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Dungeons & Dragons' New OGL Will be 'Irrevocable' and Bring Mechanics to Creative Commons

posted by hubie on Monday January 23 2023, @02:34AM   Printer-friendly

upstart writes:

Amid all the backlash, Wizards of the Coast is pursuing a radically different strategy for its future open licensing:

Dungeons & Dragons released a statement today saying that the future of its open gaming license will include its core rules being placed under the purview of the Creative Commons. The Creative Commons is "a nonprofit dedicated to sharing knowledge, and it developed a set of licenses to let creators do that," says the newest update from Kyle Brink, the executive producer at Dungeons & Dragons.

This decision is a direct response to a lot of the fears the community had after io9 reported on the initial OGL 1.1 draft on January 5. The CC license will cede Wizards of the Coast's control over the base rules and mechanics of D&D to the nonprofit that stewards the license, which means that Dungeons & Dragons and WOTC will be unable to touch it and will not be able to revoke it. Likewise, content that goes beyond the remit of using core rules will fall under a new OGL, dubbed 1.2, which will contain specific language denoting the license as "irrevocable"—a massive pressure point for creators who used the original OGL 1.0 and were worried about the implications of the 30-day termination clause in the OGL 1.1.

[...] Wizards of the Coast seems committed to having a firm stance on bigoted and hateful content—something that people praised in the leaked draft. "If you include harmful, discriminatory, or illegal content (or engage in that conduct publicly), we can terminate your OGL 1.2 license to our content," reads the statement. [...]

Additionally, Brink states that "what [Dungeons & Dragons] is going for here is giving good-faith creators the same level of freedom (or greater, for the ruleset in Creative Commons) to create TTRPG content that's been so great for everyone, while giving us the tools to ensure the game continues to become ever more inclusive and welcoming." [...]

Previously: Dungeons & Dragons' New License Tightens its Grip on Competition

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  • (Score: 1) by GloomMower on Monday January 23 2023, @03:24PM (1 child)

    by GloomMower (17961) on Monday January 23 2023, @03:24PM (#1288183)

    > If you include harmful, discriminatory, or illegal content (or engage in that conduct publicly), we can terminate your OGL 1.2 license to our content

    Everyone has their own idea of what is harmful (especially in regard to "mental wellbing"), and it can change over time. Just ask 80s parents who thought D&D in the first place was harmful.

  • (Score: 2) by Mykl on Monday January 23 2023, @10:12PM

    by Mykl (1112) on Monday January 23 2023, @10:12PM (#1288251)

    I have a huge problem with that statement too - it's so broad in its interpretation these days as to include basically anything.

    All Orcs are evil? Discriminatory - feel the wrath of my ban-hammer!

    One of the enemies is a slaver? Triggering for those whose ancestors suffered under this inhuman practice - no license for you!

    None of the deities in the setting are Trans? Exclusionist - to the salt mines with you!