OGL 1.1

The great revival of Dungeons & Dragons started in 2000. The year the 3rd Edition was born and with it, the OGL (Open Gaming License).

This created an explosion of interest in the game and in table top role-playing in general. And with a multitude of small press game designers. All getting a piece of the pie.

Then WoTC (Wizards of the Coast) was sold to Hasbro. The mega game company that has bought out many others over the years.

Twenty years into the OGL era and Habro wants to get a bigger piece of the pie and all rights to any Dungeons & Dragons published material.

From a business red line stand point, this makes sense. Hasbro isn’t getting revenue from other publishers who create games and material based on D&D and use the D&D brand.

So, they are revoking the current OGL license and creating a multi-teired license in it’s place. This new OGL is not an open gaming license however. And severaly restricts publishers and the creative spirit.

But what Hasbro doesn’t understand is that it was the OGL that caused the explosion in the market in the first place. Without it, WoTC would have remained a small press company that owned the D&D brand.

The popularity of the game would still be limited to the nerds and geeks that have always played it and their kids. And the explosion of publishers never would have happened.

And Habro itself wouldn’t have been interested in acquiring WoTC or the D&D brand because it would still be small potatoes. High risk, little reward.

So here we are. With the current OGL, D&D is a cash cow for anyone that wants to get into publishing something for it or based on it. Including Hasbro if they had a group dedicated to producing new content for the game.

With the leak of the OGL 1.1, this will change. The small press well will dry up. It’s not worth the cost of a small press who is turning out PDFs in their basement. No way to fight a legal battle with Hasbro in the courts either.

Players and publishers alike have already talked online about abandoning D&D if this new OGL takes shape and some are going to do it anyway now.

Even if Hasbro changes course and keeps the original OGL and doesn’t go after the cash and rights in all things produced. The trust is gone.

And if Hasbro follows through with this change. Then like TSR under Lorraine Williams, the D&D brand will die.

5th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons Partial Review

I’ve been a table top RPG gamer for many decades now. I haven’t played or ran a D&D game in many years. My gaming interests have taken me to other games and systems. The last D&D system I used was 3e/3.5e, the original d20 system.

Now I’m taking a hard look at the current 5th Edition of the game that pretty much started it all. And I’m a bit disappointed. A friend described 5e to me as an RPG with training wheels. It looks like I’m going to agree.

Many aspects of the game got removed. Probably because someones frakking feelings got hurt.

Clerics got the short end of the stick this time around. Their ability to turn undead has been seriously reduced.

A number of beloved spells used by magic-users and other spellcasters have been completely removed or greatly weakened in their scope and power. Now I’m all for some changes with D&D’s magic system. The Vancian fire and and forget has always bothered me. But getting rid of important spells like Permanency is just stupid. Many wizards have used this spell to protect themselves and to protect strongholds established by the adventuring party since it was first included.

Ability score damage seems to have been eliminated as well. That was a handy trick of many spells, monsters, and other hazards.

Psionics are mentioned but again they are treated like spells and never should be. 1st Edition AD&D had them kinda right. 2nd Edition AD&D also had them kinda right but went overboard on the idea. 3rd+ Editions of D&D have never gotten Psionics right. Although there have been some 3rd party adaptations that were pretty good.

There are some good things to come out of 5e. The advantage/disadvantage system is good. Still carrying on from the 3rd era where AC goes up instead of down is good. The d20 mechanic is still great. It makes rolling very uniform.

I still haven’t looked at all of it to see about other things that are good and those that were bad ideas. I guess Hasbro doesn’t have any good game designers on at Wizard’s of the Coast.

I think it was a mistake to have the game enter into the hands of a large corporation. Hasbro might become the new Lorraine Williams if this kind of poor design keeps up.