Wizards of the Coast Walks Back Changes to OGL
Dungeons & Dragons publisher backs down in the face of fan pressure and bad press
In a surprising twist in an ongoing controversy, D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast has officially declared that they will not be altering the existing Open Gaming License (also known as the OGL); the official legal framework that dictates which rules and content can (and can’t) be used by third-party publishers.
The announcement comes after weeks of online outrage from fans and content creators alike, with thousands of users cancelling their subscriptions to the D&D Beyond platform and threatening to boycott Wizards of the Coast products and the upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves film, starring Chris Pine and slated for release this March.
Perhaps even more concerning to Wizards of the Coast (and their parent company Hasbro), was the slew of negative headlines from mainstream media outlets, including CNBC, The Washington Post and VICE Magazine, to name just a few.
Fan outrage stemmed largely from the fact that the proposed updated OGL (which was leaked to the public in early January) would require royalties, income reporting, and new licensing rules that would essentially allow Wizards of the Coast to retain ownership of any materials that are produced. Additionally, the leaked OGL contained a clause that allowed it to be cancelled at anytime with only 30 days notice.
After several weeks of silence following the growing online backlash, on January 19th, D&D Executive Producer, Kyle Brink, issued a public apology. At that time, Brink also outlined what would be included in the proposed new Open Game License (dubbed OGL 1.2) and opened the document up for fan feedback via an online survey (similar to the feedback that Wizards of the Coast uses for their One D&D playtest).
The survey window was expected to close on February 3rd, with several rounds of revisions to follow. Now, however, in Brink’s latest post he’s indicated that the original Open Game License (also known as OGL 1.0a) will not be changed after all and instead will remain in place.
An even bigger (and more suprising) part of Brink’s announcement, however, is that Wizards of the Coast will actually be moving the Systems Reference Document (which governs the rules and lore of D&D and which existed under the OGL) to a Creative Commons license, meaning it can now be used by any individual or organization without legal issue. This means that third-party publishers can now choose to create content under either the existing OGL 1.0a or the SRD 5.1.
It’s expected that many publishers may choose the later, since it’s irrevocable and out of Wizards of the Coast’s legal control (whereas in theory that OGL 1.0a could still potentially be revised or challenged by Hasbro in the future).
It remains to be seen if this move manages to appease fans who have continued to call for cancelations of D&D Beyond and boycotts of products, including the upcoming Keys from the Golden Vault adventure book, which will be Wizards of the Coast’s first big publication for 2023.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this story in the days ahead.
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Cameron Nichols is a Senior Editor who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, and has been playing D&D since the early 90s, when he was introduced by his older brother and cut his teeth on AD&D 2nd Edition. Since then he’s played virtually every RPG he could get his nerdy little mitts on (including a weird Goth phase in the early 2000s when he rocked Vampire: The Masquerade pretty hard). His favorite D&D campaign setting is the Forgotten Realms and his favorite character to play was a Half-Orc Barbarian named Grug (who was unfortunately devoured by a gelatinous cube).
