Dungeons & Dragons will not be moving forward with planned changes to the Open Gaming License. Today, Kyle Brink of Wizards of the Coast announced that they were listening to fan feedback and were not moving forward with plans to “de-authorize” the current Open Gaming License, which provides a legal framework for allowing third party creators and publishers to create material compatible with Dungeons & Dragons. What’s more – Wizards will move forward with plans to release the Dungeons & Dragons game mechanics under a Creative Commons license, in essence making the rules available for public use.
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“These live survey results are clear. You want OGL 1.0a. You want irrevocability. You like Creative Commons,” Brink wrote in a statement. “The feedback is in such high volume and its direction is so plain that we’re acting now 1. We are leaving OGL 1.0a in place, as is. Untouched. 2. We are also making the entire SRD 5.1 available under a Creative Commons license. 3. You choose which you prefer to use.”
This is a major change of pace for Wizards of the Coast and seems to be a surprising end to a controversy that had raged for weeks, drawing attention from mainstream news sites. It’s a huge victory for the wider D&D community, especially the many fans who had spoken out against the proposed changes, cancelled their D&D Beyond subscriptions and had even threatened boycotts of the Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie if Wizards hadn’t backed down.
“We wanted to protect the D&D play experience into the future. We still want to do that with your help. We’re grateful that this community is passionate and active because we’ll need your help protecting the game’s inclusive and welcoming nature,” Brink said. “We wanted to limit the OGL to TTRPGs. With this new approach, we are setting that aside and counting on your choices to define the future of play.”
