The Future of D&D is Bleak - New OGL 1.2 

The continued use of the OGL 1.0a is paramount. It is the difference of people being able to choose to use a new license or being forced to use a new license. It is important we can continue to develop 5e independently of WotC as they take D&D off the rails. We created 5e for WotC when D&D was on it's deathbed and out of print. It's still a great system and we need to fight to make sure it continues to belong to the community. WotC can do whatever they want with their One D&D mess.

The severability line is a back-door into them being able to cancel it at will. If any part of it is invalid, the whole thing is invalid. They can change it.

They CAN still steal content.. Its just worded differently. You just have to make them SAY it is the same, which they wont, and so they can take it with a slight difference. Fuck em

"As a suggestion, it may be beneficial to consider taking legal action against Wizard of the Coast (WotC) if it is believed that they are taking advantage of their customers." "This could involve researching and gathering evidence of any illegal or unethical behavior on the part of the company, such as violations of consumer protection laws." "It may be helpful to consult with legal professionals or experts in relevant fields, such as 'intellectual property law', to determine the most appropriate course of action." "Additionally, it may be worth considering organizing a group of individuals who have been affected by WotC's actions and potentially filing a 'class action lawsuit'." "This would allow for a larger group of individuals to collectively pursue legal action against the company." "It is also important to consider bringing attention to the situation within the gaming community and potentially enlisting the support of 'advocacy groups' or other organizations that may have an interest in the issue." "This could potentially increase pressure on WotC to take responsibility for their actions and make changes to their business practices." "It's important to keep in mind that companies like WotC have a legal obligation to act in 'good faith' and not to take advantage of their customers." "Therefore, it is important to be prepared to present a strong case and evidence of any illegal or unethical behavior that has taken place." "It is worth mentioning that many lawyers are already aware of this issue and are just waiting for a proper case to be brought forward." Please note that this is a general suggestion and legal advice should be sought from a qualified professional to ensure the best course of action is taken.

That part about "Hatespeech" is supposed to give WotC the power of censoring every kind of content regarding D&D. They get to decide what "Hatespeech" effectively is. They don't care about racism or homophobia.

Hi Doomsayer! Nice catch about the use of prior versions although I wonder how much outside the mechanics does not overlap. I a bit surprised that you found no issue with item 6(f) where the can solely decide to drop your license based on undefined content or conduct and with no recourse. I'm waiting to see what the legal experts have to say but it seems a bit sketchy to base a business model on this wording.

Let's not forget the first statement from WotC said VTT would not be touched.... yet, here we are, with them trying to control it

Thanks for the video. I think WotC has killed all sensible creator's interests in developing new material, which many people thought was the disguised intent of the draconian OGL 1.1 leaked a few weeks ago now.The whole VTT can't use animation is absurd. They want to attack VTTs overall. They also fail to define key terms, they keep talking about nonsense issues, and they keep smoke-screening with personal stories or "their company mission and morals statements" that have no role or place here, other than propaganda and razzle-dazzle distractions to fool us. And with 1.0a gone, even creating or updating old 3.5, AD&D 2.0, 5E etc is impossible with 1.2. In short, *I will never buy another DnD product. I won't move on to OneDnD. I will never use their VTT. I will not go to their movie, I won't play their game.* But all is not lost. I will have a great time with friends in new RPGs, likely Pathfinder or the new ORC or Black Flag systems. ---> Fantasy RPGs are not dead, just DnD's vice grip control from WotC.

The whole comment about NFT's? Simply put, no one. No one is (as far as I know) is making D&D-inspired NFT's, what they are really saying is "we want to make sure that only WE can make D&D-inspired NFT's, not you."

the class action thing basically takes any power the creators collectively have away. that feels like they plan to take advantage of people, but maybe I'm being cynical.

They are putting a limitation on the content though. They're saying that if you use the stuff they put out under CC-BY, you have to credit them. And the thing about that? The parts they're putting out under it were never copyrightable in the first place. So you could very easily use them without having to credit WotC. And they can steal your content still. The words only say that they won't do it pinky promise cross their heart and hope to die, but you know if they did make something almost identical then you as the creator have to prove they did it intentionally. Which isn't something anyone can do without the miracle of finding a memo that says they're specifically doing it. And 6(F) is really dangerous when you see how very open it is along with the fact that you cannot contest WotC on their decisions using that clause. They are the only people who get to decide if something is harmful. I was just reminded of the Eat the Rich pdf that got censored on the DM's Guild because WotC didn't like the "Anti-capitalist" tagline. It's now up but only after they changed it to "Anti-tyranny" instead.

What they released under CC are the core rules. Rules and procedures cannot be copyrighted, essentially what they released under CC is everything they cannot legally enforce it means nothing, it is only to save face. The wording they use for irrevocable makes clear that it means that content under this license cannot leave it (you are trapped here forever) but they can in the future do the same again and forbid new content being published under this license, If they steal your content you can only claim damages. They can, at any moment and without notice claim that your content or your actions are hateful and revoke your license. Hateful is defined but wotc in a case by case and you cannot contest this decision. If for some reason some of the license is declared invalid or illegal, etc, they can revoke the whole thing not only the illegal part. They can change only 3 sections about attribution and contact but doesn't state what kind of changes are allowed, they could insert more abusive terms in there. You wave your rights to a jury and class action lawsuits. VTTs are not covered, but are enforced in a more restrictive way that make sure the only VTT that doesn't suck is theirs. Videogames are no longer covered by anything Other media content is all subject to the much more stricter fan content policy. All in all, it is still shit, but now it lack the clarifications that make clear their intentions so it seems nicer.

