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CALL TO ACTION, PLEASE READ!
3 years ago
General
So . . . I've never written a call to action before. Not sure how to do this.
With the new Hasbro 'update' to the OGL, we are looking at, worst case scenario, a collapse of the entire tabletop RPG market. A little backstory:
The OGL, which came out over 20 years ago, came out when Wizards of the Coast made DnD 3rd edition. And, it basically saved the RPG market. It allowed anyone (and I am quoting, IN PERPETUITY) to use their gaming system to make content, as long as they didn't use DnD specific monsters like Githyanki or Beholders, or use DnD specific settings like Baldur's Gate. If you used the gaming system and made generic monsters (giants and dragons and mummies), and made your own fantasy land, you were in the clear. You could make up your own monsters too.
What happened was an explosion of tabletop RPGs Suddenly people were allowed to make content for DnD and publish it and make money. Far more stories and scenarios than Wizards of the Coast (later bought by Hasbro) could have made at the time. There was so much new content. And it brought in a whole lot of new people who maybe weren't interested in DnD, but were interested in . . ..say . . . a 1800s gothic adventure using the same rules, or a 1600s pirate game. Or even wilder fantasy settings . . . and all those people buying new content bought at least the DnD core rule books.
When DnD came out with 4th edition, they kept the OGL, but said it didn't apply to 4th edition and . . . well, there is a reason 4th edition is considered the worst out there. When you throttle what can be made, you limit not only how much content you can make, but also the ideas. So DnD went back to the OGL when they revamped for 5th edition.
Backstory out of the way, Hasbro has leaked the new version of their 'udpdated OGL' and it basically pulls the rug out from under anyone publishing under the OGL. Anyone publishing under the system (that makes $750,000 or more) has to give A QUARTER of their profits over to Hasbro. No company is going to survive that. Not Paizo, not no one. But that's not all. At any time, for any reason, they can choose any company and say 'you don't get to publish anymore, destroy all your stuff, oh and by the way, we can publish all your stuff under our own name from now on.'
Now, I'm not a lawyer, I don't know how any of this is going to shake out. Maybe there will be some backroom deals to keep companies afloat, but it is a REAL dick move by Hasbro. The accounting department is basically killing off ANYONE publishing under their titles. So Critical Role? Gone. Your favorite DnD podcast that came out with somecontent? Gone. Any Youtuber that has published content? Gone.
Look, the issue is not that they aren't letting us profit off of them. The issue is that they said it was okay for TWENTY YEARS. People have built ENTIRE gaming companies off of this license that they thought was set in stone, and now Hasbro is not just trying to take their ball and go home, but STEAL EVERYONE ELSE'S BALL TOO!
I'm calling for a loud and active, vocal boycott of DnD until their accounting department get it into their head that this is not okay. Don't buy ANYTHING DnD branded. Don't go to the movie. Don't buy Nozlaur's Marvelous Miniatures, don't give Hasbro a single cent. And most of all, post your displeasure on Facebook, Twitter, and whatever other social media you have. See if that higher ups to reverse course.
If you want to explore some other RPGs out there in the mean time:
-The FATE system is a setting agnostic RPG (meaning you can play in whatever setting you want, including medieval fantasy.)
-BESM is setting agnostic and, though it's meant for anime-style games, you can do whatever you want with it.
-Savage worlds is also setting agnostic and you can do whatever you want with it
-Sentinels of the Multiverse RPG is a superhero RPG that's super fun and, while technically a superhero game, you could EASILY modify it for any setting you wanted.
For more information about why this new OGL could be bad: NoNat1s explains it better than I do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD1idtfucpI
With the new Hasbro 'update' to the OGL, we are looking at, worst case scenario, a collapse of the entire tabletop RPG market. A little backstory:
The OGL, which came out over 20 years ago, came out when Wizards of the Coast made DnD 3rd edition. And, it basically saved the RPG market. It allowed anyone (and I am quoting, IN PERPETUITY) to use their gaming system to make content, as long as they didn't use DnD specific monsters like Githyanki or Beholders, or use DnD specific settings like Baldur's Gate. If you used the gaming system and made generic monsters (giants and dragons and mummies), and made your own fantasy land, you were in the clear. You could make up your own monsters too.
