It has been a harrowing few weeks for Dungeons and Dragons fans. At the start of this year, the company behind Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), Wizards of the Coast (WOTC), came forward with a drastic change to the game’s current Open Game License (OGL) agreement, which would cause multiple creators to pay WOTC staggering fees for products made outside of the company. After several weeks of fans and content creators sharing feedback regarding these changes and why they negatively impacted the community, WOTC has announced they are backing down from their previous decision to change the OGL.
The announcement was made on the D&D Beyond Twitter page, fully detailed in a blog post on the D&D Beyond website. The OGL shall remain untouched, and WOTC won’t be any drastic changes at this time.
Related: Dungeons & Dragons fans asked for their input following controversial proposed OGL changes
This was a massive victory because the D&D community was apprehensive about what WOTC planned to do with these OGL changes. For anyone out of the loop, the current OGL for D&D allows anyone to create content using the game’s official ruleset and any official material. The leaked changes that WOTC was planning to share and turn into a 1.1 version of the OGL would give them partial ownership of any product that made more than $50,000 that fell beneath the OGL.
The supposed draft leaked online ahead of WOTC making an official announcement, forcing them to make a formal announcement about these leaks, but their words only further sparked fans to fight back in the best way they knew possible: the wallet. Fans and content creators quickly began asking anyone to share their disagreement with the 1.1 OGL changes by discontinuing their membership for D&D Beyond, an online service that gives players digital access to character sheets, rulebooks, and much more.
What comes next is WOTC attempting to repair the damage with the D&D community. Players across the fanbase reacted quickly to these leaks, and in less than a month, WOTC has decided to back down. For now, fans can take a Long Rest to regain their health, any hit dice they used, and refresh any Spells or Actions they used to win this encounter. We’re curious to see what WOTC plans to do next to win back any players that departed and flocked to other tabletop games, such as Pathfinder.
