The 5th Edition SRD is CC-BY-4.0

rpg

There we go. The OGL 1.2 draft being still unpopular, this seems to be the conclusion of the drama.

Through D&D Beyond, Kyle Brink, D&D Executive producer announced the conclusion of the story.

They have spoken

Let’s start with the survey results:

  • 88% do not want to publish TTRPG content under OGL 1.2.
  • 90% would have to change some aspect of their business to accommodate OGL 1.2.
  • 89% are dissatisfied with deauthorizing OGL 1.0a.
  • 86% are dissatisfied with the draft VTT policy.
  • 62% are satisfied with including Systems Reference Document (SRD) content in Creative Commons, and the majority of those who were dissatisfied asked for more SRD content in Creative Commons.

Two takeaways:

  1. An overhelming rejection of the OGL 1.0a cancellation by the community1 and of the restrictions imposed by OGL 1.2.
  2. The CC release of the SRD was largely considered insufficient, i.e. it was too limited in content.2

So in conclusion:

  1. We are leaving OGL 1.0a in place, as is. Untouched.

Without their previous attempts to void it, this wouldn’t even be necessary. Things would have moved on. OGL 1.0a stays

  1. We are also making the entire SRD 5.1 available under a Creative Commons license.

This is the icing on cake 🍰. Feels like the community persuasion roll was a natural 20. 🎲 The SRD 5.1 in CC-BY-4.0 PDF is now available, and it looks like the real thing, all 403 pages. Also important, since not all CC licenses are equal, the choice of CC-BY-4.0 Attribution 4.0 International appear to be the ideal one, and the closest to what OGL 1.0a was about. It requires attribution, but doesn’t limit on how you make derivative work, nor its use, and doesn’t require to share alike.3 The first page of the SRD goes into detail with this.

This is a very welcome release. Personally, I love it. ❤️ To be honest, they didn’t have to, as OGL 1.0a was considered appropriate. With this Creative Commons licensed release, I believe they want to reassure the community that the right to use the SRD is irrevocable, including the right to state:

“compatible with fifth edition” or “5E compatible.”

We can say that the conclusion is good, and that WotC is trying to make amends, throwing in a little extra to regain the trust of the community.

Back to the future

The future will tell us about what will happen with One D&D. If they decide there is no SRD nor open content, it’s fine. People can still play 5E, like people still play 3.5. It’s a business decision, and they already made a bad one with 4E 🤦, which is probably why they attempted to void OGL 1.0a.

I’ll be cynical saying that I wouldn’t be surprised if we go through the same drama in a while. With this move, WotC has committed to not pull the rug underneath the community, and next time it might just become a nothing burger.

The other downside is what is that we’ll never get to see in a court of law is they could void OGL 1.0a, I think everyone can live with this.

  1. Here community encompass the players (not directly impacted), content creators, including of podcast, videos, and streaming of gaming sessions, publishers of any size, etc. ↩︎

  2. Most of what make the SRD so important is that it is the base for a rule system a lot players are familiar with. As an old Grognard from the 80s, I have played many other systems that would be considered superior. Change is hard, change is overhelming, and we are all better off if people play something they are familiar than run away. D&D is mainstream now, and to some extent table top RPG, and I wholly embrace this idea. ↩︎

  3. I am not opposed to share alike, but it does impose a burden on downstream to continue licensing. WotC could have chosen to require share alike and let people chose OGL 1.0a instead if share alike wasn’t acceptable to them. But they didn’t. 👍 ↩︎