D&D content that uses OGL material having to give the company a cut of their earnings. It was also believed that this change would affect the competing tabletop game Pathfinder, which uses the DNA of older editions of D&D (with permission granted under the current OGL), as well as streaming content creators, like Critical Roll.
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Wizards of the Coast has issued a statement on the D&D Beyond website regarding the OGL update. It explains that the proposed changes were part of an effort to prevent hateful or discriminatory material from being published, as well as preventing D&D material from being used in NFT and blockchain video game projects. Following the fan response, most of these proposed changes will no longer come to pass, as any new OGL will only affect tabletop content and anything already released under the current OGL will be unaffected. The royalty and license back provisions have also been scrapped, so individual content creators shouldn’t worry about their work being poached for future D&D products.
The new OGL has yet to be released, as it’s still being worked on and isn’t ready to be revealed, so the exact changes it will make are still unknown at this time. This change is a huge win for the fans and content creators who have helped turn D&D into the mainstream hit it has become in the 5th edition era. Fans will likely doubt that the original draft of the new OGL had the best intentions of D&D players in mind, but those who make their living from D&D homebrew content no longer need to fear for their livelihood.
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