I have played Dungeons & Dragons since I was kid. I started out playing on 3^rd Edition with my dad as my Dungeon Master, and as I got older played with his college friends. Playing with them exposed me to my interests in worldbuilding, which I use to this day in my own creative works. When I moved to college, I transitioned over to 5^th Edition, where the simpler and more roleplay heavy mechanics encouraged new players. The play group that I joined early on in my college career became my closest friends. In fact, everyone I play Dungeons and Dragons with to this day are my friends and we use the game we love to hang out. I quickly became a Dungeon Master myself, which allowed me to bring my worldbuilding ideas I had since childhood to life. This TTRPG has meant so much to me in my life, it pains me to see the community suffer under the recent news about Wizards of the Coast’s new OGL (Open Game License) for D&D.

The OGL situation has been going on for the last two weeks and has been constantly changing with more information, more leaks and more rumors coming out practically every day. Finding the right time to discuss this has been difficult. So, if more information comes out after the publication of this article, please understand that I tried my best. This article will attempt to summarize the situation, my opinions, and what I think the future will hold for Dungeons and Dragons.

Shortly after the new year, a leak from a Wizards insider came through about a new OGL in the works, the infamous OGL 1.0a. Essentially, this new OGL deauthorized the original OGL, which was made in the 2000s, back when 3^rd Edition was still the main version of the game. The new OGL did two things: one, allowed Wizards of the Coast to take royalties from third party creators who exceeded a certain revenue threshold, and two, allowed Wizards to also steal ideas and work from these creators and publish them under their own work. Basically stealing. Now before going to the backlash, its important to go over two pieces of information. First, in my opinion, this new OGL is planned to be released alongside the upcoming OneDnD project, which essentially is 5.5 edition of the game. The new rules as of now only made small changes to races, now called species, and gave more options to character creation to help players move away from stereotypes if they wish. Wizards also made note that DnDBeyond, the game’s online platform for storing its content, would be the center for this new edition and made plans for creating its own online playmat, like roll20.com. Essentially, Wizards was planning on streamlining the process and monopolizing the TTRPG experience. Second, is to note that an entire industry has been built up creating third party content for Dungeons and Dragons. Paizo, Kobold Press, Darington Press and Hit Point Press are some examples of the third-party companies who create content for the TTRPG, with Paizo designing its own version of the game during the unpopular 4^th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. The OGL would essentially tax these companies with royalties, which would have harmed their business.

Now for the backlash. The response from the community was practically immediate with people piling into Twitter and Reddit to voice their frustrations and coming to the defense of the third-party creators. This united voice against the OGL would become the #OpenDnD movement, a play on the OneDnD wording. Now when this news broke, I too was disgusted by the clear corporate greed that Wizards was showing with this move. As someone who also plays Magic the Gathering and who was aware of the whole situation revolving around the 30^th Anniversary packs of the card, which warrants its own article, I already knew of the corruption that Hasbro, Wizard’s parent company, was leaking into the company. I went to Twitter that night to voice my own opinion and thought that the story wouldn’t progress any further. Oh boy was I wrong.

A few days after the start of the backlash, content creator DnD Shorts tweeted out and made a video revolving around a leak he claimed from an inside source from Wizards of the Coast. According to the source, an announcement or memo went around the company where the higher ups at Wizards and Hasbro, planned on delaying the release of the OGL and that their decision making was entirely profit driven and used the data from DnDBeyond as a benchmark. The source also went into length about how management at Wizards never viewed the fans in a positive manner and hoped that the fans would forget and move on. The exact opposite happened. Players quickly started to cancel their subscriptions to DnDBeyond, and within days, around 10,000 subscriptions were canceled. This wounded Wizards not only in the bottom line, but also, hurt their plans for the platform. Another leak that was picked up on by DnD Shorts, claimed that the subscription was going to be increased to $30 a month and that low end plans wouldn’t allow for homebrew options. On top of that it was hypotheses that the stolen content that Wizards would get from the third-party creators would be resold onto the DnDBeyond platform as a way of maintaining a steady flow of content to warrant the price hike. New hashtags began springing up on the internet of #StoptheSub and #DnDBegone. Now I personally was never a fan of DnDBeyond. I am more of a paper and pen type of player; I enjoy having my character sheet and books in front of me as I play or session prep if I am the DM. Call me old fashioned. But I do plan on boycotting Wizards by not buying products in the future, until Wizards backtracks fully.

