Dungeons and Dragons and Licenses and Players and...

For those who play Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPG), the past couple of weeks have been as exciting as watching a dragon flying in to destroy your village.

The quick and dirty explanation; Dungeons & Dragons (run by the company Wizards of the Coast; owned by Hasbro) is the most well known TTRPG, and is often the first version of the TTRPG that people learn to play.  For many years it has had an Open-Game License (OGL); anyone could produce content using the Dungeons & Dragons system and sell it without worrying about being stopped by Wizards of the Coast.

This worked for years; people would play Dungeons & Dragons, and there was such a wide variety of worlds created under the system that it became the go-to system.  Even if Wizards of the Coast didn't make money from every piece of content, just about every player of TTRPG would eventually buy products from Wizards of the Coast.

But Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast felt that Dungeons & Dragons was "Under-Monetized", and wanted to increase the revenue stream.  They plan on releasing a new version of Dungeons & Dragons called One D&D... and part of the changes included changes to the OGL.  

The changes to the OGL would require third-party content providers to pay Hasbro (including 20% from Kickstarter campaigns) and give Hasbro rights over content created by third party.  This would, in effect, damage (if not kill) all third party content providers going forward.

And the fans of Dungeons & Dragons revolted.

People dropped subscriptions to D&D Beyond, the official website of Dungeons & Dragons.  They had a petition protesting the changes signed by over 60,000 people.  The players and GMs who actually run the games shouted very loudly.  

Wizards of the Coast has been backtracking, and it sounds like they changes won't be happening.  People are still angry (One of my groups is already changing systems).

This was a foolish move by Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast; I understand the desire to make more profit, but the OGL created a brand for Dungeons & Dragons that made it the behemoth of the TTRPG market.  You don't see the kids on Stranger Things playing 7th Sea, or Call of Cthulu, or Champions.

The problem with goodwill is that, once it's lost, it's very difficult to regain.  I think Wizards of the Coast is finding that out in real time.

In the meantime, let me tell you about my character...