What happened was an explosion of tabletop RPGs Suddenly people were allowed to make content for DnD and publish it and make money. Far more stories and scenarios than Wizards of the Coast (later bought by Hasbro) could have made at the time. There was so much new content. And it brought in a whole lot of new people who maybe weren't interested in DnD, but were interested in . . ..say . . . a 1800s gothic adventure using the same rules, or a 1600s pirate game. Or even wilder fantasy settings . . . and all those people buying new content bought at least the DnD core rule books.
When DnD came out with 4th edition, they kept the OGL, but said it didn't apply to 4th edition and . . . well, there is a reason 4th edition is considered the worst out there. When you throttle what can be made, you limit not only how much content you can make, but also the ideas. So DnD went back to the OGL when they revamped for 5th edition.
Backstory out of the way, Hasbro has leaked the new version of their 'udpdated OGL' and it basically pulls the rug out from under anyone publishing under the OGL. Anyone publishing under the system (that makes $750,000 or more) has to give A QUARTER of their profits over to Hasbro. No company is going to survive that. Not Paizo, not no one. But that's not all. At any time, for any reason, they can choose any company and say 'you don't get to publish anymore, destroy all your stuff, oh and by the way, we can publish all your stuff under our own name from now on.'
Now, I'm not a lawyer, I don't know how any of this is going to shake out. Maybe there will be some backroom deals to keep companies afloat, but it is a REAL dick move by Hasbro. The accounting department is basically killing off ANYONE publishing under their titles. So Critical Role? Gone. Your favorite DnD podcast that came out with somecontent? Gone. Any Youtuber that has published content? Gone.
Look, the issue is not that they aren't letting us profit off of them. The issue is that they said it was okay for TWENTY YEARS. People have built ENTIRE gaming companies off of this license that they thought was set in stone, and now Hasbro is not just trying to take their ball and go home, but STEAL EVERYONE ELSE'S BALL TOO!
I'm calling for a loud and active, vocal boycott of DnD until their accounting department get it into their head that this is not okay. Don't buy ANYTHING DnD branded. Don't go to the movie. Don't buy Nozlaur's Marvelous Miniatures, don't give Hasbro a single cent. And most of all, post your displeasure on Facebook, Twitter, and whatever other social media you have. See if that higher ups to reverse course.
If you want to explore some other RPGs out there in the mean time:
-The FATE system is a setting agnostic RPG (meaning you can play in whatever setting you want, including medieval fantasy.)
-BESM is setting agnostic and, though it's meant for anime-style games, you can do whatever you want with it.
-Savage worlds is also setting agnostic and you can do whatever you want with it
-Sentinels of the Multiverse RPG is a superhero RPG that's super fun and, while technically a superhero game, you could EASILY modify it for any setting you wanted.
For more information about why this new OGL could be bad: NoNat1s explains it better than I do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD1idtfucpI
But yea, hasbro can just... stop what they are doing with this crap.
https://vilous.net/wiki/Terms_of_Us.....se_of_the_work
Fuck Hasbro if they go ahead with this decision, and if they do no matter what, I hope they lose millions of dollars as a result.
https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/dd-c.....-open-2026785/
https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/141.....s-srds-one-d-d
Thanks for the suggestion though.
And no, I won't give a single cent to them until they prove and promise they really aren't screwing over creators after all.
share the pdfs of the dnd books with your friends and people who ask for it
and for those making content on dnd if its content for the table top game release it for free
those doing something more along the lines of youtube content no sponsorships no ads
for this to work you cant make any money off of dnd related shit alone
instead use this free shit to advertise the other content not related to dnd that you actually make money off of
and you can possibly ask for donations to support more general table top content since without sponsorships or sales it will be nearly impossible to quantify how many of those donations you got because of dnd alone as a more broad "table top" content creator instead of just a dnd content creator
but of course this means you'll need to have more variety with your table top options other then dnd
tl;dr you can still use the system but dont give hasbro any money and hopefully with enough losses they'll cave and either use the old policy or at the very least be open to changing the current policy they're planning on using
sh*t, ogl 1.1 reads more like a overcomplicated pishing mail.