While the community began boycotting and abandoning Dungeons & Dragons as a whole, the third-party creators made their move. Many announced that they are planning on designing their own game systems. Kolbold Press is one such company, as they pushed their announcement of their Project Blackflag and a Kickstarter to help fund the project. A Kickstarter that at the point of writing this article has already raised over $300k. Meanwhile, Paizo, the creators of Pathfinder, Dungeons & Dragons’ biggest competitor in the fantasy genre, announce a nonprofit, called Open RPG. The plan for Open RPG is the exact opposite of the propose OGL that was leaked from Wizards. This OGL planned to protect the rights of third-party creators of not only Paizo’s game, but other games as well. This creation was fueled by former Wizards employees who moved to Paizo, who viewed the OGL Wizard’s planned with disgust. Over 100 third party companies have signed onto the project. The work done by Wizard’s competitors have prompted a mass migration from the game and to search for a new TTRPG to call home. As for me, I am most likely going to stick with Dungeons & Dragons. Not as a supporter of Wizards, but as someone who has grown comfortable with the system and not having the time to learn a new one. I have tried other game systems in the past and just haven’t clicked for me. Now I will probably experiment with other systems and browse Pathfinder books at my local game store, but the as someone who has played D&D their whole life, it’s a tough sell. However, I do plan on further supporting third party creators by buying their books and supplements for my game, while withholding on buying any new official Wizard’s content.

At the time of writing this, Wizards has made a couple of announcements relating to the backlash of the OGL, claiming that the OGL that was leaked was a draft and still planned on supporting third party creators. But these were viewed with skepticism and contempt. Finally, after two weeks of their brand being lit on fire by their community, Wizards released a statement apologizing for the OGL and were officially backing away from it, but the community, and myself, do not believe the corporate speak that was all over these announcements, that were made by an executive account made hours prior to the announcement.

Now I am strongly against corporatism and monopolies, but the hatred should be only pointed at the executives running Wizards and Hasbro. Keep the small workers out of this. They are trying to get by on low wages, working on something they love. These people risk their jobs and livelihoods leaking information for us, plus they are the only voices for the community within Wizards that can make sure our voices are heard. It is also important to not go after creators who are vague during the whole situation, like Critical Role. We are not knowledgeable on any legal or financial restrictions that are placed on these companies and besides they are not the ones creating the OGL in the first place! Clearly the Dungeons & Dragons community has been wounded over the course of the last two weeks, but we need to remain united against this threat to the game we have come to love.

Now what are the next steps? What is the community going to do now that Wizards of the Coast has apologized? The truth is that I don’t know. One thing is for sure though, and that is the foundation of the TTRPG community has been shaken and a lot of changes are coming. Support for third party creators has never been higher. What is probably going to happen is that Wizards will stick to its apology and remain silent about the OGL to prevent the backlash affecting their other projects such as their movie that is coming out this year, Honor Among Thieves, a possible TV show adaptation, and the full release of Baldur’s Gate 3, which I have already bought during the pre-release trials. I will continue to play Dungeons & Dragons with my friends for the OGL in reality is not going to affect my weekly D&D sessions, which is how I spend time with my friends. The best case scenario is that the new systems that are going to be released in the coming years will create a new competitive environment that will either force Wizards back to its original form or offer a significantly better experience. If you want more information or details on the whole situation, I do suggest looking into YouTube videos from DnD shorts and similar creators who have dedicated their lives to making news and content around the game.