The Revolution has begun!

Game masters, designers, publishers, and promoters of fantasy roleplaying games, as well as some tangentially-related genres, are waking up this week to a disheartening and challenging new worldview. Wizard of the Coast, a division of the games and toys megalithic Hasbro corporation, has leaked, intentionally or not, the outline of their upcoming changes to the relationship, both to the production and distribution guidelines and more draconic and contentious relationship, even with content creators that up to this point have been their bread and butter.

In a recent internal communication with the shareholders, Hasbro CEO Chris Cocks and Wizards of the Coast Cynthia Williams professed that in its current form, the Dungeon & Dragons franchise is under-monetized, citing the current model's focus on game masters. In the recently leaked proposal of the reworked "Open Games License," the changes appear rapid, relentless, and rigid.

According to the document provided through the D&D Beyond Staff posting on that website on December 21, 2022, the new OGL 1.1 will void the previously enforced Version 1. Any company operating under that document will be required to comply with the more severe limitations of the new document. To provide context, the previous version, serving as the System Resource Document (SRD) for the past twenty years, consisted of a 900-word document covering all of the stipulations. According to an article in Gizmodo, the new Open Licensing document is over 90,000 words and posits a draconian burden of compliance on those companies and individuals who choose to comply and continue to create content.

The first Money shot in the war

Those companies that continue are permitted to profit from their endeavors, only to a cap of $750k and only for print or static electronic file formats. The wording is particularly stringent, specifying this is on the funds raised for the effort, not on the profit; in other words, an unsuccessful Kickstarter that still raises $800k, for instance, would be liable to WotC on that basis, even if the project does not achieve profitability.

What is even more egregious is that the use of such items from the newly revised D&D SRD must be explicitly called out in such print materials, in effect creating free promotion and advertising of the WotC materials inside the product of the compliant secondary creators and a nightmare for their particular layout and legal teams. This is particularly burdensome on the smaller publisher or creator.

The second Volley in the conflict

Secondly, explicitly, the agreement prevents creators from developing and publishing materials for any other purpose - virtual tabletop assets, computer games, novels or apps, etc. This is a blatant move to allow WotC to pursue the monetization mentioned above of those properties already slated to be available through D&D ONE and the upcoming VTT materials they have focused on for release between now and 2024.

The third Strike in the attack

Adding insult to injury, the new License agreement stipulates ownership of the newly created material by Wizards of the Coast and that Wizards can cancel the deal with a warning period of only 30 days. At this time, Wizards would gain full ownership and exclusive use of the created property, with only a few caveats.

The irony of this draconian tactic is that it plays on its popularity and virtual ubiquity to discourage competition aggressively. On the one hand, Wizards is fundamentally obliging those who are disposed to use their game mechanics by offering tantalizing game resources to the fledgling designer; on the other, they effectively hamstring their creativity by enforcing compliance with these burdensome obligations.

The Rise of the Revolution

By happy coincidence, an alternative game basis is on a trajectory to intercept and provide a viable alternative to this game industry juggernaut. Created by Jonathan Albin, a 50-year veteran of roleplaying and a lifetime games enthusiast, the upcoming Nycos RPG system, under the fantasy genre name of Dark Shards, is being created with a far more generous and open licensing policy. As a former Marketing Director for the Game Manufacturers Association and previous Tournament Store Liaison for Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc's noted Card Business Division ("Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game), Albin has lived through and participated in the legacy of all roleplaying systems created in that time, and has a genuine appreciation for the small publishers and game designers for more than 30 professional years, and a consistent, constant RPG hand as a professional games master and publisher in his own right.

The future of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise may be in the wind, but through Dark Shards and at least six other genres already slated for systematic release over the next half-decade, Nycos RPG and its founder are ready to coordinate and support all of the disenfranchised designers, with an agreement, plan, and strategy intended to encompass all designers in a collective legacy that will afford creativity, development, and expansion of the roleplaying experience for all veterans, and the virtual wave of players who desire innovation and creativity, and a brand new, classically old, way to play.

I am Jonathan Albin, and if you know anyone in the tabletop RPG creative portion of the marketplace, please share this article, like it on this platform, and follow me. If you are involved in the production of RPG materials, don't hesitate to PM me for information on the steps to licensing and utilizing the NYCOS RPG game platform for your releases in the future or to ask any questions you might have.