> "This new license is like an arrow aimed at the heart of the TTRPG community."
No it's not. It's huge to the *D&D* community, but there is more to the ttrpg community than D&D. In fact, this will not impact my gaming or that of anyone I know in the slightest, including game designers / publishers.
Now here's a spicy take.... If anything, D&D / Hasbro losing some of its suffocating monopoly grip on the ttrpg market might actually be a *good* thing for the hobby.
Many systems use OGL, such as Pathfinder, Mutants and Masterminds, many games from the OSR movement, etc. If this will not impact your gaming that's great, but to say that this is limited to the D&D community is absolutely wrong, and showcases your total ignorance of the subject.
For about fifteen years now I've been tired of the general perception that the OGL is somehow the True Essence of tabletop gaming. It isn't. It's just overused, and only because it's easy to use. Which is great and all, some of my favorites are OGL-based, but it's been a dev crutch, plain and simple.
So if Hasbro wants to shoot themselves in the dick, that's fine by me. The frustration the leaked OGL is causing my players just means it'll now be easier to get them to try stuff that isn't just another reskin of the OGL, stuff like Modiphius' growing library of 2d20 games, or Cyberpunk RED, or even the troubled new World of Darkness stuff.
As such, I'm optimistic that if Hasbro really goes through with the worst parts of this leak we might actually see a bit more innovation in the space simply because people won't want to rely on the OGL anymore, and I think that could be an excellent thing.
THAT BEING SAID, f--k Hasbro for trying to build a time machine out of legalese. If they actually try retroactively rescinding the license on stuff that's already published I hope they're laughed out of court.
I am not sure what you mean by "reskin of the OGL" - OGL is a license, not the term for a d20 based system. It's largely invisible to players, unless they actually bother to read the license text in their books. For example, some FATE books are partly licensed under OGL, even though FATE is a 4d6 system. It doesn't have any impact on innovation either that I can see, since it just allows you to use other OGL content without issues.
I agree reliance on WotC-controlled OGL is not great, but you can't turn back time and make it not be widely used. It already is widely used - as such, it's removal would currently have wide-ranging effects. Years down the line, maybe the hobby will recover - but currently, this would be a massive hit.
I will also add that I am skeptical that Hasbro will stop at this, and I expect them to try and buy out all companies currently operating in the virtual tabletop space (roll20, foundry, etc), so that they can corner that market too. Their moves towards buying dndbeyond lean in that direction. Once they are an effective monopolist in that space, they'd have even more power to lean on non-dnd developers to adopt OGL 1.1.
> "This new license is like an arrow aimed at the heart of the TTRPG community."
No it's not. It's huge to the *D&D* community, but there is more to the ttrpg community than D&D. In fact, this will not impact my gaming or that of anyone I know in the slightest, including game designers / publishers.
Now here's a spicy take.... If anything, D&D / Hasbro losing some of its suffocating monopoly grip on the ttrpg market might actually be a *good* thing for the hobby.
Many systems use OGL, such as Pathfinder, Mutants and Masterminds, many games from the OSR movement, etc. If this will not impact your gaming that's great, but to say that this is limited to the D&D community is absolutely wrong, and showcases your total ignorance of the subject.
Gonna have to agree with Paul here.
For about fifteen years now I've been tired of the general perception that the OGL is somehow the True Essence of tabletop gaming. It isn't. It's just overused, and only because it's easy to use. Which is great and all, some of my favorites are OGL-based, but it's been a dev crutch, plain and simple.
So if Hasbro wants to shoot themselves in the dick, that's fine by me. The frustration the leaked OGL is causing my players just means it'll now be easier to get them to try stuff that isn't just another reskin of the OGL, stuff like Modiphius' growing library of 2d20 games, or Cyberpunk RED, or even the troubled new World of Darkness stuff.
As such, I'm optimistic that if Hasbro really goes through with the worst parts of this leak we might actually see a bit more innovation in the space simply because people won't want to rely on the OGL anymore, and I think that could be an excellent thing.
THAT BEING SAID, f--k Hasbro for trying to build a time machine out of legalese. If they actually try retroactively rescinding the license on stuff that's already published I hope they're laughed out of court.
I am not sure what you mean by "reskin of the OGL" - OGL is a license, not the term for a d20 based system. It's largely invisible to players, unless they actually bother to read the license text in their books. For example, some FATE books are partly licensed under OGL, even though FATE is a 4d6 system. It doesn't have any impact on innovation either that I can see, since it just allows you to use other OGL content without issues.
I agree reliance on WotC-controlled OGL is not great, but you can't turn back time and make it not be widely used. It already is widely used - as such, it's removal would currently have wide-ranging effects. Years down the line, maybe the hobby will recover - but currently, this would be a massive hit.
I will also add that I am skeptical that Hasbro will stop at this, and I expect them to try and buy out all companies currently operating in the virtual tabletop space (roll20, foundry, etc), so that they can corner that market too. Their moves towards buying dndbeyond lean in that direction. Once they are an effective monopolist in that space, they'd have even more power to lean on non-dnd developers to adopt OGL 1.1.