Wizards of the Coast OGL 1.1 / Dungeons & Dragons Licensing Controversy
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About
Wizards of the Coast OGL 1.1 or Dungeons & Dragons Licensing Controversy refers to the rumored changes to the current active Open Gaming License (OGL) that many Dungeons and Dragons creators use to create content involving the game. Wizards of the Coast's current OGL (1.0) allows game developers permission to modify, copy or redistribute certain content designed for its games, such as game mechanics. In early January 2023, a leak of the purported changes to the OGL 1.0 version that would restrict many of these permissions led to a massive fan backlash against the company despite not officially being confirmed or activated.
Background
On January 5th, 2023, Linda Codega of Gizmodo[1] reported on a leak that a new OGL (Open Gaming License) was in the works at Wizards of the Coast, which would have a massive impact on the entire fan base and wider content of Dungeons & Dragons — specifically stating that it would significantly restrict the content allowed to be used by third parties and require anyone making money under the license to report products to directly to the company.
In the article, Codega stated the 1.1 version of the OGL "significantly restricts the kind of content allowed and requires anyone making money under the license to report their products to Wizards of the Coast directly." It also noted that the original license was a "relatively short document" under 900 words, while the new version is "over 9,000 words long."
According to Gizmodo and Codega, OGL 1.1 also "addresses new technologies like blockchain and NFTs" and "takes a strong stance against bigoted content, explicitly stating the company may terminate the agreement if third-party creators publish material that is 'blatantly racist, sexist, homophobic, trans-phobic, bigoted or otherwise discriminatory.'"
That same day on January 5th, TikToker Scene_Four[2] then uploaded a TikTok video explaining what an "OGL" is, what the original OGL did and the history behind it, as well as lightly delving into what the new OGL proposed changes would mean. The video earned over 60,000 views and 2,500 likes in five days (shown below).
@scene_four Fast times in TTRPG world these days #rpg #ttrpg #rpgtiktok #dnd #dndtiktok #ogl #wotc #wizardsofthecoast #dungeonsanddragons ♬ Vibes – ZHRMusic
Online Reactions
Reactions across multiple social media platforms to the leaks of the newly reported OGL were immediate, with numerous DnD fans expressing their anger and disappointment at both Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro (the parent company of WOTC) for purportedly pushing for this new OGL and the drastic changes that would have to be made with little time to prepare.
For example, on January 5th, 2023, Twiiter[5] user mustangsart tweeted a response to learning about the OGL changes with an Our Expectations for You Were Low meme, receiving over 4,600 likes and 570 retweets in a week (seen below).
On January 10th, 2023, YouTuber Cr1tikal made a video[3] talking about the proposed changes and how damaging they could be from both a player base trust perspective, as well as having people leave the brand entirely, getting over 2 million views in 20 hours (shown below).
Memes about the situation started to appear online in the following days as more people became aware of the controversy, with the /r/dndmemes subreddit becoming a particular hotspot for memes revolving around the OGL and what some of the player base was considering as far as it's next move. Several memes were made on the sub about switching to alternative table-top formats, such as Pathfinder, or outright pirating and stealing Dungeons and Dragons off the principal alone. One such example was posed by Redditor Nephophobe[4] on January 11th, garnering over 8,5000 upvotes in 28 hours for their It's Always Morally Correct meme (shown below).
The controversy over the rumored OGL 1.1 leak also spread to platforms like TikTok in mid-January 2023, with numerous TikTokers posting reactions, explainers or general discussions about the news (examples shown below).
@geek_the_gm The new #dnd OGL was leaked and it's BAD #dndtiktok #dnd5e #ttrpg #ttrpgtok #beggartok #ogl ♬ Suspense, horror, piano and music box – takaya
@castpartydnd We’re making waves 🌊 #dndtiktok #dnd #dnd5e #dungeonsanddragons #opendnd #ogl ♬ original sound – Cast Party: A D&D Podcast 🎬⚔️
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Gizmodo – New D&D License Tightens Its Grip on Competition
[2] TikTok – scene_four
[5] Twitter – mustangsart
![r/DnD OGL u/Baroness_Ayesha • 9h Ssssssssssssssssssssssso, uh, there are some. Terms. In the now-Creative Commons 5e System Resource Document. & Th twitter.com winke Elven Tower Cartography @ElvenTower On page 254 of the 5.1 SRD that is now Creative Commons, there is this mention of: ELVEN TOWER aboleths beholders mind flayers slaadi So, these names are not "Product Identity" anymore. They are CC-BY, in the wild, and irrevocable. Download the PDF! Aberrations are utterly alien beings. Many of them have innate magical abilities drawn from the creature's alien mind rather than the mystical forces of the world. The quintessential aberrations are aboleths, beholders, mind flayers, and slaadi. 3:46 PM 27 Jan 23 Baroness_Ayesha OP. 9h So, yeah, Wizards just threw up the existing 5.1 SRD with no editing on a Creative Commons license. And they forgot to include any language specifying protected terms, and didn't include any language defining specific terms as still protected as Product Identity under the OGL. This. Um. Opens up a lot of Terms. Elven Tower covers a lot of them in their thread, but it includes "beholder", "mind flayer", "slaadi", "yugoloth", "Waterdeep", "Baldur's Gate", "owlbear", "sahuagin" (as a specific spelling), "umber hulk", "yuan-ti", and. um. "Strahd von Zarovich". Moreover, beholders, mind flayers and slaadi are specifically called out as Aberrations, "utterly alien beings; [m]any of them have innate magical abilities drawn from the creature's alien mind rather than the mystical forces of the world", yugoloths are Fiends, Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate are places with a road between them, "owlbear" can't be much other than an owlbear, and Strahd is specifically described as a Count and a vampire. If people are a little lost, beholders and mind flayers have been absurdly protected parts of the Dungeons & Dragons IP for upwards of half a century, now. TSR famously reserved some of their nastiest legal fights for this part of the IP, down to fighting like an angry tiger over there mere names, asserting that both were completely protected in a tabletop sense. Others, like yugoloths and slaadi (and, well, F------ Strahd), were just protected under standard work-for-hire copyright and were easily considered integral to the D&D IP and not allowed for open use. In the OGL version of the 5.1 SRD, all of these elements were specifically called out as Product Identity, identifying them as protected terms that were not part of the Open Gaming Content allowed for use. Creative Commons has similar carve-out language available, but the released version of the CC 5.1 SRD doesn't use it. These terms, along with whatever descriptions were attached, are now free to use under CC, even for commercial use. The use of the Creative Commons license here in general was pretty clearly meant as a bludgeon against Paizo and the ORC License, because there have been a minority hitting them with "well why not just use Creative Commons", and was more done out of cynical one-upsmanship than any real desire to make things more open and convenient for users and third party authors. But once again, it seems the current crop of lawyers and executives at WotC and Hasbro have no idea what's actually in their product, and just gave away terms for open use that had previously been the subjects of decades of intensely bitter legal battles. Now, it can't be Literally Strahd or Very Specifically An Illithid Mind Flayer, as those will still be protected expressions of the terms. But if you want Count Strahd von Zarovich, vampiric bartender, or a strange alien creature that flays minds and may involve tentacles and is called a "mind flayer", all you need do to cover yourself is include the CC attribution now. The terms are otherwise completely open for use when they weren't previously. So bravo, WotC. Full applause. Thank you for your service. Absolutely incredible work, lads Reply ↑ 117 ↓](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/002/525/018/f67.png "Backpedaled so hard they tripped and lost their marbles")
Top Comments
Ten Shadows
Jan 11, 2023 at 07:31PM EST in reply to
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