Dungeons & Dragons' OGL 1.1 leaked: What does it mean for D&D content creators and gamers?

Dungeons & Dragons’ latest updates to its OGL (Open Gaming License) have leaked onto the internet, and to say that fans are worried and angry is an understatement. The OGL has existed for well over 20 years, allowing the popularity of the tabletop RPG to soar to unprecedented heights.

Although Dungeons & Dragons would have been popular on its own with only in-house creations, the ability for fans to create and monetize their own products has truly helped share the game with audiences who would have never given the game a try.

Everyone from the casual Dungeons & Dragons player, all the way to Paizo, or anyone who creates a D&D-themed Kickstarter could be negatively affected by these changes if they go forward as planned. What does it mean for you?

Note: The author of this article is not a lawyer, and nothing written here should be taken as legal advice.

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Dungeons & Dragons’ OGL 1.1 changes things for the worse for the fanbase

As per Gizmodo, the new OGL1.1 for Dungeons & Dragons is going to significantly change how people approach content creation for the tabletop RPG. It could potentially even alter how people play the game. Instead of using familiar, third-party websites, they will be forced to use official Wizards of the Coast partners, like Roll20.

OGL 1.1, the latest revealed update for Dungeons & Dragons changes some pretty major portions of the license. Following this change, content creators who sell their D&D-themed products such as campaigns, Kickstarters, and things of a similar nature will have to pay a 20-25% royalty by the licensed users. According to the report, it will only affect license holders who make $750,000 a year.

This number could always change in the future, possibly making it lower and lower. In addition, anyone who uses OGL 1.1, for any purpose can have their work used by Wizards of the Coast without warning or notification. Basically, it’s a “non-exclusive, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, sub-licensable, and royalty-free license." That means that Wizards of the Coast owe you, the creator of your individual content, nothing, and can use it for any purpose.

In addition, Virtual Tabletops (Alchemy RPG, for example) won’t be able to host Dungeons & Dragons content at all. It will only be available on websites that Hasbro is officially partnered with, such as Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds. Any third-party creator will also be susceptible to the above royalty fees, such as Paizo, the creators of Pathfinder.

This could also make Kickstarter no longer financially viable to create tabletop RPG content if it uses D&D’s rules. Having to suddenly start paying out money to Wizards of the Coast just because your Kickstarter started doing well overnight would certainly be a nightmare for a small, independent gaming creator.

Fortunately, Jon Ritter, Director of Games at Kickstarter, spoke up on behalf of the gaming community on the website. If you go through Kickstarter to crowdfund your game, there will be a reduction in the required royalties, which explains the “20-25%” number. Games and game-related content made through Kickstarter will only have a 20% royalty fee. Furthermore, Ritter clarified that there's no financial benefit for Kickstarter, hidden or otherwise.

While the financial part of the OGL 1.1 is painful for content creators who make a living off of Dungeons & Dragons, such as Critical Role, Paizo, or any other major creators, that’s not the worst part.

If you publicly publish D&D content anywhere, and you’ve signed OGL 1.1, they may use your work anytime they wish. I have several friends that have created their own vast Dungeons & Dragons worlds, which they use for a wide variety of D20 systems.

However, were those to be uploaded somewhere, to let other players experience the world they’ve created, Wizards of the Coast is legally allowed to use those settings. They can publish a campaign setting based on the creation of a fan, monetize it, and owe the creator nothing.

Interestingly, this could very well see a rise in other tabletop formats as the backlash has been pretty loud. Major tabletop content creators could begin embracing D6, D10, or D12 systems, instead of the D20 system that Dungeons & Dragons uses. For those who are unaware, D6, 10, and 12 means that the base die for in-game mechanics would be a 6, 10, or 12-sided die instead of the 20-sided die.

It should be noted that this leaked OGL 1.1 is still subject to change. Wizards of the Coast is reportedly open to being convinced that their license is harmful to the community, but only time will tell if that winds up being true or not.

This current version was only a draft, though it led to significant backlash. Thankfully, Wizards of the Coast walked all this back, which they later did in January 2023. You can read more about that here.