And the lesson here is don't sign anything with wotc or buy any of their products until wotc losses their license.

The future of D&D may be bleak but fortunately there's hundreds of other great TTRPGs out there.

Looks like OGL 1.2 turned out to be another trap..just a bit sneakier than the last one. I wouldn't go anywhere near it. In effect, once you sign up, once Hasbro decides to use whatever vaguely worded excuse available to them to change the rules (and they very definitely WILL - don't forget, they want EVERYTHING) , it'll be just you, on your own (note the anti-class action clause) against Hasbro/WotC on THEIR turf.. Do Not Touch. This thing is poison. And they are STILL trying get US to deauthorise the original OGL for them ..

This is all a focus on killing all licensed 3rd party content other than the upcoming OneD&D. If there are alternatives, it could hurt their bottom line. It makes business sense but it is still scummy.

They Hateful content stuff has been abused by other companies before, its a non starter for me.

Wizard is too damn stupid. The whole point of all this OGL nonsense was they wanted to prevent a repeat of Paizo as they build their walled garden for the new edition. That ship has sailed. They should just give in, make OGL 1.0(b) that just adds the word irrevocable. Then when 6E releases, release all the draconian terms they want. After which, we can see of the 4E failure was due to terrible rules or the walled garden that prevented content for it. Seriously, NOBODY knows about the GSL because they released that with the new edition and they had the good sense to leave the OGL alone.

How exactly they think they own animation in VTT? Why can they made that illegal? It makes no sense

Will admit I understand very little of the legal gobbledygook. But stand with you in a fight against corporate greed. It will lead to the downfall of this country.

More and more, I'm inclined to stand behind the ORC.

Stopping people from using old school game machenanics AD&D for new material is stupid its a out dated system but it still is loved by many old school players I think it is a very usefull system for smaller games and gaming companys in the ttrpg community , their just trying to gain full control over the ttrpg comunity at this point I think everyone should jump on the new orc agreement that pathfinder & goblin press and a few other big gaming company's r joining in on .. if no on signs it ( the new ogl ) they hav no power like some one else said in on of the comments.. someone posted in another channel I watched ..

You should be opposed to that so-called "morality clause." What it really means is that WOTC can terminate your license for ANY reason. THEY get to decide what is hateful or harmful. You overused the letter "a." That's hateful. You made more money than they want you too. That's harmful. You wore a red t-shirt. That's discriminatory. They can end you for ANY reason, or no reason at all.

I see absolutely no reason for them to try to regulate VTTs that much. That feels really dicey and I especially dislike that their reasoning is that it makes it too much like a video game. I fail to see the problem with a game using concepts from D&D. Anybody who has played Dragon Age should be getting worried here, as well as several other very good games that do not affect WOTC in the slightest. D&D is what allowed for digital RPG's to exist, meaning this could have a much wider impact then originally foreseen. I can't help but imagine WOTC going after every single video game with a tracking projectile going "No animated magic missile!" The community's demands have been pretty clearly defined as "Just leave OGL 1.0 alone" yet that is the one thing they refuse to budge on.

Irrevocable, with exceptions! You glossed over the WORST part!!! 6(f) the hateful content and conduct section!!! That is for any reason we can snatch this away!

Hateful and discriminatory is anything contrary to Seattle area politics or against groomer culture. Remember, Wot banned professional MtG players and others for pointing out the pedophile problem in MtG games. At this point D&D should be abandoned until WotC reforms

Forget it. Trying to be honest now- even if genuine- is pointless after being lied to so many times. There is no guarantee after all that happened that WotC/Hasbro will actually be fair to the community. Here, you and other commenters are still finding loopholes and problems in OGL 1.2. Everyone should keep informed about WotC/Hasbro's moves, but we also really should just move on.

One dnd backwards compatible?

6f is a poison pill. Since WotC alone determines what is obscene, you can publish and they can immediately pull your content and terminate the agreement with no appeal. Now think about a typical non-D&D RPG meant for adults. Think over a Paizo Adventure Path. Think World of Darkness. Think Shadowrun or Cyberpunk. Think just about any game made for adults. Any game short of an ultra-sanitized D&D will have something in it that WotC can point to and pull your license. You could be twice as progressive as Paizo, who are far more concerned with trying to do well with representation than WotC, and you still are going to screw up. You will publish something, somewhere, that WotC can use against you. And forget trying to make an actual dark, mature RPG. No KULT, no Blades in the Dark, nuh-uh, noway, nohow. This also comes from a company that made a racist analog in Spelljammer. Now, suppose you publish something that draws any controversy. Boop. WotC can pull your license. By the terms of 6f, if someone else had put out Spelljammer, WotC could have pulled their license. 6f is a poison pill.

Noting you admit to being bad at the legal stuff.. Take another look at their use of the word "Irrevocable". They state that what is written in this OGL is irrevocable but they definitely DO NOT say that the licence itself is irrevocable.. This OGL is no better than OGL 1.1 it's just far better written from their point of view, to hide the worst of what they want to include.. If this OGL is signed, you lose all rights you had under OGL 1.0a but they could then simply cancel OGL 1.2 (for any reason they choose) and replace it with the original "DRAFT" (not a draft) OGL 1.1 which they sent out with contracts and NDAs.

You should have a problem with the hateful content statement because who decides what "hateful" is? You assume they mean statements of prejudices but that's not what it says. You've seen there latest pile of garbage books. By this wording, you couldn't even make a negative comment on someone's hair or allow your male character to explain something to a female.

this is a worse commentary on OGL matters than wizards' snarky apology/non-apology statement. you just want to be mad to be mad.