A new version of the Dungeons & Dragons Open Gaming License (dubbed OGL 1.2 by publisher Wizards of the Coast) is now available for download. Kyle Brink, executive producer of D&D, announced the release of the draft on the D&D Beyond website on Thursday. This draft, according to Wizards, could place the OGL outside of their control, which should be a good sign for fans angered by recent events. Public comments on the draft will be accepted starting January 20th and will continue until February 3rd.
The OGL has been developed and refined in the lead up to D&D’s 3rd edition, and a version of it has been in place for more than two decades. It has allowed creators to build their own tabletop RPGs alongside the Hasbro-owned brand, giving rise to games like Pathfinder and successful companies like Paizo, Kobold Press, and many more. Changes proposed to the OGL, first reported by io9, seemed to create an adversarial relationship between Wizards and its community of creators. This tension only increased after a long period of silence from Wizards followed by an initial apology that was less than cordial.
Thursday’s announcement of the OGL 1.2 draft was met with a much more friendly tone, more in line with a second apology given on Wednesday. Additionally, Wizards has opted to use a Creative Commons license for this version of the OGL. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that, by its own description, “helps overcome legal obstacles to the sharing of knowledge and creativity to address the world’s most pressing challenges.” This license, once enacted, could keep the OGL 1.2 outside of Wizards’ control perpetually.
“We’re giving the core D&D mechanics to the community through a Creative Commons license, which means that they are fully in your hands,” Brink said in the blog post. “If you want to use quintessentially D&D content from the SRD such as owlbears and magic missile, OGL 1.2 will provide you a perpetual, irrevocable license to do so.”
Given the amount of trust that has been lost over the last several weeks, it will take time for legal experts to go over the details of the new OGL. Here are the major points that Wizards is promoting in their official statement:
– Protecting D&D’s inclusive play experience. Content more clearly associated with D&D (like the classes, spells, and monsters) falls under the OGL. This version of the OGL lets Wizards act when offensive or hurtful content is published using the covered D&D stuff, in order to ensure an inclusive, safe play experience for everyone.
– TTRPGs and VTTs. The OGL 1.2 only applies to TTRPG content, whether published as books, as electronic publications, or on virtual tabletops (VTTs).
– Deauthorizing OGL 1.0a. The Creative Commons license and the open terms of 1.2 are intended to help with this. One key reason is that they cannot use the protective options in 1.2 if someone can just choose to publish harmful, discriminatory, or illegal content under 1.0a. Any content that has already been published under OGL 1.0a will still be licensed under OGL 1.0a.
– Very limited license changes allowed. Only two sections can be changed once OGL 1.2 is live: how you cite Wizards in your work and how they can contact each other.
Fans are encouraged to read up and educate themselves on the fine points of intellectual property law, and then respond through official channels back to Wizards. A revised version of this draft will be presented to the community again “on or before February 17.” As Brink said, “The process will extend as long as it needs to. We’ll keep iterating and getting your feedback until we get it right.”
